NYCLAW Antiwar Digest OVERVIEW

Note to progressives for Obama: What happens after Election Day?
[A]ntiwar activists have exchanged their slogans for pro-Obama refrains, despite the fact that their candidate inflates the alleged threat of Iran, wants to put more troops in Afghanistan and won't pull out of Iraq anytime soon. . . .  Imagine if he had to earn our votes, instead of receiving our support without having to do a thing for it?
http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_3938.shtml

Obama, the first-rate Republican
Obama's run has been the negation of almost every decent progressive principle, with scarcely a bleat of protest from the progressives seeking to hold him to account.
http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/alexander-cockburn-obama-the-firstrate-republican-973691.html

Two parties, one imperial mission
Democrats and Republicans are of one mind in their resolve to step up undercover operations in Iran backed by the threat of a full-scale economic blockade or military action.
http://counterpunch.org/mayer10292008.html

The U.S. election, viewed from Baghdad
"There is one agenda, and whoever holds the [president's] chair will continue the other's job."
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-iraqelect2-2008nov02,0,7502362.story

Troops split on next commander-in-chief
"To tell you the truth, I don't care so much, I just want to leave."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/01/es-elections-obama-mccain-army



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U.S. kills 25 in Afghanistan
All those killed in late Friday's attack were civilians and belonged to one family.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-us-afghan-violence.html?ref=world

U.S. kills 27 in Pakistan
The new strikes raised the number of such attacks to at least 17 since August. . . . Residents frequently contend that civilians, sometimes women and children, are among the dead.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/01/world/asia/01drone.html?ref=world

In Afghanistan, the loudest sound is the clock ticking
"I don't think that even the little kids like us."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/28/arts/television/28fron.html?ref=television

Afghanistan is resistance magnet
'If you want to join the jihad, go to Afghanistan.'
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-taliban29-2008oct29,0,1646596.story

U.S. goal: domination
Like the Clinton administration before it, and an Obama administration after it, the Bush team sought a strategic placement in an energy-rich region where the U.S. is squaring off against such rivals as Russia, Iran and China.
http://socialistworker.org/2008/10/30/when-peace-talks-are-war-strategy



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U.S. raid on Syria emulates Israel
[T]he concept behind the raid appears to have borrowed from Israel, which last September bombed the alleged site of a nuclear reactor in northern Syria.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/27/syria-us-raid

Ordinary Syrians protest U.S. raid
"We want the Americans to stop their acts of terrorism in Syria, in Iraq and the rest of the world."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2008/10/20081030101832817729.html

Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq denounces SOFA
"[T]he occupiers will leave, therefore we consider the approval of this agreement and signature on it by any party will be considered as treason and illegal because this agreement is coercive and humiliating."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48327&hd=&size=1&l=e

Marines rely on police death squads in Ramadi
Never mind that he wears a hatchet on his belt, a powerful reminder of the legend of how the commander of the North Ramadi police district attained his post -- reportedly hacking to death members of Al Qaeda in Iraq in the streets.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnews/20081031/ts_usnews/iniraqusmarinesrelyonallieslikeahatchetwieldingcoloneltokeepthepeace

Military's burn pit at Balad poisons thousands
An open-air "burn pit" at the largest U.S. base in Iraq may have exposed tens of thousands of troops, contractors and Iraqis to cancer-causing dioxins, poisons such as arsenic and carbon monoxide, and hazardous medical waste. . . . Most large U.S. installations in Iraq, as well as Afghanistan, have burn pits.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2008/10/military_burnpit_102708w/



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Gaza hospitals lack medicine
A crisis-level shortage of drugs and spare parts for medical equipment and a two-month-old strike by health care workers have combined to add more misery to the lives of the 1.5 million inhabitants of the impoverished Gaza Strip.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKTRE49Q56F20081027

Palestinians denied visit to villages of ancestors
Government sources said allowing the visit risks encouraging hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees to claim a right to return to the villages from which they were expelled in 1948.
http://www.thenational.ae/article/20081027/FOREIGN/323045339/1002/rss

A Freedom Rider in Gaza City
Today, the Free Gaza Movement has a simple message for the rest of the world: What are you waiting for?
http://counterpunch.org/kysia10292008.html

The Executions at Kafr Qassem
"In the 1948 war, many people fled when faced with the Israeli army, expecting to return after the fighting. After Kafr Qassem, Palestinians learnt that Israel did not play by the rules of war. We learnt that sumud [steadfastness] was our only defence."
http://www.counterpunch.org/cook10302008.html

P.A. is at Israel's beck and call
Under the manifestly false rubric of "restoring law and order," hundreds of American-trained Palestinian troops have been rounding up Islamic political activists and suspected Hamas sympathizers in the Hebron region. . . . Last week, a well-informed Israeli journalist wrote in Ha'aretz that "we give them the lists, and they do the rest."
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m48331&hd=&size=1&l=e



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AFRICA

Nigeria: Trial gets underway in human rights case against Chevron
San Ramon, Calif.-based Chevron used company helicopters to fly "notoriously brutal" Nigerian troops to the oil platform, where they killed and injured unarmed protesters. Other protesters were arrested and tortured.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-chevron29-2008oct29,0,693282.story

Somalia: Millions suffer from U.S.-backed invasion
The violence has killed nearly 10,000 civilians and an unknown number of combatants since the start of last year. More than a million people have been driven from their homes.
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-us-somalia-blasts.html?partner=rssnyt&emc=rss



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LATIN AMERICA

Colombia: U.S. support sharply increases death squads' toll
"If we are receiving aid and vetting from a government in Washington that validates torture, then what kind of results can one expect?"
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/30/world/americas/30colombia.html?hp

Bolivia: Government suspends U.S.-backed "antidrug" espionage
"There were D.E.A. agents who worked to conduct political espionage and to fund criminal groups."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/02/world/americas/02bolivia.html?_r=1&ref=world&oref=slogin



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Inquiry targeted 2,000 foreign Muslims in 2004
[N]ew guidelines will allow federal investigators to make targets of Muslims, Middle Easterners and others without evidence of links to terrorist groups.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/31inquire.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Judge demands information on torture
[A]ll his confessions were made after "he was tortured again and again and again until he just parroted what his torturers wanted him to say."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/31/us/31gitmo.html?ref=world

Citizenship often determines who gets medical care
"We do not pay for chronic care for illegal immigrants."
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-dialysis29-2008oct29,0,2166155.story

U.S. prison-industrial complex
About "500,000 persons are locked up for drug offenses in any one day" in this country. . . . But the war has arguably had little discernible effect on either supply or demand.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/28/AR2008102801352.html



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ANTIWAR MOVEMENT

GI Resistance: A soldier's conscience
"I joined because I was poor, to put it simply. . . . When a woman and child are killed in Afghanistan, we pay them in rice and goats. A lot of humanitarian aid missions went like that."
http://www.bclocalnews.com/richmond_southdelta/southdeltaleader/lifestyles/33070554.html

GI Resistance: Iraq War resister details severe abuse as deportation date approaches
"I feel that the army will be particularly harsh on me because I have spoken out about my opinions and because I am publicly on record as being a war resister."
http://www.londontopic.ca/article.php?artid=11345

Antiwar Labor: Union locals embrace a call for a antiwar strike
One resolution was written for the national convention of the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME). . . . The second resolution was addressed to the annual convention of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC).
http://www.socialism.com/fsarticles/vol29no5/general_strike.html



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