blog for change

Israeli peace activist Gershon Baskin

2012-02-10T22:06:00.000-05:00

"Israeli activist Gershon Baskin on release of Gilad Shalit, peace prospects," Radio Times, WHYY/NPR, February 10, 2012.

A few days after Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was abducted in 2005, Gershon Baskin got a phone call from a Palestinian professor and colleague asking for his help in negotiating the soldier's release. Gershon was put in touch with a spokesman for the Hamas government and for five years, as an intermediary between senior Hamas and Israeli officials, Baskin worked through back channels to broker a deal for Shalit's freedom in exchange for 1,000 Palestinian prisoners. Baskin is a member of Israeli's Green Movement Party, is the founder of the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information and has been active in increasing understanding and promoting peaceful dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians. He has been involved in peace process as an outside advisor to Israeli Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak and writes a column for the Jerusalem Post.

"Aim to promote human rights of the Palestinians."

2012-01-30T20:35:00.000-05:00

By Ali Abunimah, Philadelphia Inquirer, January 29, 2012.

I am coming to the University of Pennsylvania this week to incite violence against the State of Israel - pro-Israel groups and commentators have contended - and, along with hundreds of students and other speakers who will attend the 2012 National Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions Conference, to engage in an "act of warfare."

Nothing could be further from the truth.

In fact, we are coming together to push forward an inclusive movement that supports nonviolent action to promote the human rights of the Palestinian people, because only full respect for these rights can lead to peace. Today, millions of Palestinians live without basic rights under Israeli rule. This intolerable situation is at the root of problems that affect the whole world. . . . [continued]

"Muslim author carries a universal message"

2011-12-27T21:30:00.006-05:00

Intelligencer editorial, December 27, 2011:

Muslim author carries a universal message

Lisa Abdelsalam was born in Lansdale, graduated from North Penn High School and became an author. She was scheduled to talk about her writing and publishing experiences to several classes at A.M. Kulp Elementary School in Hatfield earlier this month. She’s made such visits to other schools in the North Penn School District.

Her latest visit was canceled, however, when a few parents objected to her program and threatened to bring in an outside group to protest.

The principal at the school, Erik Huebner, told Abdelsalam she was welcome just the same. But in order to spare the young students from what might have been an unpleasant scene, the two of them decided it would be better if she didn’t come.

And perhaps prejudice claimed yet another victim.

Abdelsalam, you see, is a Muslim, having converted to Islam when she married her husband, who is from Egypt. Even though she’s a longtime volunteer at the school, served as president of the Home and School Association and is now a member of the district’s diversity committee — “I was serving pizza with these people last year,” she said — some of those same people “did not want a Muslim or a Muslim book read in their classrooms.” That’s what Abdelsalam said she was told.

Christine Liberaski, a spokeswoman for the North Penn School District, hopes the program can be rescheduled in the spring but offered no explanation as to why some parents objected.
We have a couple of ideas. Maybe they didn’t want someone talking to their kids whose message might contain “religious” overtones. Separation of church and state, you know.

In this case, we’d guess it was something else: not religion per se, but a particular religious belief. Abdelsalam’s talk is based on her son Yoseph’s experiences at York Avenue Elementary School in the 1990s. Her book, “A Song for Me, A Muslim Holiday Story,” tells of a Muslim boy’s efforts to fit into the holiday spirit at Christmastime. The book presentation is extremely timely now, as Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus.

We know some people want nothing to do with “Muslim” or anything connected to Islam, and especially don’t want their children hearing about a Muslim boy’s struggles at Christmas. The fact that Abdelsalam’s presentation has drawn praise in the past and isn’t a lecture on religion but about acceptance apparently is lost on those who sought — successfully — to keep this particular author away.

Abdelsalam’s book and the story behind the story offer a nonthreatening view of something that too many of us see as only threatening.

If all of us understood a little more about the things we fear, maybe we wouldn’t fear them so much.

Glenn Greenwald's new book released

2011-10-26T00:54:00.003-04:00

Buy Glenn Greenwald's new book: With Liberty and Justice for Some: How the Law Is Used to Destroy Equality and Protect the Powerful. Here's what he says about it in Salon tonight:

The book focuses on what I began realizing several years ago is the crucial theme tying together most of the topics I write about: America’s two-tiered justice system – specifically, the way political and financial elites are now vested with virtually absolute immunity from the rule of law even when they are caught committing egregious crimes, while ordinary Americans are subjected to the world’s largest and one of its harshest and most merciless penal states even for trivial offenses. As a result, law has been completely perverted from what it was intended to be – the guarantor of an equal playing field which would legitimize outcome inequalities – into its precise antithesis: a weapon used by the most powerful to protect their ill-gotten gains, strengthen their unearned prerogatives, and ensure ever-expanding opportunity inequality. . . .

Mosque invites public

2011-10-14T11:58:00.008-04:00

"Lower Makefield: Mosque invites public to discussion of Islamic holy days"
By Joan Hellyer, Bucks County Courier Times, October 14, 2011

Members of the Zubaida Foundation are inviting people of all backgrounds to their mosque in Lower Makefield on Sunday afternoon to examine and discuss what is common between religious faiths, an organizer said.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam have the same roots in Abraham, said Brother Mohammed Husain, a foundation member and organizer of the free event, which includes a discussion and lunch.

The ties to Abraham will serve as a focal point, he said.

“If you want people to understand each other, you have to explore what is common between them,” Husain said. “We have to sit down at the same table to get to know each other and then maybe some of the stereotypes will go away. We will be in a little better condition and maybe we will be able to trust each other.”

To help visitors better understand their faith, mosque speakers will discuss the Hajj, a Pilgrimage in Islam, and Eid Al Adha, the Festival of Sacrifice that marks the end of the pilgrimage.

Hajj, the religious high point for a Muslim, means “to set out for a place,” according to Islamicity.com. Millions of Muslims make the pilgrimage each year to Mecca, Saudi Arabia, to praise and pray to Allah (God) as the Prophet Muhammad did during his last visit to the city.

Muslims who are “physically and financially able” are required to make the pilgrimage at least once in their lifetime. The Hajj is one of the five “pillars” of Islam.
The pillars, which also include faith or belief in Allah (God), establishment of the five daily prayers, concern for and almsgiving to the needy and self-purification through fasting during Ramadan, are meant to help Muslims form the foundation of their faith.

The next Hajj will be in early November. It is based each year on the lunar calendar.
Eid al Adha, at the end of Hajj, is called the Festival of Sacrifice and serves as a commemoration of Abraham’s trials.

As part of the holiday, Muslims slaughter a sheep, camel or goat. Most of the meat is given away to friends and the poor to symbolize a Muslim’s willingness to give up things of benefit in order to follow Allah, religion experts said.

One-fifth of the world’s population practices the Islamic faith, according to religion experts.

The Lower Makefield mosque, which has been housed off Big Oak Road since 2006, has between 100 and 120 members, Husain said.

Mosque members are looking forward to discussing their faith with those of different backgrounds Sunday, the organizer said.

“This is an opportunity to get to know who we are and what we believe in,” Husain said.

"The 99" superheroes creator on Radio Times

2011-09-28T22:08:00.004-04:00

"The 99: Naif Al-Mutawa's comic book heroes for the Muslim world," Radio Times, September 28, 2011.

Letter to the Editor of the Intelligencer, 9/21/11

2011-09-20T13:07:00.003-04:00

To the Editor:

Nothing has brought me closer to canceling our subscription to the Intelligencer than reading the venomous, error-filled hate speech you chose to publish entitled "No guilty feelings for treatment of Muslims." What were you thinking? You owe the Muslim community and your readers an apology.

Barbara Glassman

Palestine and the Arab Spring

2011-07-19T21:16:00.006-04:00

Philly Against War forum with Vijay Prashad
Saturday, July 23, 2:00-4:00 p.m.
Tabernacle Church, 3700 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19104

FLYER (location subject to change)

Dr. Prashad will speak about Palestine and how it relates to the revolutions in North Africa and across the Arab world.
Dr. Vijay Prashad, Professor of International Studies at Trinity College, Hartford, CT; author most recently of The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World; regular featured guest on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

Withheld from Congress' 9/11 Probe

2011-07-03T16:53:00.005-04:00

Truthout Exclusive: "New Documents Claim Intelligence on Bin Laden, al-Qaeda Targets Withheld from Congress' 9/11 Probe" by Jeffrey Kaye and Jason Leopold, 13 June 2011.

U.S. Boat to Gaza

2011-07-02T21:09:00.001-04:00

8th Annual Philadelphia Interfaith Walk for Peace and Reconciliation, May 22, 2011, 2:00 p.m.

2011-05-18T15:29:00.001-04:00

Details at http://www.interfaithpeacewalk.org/.

Letter to the Editor re torture debate

2011-05-16T12:57:00.002-04:00

That there is a torture debate in this country to be revived by bin Laden's killing is itself a measure of how far we have strayed from the wisdom and values of our founders. But the Cheneys must be answered.

Is it any wonder that the Pakistanis would hesitate to subject bin Laden's widows to a nation that has abused, tortured and indefinitely detained even those it knew to be innocent of any connection to terror? Should we be surprised that other countries would refrain from sharing intelligence with us? Should we expect people with knowledge of possible plots to come forward and tell us what they know when there is the possibility of their ending up at Guantanamo? How much sooner would we have learned the real name of bin Laden's courier if we were not known for our cruelty to detainees?

June is Torture Awareness Month. It's never too early to raise these issues.

Barbara Glassman

Grieving Palestinians & Israelis work for peace

2011-04-06T17:45:00.002-04:00

On Radio Times, WHYY/NPR, April 6, 2011:

The Parents Circle – Families Forum is an organization of bereaved families on both sides of the Israeli-Palestinian struggle who are becoming a powerful force for peace there. Ali Abu Awwad is a Palestinian nonviolence activist who knows about loss: shot in the leg by an Israeli settler, he returned from a lengthy treatment to find that his brother Yusef had been killed by an Israeli soldier. So too has the life of Yuval Rahamim been touched by tragedy: His father was killed fighting for Israel in 1967’s Six Day War, and his desire for revenge led him up the ranks of the Israel Defense Forces, until his subsequent life and family convinced him that the tragedies, killings, and hate on both sides must stop and that he needed to play an active role in it. Together they are part of a group of 500 Israeli and Palestinian families who have lost close family members and who work together for reconciliation and a just resolution to the conflict. They spoke at Villanova yesterday on a Catholic Relief Services-sponsored tour, and they're our guests today in our studio.

Letter to the Editor re PFC Bradley Manning

2011-03-10T01:41:00.008-05:00

While claiming we were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq in the cause of "freedom," President Bush and now Obama have used the War on Terror to drastically curtail our fundamental rights as American citizens. The slippery slope of torture for terrorists has brought us to the point where an American serviceman can be humiliated by our government with forced nudity and held in solitary confinement for months on end and where's the outrage? Imagine the outcry if PFC Bradley Manning were subjected to this abuse as a prisoner in a foreign country. Yet we've been conditioned to meekly accept such treatment of our own in the name of "security." As Ben Franklin warned, those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither.

Barbara Glassman

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey...

2011-03-04T18:53:00.000-05:00

On Radio Times, WHYY/NPR, March 3, 2011:

Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish lost three of his daughters and his niece to a shell launched at his apartment in Gaza by Israeli Defense Forces in January 2009, while another daughter was critically injured. Moments later, Israeli TV viewers heard the desperate wails of Dr. Abuelaish live, as he called his TV correspondent friend for help finding an ambulance. Dr. Abuelaish had been providing frequent reports about the Gaza war for Israeli TV, as he was one of the few Hebrew speakers in Gaza. His Hebrew enabled him to work as an obstetrician and gynecologist specializing in infertility in Israeli hospitals, crossing checkpoints every day to go to work. And Dr. Abuelaish, despite his tragic loss, continues to cross barriers, overcoming grief to become an inspiring advocate for peace for people of many faiths. He created Daughters for Life in his daughters’ memory, a foundation dedicated to providing education and health services to women and girls throughout the Middle East. His new book is I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity.

Anti-torture protest at Rumsfeld's book tour launch

2011-02-10T10:13:00.013-05:00

There were actually seven of us in total demonstrating at the Constitution Center last night. Thanks to Peter Crimmins of WHYY for the photo and story, as well as Jan Ransom of the Philadelphia Daily News for her coverage. Thanks most of all to Barbara Quintiliano of the National Religious Campaign Against Torture for organizing the protest. Will Bunch has a fine account of the event inside.

Reading Naomi Klein's article in the Nation "Goldstone's Legacy for Israel" on the train into Philadelphia, I was struck by this paragraph:

Goldstone’s contribution to building South Africa’s first multiracial democracy eventually took him to the international arena, where he sought justice for war crimes, ethnic cleansing and genocide as chief prosecutor of the UN’s International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. It was here that Goldstone began to dedicate his life to the post-Holocaust pledge of “never again”—never again to anyone. “If future perpetrators of genocide, crimes against humanity, and serious war crimes are brought to justice and appropriately punished,” he wrote in a 2001 essay, “then the millions of innocent victims who perished in the Holocaust will not have died in vain. Their memory will remain alive and they will be remembered when future war criminals are brought to justice. And, it is certainly not too much to hope that efficient justice will also serve to deter war crimes in the future and so protect the untold numbers of potential victims.” The judge was always clear that this quest for justice was deeply informed by his Jewishness. “Because of our history, I find it difficult to understand how any Jew wouldn’t instinctively be against any form of discrimination,” he told the Jerusalem Report in 2000.

I'm not Jewish, just married into a Jewish family. I'm a first-generation German-American, and the legacy of my father's homeland informs me too.

A Child's View from Gaza

2011-01-07T18:47:00.000-05:00

Local resident Susan Johnson collected the drawings for this video and traveling exhibit:

Video of Al Krass from son Michael

2010-11-07T02:24:00.004-05:00

Al Krass from Michael Krass on Vimeo.

From the BuxMont Coalition for Peace Action:

Alfred C. Krass, born in Brooklyn, NY, lived in Levittown, died at St. Mary Medical Center in Langhorne on October 26, 2010, from complications from pneumonia. He was 74.

Alfred was born into a Jewish family and converted to Christianity while at Amherst College. He attended Yale Divinity School, and was ordained a minister of the United Church of Christ in 1961. He spent his life in service to God and the people with and among whom he lived. A man of prayer, he had a strong passion for justice and peace, a great compassion for others, and an ever-growing understanding of all people as children of God. As he has said of himself, he began with evangelism and ended with peacemaking.

He served as a missionary in Ghana, working in church planting, community development, and literacy. Then in New York City he was the evangelism consultant for the United Church Board for World Ministries. He studied at the New School for Social Research and received an MA in sociology. In Philadelphia, he participated in Jubilee Fellowship, an ecumenical house church, was an editor of The Other Side magazine, and did community organizing with the Southwest Germantown Association and Germantown Residents Acting to Conserve Energy. He was called as full time pastor to United Christian Church in 1987 where he served until his retirement in 1999. He was the founder and first executive director of the Interfaith Housing Development Corporation. He also founded the Lower Buck Center for Church and Community, and was active in peace projects with the Metropolitan Christian Council and The Pennsylvania Southeast Conference of the UCC.

Since his retirement in 1999, he preached in various churches, worked part time for the Coalition for Peace Action in Bucks and Montgomery County, participated in the Interfaith Council for Middle East Peace, and other groups working for interfaith understanding. He also taught classes on poetry, peacemaking, and themes in American history at the Osher Lifelong Learning Center at Temple University.

Alfred’s other interests were his family, friends, sketching and watercolor, gardening, travel, cycling, swimming and cooking. He was an avid reader, had a good sense of humor, and enjoyed music, especially classical, jazz, and hymns. He was a communicator and an organizer, who knew how to move people, and to make friends, many of whom saw him as a family member. His broad, loving outlook on life meant that many sought his advice and companionship.

Alfred is survived by his wife of 48 years, Susan, his sons Thomas and Michael and his partner Anna Luten and their son Bruno. He is also survived by his older brother William Krasilovsky, and many nieces and nephews whom he loved.

Noam Chomsky: Crimes Are Crimes

2010-10-01T10:38:00.004-04:00

Noam Chomsky Signs World Can't Wait's Crimes Are Crimes Statement No Matter Who Does Them. Find out more at http://www.worldcantwait.net/

Targeted Killing

2010-08-31T00:10:00.000-04:00

Some good movies

2010-08-07T20:53:00.007-04:00

ACLU Torture Report

2010-07-15T11:20:00.001-04:00

Read the ACLU's Torture Report, with contributions by Salon's Glenn Greenwald, featured below (warning: disturbing images).

Napolitano: Bush and Cheney should be indicted

2010-07-13T01:29:00.003-04:00

Lies the Government Told You: Myth, Power, and Deception in American History by Andrew P. Napolitano. See also The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by Vincent Bugliosi.

"Lawrence Wilkerson, from Bush administration insider to fierce critic"

2010-05-24T22:30:00.000-04:00

Radio Times, NPR/WHYY, May 24, 2010: "Lawrence B. Wilkerson is a retired United States Army Colonel and former chief of staff to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, and now teaches at the College of William and Mary and George Washington University. Since his retirement from public service in 2005, Wilkerson has been outspoken about the planning and execution of the Iraq War and the policies and practices at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He recently made waves when he wrote that the Bush administration knew it was imprisoning innocent men at Guantanamo, and that some of those men are still there in U.S. custody."

Dr. James Hansen: 'Storms of My Grandchildren'

2010-05-20T11:24:00.000-04:00

Radio Times, WHYY/NPR, May 20, 2010:

Dr. James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and one of the leading voices on global warming, joins Marty to discuss his research, advocacy and his new book, Storms of My Grandchildren. It tells the story of why Hansen boycotted the Copenhagen climate talks and has turned to a new degree of advocacy in the race to alleviate the effects of global climate change. Dr. Hansen will also discuss the new Kerry-Lieberman climate bill and what he thinks it will take for the United States and the world to align our carbon output with the Earth’s ability to absorb it without devastating disruptions.

"Blueprint for Accountability," June 7, NYU

2010-05-14T21:43:00.002-04:00

Culture Project presents the second installment of its groundbreaking "Blueprint for Accountability" series at NYU Skirball Center to engage the public in constructing a "blueprint" for a more just and democratic future.

"The Response" movie

2010-05-05T21:40:00.002-04:00

Starring Aasif Mandvi, Kate Mulgrew, and Peter Riegert; directed by Adam Rodgers; written and produced by Sig Libowitz.

"The response matters. Our response defines us."
--Colonel Jefferson

The Response is a courtroom drama based on the actual transcripts of the Guantanamo Bay military tribunals [officially known as the Combatant Status Review Tribunals, or CSRTs]. . . .

The Response was researched and fully vetted in conjunction with the University of Maryland School of Law.

A copy of the DVD was donated to the Doylestown public library by Amnesty International. Check it out.

Premiering in Philadelphia...

2010-04-28T20:05:00.004-04:00

When We Go upon the Sea by Lee Blessing
April 9 - May 9, 2010

Code Pink rips AIPAC

2010-03-23T16:59:00.001-04:00

"Rahm Emanuel: Obama's Chief of Sabotage"

2010-03-03T01:35:00.002-05:00

By Dan Froomkin, Huffingtonpost, March 2, 2010: ". . . To Emanuel, victory is the only thing, and rather than recognize the error of his ways and recalibrate, he is publicly declaring that the now widely-recognized enfeeblement of his boss's presidency is not his failure, but his vindication. Hail Emanuel triumphant."

How Europe does it better

2010-03-02T10:17:00.002-05:00

Europe's Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age by Steven Hill, interviewed on Radio Times, March 2, 2010.

"Justice’s Vendetta against a Whistleblower: Six Questions for Jesselyn Radack"

2010-02-25T20:46:00.002-05:00

By Scott Horton, Harper's, February 23, 2010.

"Torture under Obama"

2010-02-24T00:45:00.001-05:00

By Nat Hentoff, Jamestown Sun, February 17, 2010.

"Does the Patriot Act Violate Free Speech?"

2010-02-23T17:18:00.002-05:00

Nina Totenberg, NPR/WHYY, February 23, 2010.

"Andrew Kreig on Bernie Kerik and Don Siegelman: What They Have in Common and Why We Should Care"

2010-02-23T02:06:00.002-05:00

By Joan Brunwasser, opednews.com, February 22, 2010. This is a must-read. See also Andrew Kreig's Justice Integrity Project.

Glenn Greenwald re Obama health care plan

2010-02-22T21:40:00.003-05:00

Glenn Greenwald, New York Times "Room for Debate," February 22, 2010:

President Obama, in introducing his own health care proposal, exposed a transparent, year-long sham. White House loyalists insisted for months that the president genuinely supported a public option, but they told progressives that there could be no public option in the final bill even though more than 50 Democratic Senators supported it and even though the public option consistently polled as being very popular with Americans.

Why not? Because, they argued, the public option lacked the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster, and there was simply nothing the White House could do to change that.

But the plan President Obama unveiled does not include a public option. If he were truly in favor of it, why would he exclude it from his own plan? . . .

"Defending Moazzam Begg and Amnesty International"

2010-02-10T17:39:00.001-05:00

By Andy Worthington, The Public Record, February 10, 2010.

Jane Mayer re "The Trial"

2010-02-09T18:34:00.004-05:00

Jane Mayer, author of the February 15 New Yorker article "The Trial: Eric Holder and the Battle over Khalid Sheikh Mohammed," is interviewed by Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air, February 9, 2010.

Amnesty International and Cageprisoners

2010-02-09T18:27:00.001-05:00

Sunday Times, February 7, 2010: "Amnesty International is ‘damaged’ by Taliban link: An official at the human rights charity deplores its work with a ‘jihadist.’"

Amnesty's response.

Cageprisoners' response.

BBC World Service Newshour discussion, February 9, 2010.

"The Terror-Industrial Complex"

2010-02-09T13:31:00.002-05:00

By Chris Hedges, truthdig.com, February 8, 2010.

"Terrorism Derangement Syndrome"

2010-02-04T23:52:00.001-05:00

By Dahlia Lithwick, Slate, February 3, 2010.

"On the claimed 'war exception' to the Constitution"

2010-02-04T23:45:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, February 4, 2010.

Re Aafia Siddiqui

2010-01-31T21:44:00.003-05:00

"The intelligence factory: How America makes its enemies disappear," by Petra Bartosiewicz, Harper's, November 2009.

"The Guantánamo 'Suicides': A Camp Delta sergeant blows the whistle"

2010-01-20T03:05:00.001-05:00

By Scott Horton, Harper's, January 18, 2010.
Scott Horton discussed this as a guest on NPR/Here&Now on January 28, 2010.

"Murders at Guantanamo: Exposing the Truth about the 2006 'Suicides'"

2010-01-18T20:41:00.000-05:00

By Andy Worthington, The Public Record, January 18, 2010.

"Protest aims to shut down Army Center"

2010-01-17T10:37:00.001-05:00

By Joan Hellyer, Bucks County Courier Times, January 17, 2010.

"Tortured Law"

2010-01-15T12:57:00.001-05:00

"Yes, it was torture, and illegal"

2010-01-04T02:50:00.001-05:00

New York Times editorial, January 3, 2010.

"One Day We'll All Be Terrorists"

2009-12-29T01:46:00.002-05:00

By Chris Hedges, opednews.com, December 28, 2009.

"White House as helpless victim on healthcare"

2009-12-17T01:41:00.002-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, December 16, 2009.

Gathering for Gaza in Doylestown, Dec. 27, 2009

2009-12-15T20:33:00.025-05:00

Isaac Luria of JStreet.org, a mainstream pro-Israel lobby, writes:

Gaza is in crisis, and without addressing the urgent humanitarian needs there, the prospects for long-term peace and real security for Israel will grow dimmer. We must act.

A year following Israel's military action in Gaza, rockets and mortars continue to land in southern Israel and residents still do not yet have true security. Israel's international standing continues to sink as a result of fallout from the war. Hamas's grip on the Strip remains strong.

A blockade on Gaza meant to weaken Hamas continues to deepen civilian suffering and anger there by preventing basic necessities and building materials from reaching the population. . . .

Tell Your Rep: Improve the Desperate Situation in Gaza

We must address the urgent humanitarian situation in Gaza to enhance the prospects for real peace and security in the region. . . .

[Suggested message:]

Subject: Please sign the McDermott-Ellison and Moran-Inglis Gaza letters

Your Letter: I believe it is in the interests of the United States, Israel and the Palestinian people for the U.S. to take action to improve the lives of the people of Gaza.

Please sign two letters – first, the McDermott-Ellison letter to President Obama urging him to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza and, second, the Moran-Inglis letter to Secretary of State Clinton, urging her to press the Israeli government to end the ban on student travel from Gaza to the West Bank.

Bucks County peace activist/Vietnam vet Bill Perry traveled to Egypt to join the Gaza Freedom March and had this to say about it. Here are Bill's photos from Egypt.
Locally, we . . .

Gathered for Gaza

December 27, 2009, 3-4 p.m.
Bucks County Courthouse
55 E. Court Street
Doylestown, PA 18901
Support freedom and justice for Gaza
Commemorate the anniversary of the invasion and bombardment
inflicted on Gaza from December 27, 2008, to January 17, 2009
Support the Gaza Freedom March
Signs: Be positive, e.g., Freedom for Gaza!
Palestinian flags welcome!
Parking: Lot/garage directly across No. Main St. from Courthouse
Information: seeing.for.myself@gmail.com or 215-340-9747

The gathering's organizer, longtime Doylestown resident Susan Johnson, visited Gaza in May 2009. Her blog, "Palestine: Seeing for Myself," chronicles her trip. She has also given public presentations, as reported in the Intelligencer.

"Appellate Court Overturns Paul Minor Conviction"

2009-12-13T21:59:00.002-05:00

By Emily Levy, BradBlog.com, December 11, 2009: "Powerful Democratic donor, attorney from Mississippi, others, said to have been targeted for political prosecution by the Bush Administration's Dept. of Justice. . . ."

"The strange consensus on Obama's Nobel address"

2009-12-12T21:10:00.005-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, December 11, 2009:

. . . Yesterday's speech and the odd, extremely bipartisan reaction to it underscored one of the real dangers of the Obama presidency: taking what had been ideas previously discredited as Republican or right-wing dogma and transforming them into bipartisan consensus. It's not just Republicans but Democrats that are now vested in -- and eager to justify -- the virtues of war, claims of Grave Danger posed by Islamic radicals and the need to use massive military force to combat them, indefinite detention, military commissions, extreme secrecy, full-scale immunity for government lawbreaking, and so many other doctrines once purportedly despised by Democrats but now defended by them because their leader has embraced them.

That's exactly the process that led former Bush DOJ official Jack Goldsmith to giddily explain that Obama has actually done more to legitimize Bush/Cheney "counter-terrorism" policies than Bush and Cheney themselves -- because he made them bipartisan -- and Yale Law Professor Jack Balkin made the same point to the New York Times' Charlie Savage back in July. . . ."

"Turley: Obama bags Peace Prize while his lawyers are ‘gutting’ Nuremberg"

2009-12-10T21:02:00.002-05:00

By David Edwards and Muriel Kane, RawStory.com, December 10, 2009:

The Obama administration has asked the Department of Justice to dismiss a lawsuit brought by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla against torture memo author John Yoo, asserting that Yoo cannot be sued for legal opinions he offered in the course of advising then-President Bush on national security matters.

Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley finds this decision inexplicable. "The president literally has gotten onto a plane this evening to go to Norway," he told MSNBC's Keith Olbermann on Wednesday, "to accept the Nobel Prize, while his Justice Department is effectively gutting a major part of Nuremberg."

"The Obama administration is arguing not only that they shouldn't be prosecuted," Tuirley emphasized, "but it's now saying that you shouldn't even be able to sue them civilly. ... It's an international disgrace. . . ."

"My friend the president"

2009-12-09T00:04:00.002-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, December 8, 2009: ". . . the only question that matters: are the criticisms that have been voiced about Obama valid? Has he appointed financial officials who have largely served the agenda of the Wall Street and industry interests that funded his campaign? Has he embraced many of the Bush/Cheney executive power and secrecy abuses which Democrats once railed against -- from state secrets to indefinite detention to renditions and military commissions? Has he actively sought to protect from accountability and disclosure a whole slew of Bush crimes? Did he secretly a negotiate a deal with the pharmaceutical industry after promising repeatedly that all negotiations over health care would take place out in the open, even on C-SPAN? Are the criticisms of his escalation of the war in Afghanistan valid, and are his arguments in its favor redolent of the ones George Bush made to "surge" in Iraq or Lyndon Johnson made to escalate in Vietnam? Is Bob Herbert right when he condemned Obama's detention policies as un-American and tyrannical, and warned: 'Policies that were wrong under George W. Bush are no less wrong because Barack Obama is in the White House'?"

"DOJ to the rescue...of John Yoo"

2009-12-08T21:38:00.002-05:00

By Scott Horton, Harper's, December 4, 2009.

"Jews against Zionism"

2009-12-08T01:44:00.001-05:00

By Stephen Lendman, OpEdNews.com, December 7, 2009.

"A new report questions 'suicides' at Guantanamo"

2009-12-08T00:59:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, December 7, 2009.

"America's regression" re torture

2009-12-03T21:33:00.002-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, December 3, 2009.

"The Predator War"

2009-12-03T18:26:00.002-05:00

"What are the risks of the C.I.A.’s covert drone program?" Jane Mayer, New Yorker, October 26, 2009.

"No human rights fiction?"

2009-12-03T18:18:00.001-05:00

By Adam Serwer, "Tapped," American Prospect, December 2, 2009: "I understand what Glenn Greenwald is arguing when he notes the absence of a human rights pitch in yesterday's Afghanistan pitch, but Obama certainly didn't mind fudging when it came to human rights at home. . . ."

"The war we can't win"

2009-12-02T20:11:00.002-05:00

"Afghanistan and the limits of American power," Andrew Bacevich, Commonweal, August 14, 2009.

"'Law and Order' tackles accountability for torture"

2009-12-02T19:33:00.004-05:00

September 25, 2009, episode. "Will we have it in real life?"asks Anthony D. Romero, ACLU, HuffingtonPost.com, same day.

"Are Siegelman's days of freedom numbered?"

2009-12-01T21:45:00.002-05:00

By Bob Gambacurta, Montgomery [AL] Independent, November 30, 2009.

"Peace group protests Army center at mall"

2009-11-30T10:28:00.005-05:00

By Manasee Wagh, Bucks County Courier Times, November 29, 2009. "A public boycott of shopping at Franklin Mills mall could be the trigger for closing the Army Experience Center, said protesters. . . ."

Tom Friedman in his own words

2009-11-30T00:04:00.001-05:00

"The crazy, irrational beliefs of Muslims," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 29, 2009.

"The Torture Moment"

2009-11-28T17:29:00.001-05:00

By Arianna Huffington, HuffingtonPost.com, April 24, 2009.

"Obama to remove lobbyists from advisory boards"

2009-11-28T02:31:00.001-05:00

By Brad Friedman, BradBlog.com, November 27, 2009.

"Is Obama's civil liberties record understandable?"

2009-11-28T02:26:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 27, 2009.

"Call It Ecocide: Babies with No Heads, 2 Heads or Monstrous Deformities"

2009-11-27T00:59:00.004-05:00

By Robert C. Koehler, SmirkingChimp.com, November 26, 2009.

In the cradle of civilization, young women have become terrified about having children.

This is the news I take with me into Thanksgiving and the season of gratitude and family togetherness: that doctors in Fallujah, the Iraqi city we devastated in two military assaults in 2004, have begun documenting a startling rise in birth defects -- about 15 times the pre-invasion occurrence of early-life cancers and brain and nervous-system abnormalities, according to the U.K.'s Guardian. . . .

"Phil Carter's resignation from key detainee policy post"

2009-11-25T23:05:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 25, 2009.

"Greg Craig and Obama's worsening civil liberties record"

2009-11-24T22:34:00.002-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 24, 2009.

Will Bunch: "Yoo still here?"

2009-11-23T02:41:00.001-05:00

Attytood, Philadelphia Daily News, 11/22/2009.

"Rule-of-law extremism engulfs primitive Eastern Europe"

2009-11-22T00:27:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 21, 2009.

"The administration guts its own argument for 9/11 trials"

2009-11-19T21:54:00.001-05:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 19, 2009.

"Books That Will Help You Understand Afghanistan"

2009-11-19T21:03:00.001-05:00

"Washington Post special military correspondent Tom Ricks shares his recommendations," Talk of the Nation, NPR, November 19, 2009.

"Shining Light on Roots of Terrorism"

2009-11-16T19:34:00.001-05:00

By Ray McGovern, OpEdNews.com, November 16, 2009.

"Gates Bars Torture Photos' Release"

2009-11-14T20:32:00.001-05:00

By Nick Baumann, Mother Jones, November 13, 2009.

"The Right's textbook 'surrender to terrorists'"

2009-11-14T19:44:00.001-05:00

"'We're too scared to have real trials in our country' is a level of cowardice unmatched in the world," by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 14, 2009.

"The new WH counsel and 'Scooter Libby justice'"

2009-11-14T19:29:00.001-05:00

"Robert Bauer's passionate call for a pardon of his fellow Washington lawyer sheds light on his thinking," by Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 14, 2009.

A perspective on Israel

2009-11-14T18:13:00.001-05:00

"Israel's 'Pathology,'" by Ira Chernus, truthout.org, November 14, 2009.

"Authoritative Rejection of Afghanistan War"

2009-11-14T13:01:00.001-05:00

By David Swanson, OpEdNews.com, November 13, 2009.

"Detainees to get the 'state-always-wins' system of 'justice'"

2009-11-13T21:17:00.001-05:00

"Obama's announcement to try 9/11 defendants would be commendable if it applied to all, rather than some, detainees," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 13, 2009.

Seymour Hersh on Pakistan, Afghanistan

2009-11-12T20:52:00.002-05:00

"How Safe Is It? Seymour Hersh On Pakistan's Arsenal," NPR, November 12, 2009.

New documentary "Tortured Law"

2009-11-12T20:44:00.002-05:00

From the Alliance for Justice: "Tortured Law, a new 10-minute documentary by Alliance for Justice, examines the role lawyers played in authorizing torture, and calls upon Attorney General Holder to conduct a full investigation of those who ordered, designed, and justified torture."

"Denying responsibility for the wars one cheers on"

2009-11-11T21:51:00.001-05:00

"The NYT columnist who has supported four wars on Muslims in six years decries the Islamic disregard for human life," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 10, 2009.

"Salon Radio: Rep. Jerry Nadler on State Secrets Act"

2009-11-11T20:51:00.001-05:00

"The key House subcommittee chairman calls state secrets privilege 'the greatest threat to liberty in this country.'" Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 10, 2009.

"Mike Connell's Family Copes with His Mysterious Death, Tipsters, Legal Options"

2009-11-11T13:58:00.004-05:00

Brad Blog Exclusive, Guest Blogged by Rebecca M. Abrahams, BradBlog.com, November 9, 2009.

"Can attacks on a military base constitute 'terrorism'?"

2009-11-09T23:30:00.001-05:00

"If attacks on soldiers now qualify, how is it possible to exclude many American actions?" Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 9, 2009.

"Is using aid to Israel as leverage becoming a mainstream idea?"

2009-11-08T11:09:00.001-05:00

"Two establishment columnists raise what has long been a taboo topic when it comes to Israel," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 8, 2009.

"Criminal convictions of 22 CIA agents in Italy"

2009-11-05T21:26:00.001-05:00

"The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 5, 2009.

"A court decision that reflects what type of country the U.S. is"

2009-11-05T01:25:00.002-05:00

"Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 3, 2009.

"Ongoing efforts to protect and coddle Israel"

2009-11-05T00:42:00.002-05:00

"An Israeli columnist issues a scathing indictment of Israel and calls on the U.S. to apply pressure," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 2, 2009.

"Obama's latest use of 'secrecy' to shield presidential lawbreaking"

2009-11-01T19:29:00.001-05:00

"What was once depicted as a grave act of lawlessness -- Bush's NSA program -- is now deemed a vital state secret," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, November 1, 2009.

"Significant Changes to Bush-Era Military Commissions Signed Into Law"

2009-10-30T22:24:00.001-04:00

By Yana Kunichoff, truthout.org, October 29, 2009.

"NYT condemns what it calls 'Obama's cover-up'"

2009-10-27T01:40:00.001-04:00

"A leading pro-Obama outlet says he 'has clung to Bush's expansive claims of national security and executive power,'" Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, October 26, 2009.

"Benjamin Netanyahu's definition of 'war crimes'"

2009-10-24T23:35:00.001-04:00

"The Prime Minister says Hamas is guilty for denying Red Cross access to prisoners: exactly what the U.S. did," Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, October 24, 2009.

"Court Rules Government Can Continue to Suppress Detainee Statements Describing Torture and Abuse"

2009-10-24T02:56:00.001-04:00

"Transcripts of Combatant Status Review Trials Essential to Accountability for Torture, Says ACLU," CommonDreams.org, October 16, 2009.

"David Rohde's insights into what motivates the Taliban"

2009-10-19T06:17:00.001-04:00

By Glenn Greenwald, Salon.com, October 18, 2009.

Response to Froma Harrop re Holder

2009-10-11T12:29:00.004-04:00

Dear Ms. Harrop:

I read your column "Holder should do some remembering" with great sadness. Since you wrote, "Suspected terrorists are no longer sent to overseas prisons," the Obama administration has announced its intention to continue rendition of terrorists to foreign countries, where we all know what will likely happen. And while you cite Ali Soufan's opinion that "going after CIA officials now 'would be a mistake,'" what about Jack Cloonan, Matthew Alexander and Steve Kleinman, experienced interrogators who all support a wide-ranging criminal investigation? See http://www.truthout.org/082809A. It is precisely in times of crisis, such as the period after 9/11, that we must respect the rule of law, or damage our national security and ideals, as happened. Pursuing accountability may hurt some Democrats in the eyes of those who have been brainwashed by "24," but a probe that is done right will educate the public as to why it was needed and make such violations less likely in the future. Please reconsider before you contribute to a climate that aims to essentially cover up war crimes.

Sincerely,
Barbara Glassman