“Corporate-sponsored American politics have stifled true democracy,” says Cheri Honkala, Green Party vice-presidential candidate. “We really need the outside help” to ensure fair debates and return democracy to America, she told RT.

­Green Party candidates Jill Stein and Cheri Honkala were arrested Tuesday after being denied entrance to the US presidential debates, despite being on 85 per cent of the ballots. “Democracy was taken away from us,” Honkala, told RT.

“Jill and I had decided to go before the Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD), we wanted to go in [to the debates], we’re on 85 per cent of the ballots in this country, and so we thought it should be up to the American people, so that they could listen to us and decide who they wanted to have as their president and their vice-president,” Honkala said.

The CPD was established in 1987 to monitor the presidential debates. CPD regulations stipulate that in order to be represented at the debate, a candidate must have at least 15 per cent support across five national polls and have the mathematical possibility to win the election. Tuesday’s debates were held by the CPD at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York.

“We’ve done our homework, it’s mathematically possible for Dr. Jill Stein and I to win the presidency, so we should be a part of the debates,” Honkala said.

However, despite being on 85 per cent of the ballots, Stein and Honkala were not invited to the big debate that took place Tuesday night.

“We thought it should be up to the American people, so that they could listen to us and decide who they wanted to have as their president and their vice-president.”

However, after being denied entry, Stein and Honkala were arrested for blocking traffic.

“We didn’t block traffic. We were at a stand-still because we were greeted by tons of officers who did not let us go in to the CPD, did not let us talk to somebody from the CPD.”

“We were then arrested by the police officers and then we were taken by secret service to a secret location and we were handcuffed to metal chairs for eight hours in a very cold warehouse,” she said.

“It just seemed like an absolute waste of taxpayer dollars. Homeland Security is continuing to be used to preempt the civil liberties of people here in this country.”

­

Mainstream media silence

Honkala told RT that she and Stein have been charged and will have to face trial for what they say is a fight to bring real democracy to America.

“We will have to face trial. We were charged with disorderly conduct. It became very clear to the both of us that this was very political and they wanted us to be silenced,” she said.

“Jill and I, we speak to the 99 per cent in this country. We have a program that’s about eliminating the student debt, it’s about taking money out of politics, it’s about making sure that everybody has access to a job; it’s about ending climate change and it’s about ‘greening’ America,” she told RT.

Mainstream media seems to have mostly turned a blind eye to the arrest of the US presidential and vice-presidential candidates, as well as to their party platform, as the airwaves continue to be dominated by the two-party system in America.

“We have a problem with a small number of corporations owning most of our major media outlets here in this country and we really need the outside help from different international media outlets to tell the real story of the American people. We are fighting for democracy here – it doesn’t exist. We do not have fair elections. We need elections monitors here and we need help from the international community,” she says.

Should the system change and Americans elect Green Party candidates, democracy would come to America, Honkala believes.

“Not only people in the US would  benefit, but people throughout the entire world, because no longer we would have a foreign policy that would be about bombing and killing people in other parts of the world just for oil and for the 1 per cent [the wealthy few]. The international community would benefit as well from our foreign policy, which would be about other countries’ need to police their own countries, and work on their own democracies. We need to bring democracy back here to the United States, we need access to the media, and we need fair elections and debates.”

Nypd-arrests-veterans-reading-the-names-of-afghan-war-dead

NYPD arresting veterans as they read the names of the dead

Video streaming by Ustream

As the war in Afghanistan drags through its eleventh year, discussion of U.S. occupation has been forgotten in election cycle discourse.

Yet in Fort Hood, Texas, a community of military veterans, soldiers, and allies who are unable to forget are organizing their community in response to the widespread trauma that underlies U.S. policies of endless war. Calling their campaign Operation Recovery, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War and The Civilian-Soldier Alliance are working with Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center to demand service members’ right to heal.

Even as the U.S. military claims to draw down its forces, suicide rates among active duty service members and veterans continue to climb. According to the Army’s own studies, the year 2011 set a record for the highest number of Army suicides in military history. That same year also marked a spike in sexual assaults within the ranks of the military. While comparable studies of trauma in occupied populations do not exist, the death count in the “Global War on Terror” continues to rise, with over 12,000 Afghan civilians killed since 2006 and more than 185,000 Afghan civilians displaced in 2011 alone, marking a 45 percent jump from 2010.

War trauma is acutely felt at Fort Hood, the largest military base in the country that houses many soldiers on their way to and from war zones. The Army reported in 2010 that the base’s suicide rate was double the national average, and today the base’s sexual assault counselors and healthcare providers cannot meet the swelling need for help. Military communities have decided to take matters into their own hands by organizing within this sprawling military installation for the right to heal from war’s trauma and an end to the dehumanization and abuse that underwrites U.S.-led occupation.

Maggie Martin is a two-time Iraq War veteran and a Field Organizer for Iraq Veterans Against the War, currently based at Fort Hood. In this interview, Maggie discusses campaign strategy, talks about Fort Hood military communities, and explains how healing is a force against war.

Can you tell me what you and other IVAW members are doing at Fort Hood?

We’re here organizing an active duty outreach drive for Operation Recovery. We’re trying to get the word out about the work we’re doing at Fort Hood around the right to heal. We’re also collecting stories and information from soldiers here about the situation on the ground, particularly around issues of access to mental and physical healthcare.

People are experiencing things like stigma for trying to seek care. People are having profiles violated. Medical profiles are from doctors and healthcare workers to put restrictions on certain kinds of work for service members related to what they’re capable of due to their mental health status. Violating a profile means assigning service members work that is unsafe for them.

What kind of response have you been getting from active duty service members?

Most people who have experience with traumatic injuries are able to tell us some of the things that have been difficult for them around getting treatment. A lot of people are still afraid to get help because of stigma. There are also issues of unofficial punishment where there is not necessarily a paperwork trail but people are getting disrespected and treated badly for seeking care. This is not necessarily across the board – we’ve heard from some folks that their command and leadership are doing the right thing and really encouraging soldiers to get care and help. It is important that everyone get the care they need and deserve, and we are trying to figure out how to ensure that.

What is the focus of the campaign right now?

We’re trying to set up interviews, do house visits, and have one-on-one conversations with new members at the Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center, both IVAW members and potential members. This includes people who come to our ribs and rights events, as well as different trainings we put on, including Warrior Writers and G.I. rights trainings. We are trying to solidify people’s roles in the community and understand more about why they came into the community and why they’re interested in Operation Recovery as well as what they want to see for the future. Next Saturday, before I leave, we’re going to have a larger IVAW chapter meeting for the Fort Hood chapter and the Austin chapter that’s forming. We’ll invite potential members as well, both active duty and veterans. That should help us get a sense of where the community here wants to take the campaign and how they see themselves continuing as an area of operation for the campaign.

Have you found that talking about trauma is an effective starting place to relate to service members?

Yeah, it is. I think that our one-on-one conversations with people show us that the reason they came to Under the Hood is because of the injustices that are happening around service-members’ care, and they feel really betrayed that they have given so much and their comrades have given so much but can’t even get decent healthcare. It is an important issue to people. It is something that can be seen as a really blatant disregard for the dignity and respect of soldiers. With the reduction of the military, we are seeing so many more folks being forced out and not allowed to re-enlist. Many of them are people who have been deployed repeatedly and are now struggling with their own physical and mental health issues and are now being disregarded and discarded.

As a veteran, how does it feel to be organizing active duty service members at a massive military base like Fort Hood?

I think one thing that’s really interesting for me about going back to a military base is remembering where I was when I was in the military, what was important to me, what issues I thought about, and what power and control over my own life I thought I had, which was pretty much none when I was in. Going back, I feel like I know a lot more about how widespread the issues are that service members are facing. I know more about service members’ rights. I think it is really helpful to remember back to where I was and try to be a bridge for people to understand more or to explore their own ideas just by inviting them to Under the Hood Cafe and Outreach Center, asking questions, and making space. It’s also cool being able to organize around service members’ rights while not being in the military anymore because there is a lot more freedom and less fear of the military legal system.

How is Operation Recovery an anti-militarist campaign?

Militarism and dehumanization go hand in hand and really work off of each other. Operation Recovery is predicated on reclaiming our humanity through talking about human rights. I think that if people and soldiers see themselves as people worthy of dignity and respect and healthcare, then that’s a step in the direction away from the dehumanization that happens to soldiers in their training that is carried on to the work they do overseas.

That reminds me of this quote we used as a prompt for our Warrior Writers workshop yesterday from Thich Nhat Hahn, a Vietnamese Buddhist monk: ”Veterans are the light at the tip of the candle, illuminating the way for the whole nation. If veterans can achieve awareness, transformation, understanding, and peace, they can share with the rest of society the realities of war. And they can teach us how to make peace with ourselves and each other, so we never have to use violence to resolve conflicts again.” I think that the military is so separated from the rest of American culture, and people believe that the military is happy to participate in these things and that everything we engage in is for this greater just cause. The reason I joined IVAW is because I believe that it is powerful for people who have been immersed and participated in the military to counter the popular belief that the military is a separate group of heroic people carrying out the needs of our country. I think that soldiers speaking out creates a shift in the American consciousness.

How does the trauma that service members face relate to the trauma faced by those living under occupation?

I think that we see cycles of trauma repeat themselves within families and communities with service members here in the States. We know a lot less about this trauma in occupied countries because we are so separated from what is happening in occupied countries. People in the military aren’

t getting care, they’re struggling with drugs and alcohol and prescription drug abuse, they can’t sleep at night, they’re having nightmares and flashbacks, they have a hard time distinguishing when they’re safe and in danger. You add some hardcore weaponry to that equation, and it is pretty obvious this is a recipe for disaster.

What was Ft. Hood like under Fort Hood Commanding General Donal Campbell? General Campbell has been tapped for the role of new commander of U.S. Army Europe, which amounts to a promotion. Can you tell us a little about his track record so far?

General Campbell was a target of Operation Recovery because he was in control of such a large military installation that had been repeatedly deploying many soldiers since the early stages of the war. Soldiers at Fort Hood have been through a lot of serious combat, a lot of multiple deployments, and a lot of traumatic injuries. In 2010, this base had the highest suicide rate of any military installation. It is important for us to identify and hold accountable the military leaders who are responsible.

General Campbell recently held a Facebook “town hall” meeting that purportedly aimed to get feedback about base policy from the Fort Hood community. In reality, it seemed to be more about public relations than about how to help service members. We got a lot of political non-answers to tough questions we were asking. In response to questions highlighting lack of access to care for service members, General Campbell responded by telling people to contact his office if they are having problems. We really think that’s ridiculous. If someone gets turned down from help from their supervisor, if they get told they are weak and need to suck it up, they are not going to feel comfortable going to the post commander to ask for help. The town hall responses were disingenuous and lacked any concrete solutions or steps for improvements. We also know that one of the active duty service members we have been working with is being targeted and penalized by his command for demanding his right to heal at that Facebook town hall meeting.

What does General Campbell’s promotion say about the values of the U.S. military?

I think it shows that they want these tough leaders who are going to carry out orders and make hard decisions and be willing to put soldiers’ welfare second to the needs of the military. It shows that the military has no accountability to the community or even to the soldiers under their command, and the only way we’re going to be able to make a difference is to go to the people who control their promotions and cash flow.

What’s next for Operation Recovery?

We’re going to release an Appeal for Redress for service members’ and veterans’ right to heal. IVAW members and other veterans and service members across the country will be invited to sign on to the Appeal for Redress and engage with their congressional representatives. An Appeal for Redress is a protected form of communication for active duty service members to resolve an issue and seek redress through their congressional representatives. It is protected under the Military Whistle-Blower Protection Act that is supposed to keep service members safe from reprisals from command and leadership that they’re trying to address. We’re in the process of figuring out what we want to come out of this and what local campaigns will be happening under the larger umbrella of Operation Recovery. I think there will be specific demands for specific local targets. Our overall goal will be to put pressure on congressional representatives and build up to open hearings for service members and veterans to be able to share their stories about dealing with traumatic injuries in the military and VA system. The hope is that congress will put pressure or force military and VA to give proper care.

Why is this organizing relevant now?

I think it is crazy that we’re in the eleventh year of the war in Afghanistan, in a presidential election year, and the war is not even an issue in the presidential campaigns: it’s not even being discussed. Soldiers coming home from Afghanistan, and soldiers who have come home from Iraq, are starting to see mental health issues surface in their lives. More and more service members and veterans are dealing with the consequences of traumatic injuries, yet this issue is getting less and less coverage and spotlight in the political arena. We think it is really important to keep standing up for service members and let people know that the wars are not over for those who participated and for those who were and are occupied. We need to remember these things and learn from mistakes as we move into the future.

Afghanistan Protest
Sunday October 7
Trafalgar Square London

On the 11th anniversary of the start of the war on Afghanistan, Stop the War is organising a Naming of the Dead ceremony in Trafalgar Square, commemorating those killed — both Afghan civilians and British soldiers.

The protest will also demand that the British government end its involvement in an unjustifed and futile war now and bring all the troops home by Christmas.

The ceremony will be led by Joan Humphries, whose grandson was killed in Afghanistan. She will be joined by Paul Flynn MP, who was recently expelled from parliament for accusing the government of lying about Afghanistan

Also participating will be Mitra Quayoom from Afghans for Peace, actor Celia Mitchell, journalist Victoria Britain, Jeremy Corbyn MP, actor Miriam Margolyes, musician Dave Randall

Contact Stop the War    Address: 1B Waterlow Road, London N19 5NJ United Kingdom     E-Mail: office@stopwar.org.uk    Telephone: 0207 561 9311

A pesticide called Clothianidin is potentially killing bees and threatening our food supply. An EPA consultation on whether to suspend the use of these toxic pesticides closes on Tuesday. Let’s seize this opportunity to save the bees and flood the EPA with public support to stop these pesticides! Send an urgent message to the EPA now

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Plans by the U.S. to maintain a Special Forces occupation of Afghanistan until 2024 are being severely tested. But only press from other countries reports what the two main reasons why the people of Afghanistan demand that U.S. forces just leave are: • Continued aerial bombing by NATO/US forces. Sunday, NATO claimed it killed 45 “insurgents” in an airstrike in a remote province east of Kabul. But villagers brought the bodies of 8 women, including a girl 10 years old, to the governor’s office. They were shouting “death to America. They were condemning the attack,” said an Afghan official, according to Agence France Presse. How many times has this happened in almost 11 years? The U.S. NATO commanders dismiss it as necessary “collateral damage.” People who are allegedly being “saved” are expendable.

• An Afghan court has found that administrative detention (indefinite and without charges) violates Afghan law! The Obama–Karzai agreement that Afghan prisoners now being held by the US would be transferred to custody of the Karzai government for indefinite detention is in danger. One might think that it violates U.S. law, but not according to the Obama administration. So which country is more “civilized?” Thousands of Afghan men have been seized by the U.S. over 11 years, most charged with nothing.
STOP U.S. Aggression and Continued War on the World! Not in Our Name!
This war MUST end now, not in 2024, a date arrived at by Obama and Karzai, and not on an obscure date in the future!

Saturday/Sunday, October 6/7, falling one month before the election where the war is talked about only as “over,” must be marked by actions protesting the U.S. war on the world.

by Debra Sweet, Director World Can’t Wait

The massive, angry demonstrations and attacks on U.S. embassies sweeping through the Muslim world comes in the context of a campaign against Muslims carried out by the U.S. government in an attempt to justify their wars against Muslim countries. This campaign includes preemptive prosecutions where FBI agents create phony plots and encourage behavior that can be prosecuted and attacks on civil liberties at home; the Peter King hearings; NYPD spying on Muslims; raids and detentions; and states that have passed anti-Muslim laws. It includes the physical attacks on Muslims, on mosques and on people who racist whites think are Muslims, like Sikhs, and opposition to Muslim building projects like Park 51 and much more.

This atmosphere encourages the kind of hateful anti-Muslim video that was produced. At some point, it had to be expected that Muslims around the world would react. The U.S. will spin this by focusing on the film and implying that all Muslims are crazy and do not support freedom of speech. However, this is a self-serving lie and a diversion from the real root causes. Humiliation is a necessary component of the cycle of abuse. It should be noted that similar attacks on Judaism and the Holocaust are prosecuted as hate crimes and that artists and musicians who have created work offensive to many Christians have been vilified and threatened.

We need to put the blame squarely where it belongs — on the U.S., which has been at war with the Muslim world in order to dominate and control resources and power. We have seen the utter destruction of Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan; drone attacks on Muslim countries we are not at war with, including Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia; and the persistent economic starvation and political suffocation of the Muslim people in Egypt, Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and other countries by US backed dictators enforcing Western dominance in the region. So-called “targeted assassinations” kill many innocent non-combatants and are viewed simply as “collateral damage” rather than murders, demonstrating how little the U.S. government values non-Western lives.

The fact that these protests came as a surprise to the U.S. State Department is a reflection of the arrogance and stupidity of a government that claims it is bringing freedom and democracy to the region through drone missiles, sanctions, assassinations, and occupations and expects the people to be grateful.

The unfortunate deaths of the American Ambassador in Libya and members of his security team are the direct result of violent, hypocritical, internally conflicted US policies in the region, whether the unanticipated result of the rioting triggered by the film or blowback for longstanding U.S. atrocities rooted in the ongoing wars. It is long past time to reject those policies and begin a new era based on respect for the dignity and humanity of every individual and of all the various cultures and religions of the world.

We must stand in solidarity with all the victims of U.S.-sponsored violence and repression.

END THE WARS & OCCUPATIONS! BRING ALL THE TROOPS HOME NOW!

NO DRONE ATTACKS! NO SANCTIONS! HANDS OFF SYRIA & IRAN!

END RACIST REPRESSION, RAIDS, FRAME-UPS & ISLAMOPHOBIA AT HOME!

More than four years ago, decked out in his trademark yellow cap and shirt, Larry Gibson famously waited his turn at a political rally in Beckley, W. Va., and finally got the chance to ask then-presidential candidate Barack Obama whether he would defend the land and people of central Appalachia.

Few people in our country were so fearless in the face of political pressure, bankers, Big Coal backlash and even death threats; and fewer people had the inspiring impact of this determined mountaineer, who had spent the last two decades crisscrossing the country, leading protests and beseeching power brokers to defend his Appalachian mountains from reckless strip mining operations.

His message was simple and to the point: Love them or leave them, just don’t destroy them.

Today, working on his beloved Kayford Mountain homeplace — the symbolic sky island surrounded by nearly 8,000 acres of mountaintop removal devastation that has served as an important training ground for a generation of activists, educators and chroniclers — 66-year-old Larry Gibson reportedly died from a heart attack, as committed as ever as one of the most indefatigable, cherished and courageous spokespeople in the movement to abolish mountaintop removal mining.

And still waiting for Washington, D.C. to end to one of the most egregious human rights and environmental crimes in the nation.

And still waiting for an uprising in the hills of Appalachia, and the halls of Congress and the White House to join him on the frontlines of social justice.

Larry Gibson, photo courtesy of Vivian Stockman, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

“I never wanted to become an activist, but I had to,” Gibson told interviewer Taylor Lee Kirkland in 2009. He continued:

If I hadn’t I would have been torn off this mountain a long time ago. There are thousands of people around the world who have heard me speak since I started this work, but honestly I wish to God no one knew my name. I wish I didn’t have to leave my home and talk to people about mountaintop removal. Last year I traveled eight months out of the year talking to people about this stuff. But I know I have to bring this message to the world and I’m gonna fight for justice in every way I can. We have to have an uprising. This isn’t an uprising that can be bought with money, but one that’s coming from the hearts of honest and hardworking people.

As the news of Gibson’s tragic loss spreads tonight, thousands of students, educators, activists, Washington wonks and policy analysts, and journalists and filmmakers from around the nation and world continue to release statements and post photos of how one mountaineer changed their lives in his pursuit for justice on Kayford Mountain, and his patience in greeting everyone at this homeplace.

“I spent the day with Larry on Thursday,” acclaimed photographer Paul Corbit Brown emailed me. “To say he had an enormous impact on all of our lives wouldn’t be enough. To say he was a hero wouldn’t be enough. To say he changed our lives wouldn’t be enough. To say has was deeply loved and will be missed wouldn’t be enough. But let me tell you what was on his heart just days ago. He stressed that this fight was never about him or his mountain alone. It was, and is, about all of us and our shared future. It is about the thousands of young people that he called his kids. It is about those not yet born. It wasn’t about Larry Gibson and a mountain. He wanted to be a voice for all people and the mountains and homes they love. He wanted to speak for Justice and to inspire those too frightened to speak. And even those who called Larry an enemy and wished to do him harm, he spoke of them, still, as “his People.” Rest in Peace, Larry. It was only appropriate that you should be on your mountain when you left this world. You can rest assured that we who you left behind will not rest until we finish the work you so passionately and courageously began.”

“Larry was one of the strongest, kindest, most dedicated peaceful warriors for justice I’ve ever known in my life,” said Rory McIlmoil, a West Virginia-based coal and clean energy analyst. “And that no matter who you were, or which side you were on, Larry’s smile, his laugh, and his compassion would remind you that we’re all human and that we should care and fight for each other. I’m definitely going to miss Larry Gibson.”

“The world is better for all Larry did to try to ensure a future hope for besieged and blasted generations of Appalachia,” said Bob Kincaid, president of the Coal River Mountain Watch board. “At Kayford Mountain, he was among the first to show the world the ravages of Mountaintop Removal, making real and immediate and undeniable the coal industry’s most dirty secret. Where I’m sure he is, I know the waters run clear and cool, and the air is no longer choked with dust, and Larry smiles in leisure well-earned.”

“For those who love mountains, Larry was a god,” wrote Rob Perks, with the Natural Resources Defense Council in Washington, D.C. “There was no one like him, a man who literally put his life on the line to keep the coal industry from stealing our shared legacy. His spirit will live on in our continued fight to end The travesty of mountaintop removal.”

“Larry’s endlessly inspiring efforts and words are exemplary of a true hero,” noted Chelsea Marie Ritter-Soronen, a St. Louis-based artist who took part in Mountain Justice and direct action protests in West Virginia. “Like many, I’ll never forget the first time I heard him speak about mountaintop removal, it simply changed my life.”

People have to have heroes, but no person can ever be as big as the
need, and so a legend grows around a grain of truth, like a pearl.”
–Peter S. Beagle

STOP DRONE ATTACKS | FUND PITTSBURGH TRANSIT

My cell phone alarm clock went off at 5am.

I slowly took a shower and began to wake up to the day’s work. I drove
to a residential area that bordered Carnegie Mellon University (CMU)
campus. I emptied the contents of my pocket into the back seat. I
folded up an 11 by 17 inch piece of paper till it was a small square
and placed it in my back pocket. I took off my sandals and slowly put
on my steel toed work boots. i walked down the street and rested on a
wall by a bus stop, I sat there for a very long time and thought.
Because of a car accident I had as a pedestrian in 2001, I still have
trouble walking even a few blocks and have to stop to catch my breath. I
walked from the bus stop to my fave coffee shop, the 61c. Out of a
sense of nervousness I began devouring all of its cafe food, fresh
squeezed orange juice, hot croissants and a chocolate raspberry scone
together with a pond of decaf ice coffee. The Barista glanced at me wondering if
I was a Rothschild and this was my normal morning tribute to
consumerism. I sat and collected my thoughts. As the morning progressed a
friend walked in and asked, “hey aren’t you going to hear Obama speak
this morning?” I laughed a little bit too loud and gave him some vital phone
numbers. The activist lawyer shook his head and stated, “well Vincent
you will never be out of a job. Here is my private cell phone number, call
collect from jail and I’ll come visit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Urge Secretary Clinton to conduct a new and rigorous review of the Keystone XL!

TransCanada has submitted a revised application for the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, but the State Department is signaling it will not conduct the kind of thorough environmental review that President Obama promised. Tell Secretary Clinton to undertake a review that reveals the true and far-reaching impacts of this disastrous project!

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