ANTIFA INFO-BULLETIN, No. 306

FREE MUMIA ABU-JAMAL!
FREE LEONARD PELTIER!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS & PRISONERS OF WAR!

Some statements are too blunt for everyday, consensual discourse. In
national "debate," it is the smoother pebbles that are customarily gathered
from the stream, and used as projectiles. They leave less of a scar, even
when they hit. Occasionally, however, a single hard-edged remark will
inflict a deep and jagged wound, a gash so ugly that it must be cauterized
at once. In January 1971, General Telford Taylor, who had been chief
prosecuting counsel at the Nuremberg trials, made a considered statement.
Reviewing the legal and moral basis of those hearings, and also the Tokyo
trials of Japanese war criminals and the Manila trial of Emperor Hirohito's
chief militarist, General Tomoyuki Yamashita, Taylor said that if the
standards of Nuremberg and Manila were applied evenly, and applied to the
American statesmen and bureaucrats who designed the war in Vietnam, then
"there would be a very strong possibility that they would come to the same
end he [Yamashita] did." It is not every day that a senior American soldier
and jurist delivers the opinion that a large portion of his country's
political class should probably be hooded and blindfolded and dropped
through a trap door on the end of a rope. -- Christopher Hitchens, The
Trial of Henry Kissinger [London, New York, Verso, 2001] p. 25.

Contents: Number 306

01. THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE [Washington, D.C.]: CIA Stalling State
Department Histories. State Historians Conclude U.S. Passed Names of
Communists to Indonesian Army, which Killed at Least 105,000 in 1965-66.
02. COLOMBIA REPORT [New York]: Coca Cola Accused of Using Death Squads to
Target Union Leaders.
03. THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES [Canada]: Bad Medicine:
Prescription for Fascism 2.
04. ANTI-RACIST ACTION [Chicago]: New Journal! ARA Research Bulletin:
Anti-Fascist Research, Analysis and Debate. Sample article: "The Enemy of
Our Enemy: The Southern Poverty Law Center 'Bad Jackets' Anarchists".
05. IN THESE TIMES [Chicago]: Dubious Lawsuit Forces Narco News to Shut
Down.
06. SOLIDARITY WITH HUNGER STRIKERS IN TURKEY [Dublin]: Turkish Hunger
Strike.
07. THE GUARDIAN [London]: The Dark Side of Italy's Paramilitary Force.
08. MUMIA ABU-JAMAL: For Palestinian, Unlimited Detention.

THE NATIONAL SECURITY ARCHIVE
Gelman Library, Suite 701
2130 H Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20037
Phone: 202 / 994-7000
Fax: 202 / 994-7005
E-mail: nsarchiv@gwu.edu
Web: http://www.nsarchive.org
- Friday, 27 July 2001 -

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____________________________________________________________________________
__

CIA STALLING STATE DEPARTMENT HISTORIES
State Historians Conclude U.S. Passed Names of Communists to Indonesian
Army, which Killed at Least 105,000 in 1965-66
____________________________________________________________________________
__

For immediate release, 27 July 2001
For more information: Archive director Tom Blanton, 994-7000
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB52/

WASHINGTON, D.C., 27 July -- George Washington University's National
Security Archive today posted on the Web one of two State Department
documentary histories whose release the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is
stalling, even though the documents included in the volumes were officially
declassified in 1998 and 1999, according to public State Department
records. The two disputed State Department volumes cover
Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines in the years 1964-68 and
Greece-Turkey-Cyprus in the same period.

The CIA, as well as action officers at the State Department, have prevented
the official release of either volume, already printed and bound by the
Government Printing Office. The National Security Archive obtained the
Indonesia volume posted today when the GPO, apparently by mistake, shipped
copies to various GPO bookstores; but the Greece volume is still locked up
in GPO warehouses.

The Indonesia volume includes significant new documentation on the
Indonesian Army's campaign against the Indonesia Communist Party (PKI) in
1965-66, which brought to power the dictator Suharto. (Ironically,
Suharto's successor, ex-President Wahid, is on his way to Baltimore this
week for medical treatment, and has been replaced by his vice-president,
who is the daughter of the man Suharto overthrew.) For example, U.S.
Embassy reporting on November 13, 1965 passed on information from the
police that "from 50 to 100 PKI members were being killed every night in
East and Central Java..."; and the Embassy admitted in an April 15, 1966
airgram to Washington that "We frankly do not know whether the real figure
[of PKI killed] is closer to 100,000 or 1,000,000 but believe it wiser to
err on the side of the lower estimates, especially when questioned by the
press." On page 339, the volume seems to endorse the figure of 105,000
killed that was proposed in 1970 by foreign service officer Richard Cabot
Howland in a classified CIA publication.

On another highly controversial issue -- that of U.S. involvement in the
killings -- the volume includes an "Editorial Note" on page 387 describing
Ambassador Marshall Green's August 10, 1966 airgram to Washington reporting
that an Embassy-prepared list of top Communist leaders with Embassy
attribution removed "is apparently being used by Indonesian security
authorities who seem to lack even the simplest overt information on PKI
leadership at the time..." On December 2, 1965, Green endorsed a 50 million
rupiah covert payment to the Kap-Gestapu movement leading the repression;
but the December 30 CIA response to State is withheld in full pp. 379-380).

The CIA's intervention in the State Department publication is only the
latest in a series of such controversies, dating back to 1990 when the CIA
censored a State volume on Iran in the early 1950s to leave out any
reference to the CIA-backed coup that overthrew Mossadegh in 1953. The
chair of the State Department historical advisory committee resigned in
protest, producing an outcry among academics and journalists (see "History
Bleached at State," New York Times editorial, May 16, 1990, p. A26: "At the
very moment that Moscow is coming clean on Stalin's massacre of Polish
officers, Washington is putting out history in the old Soviet mode.").
Congress then passed a law in 1991 requiring the State Department volumes
to include covert operations as well as overt diplomacy, so as to provide
an accurate historical picture of U.S. foreign policy, 30 years after the
events.

COLOMBIA REPORT
Information Network of the Americas
PO Box 20314
New York, NY 10009
E-mail: comments@colombiareport.org
Web: http://www.colombiareport.org
- Monday, 23 July 2001 -

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____________________________________________________________________

COCA COLA ACCUSED OF USING DEATH SQUADS TO TARGET UNION LEADERS
____________________________________________________________________

by Garry M. Leech
http://www.colombiareport.org/colombia73.htm

A lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Florida accuses the Coca Cola
Company, its Colombian subsidiary and business affiliates of using
paramilitary death squads to murder, torture, kidnap and threaten union
leaders at the multinational soft drink manufacturer's Colombian bottling
plants. The suit was filed on July 20 by the United Steelworkers of America
and the International Labor Rights Fund on behalf of SINALTRAINAL, the
Colombian union that represents workers at Coca Cola's Colombian bottling
plants; the estate of a murdered union leader; and five other unionists who
worked for Coca Cola and were threatened, kidnapped or tortured by
paramilitaries.

Colombia has long been the most dangerous country in the world for trade
unionists with almost 4,000 murdered in the past 15 years. Last year saw
128 labor leaders assassinated. Most of the killings have been attributed
to right-wing paramilitaries belonging to the United Self-Defense Forces of
Colombia (AUC), who view union organizers as subversives and, therefore,
"legitimate" targets in their dirty war against Colombia's guerrilla
insurgents. Three out of every five trade unionists killed in the world are
Colombian. The most recent killing of a union leader at one of Coca Cola's
Colombian bottling plants was June 21 when Oscar Dario Soto Polo was gunned
down.

Needless to say, companies in Colombia benefit from the reduced
effectiveness of union organizing that results from the intimidation of
workers by paramilitaries. But the complaint filed against Coca Cola last
week claims that the company does more than just benefit from paramilitary
violence: it claims the company orchestrates it.

According to Terry Collingsworth of the Washington DC-based International
Labor Rights Fund and co-counsel for the plaintiffs, "There is no question
that Coke knew about, and benefits from, the systematic repression of trade
union rights at its bottling plants in Colombia, and this case will make
the company accountable." The plaintiffs are seeking compensation and an
end to the human rights abuses committed against Coca Cola's employees and
union members.

The suit claims that Coca Cola controls all aspects of business conducted
by its Colombian subsidiary Coca Cola Colombia, as well as the operations
of Panamerican Beverages, its Colombian subsidiary Panamco, and Bebidas y
Alimentos. According to the complaint, Panamco and Bebidas y Alimentos
exist solely for the purpose of bottling and distributing Coca Cola
products in Colombia. Both are Florida-based companies with 'bottling
agreements' requiring them to abide by Coca Cola's code of conduct
regarding their operations and labor relations.

The plaintiffs are claiming U.S. jurisdiction under the Alien Tort Claims
Act, which allows non-U.S. citizens to file suit against Americans for
violations of international law. Regarding the role of the United Steel
Workers in the suit, union President Leo Gerard says, "We are filing this
case to show our solidarity with the embattled trade unions of Colombia."
The position taken by the union stands in sharp contrast to AFL-CIO
policies during the 1980's that openly supported President Reagan's
military funding of Central American governments involved in the violent
repression of union activities.

Among the suit's many claims is a 1996 incident in which Ariosto Milan
Mosquera, plant manager at Bebidas y Alimentos' bottling facility in
Carepa, Colombia, made public pronouncements that "he had given an order to
the paramilitaries to carry out the task of destroying the union." Union
members claim that Mosquera often
socialized with paramilitary fighters and even provided them with Coca Cola
products for their fiestas. Shortly after Mosquera's pronouncement, local
members of SINALTRAINAL began receiving threats from the paramilitaries.

On September 27, 1996, SINALTRAINAL sent a letter to the Colombian
headquarters of both Bebidas y Alimentos and Coca Cola Colombia informing
them of Mosquera's threats against the union and requesting that they
intervene to prevent further human rights abuses against employees and
union leaders.

Two and a half months later, on the morning of December 5, 1996, Bebidas y
Alimentos employee and local SINALTRAINAL executive board member Isidro
Segundo Gil was killed by paramilitaries inside the Carepa bottling plant.
The remaining union board members were also threatened with death if they
did not leave town. And then, on December 7, the paramilitaries entered the
plant and told employees they had three choices: resign from the union,
leave Carepa, or be killed. The suit claims the workers were then led into
the manager's office to sign union resignation forms prepared by the
company. The union had been successfully busted.

When asked about his company's use of paramilitaries to kill and intimidate
union members, Bebidas y Alimentos owner Richard Kirby, who is also a
defendant in the case, said, "You don't use them, they use you. Nobody
tells the paramilitaries what to do." He also claims that the facts
regarding the murder of Isidro Gil have been distorted: "One day the
paramilitaries showed up at the plant. They shut the plant down, put
everyone against the wall, and started shooting. Now its been turned around
so that it's our fault."

But the targeting of labor leaders was not limited to the Carepa plant.
According to the complaint, union officials at several other Coca Cola
bottling plants were also being threatened and harassed. In 1996, at
Panamco's Bucaramanga plant, local members of SINALTRAINAL went on a
120-hour strike to protest the company's elimination of employee medical
insurance.

After the strike ended, the suit claims, "the chief of security for the
Bucaramanga plant, Jose Alejo Aponte, told authorities that he found a bomb
in the plant." He then accused five members of the local SINALTRAINAL
executive board of planting the bomb. The five union leaders, three of whom
are plaintiffs in this case, were then imprisoned for six months based on
charges brought by, according to official documents, "COCA COLA
EMBOTELLADORA SANTANDER."

The union leaders were released six months later when, according to the
suit, the regional prosecutor "concluded not only that the Plaintiffs had
nothing to do with placing a bomb in the plant as charged, but that there
in fact was never a bomb in the plant as the company had claimed."

When asked about abuses committed against union leaders at its Colombian
bottling plants, Rafael Fernandez, a spokesman at Coca Cola's headquarters
in Atlanta, denied any wrongdoing regarding human rights violations in
Colombia or anywhere else. He also said, "Coca Cola has a strict code of
conduct that all its subsidiaries and businesses that work with Coca Cola
products have to adhere to." But according to Collingsworth, "Their 'code
of conduct' shows that they are legally responsible. These companies come
up with these codes and then don't enforce them."

The suit also claims that local management at Panamco's Barrancabermeja
plant "have openly sided with the paramilitaries in the civil war which is
intensely manifested in Barrancabermeja." It goes on to claim that Panamco
Colombia has publicly accused SINALTRAINAL members of being guerrillas.
Given the volatile situation in Barrancabermeja, home to the most intense
urban warfare in Colombia, such an accusation is tantamount to a death
sentence.

The president of the local SINALTRAINAL union in Barrancabermeja, Juan
Carlos Galvis, says he received phone calls from paramilitaries threatening
him with death if he didn't stop his union work and quit his job at Coca
Cola. The suit claims that paramilitary threats also appeared on the walls
inside the plant, including one in June 2000 that stated, "Get Out Galvis
>From Coca Cola, Signed AUC."

According to Fernandez, "Coca Cola Colombia has very special security
measures for all its employees and the employees of its bottling plants in
Colombia." But the company's failure to respond to the SINALTRAINAL letter,
written more than two months before the murder of Isidro Segundo Gil, and
the ongoing intimidation and harassment of labor leaders raises serious
questions regarding Coca Cola's commitment to protecting its workers,
especially those involved in union activities.

THE BETHUNE INSTITUTE FOR ANTI-FASCIST STUDIES
Research Director: David Lethbridge
Web: http://bethuneinstitute.org
E-mail: sacar@shuswap.net
- June/July 2001 -

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____________________________________________________________________

BAD MEDICINE: PRESCRIPTION FOR FASCISM 2
____________________________________________________________________

David Lethbridge
http://www.bethuneinstitute.org/documents/badmedicine2.html

In "Prescription for Fascism," I wrote about some of the connections
between elements of the alternative medicine network and the promotion of
right-wing conspiracy thinking.

I had noted, among other things, that Citizens Voice for Health Rights
(CVHR), run by Debbie Anderson, had a direct link on its website, under a
section called "Our Alliances," to the Preferred Network (PN), an
organization which sold hate propaganda, including several works by
long-time neo-Nazi, Eustace Mullins. I had also noted that Anderson spoke
at Freedom Fest 2001, an event that had scheduled PN leader Wes Mann, and
Eldon Warman and Fred Kyburz, tax refusal advocates who have included
antisemitic material on their websites. Anderson also spoke at a PN
Festival last year which included Eustace Mullins. And although I did not
note it in the original article, Anderson is an organizer for this year's
PN Festival which was also to include Mullins until anti-fascist action
forced his cancellation. [1]

Despite the documented connections between Anderson, Wes Mann, and PN,
Anderson claimed to the press that "there is absolutely no truth to any of
Mr. Lethbridge's article." [2] Clearly, Anderson is at pains to deny any
connection between herself and right-wing elements. But the facts tell a
different story. As is abundantly evident, there are indeed linkages and
associations between some factions of the alternative medicine network,
right-wing tax refusal and sovereign citizen advocates, and elements even
further to the right.

For example, only days after the publication of "Prescription for Fascism,"
Marc Lemire, head of the white racist Heritage Front, issued a press
release to local newspapers stating that I had been charged with "criminal
defamation" over the contents of my article by Anderson and her "agent,"
tax refusal and sovereign citizen advocate David Lindsay. [3] Criminal
defamation carries a potential two-year prison term and, as a criminal
charge, can normally only be pursued by the Crown counsel. However, a
rarely used section of Canadian law allows for so-called "citizen
prosecutions," a tactic which Anderson and Lindsay intend to employ should
the Crown decide not to pursue charges.

Lemire's press release was the first indication that such charges were
pending, and it is difficult to understand how Lemire could have obtained
his information other than from Anderson, Lindsay, or one of their circle.

And while "Prescription for Fascism" apparently offends Anderson to the
point of litigation, the entire article continues to appear not only on
Lemire's misnamed "Freedom Site," [4] but also on the website of PN
favorite David Icke, [5] who himself was to appear as a duet with Eustace
Mullins in Montreal, in June, until Mullins' appearance was cancelled.

Responding to a sheriff's warrant, I appeared at the local courthouse on 5
June. At this appearance Anderson was represented by David Lindsay. The
Crown declined to lay charges, citing a need to continue investigations
until August. Lindsay attempted to file a paper prohibiting me from making
"any public statements," but this action was also held over to August on
the grounds that the proper paperwork had not been provided. Evidently,
while Lindsay and others in the sovereign citizen movement continually
cloak themselves with the label of "freedom fighters," they do not hesitate
for a moment to try to deny the right to make "public statements" to those
would question their activities.

In the courtroom, Eileen and Claus Pressler stood with other Anderson
supporters and later, outside the court building, exchanged friendly
embraces with Lindsay and were clearly on intimate terms with him. Indeed,
a local press report cites Lindsay as saying that "the Presslers are
personal friends of Anderson and Mann." [6] Eileen Pressler has been
described by a judge as a "missionary for anti-Semitism and white racism,"
and as "publicly inciting hatred against ... persons of Jewish background
and those of non-white origin." Claus Pressler was described as a "passive
Holocaust-denier." [7] It is certainly revealing that organizers for the
Preferred Network would be on intimate terms with the leader of an extreme
racist organization.

This same day, the court registrar informed my lawyer that PN leader Wes
Mann was also intending to have me charged with criminal defamation.

What's more, and again on 5 June, Fred Kyburz, leader of Patriots on Guard,
an Alberta-based sovereign-citizen and tax refusal organization, posted a
press release for Anderson written by David Lindsay, claiming, falsely,
that I had "accused Debbie Anderson of being a fascist." [8] This release
was followed by Kyburz ranting, in a rather obvious attempt to have me
fired, "Who knows how much damage (Lethbridge) has caused to the minds of
young people attending the Salmon Arm College. ... I think it would be a
good idea for every reader to write the Salmon Arm Community College and
ask the Administration why they employ a character like Lethbridge as a
teacher." [9]

Previously, Kyburz had reproduced on his website the entire text of a
speech by William Pierce, leader of the National Alliance, the largest
explicitly neo-Nazi organization in the US. This speech accuses the Jews of
engaging in a global child pornography and child prostitution ring, and of
engaging in the ritual murder of non-Jewish children. Pierce's speech is
followed by Kyburz' claim that Ashkenazi Jews (whom he alleges are only
"pretending to be Jews" and are actually Communists) "are the ones who push
the vaccines to make us sick and dependent on their pharmaceutical
corporations;" and they are "the ones controlling the United Nations;" and
they are "the ones dictating to our governments." This is followed, in
giant bold red letters, by "Communist Lethbridge take heed! Keep your thugs
leashed." [10]

Finally, on the same posting, Kyburz announces a weekend seminar in Sylvan
Lake, Alberta, where speakers included Kyburz, Eldon Warman, Bruce Stellar,
and David Lindsay speaking on why "Canadians don't need drivers licenses."
The event was hosted by Calvin-Ronald Clifford who subsequently wrote to
me: "People are starting to wake up and are sick and tired of this
democracy bullshit. Democracy's (sic) will always fail and the common
people are becoming aware of this. You guys are finished." [11]

In other Internet postings, Kyburz has written: "Communist Lethbridge, are
you an Ashkenazi? I understand that you are 'Jewish.' I think it is
important to know if you are an Ashkenazi Jew or a blood Jew. As you well
know there is a big difference between the blood Jew and the Ashkenazi. The
Ashkenazi is a fraud because he makes everyone believe to be a Jew yet he
is not. ... You are a grave danger to a free society... You will hear from
us in time." [12]

More recently, when the press began to expose the antisemitic writings of
Kyburz and Eldon Warman - who were to speak at Freedom Fest 2001, in Port
Coquitlam, BC, along with David Lindsay, Debbie Anderson, and Wes Mann -
Michael Felgner, the organizer of the event, was reluctantly forced to
cancel Kyburz and Warman. [13] David Lindsay phoned Kyburz and Warman to
tell them the bad news. In response, Kyburz referred to the "Zionist Jews,"
whom he falsely alleged were behind the cancellation as "anti-life vermin,"
and referred to myself and Nisson Goldman, of the Canadian Jewish Congress,
as "scum." [14] Interestingly, the published schedule of the Freedom Fest
listed Anderson as speaking twice: once for CVHR, and a second time on
behalf of the Preferred Network. [15]

Bruce Stellar, who spoke at the Sylvan Lake conference and also appeared at
the Preferred Network "festival" in August 2000, runs a website which was,
until recently, hosted by Debbie Anderson's CVHR. [16] On both occasions,
Stellar taught the "David-Wynn: Miller technique," one of many variations
of sovereign citizen common law. According to several individuals who have
written publicly, including Miller's wife Colleen Lloyd, Miller's legal
techniques simply do not work. [17] Also according to Lloyd, Debbie
Anderson has hosted Miller's seminars in the US. [18]

Certainly Anderson and CVHR did attempt to sponsor David-Wynn: Miller's
seminar in Abbotsford, BC, on 24-25 February 2001, [19] despite the fact
that he had been previously deported from Canada on 6 November 1999. [20]
Unfortunately for Anderson, Miller was again deported on 3 February 2001 on
entering the country to give a seminar in Edmonton. [21]

On 10 June, I received an almost incomprehensible e-mail from Anthony Rees,
a doctor of herbology, and a scheduled speaker at Mann's 2000 PN festival,
attacking the South African Communist Party as a "group of thugs" whose
"leadership have all jumped ship to the African National Congress in a
feeding frenzy to loot the government's coffers and embezzle foreign aid."
He further wrote, "I am afraid, your time is up, and you should look at the
bigger picture and see that your socialist system has been set-up for a
nasty fall. Why waist (sic) your energy on backing or discrediting either
socialism or capitalism, but rather analyze the future in a hybridised,
monogenous (sic) grey, and limiting society, which South Africa will export
to Canada." He also noted, in an apparent excess of good fellowship, that I
am a bigot, an ignorant individual, cowardly, malicious, and evil. [22]

Clearly, the broad circle that Anderson and Lindsay move within contains
elements from a number of movements that cross over between alternative
medicine and right-wing politics. Kyburz engages not only in tax
resistance, but promotes right-wing conspiracies about the United Nations,
vaccinations, and the pharmaceutical industry, and spews the most vicious
hatred against Jews and Communists. David Wynn Miller advocates
questionable common law techniques, is sponsored by Anderson herself, and
is regularly deported from the country. Common law advocate Bruce Stellar
is hosted at Anderson's CVHR. Anthony Rees prescribes herbs while at the
same time mindlessly attacking the SACP and ANC. Ron Clifford hosts Kyburz,
Warman, and Lindsay and opposes himself to the very nature of democracy.
Eileen Pressler sells racist and antisemitic hate propaganda.

And there are serious and deeply disturbing political implications
resulting from these criss-crossing movements. It would seem that several
individuals in the Canada Action Party, or BCAP, the party's BC wing, have
fallen into the orbit of this loose association of right-wing common law
advocates and alternative medicine hucksters.

Marc Bombois, vice-president of CAP, spoke at the Port Coquitlam Freedom
Fest. [23] Festival organizer Michael Felgner was a candidate for BCAP in
the spring provincial election, [24] and is reported as saying that Eustace
Mullins "is a wonderful speaker." [25] Felgner has taken to using the
sovereign-citizenist styling of his name - Michael-Bernd: Felgner - and has
recently written, in the contorted pseudo-legal usage of the sovereign
citizen movement, that BC is "illegally" using two supreme court systems,
and is employing a "fictional court." [26] Nor is Felgner alone in this.
The BCAP candidate for Kelowna-Lake Country is also styling himself in the
sovereign citizen manner as David-Hunter: Thompson. [27] Cliff Stratham,
campaign manager for Kelowna CAP candidate Jack Peach, has attended several
seminars in the US by extreme right-wing ideologist Ed Griffin, and
believes that the Rothchilds had both Lincoln and Kennedy assassinated.
[28] Debbie Anderson herself ran as a candidate for CAP in the November
federal election, and is a director of BCAP. [29]

And it does not stop. On 8 July, at an undisclosed location in Vancouver,
David Lindsay will give a seminar on "legal self defense for political
activists," with cheques payable to Debbie Anderson. [30] On 14 and 15
July, Uncommon Knowledge, an organization that had previously booked
seminars for Kyburz and Warman, will be holding yet another "freedom fest"
at yet another undisclosed location in Vancouver where, once again,
speakers from alternative health, the sovereign citizen movement, tax
resisters, and right-wing propagandists will appear on the same platform.
[31] The speakers include a now familiar cast: Debbie Anderson, Wes Mann,
Bruce Stellar, and Marc Bombois. David Lindsay, not surprisingly, will
"instruct on how to lay criminal or civil charges." I am sure I will be his
chief example.

Debbie Anderson has not been defamed. Her activities do indeed move beyond
"health rights." She does have close connections with the Preferred
Network. She does sponsor sovereign citizen common law advocates. She is,
or has been, on the national executive of the ultra-conservative
Progressive Group for Independent Business. She has spoken at events which
included, or were intended to include, Eustace Mullins, Fred Kyburz, and
Eldon Warman. Nor has she ever spoken out against these people or ever
distanced herself from them. Facts are facts. Lindsay's charges on
Anderson's behalf are nothing but an attempt to muzzle the anti-racist
forces and confuse and demoralize the community. Now is the time to step up
the struggle and demonstrate convincingly that they shall not prevail.

1. Heather Persson. "Private Prosecution Brings Charge." Salmon Arm
Observer, 30 May, 2001. See also, Krista Foss. "Anti-Semite to Lecture in
BC Town." Globe and Mail, 7 May 2001.
2. Tracey Hughes. "Prof's Woes Continue." Salmon Arm Observer, 13 June 2001.
3. E-mail from Marc Lemire [SMTP: webmaster@freedomsite.org 18 May 2001
4. http://www.freedomsite.org/pipermail/fs_announce/2001/000543.html
5. http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles3/lether.html
6. Tracey Hughes. "Prof's Woes Continue." Salmon Arm Observer, 13 June,
2001.
7. http://www.courts.bc.gov.ca/jdb-txt/sc/98/07/598-0762.txt
8. http://patriotsonguard.org/dip060501.htm
9. Ibid.
10. http://patriotsonguard.org/dip102500.htm
11. E-mail in author's collection, 8 April 2001. Recent articles by Kyburz
also attack democracy, and on the grounds that it is a Zionist conspiracy.
12. http://patriotsonguard.org/dip112500.htm
13. http://www.vancouversun.com Article by Kim Bolan.
14. http://www.patriotsonguard.org/dip032501.htm
15. http://www.uncommonknowledge.net/knowledge/freedomfest2001.htm
16. http://www.citizensvoice.org/truth/index.html
17. http://home.hiwaay.net/~becraft/Scams.htm
18. Ibid.
19. http://www.detaxcanada.org/miller.htm
20. http://www.cyberclass.net/miller.htm
21. Ibid.
22. E-mail in author's collection.
23. http://www.vancouversun.com Article by Kim Bolan.
24. E-mail in author's collection. Originally posted to bctf social justice
list on 12 May 2001.
25. http://www.vancouversun.com Article by Kim Bolan.
26. E-mail in author's collection. Originally posted to bctf social justice
list on 12 May 2001.
27. E-mail in author's collection. Originally posted to bctf social justice
list on 14 May 2001.
28. Telephone interview with Stratham.
29. According to David Lindsay's press release for Debbie Anderson, written
28 May 2001. Text available at http://www.patriotsonguard.org/dip060501.htm
30. E-mail on the Mobilization for Global Justice list service, 4 June,
2001.
31. http://www.uncommonknowledge.net/knowledge/freedomfestjune.htm

ANTI-RACIST ACTION CHICAGO
1573 N. Milwaukee, PMB 420
Chicago, IL 60622
Tel: 312.409.1432
E-mail: ara@wwa.com
- Thursday, 19 July 2001 -

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____________________________________________________________________

ARA RESEARCH BULLETIN
Anti-Fascist Research, Analysis and Debate
____________________________________________________________________

First Issue out now!
A project of Chicago Anti-Racist Action, with support from the ARA Network.

ABOUT THIS BULLETIN:

This bulletin is part of ARA's research and anti-repression project. One
aspect of it will be research and distribution of information on specific
fascist groups as well as the nature of, trends within, and directions of
the more broadly defined fascist movement. The strategies and tactics of
state repression, particularly as they affect ARA's work and others with
similar politics, is the other part of the equation. We don't view this
project as just research. We hope to arm all militant anti-racist activists
with information that is accurate and useful for figuring out how to deal
with both enemies. There are, and should continue to be, political
questions and debate over how much significance to attach to various
fascist groups or what the state has up its sleeves. We won't shy away from
these debates.

The differences we have with groups or individuals who are currently
"expert right-wing researchers" are significant. First, we aren't into
raising funds from scared liberals who want the government to deal with the
fascists for them. Second, we aren't interested in "exposing" shit as much
as we are in figuring out how to incorporate this information into our
work. Third, and most important, a lot of our information, insights and
analyses come from actually doing something. For example, Chicago ARA
learns a lot about the World Church of the Creator, their members, their
tactics, as well as escalating police responses, through confrontations
with them. Experts who aren't on the ground can't adequately gauge the
significance of Matt Hale's increased reliance on cops for protection or
how the police response (or lack of it) makes a difference to our activity.

We want this bulletin to be an arena where ARA activists can report on and
debate topics such as police responses, fascist strategies, and
infiltration from both or either of them. There's a lot to consider. If we
want our activity to be effective, we have to operate on shared analyses
and assumptions. That is our goal.

Single issues are $3, Subscriptions are $10 a year (4 issues). Send
well-concealed cash or blank money orders only. If you absolutely must
write a check, make it payable to "Autonomous Zone Foundation."

ARA Research Bulletin
PO Box 403
1658 N. Milwaukee
Chicago, IL 60647
bid@zombieworld. com

FIRST ISSUE TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Editorial on McVeigh, Las Vegas and the Death Penalty
The Enemy of Our Enemy
The Third Position
The New Face of Resistance
Hale and Brimstone
Editorial on Repression
News From the Front Lines

____________________________________________________________________

THE ENEMY OF OUR ENEMY
The Southern Poverty Law Center "Bad Jackets" Anarchists
____________________________________________________________________

"Bad-jacketing" is a term used to describe the misrepresentation of a group
as something it is not; presumably the false description is bad and
discrediting in some way. Bad-jacketing is similar to "red-baiting," where
progressives are sometimes labeled as "communists."

Are anarchists now the allies and recruits for the latest trend in white
neo-fascism? That is the amazing Big Lie being put out by the Southern
Poverty Law Center (SPLC), on its popular civil rights website, in the
Winter 2000 issue of their "Klanwatch" Intelligence Report. This attack on
revolutionary anarchism is more than a simple mistake, more even than just
pro-government propaganda that needs to be shot down. It's a slipping of
the mask, exposing the contradiction of pro-capitalist "anti-racism" in
America.

This dramatic SPLC report, "Neither Left nor Right," is nominally about
third position neo-fascism (the tendency that advocates both
anti-capitalism and racism, first made prominent by the Strasser wing of
the 1920-30s German Nazi Party). But the SPLC surprisingly uses the events
of the Anti-WTO Battle of Seattle as its starting point and focus --and
targets the anarchist Black Bloc. The report says right at the start:
"As the streets of Seattle exploded into 1960s-style violence last
November, stunned Americans were told that 'anarchists' and other
left-wingers were leading a huge riot aimed at protesting capitalist
globalism ...And these reports were true--but only to a point.

"Right alongside the 'progressive' groups that demonstrated in Seattle
--mostly peaceful defenders of labor, the envi-ronment, animal rights and
similar causes--were the hard-edged soldiers of neo-fascism. They carried
signs decrying 'The New World Order Agenda,' bitterly denounced 'Jewish
media plus big capital' and in at least one case, fought it out with black
youths amidst the tear gas. The 'Battle of Seattle' brought erstwhile
antagonists together to face a common enemy in the streets.

"What was behind this truly remarkable mix? How was it that members of the
far 'left' and 'right' found themselves facing down police together? ..."

And at the conclusion it comes back to this theme: "Still, it seems clear
that the hard right will draw increasingly from the ranks of its former
enemies."

What is so damaging about these lies, of course, is that the Southern
Poverty Law Center --recently in the headlines for its winning civil suit
against the Aryan Nations in Idaho --is probably the leading mainstream
source for information on white racist and far right organizations.
Continually quoted in the media, the SPLC is widely used by schools and
those concerned about racism.

If the Seattle PD or the f.b.i. had tried such a crude smear--like, "Many
of those black-masked anarchists who attacked corporations at Seattle were
really from the Ku Klux Klan!"--everyone would have laughed it off. But the
Southern Poverty Law Center slipping a "bad-jacket" on anarchists in the
name of anti-racism is much more disarming.

The truth here is not in doubt. "Neither Left nor Right" is conveniently
vague throughout about numbers, about how large the neo-fascist presence
was at Seattle. But its dramatic language would mislead an innocent reader
to assume some significant far right presence in the street clashes. Of the
hundreds in the anarchist Black Bloc who trashed Starbucks and Niketown,
the provable number of neo-fascists was exactly zero. Of the roughly 20,
000 Anti-WTO protest marchers, the few neo-fascists were certainly less
than the number of various police, f.b.i., and military infiltrators and
observers. The white neo-fascists could probably have fit into a van. They
did not play any role on the historic events at Seattle (except for buying
postcards, getting themselves photographed, and gazing at the action with
envy).

It isn't just the Black Bloc and its supporters who have confirmed this. We
can refer to Chip Berlet, a well-known progressive researcher and author on
repression issues. Berlet has been a consultant for US government agencies
and has defended the SPLC's contribution to anti-racist education (we
mention this to emphasize that Berlet is neither an "extremist" nor someone
with a bias against the SPLC). Yet on the accuracy of this report, Berlet
wrote in an upcoming book he has co-authored that only "a handful of
rightwing activists, including some third position neo-nazis and fans of
David Icke, took part in the large and dramatic Seattle protests against
globalization ..." When asked for clarification on what he meant by "a
handful," Berlet answered: "Several Icke supporters were openly holding
signs promoting Icke and handing out pamphlets. There are photographs of
this, including one in the SPLC report. The reports about the Buchananites,
other Patriot types, and the Third Positionists are from people who were
there and know the distinctions. Apparently a few dozen at best."

Less noticed, the SPLC report has another pattern: it follows the
government and police script about the Battle of Seattle. What we find
isn't one error of fact but an entire scenario of lies and pro-law
enforcement propaganda.

* The anarchist Black Bloc, which startled America with up-front
anti-capitalism, is conveniently smeared as haters who join with the
"hard-edged soldiers of neo-fascism."

* The considerable street violence at Seattle, with tear gas and "rubber
bullet-firing police," is implied to be between the police and violently
attacking anarchists and neo-fascists. This, too, is pure fiction. As we
know, the mass street violence was initiated by the police and aimed at the
thousands of "peaceful" protesters blocking the downtown streets with CD.
The police shot at, chased for blocks, and beat up these nonviolent
protesters, filling whole neighborhoods with tear gas.

* In the SPLC's concocted scenario, the real racism in Seattle is covered
up. There was no fighting between anarchists (and neo-fascists) and Black
youths, as the SPLC report hints. Fighting with Black youths was done by
the self-appointed "peace police," the liberal white protest monitors who
tried to physically stop Black youth from liberating capitalist
property--and even tried to get the police to arrest them.

The major white racist move at Seattle --the prominent appearance of far
right presidential candidate Pat Buchanan as a speaker at the main protest
rally, as arranged by the AFL-CIO and the Ralph Nader lobby--isn't even
mentioned by the report. It's the most "respectable" pro-capitalist
elements in the anti-globalization struggle that have been knowingly
allying with white racism--not anarchists. So the reader isn't so much
getting important intelligence about racists but rather is being
misdirected in an actual cover-up of racism.

Ironically, the far right itself is using this SPLC report. At least one
neo-fascist group has put the entire SPLC report up on its website. This is
a curious unity, but we can understand it. The far right has been trying to
recruit white youth with boasts that it has been on the front lines against
corporate Globalization. Now, like a gift dropping into their laps, the
Southern Poverty Law Center has endorsed these neo-fascist lies in this
report on Seattle.

What kind of "anti-racist" organization would do all this? The Southern
Poverty Law Center itself and its founder-director, Morris Dees, while a
public relations and fund-raising powerhouse, has for years been viewed by
many activists with misgivings. This was especially true after John
Egerton's expose in Progressive magazine took the lid off "Poverty Palace."
It appears that SPLC is the model of capitalist "anti-racism"--that is, it
functions like a business with government connections using anti-racism as
a commodity. And far from being a critic of the racist system, it is a
small gear in the machinery of capitalist hegemony and institutional
repression.

Morris Dees was a white segregationist businessman in Alabama during the
civil rights battles of the 1960s, which he didn't support (although, like
many millions of other white people, he afterwards claimed that he was
secretly sympathetic to Black people all along). He first became a
millionaire as a genius at direct mail marketing, although in at least one
instance he worked for the Klan as an attorney defending white men who had
attacked civil rights demonstrators. According to Dees, in 1967 at an
airport he received an epiphany, and decided to dedicate his life to social
justice. He starting doing civil rights law. After he profitably cashed out
of his business, in the early 1970s he turned to liberal politics and
founded SPLC.

The one unique thing is that his role in liberal politics continued to be
very profitable direct marketing. Dees ran nationwide mail solicitations
for the McGovern, Carter, Kennedy and Hart presidential campaigns (he was
national finance director, for example, of the successful Carter campaign).
Out of these he amassed a Northern white liberal contributors list of
hundreds of thousands, which his Center has used to raise millions of
dollars every year. Along the way the SPLC has taken on worthy civil rights
lawsuits, of course, but the occasional high profile lawsuits seem to exist
mostly to be "sold" in the multi-million dollar fundraising solicitations
that each year result in surpluses that the SPLC invests in its Wall Street
accounts.

They have also become a national information resource for many police
departments and government agencies--and now a propaganda resource as well.

Randall Williams, who set up the "Klanwatch" project for the SPLC, said
after he resigned: "We were sharing information with the FBI, the police,
undercover agents. Instead of defending clients and victims, we were more
of a super snoop outfit, an arm of law enforcement ... but Morris was still
writing donors about the Klan menace, and the money was still flowing in."

The Southern Poverty Law Center has quietly gone about filling a special
role in government monitoring. As a private organization wrapped in the
banner of Civil Rights, it carries out political surveillance that current
u.s. law forbids the f.b.i., a.t.f. and other police agencies from doing.
For example, the SPLC records license plate numbers of vehicles near
extremist demonstrations, then runs them through state DMV records to
compile names and addresses of participants. Extensive computer files with
thousands of photographs are kept on those with extremist political views,
using not only monitoring of news sources and political journals but paid
informers and tips from police. All this political information is then
available to government agencies and corporations.

Pro-government propaganda "bad-jacketing" anarchists just fits in with the
SPLC's role as an informal "arm of law enforcement." The question that
immediately comes up is what else has the SPLC been distorting or covering
up?

Nor are they the only ones at this dirty work: after Seattle, the Anti
Defamation League of B'nai Brith, another major source of mainstream
information about racism, added the anarchist circled "A" symbol to their
"Hate on Display" internet webpage along with the nazi swastika and other
"Extremist Symbols." After anarchists protested, the ADL changed their
webpage to admit (buried in the text) that "the majority of people who
identify with this movement consider themselves non-racist or anti-racist,"
but still kept the symbol up and the description right underneath
it--"General Racist Symbol."

The ADL itself has a stunning history of covert white supremacy and general
sleaziness, but that would be a whole further story in itself.

As the hegemonic culture, capitalism keeps replicating itself over and
over. It keeps assaulting, co-opting, counterfeiting, and doing leveraged
buyouts of new threatening developments--like today's anti-racism. Which is
why anti-racism can't just be against the most obvious racist crimes, but
has to be part of creating an oppositional culture on the deepest level.

Sidebar: Ottawa Citizen April 23, 2001--Warren Kinsella (former campaign
adviser to Prime Minister Jean Chrétien) "... But a more salient question,
unaddressed in the avalanche of media coverage surrounding Quebec City, is
this: how is it that the extremists found on both sides of the ideological
continuum--far-left and far-right--have joined forces to oppose liberalized
trading rules? ... Either way, the far right and far left have come
together to oppose international co-operation in trade. And, increasingly,
they do so violently, or by making use of rhetoric that legitimizes
violence ... I suspect that if it has succeeded in unifying so many
lunatics, left and right, globalization can't be such a bad thing after
all."

Future Issues of the ARA Research Bulletin will feature articles on the
National Alliance, the JDL, Oldham and the riots in England, an infiltrator
moving through Earth First! and anarchist circles, modern state repression
strategies, a discussion of the nature of fascism, and much more.

Please send us news and accounts of fascist/racist activity and state
repression in your area, as well as efforts to oppose them.

*****
____________________________________________________________________

CHILL FACTOR
Dubious lawsuit forces Narco News to shut down
____________________________________________________________________

IN THESE TIMES
'News & Views for the Progressive Community'
August 20, 2001
http://www.inthesetimes.com/web2519/winters2519.html
By Ben Winters

(New York)--The word "mismatch" hardly begins to describe it. In one corner
we have Banamex, the National Bank of Mexico, a massive financial
institution just purchased by Citigroup for a whopping $12.5 billion. In
the other corner, we have a guy with a laptop.

That guy is Al Giordano, a Boston native now of no fixed address, and the
product of his laptop is Narco News (http://www.narconews.com), a Web site
established in April 2000 to publish dispatches from all over Latin America
about the drug war and its fallout. Among those dispatches has been a fair
bit of investigative reporting: a piece detailing the various conflicts of
interest that led to the resignation of an Associated Press correspondent
in Bolivia, for example, and another on dark truths about Colombian
paramilitary chief Carlos Castano.

Narco News also has published the allegations of a Mexican journalist named
Mario Menendez Rodriguez, who reported in his Merida-based paper Por Esto
that Banamex president Roberto Hernandez Ramirez was a narcotics
trafficker. Por Esto's reporters amassed evidence that drugs were being
bought and sold on Hernandez's many properties in Quintana Roo, including
interviews with local fishermen who claimed to be eyewitnesses--not to
mention the bags of cocaine literally washing up on the beach. To quote
Giordano's narco-centric prose style, Hernandez, on top of his duties at
Banamex, was "a narco-banker" and a "narco-traficante."

Banamex was not narco-pleased. After Giordano and Menendez traveled to New
York in March to speak about the Hernandez allegations, among other
subjects, the bank brought a libel suit against Giordano, Menendez and
Narco News itself.

The Banamex lawsuit, which began hearings on July 20, is raising eyebrows
in media-watchdog circles. Narco News, which is written in Mexico and run
off a Web server in Maryland, is being sued in New York on a tenuous
pretext; namely that it is "affiliated with" (read: linked to) the New
York-based Web site mediachannel.org.

Much about the lawsuit is patently ridiculous, says Narco News' lawyer Tom
Lesser, starting with its whereabouts. "This is a lawsuit brought by a
Mexican corporation against two people, one of whom [Menendez] is a Mexican
resident, and one of whom [Giordano] lives in Mexico presently, over events
that occurred in Mexico," Lesser says. "The lawsuit should be in Mexico."

In fact, the lawsuit has already been in Mexico, and more than once. In two
separate cases, Mexican judges have tossed out similar lawsuits by Banamex
against Menendez and Por Esto, ruling in both cases that the paper's
charges were legitimate and therefore not libelous.

Lesser suspects that bringing the case to the Big Apple has nothing to do
with proving libel. The goal of Banamex, he fears, is to drain the coffers
of Giordano and Menendez, and caution anyone else who might have unpleasant
things to say about the bank. "I think they want to cause Giordano to spend
so much money and so much time that he has no resources to give to the Web
site," Lesser says, "so he will not print stories in the future which raise
issues concerning the bank."

Or as Narco News correspondent Peter Gorman put it in an open letter to
readers, soliciting contributions to Giordano's already sorely depleted
legal defense fund, "Hernandez knows that neither Por Esto nor Giordano
have enough between them to buy him lunch. What he wants is to do is shut
them down."

The heart of the Banamex lawsuit, which asks for unspecified damages on
counts of libel, slander and "interference with prospective economic
advantages," is that the "defendants published the statements knowing they
were false, and/or with reckless disregard for the truth."

This charge, Lesser says, may be the most laughable part of the whole
affair. To win, Banamex would "have to prove that Giordano and Menendez
made these statements with a reckless disregard of the facts--and that they
said it with malice. But Menendez published 40 photographs. He published
photos of eyewitnesses. Giordano did separate interviews; he investigated
it. He absolutely believed it was a legitimate story."

Lesser has some trouble with the idea of "interference with prospective
economic advantages" as well. "The bank just got bought for $12.5 billion
by Citigroup. What, without this they would have gotten $13 billion? This
is an enormous corporation. The sky is the limit. Banamex is used to having
its way in Mexico and assumes it can have its way anywhere in the world.
It's the 800-pound gorilla. And Giordano and Menendez had the temerity, the
sheer chutzpah to suggest that the president of the company did something
wrong."

SOLIDARITY WITH HUNGER STRIKERS IN TURKEY (Dublin)
E-mail: turkeysolidarity@ireland.com
Web: http://www.geocities.com/turkishhungerstrike
- Friday, 27 July 2001 -

-----
____________________________________________________________________

TURKISH HUNGER STRIKE
____________________________________________________________________

An organisational meeting will be held on Wednesday 1st August at 8pm in
the Bachelor Inn (Upstairs), beside O Connell Bridge.

29 hunger strikers have now died in Turkey. A number of protests and
meetings are in the pipeline for the coming weeks. In addition a large and
successful protest was held in Belfast last Wednesday and more events are
planned for the upcoming festival in West Belfast.

In Dublin we have discussed generally the idea of having a solidarity fast.
A decision will need to be made on this at the meeting on Wednesday and
date, duration, etc. arranged. People should consider if they are willing
to volunteer for this important symbolic support action.

The Website is updated frequently and people should check it for
informaiton on upcoming events and reports of protests outside Dublin, etc.
It is at http://www.geocities.com/turkishhungerstrike

Next Protest in Dublin

Picket on Travel Agencies and Black Flag Protest Meet at GPO on Saturday
4th August at 12 noon

Please encourage other supporters, friends, etc. to get involved.

There is also an Ogra Sinn Féin protest on the Turkish Hunger Strike at the
GPO on Saturday 4th, this starts at 2pm.

*****
____________________________________________________________________

THE DARK SIDE OF ITALY'S PARAMILITARY FORCE
____________________________________________________________________

THE GUARDIAN
International News
Friday, 27 July 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,528180,00.html
Rory Carroll

Rightwing thugs employed as Italian police officers were told by superiors
they could brutalise with impunity the protesters detained in Genoa, it was
claimed yesterday.

Officers seized the opportunity to batter, terrify and humiliate dozens of
people after being assured they had the "cover" to do so, according to the
Rome daily La Repubblica.

An anonymous police officer confirmed the accounts of torture given by the
bruised, shaken protestors released from prison. "Unfortunately, it is all
true."

The officer claimed that as last weekend's assaults intensified and victims
passed out he asked colleagues to stop. He alleges that they told him: "We
don't have to worry because we are covered."

He admitted his men had run amok in the protesters' headquarters but
claimed that the alleged torture in the Bolzaneto holding centre was the
work of GOM, the penitentiary police. He said GOM officers wore black
gloves and boasted in advance of teaching the anarchists a lesson.

The three inquiries launched into the police violence will attempt to
determine who gave the orders but there is no doubt that scores of police
officers agreed to follow the orders.

The question of how such bloodlust consumed some members of the police and
paramilitary carabinieri has sparked uproar in parliament. There is
pressure for a commission of inquiry which could oust cabinet ministers.

Francisco Martone, a Green party senator, told the BBC that fascists had
infiltrated the police. Released Italian, German and Spanish protestors
yesterday spoke of heads being banged against walls, threats of rape with
batons, people vomiting blood, soiling themselves and being urinated upon.

Football fans have long complained about the dark side of Italian policing
but opinion polls have shown robust public support for responses to fan
violence.

A green light from above was enough to unleash savagery for a number of
reasons. The police are generally rightwing and have a tradition of
suppressing leftwing protest. A popular ditty goes: "One, two, three, viva
Pinochet/ four, five, six, death to the Jews."

Silvio Berlusconi's ruling coalition includes the post-fascist National
Alliance which won last May's election partly on a platform of law and
order. Some commentators suggest this may have emboldened police
commanders.

The carabinieri are considered less political but can be gung-ho. Jokes
about their stupidity pepper Italian dinner parties.

The decision to deploy poorly trained conscripts serving their one-year
military service was a major blunder. They proved easily frightened and
easily provoked, and after two days of dodging rocks they wanted revenge.
Many are from the south where poverty, poor education and conservatism
breeds suspicion of the anti-globalisation movement.

The intelligence services hyped them up with warnings of terrorist attack
and supposed anarchist tactics - such as hurling bags of HIV-infected
blood. Days before the summit they were already jumpy.

Enrico Sciaccaluga, 19, a Genoa student, said some were so agitated the
night of the raid that they appeared drugged.

Another explanation offered is that the police chief, Gianni De Gennaro,
knew all about fighting the mafia but nothing about crowd control.

*****
____________________________________________________________________

FOR PALESTINIAN, UNLIMITED DETENTION
____________________________________________________________________

By Mumia Abu-Jamal
Column Written 7/19/01
Source: mumiacolumns@yahoo.com
- Thursday, 26 July 2001 -

Abed al-Ahmar works for the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group
(PHRMG) as an investigator. This is his area of expertise.

Today, in Israeli prisons, he is learning about human rights firsthand. He
is also learning about torture, both physical and psychological.

When one of his lawyers recently visited him, she noticed that his wrists
were swollen and bruised. Attorney Allegra Pacheco learned that al-Ahmar
had been subjected to a form of torture known as "shabeh", where one is
tightly shackled in a slanting chair for an entire day. This form of
torture was recently outlawed by the Israeli Supreme Court, as recently as
September 6, 1999, as a matter of fact.

But, as Mr. al-Ahmar has learned, what the courts say, and what really
happens, is two different things.

Mr. al-Ahmar is but the latest Palestinian to also experience what is
called Administrative Detention. He is being held without any formal charge
or trial, for a period of six months, that is renewable time and time again.

This measure, which closely resembles the procedures of the apartheid
regime in South Africa, has been condemned by human rights observers for
years. Some Palestinian activists, like al-Haq, contend that it is also
violative of the terms of the Geneva Convention, specifically Article 6,
which precludes its use longer than a year. Al-Haq reports that there are
at least 13 people who have been in such detention since the outbreak of
the most recent intifadah, including a Mr. Naser Abu-Khdeir, a former
fieldworker for al-Haq.

The human rights group, Amnesty International, has named al-Ahmar as a
Prisoner of Conscience.

When Mr. al-Ahmar inquired as to why he was being detained, without
charges, without bail, an Israeli Shin Bet (security) man replied, "We do
what we want." [Haaretz (Israeli newspaper), 6/7/01]

Mr. al-Ahmar was a long-time activist in Palestinian nationalism and human
rights activities. He spent six years in Israeli prisons for his activities
on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. He spent
another two and a half years in administrative detention, at which time he
was tortured so badly that the affects still remain. He has worked in the
past as an investigator for the group, B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights
group, before concentrating his work on human rights violations in the
lands administered by the Palestinian Authority.

He continues to suffer from a hiatal hernia and severe back problems.

The case of Mr. al-Ahmar is quickly gaining attention in the international
community, as shown by the actions of Amnesty International.

If readers wish to appeal for Mr. al-Ahmar's release, they should write to,
or contact:

PHRMG: Bassem Eid - Tel. 02-5823372, 050-258594 PCATI: Hannah Friedman -
Tel. 02-5630073, 056-556442

Letters should be sent to:

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
Office of the Prime Minister
3 Kaplan Street, P.O. Box 187
Kiryat Ben-Gurion
Jerusalem 91919
Fax: +972 2 651 2631

Please Send Copies to the PHRMG.

Get Mumia's columns by email: http://www.MumiaBook.com

To communicate directly with Mumia write to him at:
Mumia Abu-Jamal AM 8335
SCI-Greene
175 Progress Drive
Waynesburg, PA 15370

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