New York City Labor Against the War (NYCLAW)
NYCLAW Antiwar Digest
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AFGHANISTAN & PAKISTAN

In debate, Obama is more aligned with Bush
It was Mr. Obama who seemed more aligned with President Bush's current policy of authorizing American special forces to cross the Afghan-Pakistan border into Pakistan's tribal areas that Al Qaeda and the Taliban have used as a sanctuary.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/27/us/politics/27policy.html?ref=us

UN pays lip-service to civilian casualties -- and reauthorizes their murderers
[T]he U.N. Security Council on Monday . . . urge[d] the NATO-led force to make efforts to minimize such casualties. The body also voted unanimously to extend the mission in Afghanistan.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/22/AR2008092203036.html

Echoes of Vietnam war
The strikes against Pakistan represent -- like the decisions of President Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger, to bomb and then invade Cambodia -- a desperate bid to salvage a war that was never good, but has now gone badly wrong.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/23/pakistan.afghanistan

U.S. tortured Afghan journalist for 11 months
"I was tortured and jailed for 11 months and 20 days for doing nothing. They have destroyed my future, my soul. I'll fight until they apologize to me and give me back what I have lost".
 http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m47488&hd=&size=1&l=e

Police kill Pakistani protesters
Pakistani police shot dead five people in the volatile northwestern Swat Valley during a protest against the alleged killing of children in a military operation.
 http://news.morningstar.com/newsnet/ViewNews.aspx?article=/DJ/200809230930DOWJONESDJONLINE000318_univ.xml

More resistance on the way
"There's going to be a winter offensive in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. It's not just a war in Afghanistan. It's a war in both countries."
 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122208463491862557.html?mod=rss_whats_news_us

Rising crime makes Taliban look good
[F]ast-expanding violent crime. . . . is making some Afghans nostalgic for the low-crime days before 2001, when the Taliban sternly ruled most of the country.
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/24/AR2008092403339.html



IRAN

Israel seeks to bomb Iran
Israel gave serious thought this spring to launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites but was told by President George W Bush that he would not support it and did not expect to revise that view for the rest of his presidency.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/sep/25/iran.israelandthepalestinians1



IRAQ

Palin: U.S. has already won
"[A] surge in Afghanistan also will lead us to victory there as it has proven to have done in Iraq."
 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/25/AR2008092502171.html

It has?
It is folly for any politician in Washington to think the Iraqi people will make peace with the continued occupation of their country, whatever deals Maliki may cut to preserve his own power and security.
 http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/26/has-the-us-won-in-iraq

Resistance demands total withdrawal
The first demand of the Iraqi resistance is the unconditional withdrawal of all foreign forces illegally occupying Iraq -- including private contractors -- and disbanding all armed forces established by the occupation.
 http://palestinethinktank.com/2008/09/20/peace-in-iraq-is-an-option-sign-the-le-feyt-declaration/

Shell back in Baghdad after 36-year absence, but boxed in by resistance
But in a sobering reminder of the underlying dangers of doing business here, the company would not disclose the location of its office, and the senior Shell official who announced the gas deal was accompanied by a phalanx of armed guards.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/23/world/middleeast/23iraq.html?ref=world

Western lawyers belatedly figure out that Hussein's trial was unfair
Long before Mr. Hussein was hanged on Dec. 30, 2006, with supporters of Iraq's new Shiite-led government taunting him as the noose was tightened around his neck, a pattern of intervention by powerful Iraqi officials had been established.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/25/world/middleeast/25trial.html?ref=world

US soldier accused of abusing and killing Iraqi
Military prosecutors accused a U.S. soldier Sunday of taking an Iraqi detainee to a remote desert location, stripping him naked, shooting him in the head and chest and then watching as another soldier set fire to the body with an incendiary grenade.
 http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gNASOeVXYtU2rrHiYLyS5aW-gkmAD93BC0NG1

Murder charges against three Army sergeants, none against those who sent them
If John Hatley, Joseph Mayo and Michael Leahy, Jr. -- three platoon-level leaders -- go to the dock for murdering four defenseless victims, then who goes to the dock for what Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and all their lying associates did to Iraq?
 http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m47478&hd=&size=1&l=e

Sexual cleansing in Iraq
[W]hile Saddam was president, there was certainly no danger of gay people being assassinated in their homes and in the street by religious fanatics.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/iraq.humanrights



PALESTINE

The future is one nation
The one-state solution is now part of mainstream [Palestinian] discourse.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/sep/25/middleeast

Irish trade union federation reaffirms support for Israel boycott
The trade union movement is the largest and the most organized of all civil society organizations. It is therefore of fundamental importance that Palestinian solidarity work be grounded in the trade unions, particularly if a major international campaign of boycott and divestment similar to the boycott of apartheid South Africa is to take place.
 http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article9850.shtml

Settler pogroms work with army
Hard-core right-wing settlers have responded to limited army operations in recent weeks by blocking roads, rioting spontaneously, throwing stones at Palestinian vehicles and burning Palestinian orchards and fields all over the West Bank, a territory that Israel has occupied since 1967. . . . In general, the relationship between the religious settlers of the area and the army is an ambiguous, if symbiotic one.
 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/world/middleeast/26settlers.html?hp

Settlers openly declare ethnic cleansing
[Video] "This is the land God gave us, if you read The Bible you can know it. The Arabs and all the people around, have no right to be here."
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7634338.stm

Pogroms are no aberration
The recent "pogrom" carried out by the illegal settlers of Yitzhar is not an isolated incident or an aberration. Such pogroms happen with frightening regularity and are regularly ignored by the Israeli government who view the illegal settlers as their front line shock troops against the Palestinian population.
 http://palestinechronicle.com/view_article_details.php?id=14188

Jerusalem crash not deliberate
"My son was murdered, they killed him. He did not carry out a terrorist attack". . . . Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel must expedite the legal process leading to demolition of Palestinian attackers' homes.
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7631693.stm

Olmert: Seal off Palestinian neighborhoods in Jerusalem
[A]t the end of the day you say to the Arabs in the Arab neighborhoods, you will live in your neighborhoods, and won't come into ours. We have to remember that."
 http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1222017371244&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Israeli shelling of Gaza village could be war crime: UN report
The UN Human Rights Council voted Wednesday to adopt a report of inquiry that says the Israeli shelling of a Palestinian village in which 19 people died could be construed as a war crime.
 http://news.yahoo.com/story//afp/20080924/wl_mideast_afp/unrightsmideastisraelpalestinianbeithanoun

Israel arrested 200 Palestinian workers during Ramadan
Palestinian workers are not granted work permits in Israel and are being chased and harassed while trying to work and feed their families.
 http://imemc.org/article/57056

Abbas thanks Bush
"Your efforts, Mr. President, as well as your vision, both help us and the Israelis to work very hard during the last year."
 http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1024595.html

PA admits collaborating with US-Israel v. Hamas
Fatah officers openly called for "joint action with Israel against the common enemy -- Hamas," and expressed their "willingness to take care of the Hamas mosques and institutions using information provided by Israel". . . . Those who are no less concerned than Abbas are American General Keith Dayton, who is rebuilding the PA's defensive forces, as well as IDF and Shin Bet officers who recommend Israeli assistance to Fatah in preparation for war. . . . Fatah leaders have emergency escape plans, and most of them own homes overseas.
 http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3600099,00.html

Palestinian refugee organizations defend right of return to President Abbas
It has been clear at all stages of the negotiations that this process aims to eliminate the core issue of the Arab/Palestinian struggle for freedom and justice: the Palestinian refugees and their rights of return and restitution.
 http://www.alternativenews.org/news/english/letter-of-palestinian-refugee-organizations-to-president-mahmoud-abbas-20080925.html

Palestinians protest McCartney visit, but apartheid supporters rejoice
Sir Paul was forced to abandon a trip to the West Bank city of Ramallah on Wednesday because of planned Palestinian protests against his gig, billed as part of the celebrations of the Jewish state's 60th birthday. . . . "When one of the most admired musicians in the world not only expresses his willingness to visit Tel Aviv, but also publicly talks about the positive things he's heard about Israel, this is an Israeli diplomatic and PR success of the first order," said Ron Prosor, the Israeli Ambassador to London
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article4828082.ece

DailyKos (and others) get free trip to Israel, but won't touch Israel-Palestine
What was so shocking was the ease with which left bloggers and leaders allowed themselves to be purchased with the promise of a free trip. . . . In fact, a cursory search in DailyKos indicates that debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is nearly invisible.
 http://www.muzzlewatch.com/?p=402

Israel lobby behind Islamophobic video
A group of hard-line U.S. neo-conservatives and former Israeli diplomats, among others, are behind the mass distribution, ahead of the November U.S. presidential election, of a controversial DVD that critics have denounced as Islamophobic.
 http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=43983

New York socialites dismayed by protest at Leviev-sponsored fundraiser
Manhattan's elite were aghast to be greeted this evening by 25 chanting protesters when they exited their SUVs and limos to attend a glitzy fundraiser sponsored by Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev for the Museum of the City of New York.
 http://nyc.indymedia.org/en/2008/09/100205.html



WAR AT HOME

Pelosi fronts for Bush bailout plan
It's not me blowing this up, it's the Republicans."
 http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/26/business/26bailout.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

The making of the free-market meltdown
[N]one of the Democrats are opposing the essence of the Paulson plan: funneling $700 billion in taxpayer money to the very people who drove the economy into the crisis in the first place.
 http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/24/free-market-meltdown

Michigan protest demands foreclosure moratorium
Chanting "Bail out the people, not the banks," hundreds of poor and working people from across Michigan converged on the Capitol here on Sept. 17 demanding the State Legislature enact SB 1306, a two-year foreclosure moratorium bill.
 http://www.workers.org/2008/us/michigan_1002/

Statement by Rosenbergs' children
All that we have learned in the last two weeks, coupled with all that we have gleaned from the information already available, reinforces the biggest lesson of our parents' case: The U.S. Government abused its power in truly dangerous ways that are still very relevant today.
 http://www.rfc.org/Statement%20of%20Michael%20and%20Robert%20Meeropol%2009.23.08.html

Torture on death row
So they finally killed Jack Alderman after all. More than 33 years after his conviction for the murder of his wife, the whole time spent on Georgia's death row, he was executed last Wednesday despite frantic last-minute attempts to have him reprieved.
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/sep/22/humanrights.usa



ANTIWAR MOVEMENT

Woolsey & Lee opposed antiwar challenge to Biden
Prominent Democratic antiwar stalwarts such as Rep. Lynne Woolsey (D-CA) and Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) -- in the name of "party unity" -- rejected calls by some delegates for a roll-call vote in which Biden would be pitted against an antiwar challenger for the vice-presidential nomination
 http://www.fpif.org/fpiftxt/5549

GI Resistance: Iraq and Afghanistan are same war
People internationally are looking to the U.S. antiwar movement to take up these demands and really fight to end the war in Iraq and end the war in Afghanistan, because the U.S. government is not going to stop in this agenda that it has. . . . To me, it's the same war. It's about the same things. The excuses that they're using are as unjustified in Afghanistan as in Iraq.
 http://socialistworker.org/2008/09/25/antiwar-strategy-and-tactics

Kent State protest against National Guard recruitment
"We are here because we feel the moral compass needs reset. We attend every National Guard event because it doesn't make sense that Kent students were shot by them and now we allow them to recruit on our campus."
 http://media.www.kentnewsnet.com/media/storage/paper867/news/2008/09/24/News/AntiWar.Protest.Interrupts.Event-3448458.shtml

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