The Judiciary Committee meets. So it goes.

As one of the few Pinkers who got through the Capitol cop dragnet outside of the House Judiciary Hearing today, I felt I should describe this scene.

The Judiciary committee met today to revisit the infamous "Torture Memos" written by John Yoo and David Addington. This is the one with the quote about how it's okay up until pain "equivalent to organ failure."

(I don't know how they quite figure that one. When you torture a subject, do you regularly check in: "so, do you feel like one of your organs is failing?")

Yoo is a U.C. Berkeley law professor who works for the Department of Justice - here's his swanky faculty page. (I can only hope that the Bears are protesting him on a regular basis.) David Addington is the Department of Defense's homeboy in the White House. Here he is. According to Wikipedia, he's an Aquarius.

Kurt Vonnegut's great masterpiece Slaughterhouse Five is about how the human mind shuts down when confronted by things too horrible to understand. The main character in the novel is Billy Pilgrim, an American who survives the firebombing of Dresden. Dresden was the most concentrated massacre in World War II, in which American incendiary bombs burned 30,000 people to death in two days, and most of the buildings in the city.

The text of Slaughterhouse Five isn't about war, or loss, or grief. Most of the book is about Pilgrim's incredibly complicated mental disassociation that results from Dresden: he imagines himself kidnapped by aliens and going on episodic time travel. It's one of the best books ever written about 20th-century industrial war - because it's not about 20th-century industrial war. We have not figured out how to write about 20th-century industrial war, because we have no idea yet how to explain things that are so horrible, and so vast, that they defy comprehension, let alone description. We intellectualize them. We speak of them in soft tones, or not at all. Or we get kidnapped by aliens, and go off into outer space.

It was hard not to feel this type of disassociation today in the hearing. From 10 a.m. onwards, the committee questioned Yoo and Addington about their role in designing standards for interrogation that completely violate the Geneva Convention. It was a smooth. It was a polished and quiet hearing. It was a formal procedure about whether our President had authorized the ripping out of fingernails.

It was a legal proceeding, conducted with no more weight than a particularly contentious local zoning hearing. Although the committeemembers did get occasionally argumentative, the witnesses refused to divulge any information that could be later used against them. Outside, Codepink lined up in the hallway in Abu Ghraib orange jumpsuits spelling out NO TORTURE, and the mainstream Dems walking by on their way to the Rayburn deli got annoyed.

But to be quite frank, the Pinkers were the only people there who responded to the matter as any human being would who has blood pumping through their veins. Torturing people is an atrocity, it is wrong, it is illegal. If they wrote that memo, and people were tortured - they should go to jail. End of story.

This was an episode of the Nuremberg trials. And all through it, staffers in the hearing were lounging around and checking their Blackberries. Or time travelling. I suppose. So it goes.

-Hannah Miller

Gandhi Peace Brigade / Will Congress Start a War with Iran?

Dear Friends,

Iran hasn't invaded another country in over 200 years. The United States encouraged Iraq's war with Iran (1980-1988) by providing Saddam Hussein with intelligence and military support. Iran's major oil refineries were destroyed during the war, so Iran was forced to export its crude oil to be refined. The U.S. sponsored sanctions have prevented Iran from repairing or building new refineries, so they have been forced to rely on other forms of energy. Nuclear power was introduced to Iran by the U.S. after its democratically elected government was overthrown by the CIA in 1953. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, on behalf of President Ford, persuaded the U.S. imposed Shah of Iran to build over 20 nuclear reactors: http://www.monthlyreview.org/mrzine/casmii121107.html.

The Bush administration accuses Iran of developing an atomic weapon even though there is no evidence, according to a recent N.I.E. report: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/03/world/middleeast/03cnd-iran.html. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has inspected Iran a total of 2,700 hours and has found nothing indicating a weapons program.

Our U.S. House of Representatives is currently considering a naval blockade of Iran. Without the authorization of the United Nations, which the resolution does not call for, this will be considered an act of war. H.CON.RES 362 already has 169 co-sponsors. This resolution calls on the president to stop all shipments of refined petroleum products from reaching Iran. It also "demands" that the President impose "stringent inspection requirements on all persons, vehicles, ships, planes, trains and cargo entering or departing Iran." Is your representative a cosponsor? Call 202-224-3121 or Write your representative and ask him or her to oppose this measure for war!

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) held its annual policy conference June 2-4 in DC, and sent thousands of members to Capitol Hill to push for tougher measures against Iran. AIPAC's campaign contributions to our Senators and Representatives will be determined by how they vote for this resolution.

Israeli Prime Minister Olmert has urged the U.S. to impose a blockade on Iran. He told Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi in Jerusalem, economic sanctions have "exhausted themselves" and called a blockade a "good possibility". You may remember, Nancy Pelosi stripped Congressional approval for an attack on Iran from a spending bill last year.

Meanwhile, Israel carried out a major military exercise earlier this month that American officials say appeared to be a rehearsal for a potential bombing attack on Iran's nuclear facilities. More than 100 Israeli F-16 and F-15 fighters participated, along with refueling tankers and helicopters that could be used for rescuing downed pilots. They flew more than 900 miles to the eastern Mediterranean and Greece, which is about the same distance between Israel and Iran’s uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/washington/20iran.html

Some good news: The U.S. Conference of Mayor's International Affairs Committee passed the No War in Iran resolution and it will go to the floor of the conference for a final vote at 10:00 am EST on Monday, June 30. Please call or email as many mayors as possible to encourage them to vote YES on No War in Iran: http://www.usmayors .org/76thAnnualM eeting/preregist eredmayors. asp

Peace and Freedom,

Jes & Leslie

Voices for Peace
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVXL4tOomO4

Sgt. Matthis Chiroux Refuses to be Deployed to Iraq
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q_PPIU38MM0

Why I'm Voting Republican
http://www.imvotingrepublican.com/

Support Rep. Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment:
http://www.democrats.com/35-articles-of-impeachment

Chris Hedges | The Iran Trap
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/09/9501/



Jes & Leslie ... A Journey for Peace and Freedom: http://www.jfpf.org/

If you would like to be added to The Gandhi Peace Brigade Group List,
please let me know: jes_richardson@yahoo.com Thank you. Jes

Hart and Soul

by James O'Donnell

Code Pink continues to offer rare opportunities to explore DC as a citizen activist. Here's a brief rundown of recent events:

Yesterday I went to the Hart Building with a small delegation of Code Pink stalwarts to register our dismay at the recent -- colossal -- capitulations by House Democrats:

1) They will unconditionally fund the Iraq War throughout the remainder of George Bush's presidency and beyond; and

2) They will grant “retroactive immunity” to the giant telecoms who knowingly broke the law... starting in February of 2001, seven months BEFORE the attacks of September 11th.* With the FISA bill they just passed, the Dems will also permit the expansion of the government's power to spy on Americans -- IN AMERICA -- with NO court order (from 72 hours to “AT LEAST” 7 days).**

Clearly, this is not the kind of leadership most Americans voted for in 2006.

Led by Code Pink co-founder Gael Murphy and “House Momma” Desiree Fairooz, we visited the offices of several Democratic senators, from Majority Leader Harry Reid (NV) to Florida's Bill Nelson to Maryland's Barbara Mikulski to Wisconsin's Russ Feingold (a rare source of courage and integrity in the current body politic... who we would LOVE to see mount a filibuster or two... ASAP! Do your best impression of “Mr. Smith,” Mr. Feingold... PLEASE! Make Jimmy Stewart proud, wherever he is!)

(Sigh...)

Code Pink made the case that these policies threaten both our Constitution AND our national security. We also argued that, from the perspective of the Democratic Party's political fortunes, this constant capitulation is not just bad policy, but peculiarly inept politics (what we have come to expect from the Dems).

But the Democrats should realize by now that preventive war, one-branch, police-state government, and “legalized” torture have diminished America and made us weaker -- NOT stronger -- and they should take that waterproof case to the public.

But these Dems, it seems, are way too afraid of the Dittoheads and other Limbaughts...

Still, Code Pink would like to take advantage of this opportunity to thank the staff at Senator Claire McCaskill's office, and especially Senator Kent Conrad's Legislative Director, Tom Mahr, for taking the time to meet with us personally and hear our concerns. Thank you, sincerely.

(Now, please do more...)

Once we had finished handing out our pink-highlighted copies of the Constitution (and Code Pink's attached exhortation to stand up for that once-cherished document), it was off to the Rayburn Building and the office of New York Congressman Gary Ackerman.

Although nominally a Democrat, Rep. Ackerman, the chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, has been pushing a bill with Indiana Republican, Mike Pence, that is tailor-made for the NeoConservative agenda: HR 362.

The bill essentially calls for a blockade of Iran... which is, of course, an act of WAR.

With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

Doesn't Congressman Ackerman know what kind of folks currently occupy the White House? Do they need any more encouragement to wreak havoc?

Thanks to carte blanche congresses past, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney already have the profligate language of the USA PATRIOT Act and the Legislative Branch's virtual abdication of their exclusive Constitutional authority to declare war (implicit in the 2002 Iraq war resolution). And they've spent the past few years ratcheting up the rhetoric, spinning the facts to present a case for war as politicized and riddled with inaccuracies as was their case for war in Iraq.

They've clearly signaled their keen interest in targeting the nuclear weapons sites in Iran that America's 16 intelligence agencies have concluded DON'T exist...

Why give this administration the least encouragement, the smallest shred of legal justification for further bloodshed? Why do anything that will increase the chance of an expanded (failed) war and greater instability in a region we've already hurled into chaos?

--

On a related note, I had the honor last night of doing a little howling at the moon (Ok, the White House) with two bona fide American patriots: Col. Ann Wright (ret.) and FBI whistle-blower Coleen Rowley.

Col. Wright's principled opposition to the Iraq war inspired millions during the buildup to that unfortunate war, and Coleen Rowley's strong voice (like that of Sibel Edmonds) clued in Americans to the fact that our premier domestic law-enforcement bureau is institutionally unwilling to take its job seriously.

Oh, they'll harass peaceniks, Muslims (including Oregonian lawyers), and environmentalists -- and they'll abuse National Security Letters to their hearts' content -- but pursue real threats to America? Get a handle on their backlog of documents in need of translation? Expose congressional lapses on national security (I'm lookin' at you, Denny)?

Not this FBI...

Coleen told us that in the days following September 11th, her superiors unfathomably -- repeatedly -- refused to allow the questioning of Zacarias Moussaoui, the alleged 20th hijacker. Questioning Moussaoui, she told us, might well have led to the apprehension of his friend, the “shoe bomber,” Richard Reid -- long before he boarded the airplane full of Americans that he very nearly blew up.

Coleen also shared with us a little known fact about how concerned our nation's leaders where in the aftermath of those horrific attacks: On September 12, 2001, Dick Cheney took time out to go... pheasant hunting (no wonder they didn't disclose that location!).

So Ann, Coleen, Joe, Liz, and I headed to Pennsylvania Avenue to conduct a little midnight vigil with Code Pink banners on the President's doorstep, shouting “No More Wars” and “Don't Bomb Iran,” until the growing police presence (and niggling) convinced us it was time to call it a night... sometime after 1am, I'd guess.

On the way back, Coleen told us of the “Faustian bargains” cut by the FBI director Robert Mueller and then DCI, George Tenet: Either play ball and support the policy or face the consequences. Like Colin Powell, Larry Thompson, and countless others -- including the Democrats in power today -- they played ball.

Washington, DC, it seems, has a dramatic SPINE shortage, these days.

* “Wider Spying Fuels Aid Plan for Telecom Industry,” 12/16/07, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/16/washington/16nsa.html?pagewanted=print

** “Congress Strikes Deal to Overhaul Wiretap Law,” 6/20/08, New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/washington/20fisa.html?_r=1&oref=slogin&pagewanted=print

Visiting Senators to Halt Illegal Unwarranted Wiretapping

     Hi! This is Laura and Ashley, from Wesleyan University, and we are lucky enough to stay in a house with women in pink for a week!  We love them.

            Today we went to visit some of the Democratic Senators who voted for FISA last time it was extended.  FISA is the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the extension that will be voted on by the Senate this week will allow for unwarranted wiretapping.  We went with Gael and Des, who had to leave early, and James, Hannah, Steve, Lorena, and Julia to visit Senators Obama, Nelson, McCaskill, Reid, Feingold, Mikulski, Whitehouse and Conrad.  We tried to meet with Legislative staffers and anyone who advised the Senators on FISA, and delivered copies of the Constitution in which Amendment IV was highlighted and bookmarked in pink, with pink papers stating our beliefs about FISA.  They said, “Respect our Civil Liberties!  CodePink DENOUNCES the Democrats’ caving on FISA!  NO retroactive immunity for the CRIME of Warrantless Wiretapping.  NO unreasonable Emergency Surveillance.  Your vote for FISA betrays our Constitution.” When we gave Nelson’s staffer the Constitution, Gael joked, “We get these from your office,” and he replied, absorbing the pink beautification, “As a matter of fact, I do have a copy of one of those, but it’s not this pretty.”  Our visit to Senator Conrad’s office was particularly rewarding: his top legislative aide had a meeting with us in a conference room and answered some of our questions.  He insisted that since the Democrats don’t have a real majority in the Senate (Lieberman isn’t a Democrat), they can’t do much.

            After talking to the Senators, we went to visit Rep. Ackerman, who is sponsoring a resolution to sanction Iran.  The language he uses, however, could be construed as a military blockade, which would be an act of war.  We expressed our strong disapproval of war in Iran and our apprehension about the unclear language.  Only his secretary was willing to talk to us, but hopefully we’ll find a time to talk to more important people in his office.

            We’re hoping for a great rest of the week!  We’re looking forward to ending the war, telling more senators not to vote for FISA, and getting Gael to quit smoking.

            

We Shouldn't Need a Peace Lobby.

By Hannah Miller

Today is my first day at the Pink House. This week the actionable items appear to be FISA and yet another bill to fund the Iraq war - $160 billion, to extend into 2009, even after the next president takes office.

So our action was to highlight little copies of the Constitution with pink highlighters - the Fourth Amendment ... we'll take them to Capitol Hill later. I'm happy to be here. It's an incredible place. It's very positive, the people are lovely, the spirit of peace is here.

But I don't quite understand why we need a peace lobby. I don't know why we have to go to Capitol Hill and tell them they shouldn't wire tap us or keep on with an illegal war that the American public doesn't want. Peace should be the default. War is now the default. But it should take a great deal of effort and lobbying and begging and pleading and screaming to get us into a war. It should take years of lobbying to get us into a war, and keep us in a war. It should take a major public relations effort, and mass organizing.

But it's the opposite. War is the standard, and the doors are opened for the military and the contractors. Our voices are barely heard.

Hannah Miller, of Philadelphia, PA
hannahdmiller@gmail.com

Thank YOU, Code Pink!

By James O'Donnell

I've been in the Code Pink DC House for just over a week now, and so far it's been... well, wonderful! (...approaching miraculous, actually)

It really says something extraordinary about this organization -- their trust, warmth, openness, and the strength of their convictions -- that they practice what they preach and take into their home a virtual stranger, like myself, who has come to them from miles away (the Pacific Northwest) to join them in their mission to End War and champion the cause of Peace.

Upon entering the Code Pink DC House, I was immediately struck by the atmosphere: something akin to the feeling I've had in the most relaxed college dormitory nooks in which I've ensconced myself (usually for an hour or two of reading, music, and coffee); also reminiscent of some of the more inspirational and uplifting Art spaces I've haunted: the walls and shelves decorated with various products of the past loves and labors of the liberated human spirit, expressing itself, hoping, vying, always seeking the fulfillment of our heart's greatest wish: PEACE (Love, Justice, Joy)!

This house is the living expression of that common -- universal -- dream.

The women and men of Code Pink take seriously their responsibility (ours, as well) to serve that Dream. The leaders of this house: Medea, Desiree, Liz (to name a few) make certain that we do not shirk, we do not relent, we do not neglect our duty to serve that dream... because it is a dream that transcends -- that comprehends -- all of our values, religious and secular, and knows no boundaries, geographical, cultural, or national.

This dream is so powerful, in fact, that it brings people here, to this house in DC, from every corner of the globe and from every demographic of our society: Becky from Ghana, Isis from Spain, Jason from Puerto Rico, and Elie Painted Crow and her sister, Deborah -- two Native American women with a powerful message about the need to connect with the Peace that exists within us all... as well as those of us -- outwardly -- more “generic” Americans (“Generic-ans?”): more or less White, politically Left and Right... mellow and uptight? The Many, the Proud, the Privileged. (As a White male in America, the beneficiary of 40 years of better treatment, jobs, etc., I know of what I speak.)

Thus, I am enormously grateful for the opportunity Code Pink has given me to meet these extraordinary fellow travelers in Peace.

Thanks, Code Pink, for introducing me to Becky! Becky shared her perspective from the African continent, telling me the story of political developments in Ghana over the past 30 years (mostly positive, I'm happy to report).

She told me of her peaceful country -- and what it took to bring that about (what it always takes: the People's will correcting a venal, militaristic, and unimaginative political leadership -- sound familiar?). She told me of Ghana's free -- and complacent -- press, filling the airwaves with half-truths, propaganda, and nonsense (now, I know that sounds familiar).

As with all who (are unfortunate enough to) engage me in conversation for any length of time, I shared with Becky much that I have learned about her continent through my habit of extensive daily newspaper reading: the political backstory underlying recent conflict in Kenya, South Africa, and Somalia, Chad and Sudan, the Congo, etc. I spoke of the Kikuyu and Luo, of Zuma and the ANC, of the Government of the Islamic Courts versus that of the TFG, of conflicts spilling from one country into the next (Chad and Sudan; Rwanda and Congo); and of cassiterite and cobalt, Western exploitation, piracy and plunder: The depredations of Empire.

Overall, ours was an astonishing exchange: What I knew from reading -- that the corporate trawlers of the Industrialized World had virtually “fished out” the coastal areas of Northwestern Africa -- Becky knew from living there. It's really something to have a human face to put to a story I've seen only in black and white print on my computer screen... especially when that face is as pleasant as Becky's.

Actually, I had a related experience this past January when I shared a plane with a former Special Ops soldier and private contractor who was chatting with a freelance journalist two rows behind me: Once he and I started to converse, I found that I had learned from reading what he had learned from years on the ground in Iraq and Afghanistan: America is failing in its missions in both countries -- missions of exploitation and empire ("No question, it's about the OIL,” he said); America's military leadership is politicized and weak; the equipping and training of our soldiers, especially in terms of cultural sensitivity, is poor, at best.

The only subject we differed on was how to respond -- as individuals -- to what we both saw as the end of the American dream and the unraveling of our society: I aim to resist the current trend, whereas he is seeking (by his own admission) a way to “make a profit” as the nation goes down the toilet... which is why he's a mercenary, and why I'm at the Code Pink DC House.

So...

Thank you, Code Pink! Thank you, Desiree, Liz, Medea, Tighe, Alicia, Sarah, Julie, Jason, Jess and Leslie, and all of Code Pink's champions for Peace I have yet to meet.

Thank you very much.

You have given me the opportunity to share a magical space with some incredible people, advocating (and agitating) for our shared vision of a better world.

My special thanks to Elie and Deborah, Becky, and Isis, for the special time you gave me, sharing the gifts of your personal stories, songs, and unique (and vital!) perspectives.

You all have touched my heart.

Thank you.

I am NOT alone.

A Year + Review

Refugee Mom and ChildSisters-in-Peace,

It has been a heartwrenching, neckbreaking and breathtaking year here at the Pink House! I don't think I've done so much in so little time in my entire life. (The closest I've ever come to being this busy was the year I applied and earned a grant to take my bilingual 4th grade students on a class trip to the State Capitol, Austin, while coaching and managing our class soccer team. Oh yeah, I also taught them English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Reading, and Writing.)

I have found my drug of choice: adrenaline! (Thanks to my suppliers, Medea & Gael) So when I'm not high I can be found "hang dog" down on our Do Nothing Congress or raving mad at the media.

Being the "house mama" continues to be a surprise and a great highlight for me. Although I am no Betty Crocker homemaker, to which my family will gladly testify under oath, I have come to love cooking and doing linens for my sisters-in-peace. Entire CODEPINK chapters have become my best friends. I love our righteous women from the Bay Area, New York, Western Mass. and Florida chapters. They kick "ASS" on the Hill!

In the last year, I've met hundreds of like-minded individuals and less we forget, some other minded ones, too! Condi and I have become acquainted and I've had the blessing of being fitted for my very own, real-deal orange jumpsuit. ("NO!", they said when I begged to keep it and wear it home) I've learned to recognize ALL the U.S. Senators and the best and worst of the House of ill Repute. I've left innumerable messages pleading for peace at Pelosi's condo in Georgetown and chased Senator Leiberman around corners and into many elevators for his rabid rhetoric on Iran.

Here in the house we, ('cuz I've never been without my sidekicks Liz, Leslie or Ellen until recently) have hosted citizen activists from Iraq, Iran, Vietnam, the Phillipines, Cameroon, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, Mali, Brazil, Italy, and Japan. We also hosted documentary filmmakers from India, Spain, England, Belgium, Brazil, France and Germany.

Standing in as a representative of CODEPINK, I've choked up in shame and fury to crowds in Vicenza, Italy and Curitiba, Brazil. Traveling with our peace team, I've pinked Posada in Miami, Cheney in New York and Blackwater in Virginia. I sang and chanted through the French Quarter and scouted undercover in Minneapolis/Saint Paul.

Although things have slowed down a bit this summer, no swarms of teachers and students breaking down our doors, I look forward to helping create "Peace Plazas" or "Block Parties for Peace" with our brothers and sisters in the movement at the DNC and RNC and hope that a very near future includes participating in a delegation of peacemakers to Iran.

Simone and I in Curitibawith middle-schoolers whose moms heard us speak the day before!

Hope you'll come see me this summer!

the "mama"!

Promoting the Iran Resolution 06.20.08 at Mayors Conference Miami

We arrived at the Mayor's 76th annual conference to lobby the Don't Attack Iran Resolution
on behalf of citiesforpeace.org & globalexchange.org.It is a 3 day conference June 20-23 that peaceful activists have been invited to participate as media.It was an exciting opportunity to engage the mayors on the issue of Iran using Iraq as an example on the local cost of war.I went inside the Inter Continental Hotel with Carlos from the Chamber of Commerce as he brought my media credentials down to me.We walked upstairs signed in with the press sign-in desk.It was 9am so i wandered around the booths on both 1st & second floor for 2 hours tried to lobby some staffers & mayors with the Iran Resolution in hand.Nancy & i caught up at the Women's Mayors panel at 1130am i planned on filming this segment as well as meet any mayors for a photo opp while chatting up this Resolution.30minutes into my filming the opening remarks the security came over to me and questioned my credentials.My response any problems can be deal with when my friend arrives he is parking and has my bag.I would like to continue filming these are my credentials and have been invited.Suddenly 5 police are pulling & pushing me as they strong arm me out of the large room i begin shouting Mayors MAyors .........the police are going to arrest me for no reason.Perez the main arresting police man keeps saying we aren't arresting you.I keep Shouting Please can anyone help me! I am supposed to be here INVITED etc
The moment we exited the room Perez says you are under arrest.
Some 25 mins later Medea Benjamin is being pushed around by 3 Miami police..............right next to detention vehicle!
9 hours in jail with Medea Benjamin





www.usmayors.org

Torture addendum

Bear in mind, per the Pentagon's own analysis, nearly half of America's prisoners at GITMO -- and over 80% of our prisoners in Iraq -- have committed no crime and have not been linked to any terrorist organization whatsoever.  They were simply swept up by our mercenary allies and overzealous neighborhood raids.

Two Days of Torture (revised)

by James O'Donnell
 
Over the last two days in the Senate and House, Code Pink has attended some nine hours of hearings dealing with the origins of the Bush administration's policy of “enhanced interrogations,” or as we on planet Earth call it, TORTURE.
 
But don't take our word for it.
 
Consider, if you prefer, the testimony of former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto Mora, who was so alarmed by this “policy of cruelty,” including forced nudity, stress positions, and waterboarding (a “classic and reviled form of torture,” per Mora), that he threatened to go public with what he saw as a “mistake of massive proportions,” forcing the retraction of the policy... or so he thought.
 
But, like so many of us, Mora was deceived.
 
Nine days after Mora was told the policy was rescinded, in spite of his objections (and similar concerns coming from his counterparts in the legal offices of the USAF, Army, and Marines -- as well as the FBI and the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force), top “Bushies” David Addington, John Yoo, William Haynes, et al, pushed the policy through behind their backs, behind the backs, even, of the Working Group assigned to vet the policy -- and without any real consideration of whether the brutal tactics they sought to employ had any proven value in terms of gaining actionable intelligence. (They hadn't.)
 
William J. Haynes II, the Pentagon's General Counsel under Rumsfeld, stove-piped the custom ordered if “seriously deficient”* legal opinion of GITMO's junior officer, Lt. Col. Diane “eager” Beaver, who admits she was stunned to see her humble “legal” analysis instantly elevated into national policy, albeit without the “controls” she envisioned.
 
Thus, the Navy Seals SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) training regimen was “reverse-engineered,” and the Bush administration promptly adopted the illegal and inhumane interrogation methods of our former enemies: the Japanese under Hirohito, the Viet Cong, and the Soviets.
 
With the apparent blessing of top administration officials in the White House and the departments of Justice and Defense, SERE instructors -- with no formal training in interrogation -- were dispatched (eventually to Iraq) to teach our soldiers how to strip prisoners, deprive them of sleep, slap, sexually humiliate, and waterboard them (and to attack their religious beliefs).
 
In fact, the methods the “Bushies” chose to employ so pushed the legal (and moral) envelope that their early discussions explicitly acknowledged the need to duck the International Committee of the Red Cross and to admonish interrogators that, “if the detainee DIES, you're doing it wrong.”
 
Just as Bush had deployed White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to the Justice Department to custom-order the infamous Bybee Memo (the: it ain't torture, even if it is, memo), the “cabal” described by Colin Powell's Chief of Staff, Lawrence Wilkerson, had dispatched Addington, Michael Chertoff, and CIA Counsel Rizzo to GITMO to convey to Lt. Col. Beaver just what kind of legal rationale they were seeking... and for what kind of policy.
 
The result, per the General Fay report and that of the Defense Department's Inspector General: Reverse-engineered SERE techniques initially implemented at GITMO soon “migrated” to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and, yes, to Abu Ghraib (Abu Ghraib, where even Lt. Col. Beaver was surprised to find Gen. Geoffrey Miller's shadow, Capt. Carolyn Wood, helping teach our soldiers to treat American prisoners “like dogs.” (Capt. Wood, according to Ms. Beaver, had been in charge at Bagram, where it’s acknowledged that two of America's prisoners were beaten to death by their interrogators.)
 
Miller and Wood were in Iraq to “GITMO-ize” Abu Ghraib, and, as the notorious photographs later revealed, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams... and our most horrific nightmares.
 
No wonder Rummy's pal, DoD Counsel Haynes, squelched the broad-based review of this monstrous policy, the review nominally conducted by the docile Admiral Dalton, originally intended for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 
And no wonder Mr. Haynes had to answer “I don't recall” to so very many of the Senators' questions.

To be clear: This was a top-down policy, imposed on America's military by ideological chicken hawks and political operators over the vehement objections of senior legal officers of EVERY branch of America's armed forces.

Nobody in our military asked for these worthless “tools.”

It's past time we defend our military men and women and end this counterproductive and immoral policy of officially sanctioned torture, still available to American intelligence agencies, private contractors, and client regimes like Syria, Egypt, and Morocco (to name but a few) to whom we're still rendering our “ghost detainees” in this terribly bungled Global War OF Terror.
 
*per Rear Admiral Jane Dalton

CODEPINK HOUSE: A house of Peace indeed!

Their smiles are infectious and the warmth they exude is like a blanket on a cold winter's night. This is the atmosphere at the CODEPINK house in Washington DC.
Being a member of the Mothers for Active Non-Violence (MOFAN-V), a women's peace organisation in Ghana, I decided to seize the opportunity of coming to Washington DC for a summer peace building institute, to experience CODEPINK, the women's initiated peace organisation actively working to end the war in Iraq and to stop new wars. I had been following the activities of CODEPINK through their colourful website for some time, so I applied through their website to stay at the CODEPINK house in DC for a week. In less than 72 hours, I got an email from Allison of CODEPINK DC that stated among other things that; "We will be honoured to have you stay in the CODEPINK house". I was excited.
In spite of the excitement, I walked into the CODEPINK house that Sunday afternoon feeling anxious and unsure of how I would fit into this house of 'wild' non-violent women peace activists. But as soon as I stepped into the house, I knew this was second home. With the big "HELLO!" from Liz, and Des immediately abandoning her computer to lovingly welcome me and show me around, I could not help but relax. Everyone in the house that day; Alicia, Julie, Lorena, Les, Jes and James had ready smiles and a warmth that was soothing and welcoming.
Even before I could finish unpacking, I found myself with the codepinkers in James' van heading to a fundraiser and a press conference being organised by the DC chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW). In no time, I had been introduced and I was drinking, eating and chatting with the IVAW guys who had all been to and served the United States Army in Iraq, they had seen it all, returned home and decided 'NEVER AGAIN'! This was a great learning and humbling experience for me. The meeting of a coalition of peace organisations at the Greenpeace office the next evening was awesome as well.
The codepinkers oferred me something new and unique on each of the subsequent days of my stay. From my baptism into activism dressed with hood and all as a Guantanamo Prisonner, to the open-air protest infront of the Heritage foundation building, through the walk-ins and outs of Senators' offices, till my activism 'graduation' inside the capitol when the house was voting for more money to fund the war in Iraq, I had a real initiation into the world of activism. These codepinkers know what they are about, and they know their rights. Not once did they look intimidated inspite of previous arrests and some isolated police harrassment along the way; and I admire their courage greatly.
I watched in amazement how Medea, the unassuming, charming and lovable co-founder of CODEPINK inspired, encouraged and gelled with all the codepinkers; staff, interns and guests like myself inclusive.
CODEPINK does not just preach peace, they live it and I feel honoured to have passed through their house.
To Mila and Gail!, whom I did not have the pleasure of meeting, I appreciate their warm vibes on the phone, to Jason (who was arrested at the protest inside the house of representatives on June 19 2008), I sallute you, and to Sarah, thanks for facilitating that wonderful salon with Tanya.
GO CODEPINK! YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A FRIEND IN ME AND MOFAN-V IN GHANA.
CHEERS!
Becky Adda-Dontoh
Mothers for Active Non-Violence (MOFAN-V)
Accra, Ghana
beckyadda@yahoo.com
+233.244.381104

Two Days of Torture

Two Days of Torture
by James O'Donnell at CODE PINK DC House
 
Over the last two days in the Senate and House, Code Pink has attended some nine hours of hearings dealing with the origins of the Bush administration's policy of “enhanced interrogations,” or as we on planet Earth call it, TORTURE.
 
But don't take our word for it.
 
Consider, if you prefer, the opinion of former General Counsel of the Navy, Alberto Mora, who was so alarmed by this “policy of cruelty,” including forced nudity, stress positions, and waterboarding (a “classic and reviled” form of torture, per Mora), that he threatened to go public with what he saw as a “mistake of massive proportions,” forcing the retraction of the policy... or so he thought.
 
But, like so many of us, Mora was deceived by his superiors.
 
Nine days later, disregarding Mora's objections and similar concerns coming from his counterparts in the legal offices of the USAF, Army, and Marines (as well as objections coming from the FBI and the Defense Department's Criminal Investigation Task Force), top “Bushies” David Addington, John Yoo, William Haynes, et al, pushed the policy through behind their backs, behind the backs, even, of the working group assigned to vet the policy – and without any real consideration of whether the brutal tactics they sought to employ had any proven value in terms of gaining actionable intelligence.
 
(They hadn't.)
 
William J. Haynes II, the Pentagon's General Counsel under Rumsfeld, stovepiped the custom-ordered (if “seriously deficient”)* legal opinion of GITMO's junior officer, Lt. Col. Diane “eager” Beaver, who admits she was stunned to see her humble “legal” analysis instantly elevated into national policy, albeit without the “controls” she envisioned.
 
As Senate testimony revealed, the Navy Seals' SERE (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) training regimen was “reverse-engineered,” and the Bush administration promptly adopted the illegal and inhumane interrogation methods of our former enemies: the Japanese under Hirohito, the Vietcong, and the Soviets.
 
With the apparent blessing of top administration officials in the White House and the departments of Justice and Defense, SERE instructors – with no formal training in interrogation – were dispatched (eventually to Iraq) to teach our soldiers how to strip prisoners, deprive them of sleep, slap, sexually humiliate, and waterboard them, not forgetting to insult and offend their religion.
 
In fact, the methods the “Bushies” chose to employ so pushed the legal (and moral) envelope that their early discussions explicitly acknowledged the need to duck the International Committee of the Red Cross and to admonish interrogators that, “if the detainee dies, you're doing it wrong.”
 
Just as Bush had deployed White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales to the Justice Department to custom-order the infamous Bybee Memo (the it ain't torture, even if it is memo), the “cabal” described by Lawrence Wilkerson, Colin Powell's Chief of Staff, had dispatched Addington, Chertoff, and CIA Counsel Rizzo to GITMO to make sure that Lt. Col. Beaver knew just what kind of legal rationale they were seeking... for what kind of policy.
 
The result, per the General Fay report and that of the Defense Department's Inspector General:  Reverse-engineered SERE techniques initially implemented at GITMO soon “migrated” to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and, yes, to Abu Ghraib (Abu Ghraib, where even Lt. Col. Beaver was surprised to find Gen. Geoffrey Miller's shadow, Capt. Carolyn Wood, helping teach our soldiers to treat American prisoners “like dogs.” (Capt. Wood, according to Ms. Beaver, had been in charge at Bagram, where it’s acknowledged that two of America's prisoners had been beaten to death by their interrogators.)
 
Miller and Wood were in Iraq to “GITMO-ize” Abu Ghraib, and, as the notorious photographs later revealed, they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams... and our most horrific nightmares.
 
No wonder Rummy's pal, DoD Counsel Haynes, squelched the broad-based review of this monstrous policy, the review that was being done by Admiral Dalton, originally intended for the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
 
And no wonder Mr. Haynes had to answer “I don't recall” to so very many of the Senators' questions.
 
*per Rear Admiral Jane Dalton

McCain busted in Springfield Missouri

John McCain visited Springfield today, and we busted him! I had recently discovered on opensecrets.org that McCain ranked number one among Senators recieving money from the oil & gas industry. In order to dramatize his ties to big oil, we created a banner that was basically a giant check made out to John McCain which was signed by "oil company executives". McCain was to conduct a "townhall" energy briefing in the auditorium at Plaster Student Union on Missouri State University campus. People began lining up around 8am. At 11am, as the doors were opened to let people into the auditorium, two of us dropped the check banner over the second story balcony and chanted "ENDLESS DEBT, ENDLESS WAR, JOHN MCCAIN IS A CORPORATE WHORE." Another person in our affinity group was filming the action... we will have video online soon. The chanting went on for several minutes before we realized that nobody was going to stop us, so I then announced to the crowd that John McCain was the #1 recipient, among US senators, of money from the Gas & Oil industry in 2008. Eventually, we went outside the building and joined several dozen other protesters who were gathered outside. As McCain's motorcade was driving up to the buidling, everybody was chanting "no war", "education is #1" and other slogans. McCain went by quickly, but the press pool bus stopped out on the road, and the reporters were all made to walk by us protesters.

Also... local activist Gary Wilson, who has been in DC with CODEPINK a couple times last year, got inside the auditorium and interrupted McCain's speech by standing up in the front row and yelling, "How can we trust you on energy policy when you have taken half a million dollars from big oil in 2008." Then as he was being escorted out of the room, he continued, "Bring the troops home now" over and over again. He was given a "disturbing the peace" citation by police, then released.

Traditionally, Southwest Missouri has been considered a "Republican stronghold", so this strong statement of opposition to John McCain's support of the US occupation of Iraq was incredible!

~ Midge P.

CODEPINK at the Heritage Foundation Arrest Condi 06.18.08

The Pink Police went to the Heritage Foundation for a stake out after lunch to meet & greet Condi Rice after her Press Conference but the secret police carefully avoided the public profiled PINK peace officers!There were more uniformed police then peaceful activists as is the norm these days?
www.condimustgo.com

The War Criminals continue to have a fortified shield of protection to keep the Women for Peace
back away...........on the curb.We will continue to stake out Miss Condi with our Constitution in hand!

Torture is Terror 06.17.08 Senate Armed Services

CODEPINK attends another hearing on the topic of harsh interrogation techniques =Torture
The bottom line is out of 3 panels of witnesses NO ONE knows who authorized Torture as policy from the top down!
Alberto Maro recently retired General Counsel of the US Navy was the sane voice of all 3 panels.He worked to end the coercive legal aspects of John Yoo's memo which were unlawful.
He has been a dissenter that understands these policies undermine effective intelligence
gathering as well put our troops in excess danger in the field.

www.witnesstorture.org

Diane Beaver legal adviser to General Dunalevy Guantanamo Bay Cuba
Lt Colonel Beaver is a true believer in staying the course on torture policy.


http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0806/S00257.htm

06.16.08 Father's Day Potluck with IVAW

CODEPINK DC showed up at the Iraq Vets Against the WAR
house to celebrate Fathers day
with our courageous friends that oppose this
ILLEGAL,Unconstitutional,Unjust,unpopular preemptive war of CHOICE!
James drove the team in his soon to be Very Pink RV
stocked with Watermelon & Wine.We are building community one person at a time!!

www.ivaw.org
Your donation makes this work possible
www.codepinkalert.org HelpRefugees





































































































































CODEPINK DC showed up at the Iraq Vets Against the WAR
house to celebrate Fathers day
with our courageous friends that oppose this ILLEGAL,Unconstitutional,Unjust,unpopular preemptive war of CHOICE!James drove the team in his soon to be Very Pink RV stocked with Watermelon & Wine.We are building community one person at a time!!
www.ivaw.org
Your donation makes this work possible
www.codepinkalert.org HelpRefugees

McCain Busting in the Nation's Capitol

Medea Benjamin

Today was a good day for our “Busting McCain” campaign. When we heard that he was going to be speaking at Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel for the National Federation of Independent Business’ Summit, we started planning an “inside/outside” action with a Greeting Committee outside the hotel and in the lobby, a PINK SLIP banner drop in hotel atrium, a PINK Send Off and three brave CODEPINKers who BUSTED McCain during his speech!

We won’t give away our secret about how we got inside passes to a closed meeting. That’s part of the CODEPINK lore. But we did indeed get four passes. Three of the people—all women—made it through security and into the room with no problem. Tighe Barry got booted out (his ponytail was probably a giveaway). Jes Richardson got in as press, and so did I—for about 5 minutes. Once they recognized me and threw me out, they kicked Jes out, too.

Meanwhile, outside the hotel, our intern Lorena Schmidt donned a pink wig and greeted passer-bys with flyers and our McCain song to the tune of classic Beach Boy song Barbara Ann—the very song McCain parodied when he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran...” Lorena, of course, sang Don't bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran,” with verses like “McCain, you are insane, you’ll wipe out a generation if you get to bomb the nation of Iran." Most people were amused and found it a great way to protest.

At about 9:00am Lorena, Jes and I greeted McCain as he came in the building with "Senator McCain, we want to stop the war and bring the troops home! Senator McCain, don't attack Iran--please!" As he went down the escalator, he waved and smiled to us. Little did he know that there were CODEPINK women waiting inside the ballroom for him!

Three CODEPINKers, dressed like businesspeople (no pink!) and sporting McCain campaign buttons, got inside the ballroom in time for a lovely breakfast. When McCain starting speaking to the business association, Gael Murphy cried out, "War is bad for small business! Attacking Iran will only make things worse! We are spending 5,000 dollars per second, 12 billion dollars per month! Imagine the investments in small business we could make with that money instead of killing people and illegally occupying other countries.”

Soon after Murphy was “escorted” out of the room, it was Alicia Forrest’s turn. McCain insisted he was going to help grow the economy, so Alicia yelled out, “Mr. McCain, how do you expect to do that with 100 years of war?” She hung on tight to the doors as they pulled her out, shouting "No War! No McCain!" This was covered in boos from the McCain supporters, but still the point was made.

The last to speak out was Barbara Briggs-Letson, who was visiting the CODEPINK house from Sebastopol. Barbara got up and asked how McCain could support spending $11 million an hour on war. She, too, was quickly escorted out. We all cheered when we were watching Lou Dobbs on CNN in the evening and saw Barbara on TV as she was leaving the room!!!

Meanwhile, on the 6th floor of the hotel, facing the huge atrium, Tighe Barry and Julie Allen were waiting to drop a huge 40-foot pink slip saying “McCain=Bush: Endless War.” As soon as they dropped it, other CODEPINKers in the lobby chanted “Say No to Endless War” and "Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation." The security guards scurried up to confront them and force them to take it down.

Our last encounter of the day came when McCain was on his way out, where we got right up to him . We even ran after him in his car, as he smiled and waved to us, and then ran to talk to the press entourage as the mounted their McCain Straight Talk Express bus.

McCain Busting in the Nation’s Capitol
Medea Benjamin

Today was a good day for our “Busting McCain” campaign. When we heard that he was going to be speaking at Washington’s Grand Hyatt Hotel for the National Federation of Independent Business’ Summit, we started planning an “inside/outside” action with a Greeting Committee outside the hotel and in the lobby, a PINK SLIP banner drop in hotel atrium, a PINK Send Off and three brave CODEPINKers who BUSTED McCain during his speech!

We won’t give away our secret about how we got inside passes to a closed meeting. That’s part of the CODEPINK lore. But we did indeed get four passes. Three of the people—all women—made it through security and into the room with no problem. Tighe Barry got booted out (his ponytail was probably a giveaway). Jes Richardson got in as press, and so did I—for about 5 minutes. Once they recognized me and threw me out, they kicked Jes out, too.

Meanwhile, outside the hotel, our intern Lorena Schmidt donned a pink wig and greeted passer-bys with flyers and our McCain song to the tune of classic Beach Boy song Barbara Ann—the very song McCain parodied when he sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb Iran...” Lorena, of course, sang Don't bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, Iran,” with verses like “McCain, you are insane, you’ll wipe out a generation if you get to bomb the nation of Iran." Most people were amused and found it a great way to protest.

At about 9:00am Lorena, Jes and I greeted McCain as he came in the building with "Senator McCain, we want to stop the war and bring the troops home! Senator McCain, don't attack Iran--please!" As he went down the escalator, he waved and smiled to us. Little did he know that there were CODEPINK women waiting inside the ballroom for him!

Three CODEPINKers, dressed like businesspeople (no pink!) and sporting McCain campaign buttons, got inside the ballroom in time for a lovely breakfast. When McCain starting speaking to the business association, Gael Murphy cried out, "War is bad for small business! Attacking Iran will only make things worse! We are spending 5,000 dollars per second, 12 billion dollars per month! Imagine the investments in small business we could make with that money instead of killing people and illegally occupying other countries.”

Soon after Murphy was “escorted” out of the room, it was Alicia Forrest’s turn. McCain insisted he was going to help grow the economy, so Alicia yelled out, “Mr. McCain, how do you expect to do that with 100 years of war?” She hung on tight to the doors as they pulled her out, shouting "No War! No McCain!" This was covered in boos from the McCain supporters, but still the point was made.

The last to speak out was Barbara Briggs-Letson, who was visiting the CODEPINK house from Sebastopol. Barbara got up and asked how McCain could support spending $11 million an hour on war. She, too, was quickly escorted out. We all cheered when we were watching Lou Dobbs on CNN in the evening and saw Barbara on TV as she was leaving the room!!!

Meanwhile, on the 6th floor of the hotel, facing the huge atrium, Tighe Barry and Julie Allen were waiting to drop a huge 40-foot pink slip saying “McCain=Bush: Endless War.” As soon as they dropped it, other CODEPINKers in the lobby chanted “Say No to Endless War” and "Money for jobs and education, not for war and occupation." The security guards scurried up to confront them and force them to take it down.

Our last encounter of the day came when McCain was on his way out, where we got right up to him . We even ran after him in his car, as he smiled and waved to us, and then ran to talk to the press entourage as the mounted their McCain Straight Talk Express bus.

For our finale, Tighe drove up to the hotel entrance with our beautiful black and pink pick-up truck decked out with signs saying "Don't Buy Bush's War" and "Congress, Don't Fund War!" Megaphones out the window, we sped away entertaining and educating the good people of DC about the threat of McBush.

All in all, it was a great day for the McCain Busters!

Ann Wright's Japan Blog Part II

By Ann Wright

I have ended a 14 day speaking tour of Japan--from the very northern island of Hokkaido to the southern- most island of Okinawa, organized by a tremendous Codepink lady from Osaka, Japan, Hisae Ogawa. Hisae and two other Codepinkers from Osaka visited Washington, DC in September, 2007 and stayed at the Codepink house and then went to New York City for talks at the United Nations.

In 12 speaking events with from 100 to 10,000 persons in the audience, I’ve been honored to speak about our work for peace in our own country and for the world, the need for the US to end its military occupation through bases around the world 60 years after World War II and stopping violence against women inside the military as well as against women who live outside US military bases.

Here are some of the events of the second week in Japan:

Mother’s Day in Japan - Pink Paper carnations
Mother’s Day is not generally celebrated in Japan. But, after seeing photos of Codepink’s Mother’s Day events in front of the White House in 2006, several women’s groups in Tokyo and Niigata decided to use Julia Ward Howe’s 1870 Mother’s Declaration as a means of thanking mothers for their protection of Article 9 of the Japanese constitution, renunciation of war.

Led by women in the Japanese Fellowship of Reconciliation, women’s groups handed out a paper folded like a flower holder with the carnation drawn at the top and colored pink, Inside was printed Howe’s Mother’s day poem—and Article 9, Renunciation of War. They handed out thousands of the “flowers” to women on the streets of Tokyo and the conservative city on the Sea of Japan, Niigata.

In a celebration of Mother’s Day, over 160 women and men gathered at the civic center in downtown Niigata, where Codepink Japan founder and 30 year women’s activist Hisae Ogawa and I spoke about the US war on Iraq and the need for the United States to have an article 9! The previous day we had spoken to the Tokyo chapter of Fellowship of Reconciliation at their weekend workshop on non-violence.

Article 9 states:
“Aspiring sincerely to an international peace based on justice and order, the Japanese people forever renounce war as a sovereign right of the nation and the threat or use of forces as means of settling international disputes. In order to accomplish the aim of the preceding paragraph, land, sea and air forces, as well as other war potential, will never be maintained. The right of belligerency of the state will not be recognized.”

Mother's Day Proclamation - 1870
By Julia Ward Howe
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the voice of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil
At the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
But of God -
In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask
That a general congress of women without limit of nationality,
May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient
And the earliest period consistent with its objects,
To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,
The amicable settlement of international questions,
The great and general interests of peace.

Women’s Symposium “Women’s Power of building Peace-Weaving Together Women’s Initiatives Worldwide”
During the Global Article 9 conference in Tokyo, I spoke on the Women’s Symposium panel, one of 4 major symposiums following the one-day plenary session. Over 500 women and men attended the 2.5 hour women’s conference.

Other panelists were:
Ellen Woodsworth, former Vancouver, Canada, City Council member and co-founder of the World Peace Forum (2006)
Takada Kimiko, (Japan), President of the New Japan Women’s Association
Jung Gyunglan, (Korea), Chair of the Women Making Peace International Committee
Florence Mpaayei (Kenya), Director of the Nairobi Peace Initiative
Takasato Suzuyo (Japan) Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence
Nishino Rumiko (Japan) Chair, Violence Against Women in War-Network Japan and Director of the Women’s Active Museum on War and Peace

A great portion of the panel discussion centered on violence perpetrated on women during war, from the “comfort women” during World War II, to violence on women living around military bases, to violence on women in the military. I was asked to speak on sexual assault and rape of women in Japan by US military personnel and of women in the US military and was one of three panelists who spoke on these horrible actions by members of our military.

Beate Sirota Gordon
The Article 9 conference had many remarkable speakers, but to me one of the most memorable was 82 year old Beate Sirota Gordon, who as 22 year old Japanese linguist on General MacArthur’s staff in 1946, was secretly charged with writing the civil rights section of the new Japanese constitution. Having lived in Japan with her parents before WWII began, she was very familiar with the lack of rights for women in Japan. She set about to change that status and wrote into the Constitution that women should have rights equal to men—and remarkably, in the later hours of negotiations, it was grudgingly accepted by the conservative male Japanese constitutional committee.

The story of her involvement in writing the equal rights part of the Japanese constitution, and the role of other members of MacArthur’s staff in writing other parts of the Japanese constitution, was kept quiet until ten years ago. Her story is chronicled in her book “The Only Woman at the Table.” Although living in NYC, Gordon speaks frequently in Japan, in Japanese, to packed auditoriums of admiring women—and men for her role in establishing equal rights for women into their constitution.

I wish she had been at the table during the writing of our constitution!!!!

Japanese Women’s Association
In Tokyo, Hisae and I met with the 40 woman staff of the New Japanese Women’s Association, one of the largest women’s organizations in Japan. I told them about Codepink’s extraordinary growth with chapters all over America and the world. They were interested in the organizational structure of Codepink, the use of the internet to move actions nationally and globally and the lack of dues, but rather fundraising through sales of t-shirts, books. One of their newsletters from 2004 had a photo of the Codepink contingent in the August, 2005 huge march in New York City.

Peace Museum-Kyoto
Did you know there are 120 peace museums in the world and over one-half are in Japan? Remarkably, there are only two peace museums in the United States but, not so remarkably, we have hundreds of museums about wars, the Revolutionary war, the Civil war, World Wars I and II, the Vietnam war, and military units that fought them (on virtually every military base).
We visited one of the big Peace Museums and research facilities for peace in the world, the Kyoto Museum for World Peace at Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto, the first peace museum to be established by a university. Its permanent exhibitions cover Japanese aggression and damage caused by Japan’s Fifteen Year war to modern world wars and conflicts. Its “Building Peace” section questions whether absence of war, or structured violence, is peace, or whether peace is a purposeful condition planned, orchestrated and funded by citizens and governments.
Check out these links:
http://www.ritsumei.ac.jp/eng/profile/peacemuseum/index.shtml
http://www.museumsforpeace.org/organizations_Museums_for_Peace.htm

Peace Boat

And did you know that there is a boat that travels all over the world for peace?

It’s the Peace Boat and its first voyage was organized in 1983 and since then they have had over 50 regional and global voyages, carrying over 30,000 participants onboard to more than 100 ports of call.

Peace Boat is a Japan-based international non-governmental and non-profit organization that works to promote peace, human rights, equal and sustainable development and respect for the environment.

Peace Boat seeks to create awareness and action based on effecting positive social and political change in the world through the organization of global educational programs, responsible travel, cooperative projects and advocacy activities. These activities are carried out on a partnership basis with other civil society organizations and communities in Japan, Northeast Asia, and around the world.

Peace Boat carries out its main activities through a chartered passenger ship that travels the world on peace voyages. The ship creates a neutral, mobile space and enables people to engage across borders in dialogue and mutual cooperation at sea, and in the ports that we visit. Activities based on Japan and Northeast Asia are carried out from eight Peace Centers in Japan.

Check out the Peace Boat online at:
www.peaceboat.org

Okinawa—Land of Protests Against US Militarism

Save the Dugongs--Stop the New US Marine Air Base
The southern island of Okinawa is protest-central for Japanese discontent against the large continued US military presence for the last 63 years, since the end of World War II. 23,000 US military and 25,000 military families members live and work on 34 bases on the island of Okinawa. While the US has returned 30 bases to the Japanese Self Defense force, the remaining bases including two major airbases (with loud aircraft noises), and four large marine bases (with artillery and helicopters) are continuing sources of anger for the most of the Okinawan population. Those Okinawans who are making money from the presence of US military, are not so opposed to the occupation.

Okinawans have protested loudly about the US military presence for decades. As a result, the US Marines have been pressured to close one air base that is in an extremely congested urban area. But the location where they want to build a replacement airbase by dumping dirt into the ocean, is in the pristine, coral laden waters of f another Marine base where the endangered marine mammal, the dugong, lives. Okinawans’ protests have been critical in the postponement of construction of the new airbase for 10 years. Now a US federal district court have stepped in and ordered the Department of Defense to conduct an environmental impact study on the area proposed for the airbase.

Each day ten to twenty Okinawans take to the waters in the area called Henoko in kayaks and zodiac boats to watch and photograph what the Marines do. They took us out in one of the boats to see the waters, look for dugongs and observe the activities of the Marines.
Their activist camp provides a base and educational center for the groups, Japanese and international, that come to help. A second activist tent on the beach is filled all day with very politically astute senior citizens who chat with visitors about their refusal to allow their bay to be filled in for a marine air base, and who keep eagle eyes watching their bay.
The Marines have placed very sharp concertina wire on the beach to keep activists away from their activities. The activists have decorated the wire with colorful pieces of cloth with statements: close US bases, save the dugongs

Sexual Assault and Rape of Okinawan and Japanese Women and Girls
Since 1945 when US military stormed onto Okinawa, Okinawan women and girls have been sexually assaulted and raped by US military personnel. The Okinawans know the history of every assault. 30 women were raped in 1945, 40 in 1946, and 37 in 1947. The first conviction of a US military soldier for rape was in 1948. According to reports compiled from police records and other sources by the organization Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence, hundreds of Okinawan and Japanese women have been sexually assaulted and raped by US military since 1945.

In the latest incidents, in April, 2008, the U.S. military in Japan charged a Marine with rape and other violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice in the alleged sexual assault of 14-year old girl in Okinawa. Staff Sergeant Tyrone Luther Hadnott, 38, was charged with the rape of a child under 16, abusive sexual contact with a child, making a false official statement, adultery and kidnapping.

In February, Japanese authorities released Hadnott after the girl dropped the allegations against him, but the Marine Corps conducted its own investigation to see if Hadnott violated codes of military justice. The rape accusation against Hadnott stirred memories of a brutal rape more than a decade ago and triggered outrage across Japan. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said that Hadnott’s actions were “unforgiveable.”

The incident also led to tight restrictions, for a time, for American troops and their families at the U.S. base on Okinawa. The U.S. military in Japan also formed a sexual assault prevention task force after the incident.

On May 15, 2008, a U.S. court-martial sentenced Hadnott to four years in prison after convicting him of abusive sexual conduct with a Japanese teenager in Okinawa. Four other charges, including rape of a child under 16, making a false official statement, adultery and "kidnapping through inveigling," or trickery, were dropped in a plea bargain.
On May 16, 2008, charges were dropped against a soldier accused of raping a 21year-old Filipino woman in February 18, 2008. The Naha District Public Prosecutor’s Office said Friday his office did not have sufficient evidence to indict Sgt. Ronald Edward Hopstock Jr., 25, of the 1st Battalion, 1st Air Defense Artillery Regiment. Three points at issue were the place where the alleged act took place, the relation of the two individuals and the circumstances before and after the alleged event. The Army will conduct its own investigation, said Maj. James Crawford, a U.S. Army spokesman at Camp Zama, Japan.

According to police, the woman was hospitalized for more than a week and received outpatient treatment for two weeks. At the time of the incident, the woman had been in Japan only three days, police reports said. Hopstock remains restricted to Kadena Air Base and is closely supervised by officials.

On May 9, 2008, a US Marine charged in the gang rape of a 19 year old woman in Hiroshima in October, 2007, was convicted of “wrongful sexual contact and indecent acts” and sentenced no more than one year in jail and a dishonorable discharge. He was also convicted of “fraternization and violating military orders about liberty and alcohol” but cleared him of rape and kidnapping charges. Three other Marines will be court-martialed later this month on charges of gang-raping the young woman.

In early May, 2008, another young 14 year old Japanese girl reportedly was “groped” by a US military service member.

In 1995, three American servicemen kidnapped and gang-raped a 12-year-old Okinawan schoolgirl. In August 2006, one of the perpetrators of the 1995 rape, strangled and raped a 22-year old female college student in Georgia, after which he killed himself.
In 2002, Marine Major Michael Brown was charged with attempting to rape a Filipina bartender at a club on a US military base. Following a 19-month trial, on July 8, 2004, Brown was convicted by the Japanese District Court of "attempting an indecent act" and "destruction of property" but was acquitted of the rape charge. The court gave Brown a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years, and fined him US1,400. The Japanese Judge said Brown was given a light sentence because the 21-year Marine veteran had no prior criminal record. Brown appealed the verdict to Japan's Supreme Court which dismissed the appeal in July 2004. Brown was transferred by the U.S. military to Marine Corps Base Quantico, Virginia in August 2004.

In October, 2005, Brown was arrested and charged with kidnapping an 18-year old girl from a flea-market in Milton, West Virginia. Brown was subsequently indicted in January, 2006 on felony kidnapping and grand larceny charges and, as of May, 2008, currently awaits trial scheduled to take place in Huntington, West Virginia. In the meantime, the USMC demoted Brown to Captain and allowed him to retire at that rank on February 1, 2006.
In 2006, a U.S. civilian military employee was jailed for nine years for raping two women on Okinawa.

While the vast majority of US military personnel do not commit criminal acts while in Japan, the continued presence after 60 years of such a large number of US military, and the horrific crimes committed by a small minority of US military, mean that America’s military presence in Japan and Okinawa is deeply resented.

End of Trip Observations—Will America Ever Stand For Peace?
On my last evening in Japan, I spoke in Nago, Okinawa, Japan, the southernmost island of Japan and the most US militarized. After the talk, in contrast to most evening meals, Hisae Ogawa (the organizer of my visit) and I had dinner with five men, all my age, 61 or so, Vietnam veteran age—except they were not Vietnam veterans, nor veterans of any war.
After the disastrous World War II, Japanese men (and women) have been spared the obligation of serving in any wars. Because their constitution (written by Americans) says that war is not the Japanese national doctrine for resolving international disputes or for ensuring their national security, the Japanese people have been given 60 years of peace.
I was struck by the questions of the Japanese men—only one generation removed from their fathers who fought to expand economic resources for the Japanese emperor and empire in the late 1930s and 1940s.

These men questioned why young men and women of the United States would join the US military when it was fighting a war for economic resources (oil-their words) and a war based on lies (their words.) The Japanese men were amazed by the levels of post-traumatic stress disorder (80%) in Iraq war veterans and were astounded by the Veteran Administration’s cover up of the number of suicides by veterans (18 per month, or 216 per year, and 12,000 per year attempting suicide). They also questioned why any woman would join the military when statistics reveal that one in three women in the military will be raped by fellow service members during their enlistment.

I responded that, despite an unpopular war, some young men and women find the US military their only option for jobs and future education. Military recruiters flood high schools-there are few other options for many with marginal grades, much less a criminal record.
The Japanese society has moved from one of the most militaristic and warlike in the 1930s and 1940s to now, a nation at peace despite the Bush administration’s pressure on the Japanese government hard for military and financial contributions for the “war on terror.”
Some will say the reason the Japanese people have not had to go to war is because the United States has taken on the role of defending Japan from attack. Yet, most Japanese would ask pointedly: “Attack from whom? From those the United States threatens?” They say, “Let us live in peace and our example will hopefully make the entire world more peaceful.”
I wonder if it will take a series of disastrous events such as what the Japanese people endured when they were led by civilian and military leaders into successive invasions and brutal occupations (known for rape and torture of local citizens) of other countries, before Americans will decide that aggressive wars of choice, invasions and occupations known for rape and torture of local citizens are not the answer to world problems.
Japanese are very protective of their right to a peaceful country.
Will American ever strive for a different world-- one of peace, not violence?

Peace!

Ann