DhafirTrial

Usurpation of Power

By Col. DAN SMITH counterpunch.org 11/20/06

Messages are circulating on the Internet that raise an alarm over a provision of the FY2007 Defense Department Authorization Act (PL 109-364) that expands presidential discretion to declare martial law and to federalize the National Guard in case of insurrection. (more…)

A must watch video. Running time 6 mins. ICH 11/19/06

Dr. Dahlia Wasfi, speaks of the reality of life in Iraq under U.S. occupation.

Wasfi graduated from Swarthmore College in 1993 with a B.A. in Biology, and from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in 1997. Her latest trip to Iraq was a 3-month stay during the spring of 2006 (more…)

I am currently working on a piece that I hope will illustrate why I don’t believe the government proved its case against Dr. Dhafir. I plan for it to be the first in a series of pieces where I take a specific charge from the Grand Jury Indictment of 60 counts and then illustrate with the text from my court notes why I don’t think the government proved their case.

In October 2005 I began addressing the charges in the indictment and always hoped to return to the project but there was never enough time. This original piece is available here: Case Not Proven

Ghosts of Dictatorships Past

By WES ENZINNA towardfreedom.com 11/16/06

“Nothing that has ever happened should be regarded as lost for history. To be sure, only a redeemed mankind receives the fullness of its past–which is to say, only for a redeemed mankind has its past become citable in all its moments” —Walter Benjamin, “Theses on the Philosophy of History.”

This November 17-19, for the seventeenth annual time, an estimated 20,000 marchers will convene on Fort Benning, Georgia, home to the infamous school for Latin American military soldiers, the School of the America’s (SOA). (more…)

[See the fundraising video where Dr. Dhafir talks about the effects of Depleted Uranium on the civilian population of Iraq.]

Pauline Paulinson countercurrnets.org 11/16/06

Depleted uranium (DU) is cheap toxic waste from nuclear power plants and bomb production. However, uranium is one of earth’s heaviest elements and DU easily smashes through tanks, buildings and bunkers spontaneously catching fire and burning people alive. The radioactivity lasts over 4,500,000,000 years and causes cancer, leukemia, brain damage, kidney failure (more…)

Norman Solomon commondreams.org 11/16/06

The American media establishment has launched a major offensive against the option of withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq.

In the latest media assault, right-wing outfits like Fox News and the Wall Street Journal editorial page are secondary. The heaviest firepower is now coming from the most valuable square inches of media real estate in the USA — the front page of the New York Times. (more…)

Weapons of Mass Destruction Protected

By Bill Quigley informationclearinghouse.info 11/17/06

Three men protesting the presence of weapons of mass destruction in North Dakota were sentenced to federal prison terms of over three years and ordered to pay $17,000 in restitution by a federal judge in Bismarck. (more…)

informationclearinghouse.info 11/17/06. 2 minute video.

“I have been nervous about this interview with you, because what I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies.’ ” Beck added: “I’m not accusing you of being an enemy, but that’s the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way.” Go to the video.