URGENT ACTIONS
Subject: Ad with Christian, Jewish and Muslim faith leaders for Arab TV Dear Friend, I just signed on to a petition with People
For the American Way, asking President George W. Bush to withdraw his nomination
of William Haynes to a lifetime seat on the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
William Haynes is none other than the General Counsel for the Department
of Defense -- the lawyer who helped design the
Do you want such a person deciding what is constitutional as a federal judge? Join me in calling on Bush to withdraw this nomination. Putting a lawyer linked to the Abu Ghraib policies on the federal bench is so outrageous, Bush needs to hear a loud and clear message on this one! Go here and sign now: http://www.pfaw.org/go/william_haynes/ People For The American Way contact information: pfaw@pfaw.org If you have technical questions, please submit
them at http://customersupport.kintera.org.
Hope you can get to this site and sign on. Carolyn Scarr
The AgJOBS farm worker immigration legislation that we have worked to support for the last six months could finally come to a vote this week. The bill's sponsors feel its best chance of being passed without damaging amendments is to offer the bill itself as an amendment to the Defense Department Authorization bill, S. 2400. Senators need to hear from all of us as the vote approaches. Please tell them to support the Craig-Kennedy AgJOBS amendment on the Defense Authorization Bill that is being debated and to reject any proposed amendments that are not agreed to by the sponsors of AgJOBS. The most effective way to send this message is to call and/or fax your
Senator's office. You may call any Senator through the Capitol Switchboard
A summary of the AgJOBS bill is available at www.nfwm.org Thanks for all your work so far. Once AgJOBS has passed the Senate we'll shift to building co-sponsors in the House!
I just spoke to my dear fiend Imani in Gaza for the second time this week. As you know, the situation in Rafah is very desperate. Hundreds of families have lost their homes in just the past few days. This morning 10 children were killed. Many more are wonded and can't get medical care! Many people who still have their homes can't leave because of the violence, even to get food for their children. Imani works with an organization that helps women throughout Gaza set up small businesses. Now these remarkable women are turning all their energy and resources to the grave humanitarian crisis in their communities and they need our help. I'm asking you to make the most generous contribution you possibly can to help in this emergency. We will wire 100% of the funds you and others contribute directly to Imani who will get food and medical asssitance to the people who need it desperately. http://mailhost.groundspring.org/cgi-bin/* Thank you for acting today. And if you are in the Bay Area, please join us on Friday, May 21, 5 pm, downtown Berkeley BART to protest the destruction of Gaza. Please forward this message to everyone you know. Nuclear whistle-blower Mordechai Vanunu has finally been repleased from Israeli prison. He is still prohibited from leaving Israel and is in great danger. The Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem has given him sanctuary. Here are some upcoming events with the Vanunu campaign, along with a few things supporters can do on their own right now.
Sign the online petition at www.vanunu.com. Donate to the U.S. Campaign to Free Mordechai Vanunu, which has had extraordinarily high expenses this year for obvious reasons, or to a separate fund to help Mordechai rebuild his life. Details on the website. E-mail a letter of appreciation to Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem Riah Al-Assal, who has provided sanctuary for Mordechai at the Pilgrim Guest House of St. George's Cathedral. Bishop Riah's e-mail address is riahasal@netvision.net.il. He has been under pressure, including, one can surmise, from some elements within the Anglican communion, to evict Mordechai. Mordechai Vanunu would definitely enjoy hearing from you. You can reach
him via e-mail: vanunumvjc@hotmail.com.
(jc stands for his baptismal name, John Crossman.) His snail mail
address is Mordechai Vanunu c/o Cathedral Church of St. George, 20 Nablus
Road, PO Box 19018, Jerusalem, Israel 91190.
Berkeley event -- Monday, May 17, noon, Redwood Gardens. Showing of the BBC documentary Israel's Secret Weapon (2003, a sequel in the works), followed by a report back by Hal Carlstad, Cynthia Johnson, and Jeanie Shaterian, who were in Israel with the international delegation greeting Vanunu on his release. Part of the Redwood Gardens film series. Wednesday, May 19, 7 p.m., Richmond Public Library, 325 Richmond Civic Center Plaza, Madeline F. Whittlesey Community Room. Enter through patio on left of building. BBC documentary followed by report back from Hal, Cynthia, and Jeanie. Sponsored by Librarians for Intellectual Freedom, (510) 236-0438, (415) 454-5183, www.librariansforintellectualfreedom.us. *** This message was sent to: soaw-w@peacehost.net Subject: Assassination of Trade Union Lawyer [This is NOT an April Fools' Day joke.]Dear Friends, At 7.30pm on Thursday 1st April trade union defence lawyer Carlos Bernal Ramirez and his bodyguard Camilo Jimenez were both assassinated in the Prado Norte neighbourhood of the Colombian city of Cucuta in Norte de Santander department. According to the Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CPDH) they were killed by paramilitaries operating with the acquiescence of the Colombian army. Carlos Bernal Ramirez was also the leader of the Social and Political Front opposition coalition in the region and the President of the CPDH in Cucuta. He had previously been the peace advisor to the Governor of Norte de Santander and to the mayor of Cucuta. The CPDH, one of Colombia's most important human rights NGOs, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last week, has blamed the government of President Alvaro Uribe Velez for both killings. Please send messages of protest to: Alvaro Uribe Velez, President of the Republic of Colombia, Palacio de
Narino, Carrera 8 No. 7-26, Bogotá, Colombia
and General Carlos Alberto Ospina, Commander of the Colombian Armed Forces,
Ministerio de Defensa Nacional, Avenida El Dorado con Carrera 52, Bogotá,
Colombia
For more information please see www.justiceforcolombia.org Dear friends, I have this from a friend of my friend David Hartsough -- an invitation to drop everything and go to Iraq right away to try and prevent the next expansion of the bloodbath already going on. If this is something you can do, PLEASE GET IN TOUCH WITH PETER DIRECTLY info at the end of the letter, not with me. Please forward Thanks,
-----------------forwarded message----------------
URGENT re: emergency delegation to Iraq, protective accompaniment
in relation to imminent expansion of the U.S. military assault to Karbala
and Najaf
Dear Carolyn, Thank you very much for your telephone message. We truly appreciate your offer to contact people who might be interested in the Iraq emergency delegation, and hope you can do so today, as the situation is very urgent. I just wrote to Barbara Lubin, as you suggested, at the MECA e-mail address. I've known Dave Hartsough for some 27 years [and] have been involved in justice/peace organizing since the 1970s, worked on Global Exchange and Resource Center for Nonviolence staff in the 1990s after finishing two-year plowshares sentence. My wife and I were in Iraq in October (stayed with Christian Peacemaker Team), came back with slideshow and observations, not only on good work being done there by CPT & others but also concern about aspects of work that CPT & others are not doing there, ideas for organizing a group to go back in 2004 to fill some of that gap. Now, in the face of intense military escalation during this past week (which as you know has left hundreds of Iraqi civilians dead in Fallujah and elsewhere), and consultations with Iraqi friends, we are scrambling to organize what we believe is an urgently-needed emergency delegation of U.S. and international civilians to Iraq - specifically as a witness and 'protective accompaniment' presence that would visibly, directly, nonviolently challenge the U.S. military offensive in Iraq at its next, and pivotal, targets - the holy cities of Karbala and Najaf. Medea Bejamin, who I've known for years, was very enthusiastically supportive of this idea when I spoke with her, but she can't go herself at this time. I am urgently contacting individuals and veterans, justice & peace groups about this and, although there is interest, it is - quite frankly - difficult to pull this together because of the very urgent timeline, the significant element of personal risk involved, and the logistics + finances. Nevertheless we believe it
is possible and necessary. Meg (who, by the way, is an ordained Lutheran
pastor) and I are prepared to go if such a group can be pulled together
rapidly enough. We think that Najaf and Karbala (where we visited
with religious and community leaders in October, taking their concerns
to the U.S. military command post in the immediate wake of the first deadly
gunfight there between Muqtada's militia and American troops) are pivotal.
If these, the central holy cities of Iraq's Shia majority and of Shias
worldwide, are attacked by U.S. forces in pursuit of Muqtada and his people,
Iraq will almost certainly be plunged into all-out civil war. Bush,
Rumsfeld, Bremer, Sanchez and Kimmet have indicated that they are preparing
to attack these cities within days. We do think that, in the present
context, the presence of U.S. and international civilians nonviolently
and visibly putting themselves in the way of such an assault, as U.S forces
mass outside these cities, could make a small but potentially significant
contribution to lessening the chances of this disasterous attack plan being
carried out. We need to have anyone who would consider joining
such a delegation in the days ahead to please contact us immediately, as
time is of the essence.
Best wishes,
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