One year anniversary of US invasion
of Iraq ignites protests
By Liz Allen
Asheville, North Carolina, Mar. 21 (AGR) — In commemoration
and opposition to the United States invading Iraq one year ago, two
rallies were held in Asheville. The first, on Friday, Mar. 19 was
organized by Students for Democracy and Peace (SDP), a group founded
by University of North Carolina Asheville (UNCA) students. The event
began with a rally on the campus and continued with a march through
the streets of downtown. Seven arrests were made, as were widespread
allegations of police brutality. On Saturday, Mar. 20, a Global Day
of Action against the war in Iraq rally and parade, organized by various
local peace organizations, was held at City County Plaza. Although
police presence was heavy, no arrests were made.
“I’m really proud of my campus right now. I hope this doesn’t
die here, I hope we can organize for IMF in April, G-8 in June, DNC
in July and we should totally be at the RNC in August,” Gentry,
a UNCA student and SDP member said. “People have to see us, we
have to be in the streets, creating a disturbance, people letting
the state know that if they do something we don’t approve of
we’re going to rise up against them.”
The UNCA rally was held on the quad with speakers on subjects ranging
from the Project for a New American Century, the destructive impact
war has on the environment, and the oppressive nature of initiatives
like a marriage amendment to the constitution.
Many signs and banners against the war were visible and tables held
zines, voter registration sheets, and petitions against racial profiling.
Food Not Bombs served a free meal of grilled cheese sandwiches, grilled
on site, and vegan spaghetti.
“This is exactly what we should be doing on a university campus,
to be thinking about the issues, ‘What is democracy?’ ‘What
does it involve?’ ‘Who gets equality?’ and their implications
for the political, economic and social realms of public policy. We
cannot talk about war and peace in kind of seclusion of all other
things,” remarked Dr. Keya Maitra, UNCA philosophy professor.
Maitra spoke at the rally about globalization’s effect on India,
the most populous democracy in the world.
After the last speech, masks splattered with red paint, in mourning
for those injured by the war, were distributed and drums -- mostly
painted buckets and pvc pipes -- were beaten. Two 10 foot tall puppets
were present. Around 150 marched down the school’s main entrance
and towards downtown, via Merrimon Ave.
“You have to do something different so that people take notice
to it, so that their daily routine is interrupted,’” said
Angela Holly, a UNCA student, shortly after the march’s inception.
While the march proceeded many people in cars honked their horns,
and flashed peace or thumbs-up signs.
At the intersection between the Shell and Exxon gas stations a tire,
shopping cart, and barricade were thrown into the street. As the march
crossed the road a banner that read “Bush is a Terrorist”
was dropped from the Interstate 240 bridge over Merrimom Ave. As Merrimon
Ave. changed into Broadway most marchers moved off the sidewalk and
into the street. The march took a right and proceeded up College St.
in the middle of the road, despite being tailed by three police cars
ordering over the loudspeaker: “For your own safety, utilize
the sidewalk.” Once at the Federal Building on Patton Ave. the
march gathered rowdily in the front plaza as police cars and around
20 uniformed officers began to gather, some taking large canisters
of pepper spray and bundles of plastic handcuffs out of the trunks
of their cars.
During this time “Killers” was graffitied in red on the
Federal Building premises and a bloody effigy was impailed on the
large abstract iron sculpture in front of the building. After reportedly
being told to leave by security on the premises the march moved up
Battery Park, around the Grove Arcade shop area. David, visiting Asheville
from Old Fort, watching the march pass the Grove Arcade, commented
just prior to police making arrests, that he is for peace, and no
war in Iraq. David called marching in the streets without a permit
“a god-given right, you don’t need to ask permission for
that.”
On Page Ave. in front of onlookers from shops and restaurants, police
began forcibly arresting demonstrators amidst the crowd’s chants
of “Shame! Shame!” and banging drums. Many linked arms and
vocally opposed the police’s actions. Although at least ten officers,
including arresting officers were questioned, police refused to report
as to why the arrests were made.
“The cops were totally unprepared to the point of embarrassing
themselves in the street and apparently felt the need to compensate
by using excessive force. In a period of several minutes I was punched
in the face and knocked out for a couple seconds, the person standing
next to me was violently arrested, and someone else was tazed after
he was already on the ground,” stated a march attendee who wished
to remain anonymous.
All seven of the arrestees were released without appearing before
a magistrate, on misdemeanor charges including obstructing the flow
of traffic, inciting a riot, and assault on a government official.
An individual who refused to be identified was charged with obstructing
and delaying justice. Roberto Hess, arrested on Page Ave., reported
that when arrested he was on the sidewalk, tazed 3 times, and later
charged with inciting a riot. “The cops brought out their taze
guns and started threatingly pointing them at everyone, at their faces.
I’m like, ‘Put those away, there’s no reason for you
to have those taze guns out pointing at everyone, threatening them.’
“A white police officer comes up and two handedly shoves me back
because I was saying why do you have the tazers out, so I fall back
into the store front. And I say ‘What the fuck did you do that
for?’ And then this black guy comes behind him, and literally
throws me on the cement, pins me with his knee, handcuffs me in the
back, is trying to get my other arm around, keep in mind I’m
already pinned, and another officer comes up and tazes me three times,
right here (points to side) and on the back of my legs.”
While being tazed, Hess yelled: “This is not America!”
“There was no one struck with a tazer. There was a tazer deployed,
but the tazer did not make contact with the person. Every incident
like that, results in a rather detailed documented report,” John
Dankel, Asheville Police Department (APD) public information, reported
in an interview at the peace march the next day.
“I can imagine the officer having the tazer in his hand and directing
people to stay on the sidewalk, but the point is he didn’t use
it,” Dankel said. “If people were standing in handcuffs
and all they were doing is hollering with the crowd and they were
tazed or assaulted in any way, they need to file a complaint because
the police department takes those kinds of allegations very seriously.”
Dankel said he was not present at the march on Friday but thought
everyone arrested was charged with obstructing the flow of traffic,
plus the one obstructing and delaying justice charge.
“People have been really supportive and coming up to me and saying
‘How are you doing? Are you doing ok?’ but the main thing
is not how I’m doing, I’m fine. This shows where our country
is headed, we need to be worried about whether our country, our democracy,
our freedom to assemble peacefully is ok,” Hess explained. He
said he is considering filing a complaint with the APD. “Those
cops did that to a peaceful person, in broad daylight, in front of
200 witnesses, in the middle of a downtown street; imagine, those
same police officers, in a poor neighborhood, in an African American
neighborhood, when no one is watching.”
At the international Global Day of Action peace rally on Saturday,
Steve Rasmussen of Asheville Justice Watch commented, “There’s
a lot of police that don’t like the way things are. That don’t
like the fact that a good old boy elite runs APD. They’re just
as dissatisfied with APD’s leadership as we, the people, are
that are getting cracked down on at these rallies.” Rasmussen
said he believed a citizen’s review board is important for complaints
to be independently investigated.
Watching the Friday march pass, Raymond, who didn’t want to give
his name because he was on the job, said demonstrators are protesting
a year late. “I don’t like war, but the Bible says there
shall be wars, and I’m a good Bible-believing Christian and you
can’t negotiate with terrorists. I think the president made a
wise decision in protecting us.” He called the lack of evidence
of WMDs “a side issue thrown in there to make the president look
bad.”
Noah Campbell who was watching the march pass remarked, “I wouldn’t
kill the women and children, but we shouldn’t have no tyrants
neither. I think we could have handled it a different way.” Other
observers also said they opposed the war.
After the police confrontations, the march snaked through town, mostly
on the sidewalk, and stopped at Vance monument, at the far end of
the drained reflecting pool. The remaining marchers, with the addition
of people who joined en route, held a moment of silence and police,
who had begun to box the demonstrators in, moved across the street
during this time, while WLOS news cameras filmed, although no mention
of the march was made on the news that night.
“What’s important is the people walking down the street,
riding by, people up in those windows up there. They see that this
student body is not just stuck up on that campus and all the reputation
that we have as a left-wing, trouble-making campus is actually pretty
damn well deserved,” said Niky Ring, UNCA student and SDP organizer,
to participants. A bucket was passed around to collect money for those
arrested and a few people in the crowd yelled across the street to
the police: “Anybody got any spare change? We got assaulted!”
The marchers then consensed to return to campus and marched down Broadway.
Five police cars and a horse cop followed. One of the police vehicles
held, in addition to three officers, the puppet that was taken from
arrestee and puppeteer Willy Rosenencras. Also, the march seemed to
provoke a man to leave his place of business, yelling at marchers
and wielding two tire irons.
The Peace Rally and parade on Saturday, held in conjunction with other
protests around the world, was more subdued. Speeches primarily centered
on voting Bush out of office. Musical performances and poetry were
also featured. One speaker discussed how soldiers often suffer from
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Cries of “Vote!” “Vote!”
were made by the crowd when speaker James Robertson urged the crowd
“to get out of the voting booths and into the streets…out
of permitted parades and into the action…out of the mindset that
defacing a gas station with graffiti is violent but Asheville cops
macing and tazering protesters are just doing their jobs. It’s
time to get out of Congress and into the struggle. It’s time
to fight back, not just against Bush, but against the systems of poverty,
racism, sexism.” Robertson citied the Democratic party’s
support of policies in the Middle East and the fact that those under
age or with felony charges are unable to vote as reasons to abstain
from voting.
Also during the rally, the Terrible Tales of Timoney puppet troupe
performed and one rally attendee became so frustrated with the event’s
line-up he grabbed the program from an MC and ate it. Prior to marching,
MC GraceHarrison thanked the APD for their help and cooperation and
encouraged people to perhaps march two by two. Around five o’clock,
approximately 400 people marched on the sidewalk about four blocks
total to leave wooden crosses and stars of David under the Iraq war
causalty billboard, in honor of those who have lost thier lives to
the war in Iraq.
Dankel said 35 extra officers were out to help patrol the march and
assured that large canisters of pepper spray present is standard practice.
When asked about specific terms of the permit for the march and rally
he said that there was a permit to use City -– County Plaza but,
“They couldn’t get a permit to walk in the streets and close
down the streets — that probably would not have been granted,
the permit would assume they’re going to walk on the sidewalk.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to get a permit to march
in the street, [but] with a crowd this size it could easily enough
be handled on the sidewalk without disrupting traffic.”
Anti-war protests held worldwide
Compiled by Josh Ferguson
Mar. 23 (AGR)— On Saturday, Mar. 20, the one year anniversary
of the American invasion of Iraq, protesters worldwide gathered
to speak out against the American-led occupation. Demonstrations
began in Asia and moved westward with the sun, all across Europe
and the Americas in what organizers referred to as a “global
day of action.”
The predominantly peaceful protests condemned US policy in Iraq,
claiming that Iraqis are no better off and that the world at large
is no safer because of the war.
About 25,000 demonstrators gathered in central London, many carrying
“Wanted” posters bearing images of President Bush and
British Prime Minister Tony Blair, his main ally in the occupation.
At 6:15am two Greenpeace protesters evaded security to climb the
landmark Big Ben clock tower at the Houses of Parliament, unfurling
a banner reading “Time for Truth.” In an official statement,
Harry Westaway, one of the two climbers said that “we have
achieved what we wanted. It’s wet and windy but it’s worth
it.”
In Rome, riot police stood by as a festive and trouble-free procession
wound its way through the ancient streets. Several hundred thousand
demonstrators took to the streets, as a truck pulled a caricature
of Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi as the lap dog of George
W Bush. The protest was generally considered to be the largest of
the day, with estimates ranging from 300,000 to 1,000,000 in attendance.
Concern over the war has also been evident in Spain, where thousands
demonstrated a week after voting out the conservative government
that sent troops to Iraq. Madrid reportedly saw 100,000, while in
Barcelona, organizers said up to 200,000 marchers took part in a
protest, many carrying an enormous “Peace” sign.
Many Spaniards blamed Madrid’s support for the war for the
Mar. 11 train bombs, blamed on Islamic militants, which killed 202
people.
Spanish Prime Minister-elect Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, having
pledged to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq, has called the war a
“disaster” and a “fiasco.”
Thousands of Australians took to the streets calling for the withdrawal
of the 2,000 Australian troops serving in Iraq, who were deployed
despite huge public opposition. In Sydney, protesters carried a
five foot high effigy of Prime Minister John Howard in a cage to
represent Australian suspects detained at the US military prison
camp in Guantanamo Bay.
In the Hungarian capital, Budapest, demonstrators holding blazing
torches formed a human peace sign in the city’s Heroes’
Square and called for Hungarian troops to be withdrawn from Iraq.
In New York, tens of thousands created a sea of signs surrounding
midtown Manhattan, many of them criticizing Bush, who is running
for re-election in November. Signs included “Money For Jobs
and Education not for War and Occupation,” “Bush Lies,”
and “End Occupation of Iraq.” Despite the large number
of protesters, the event ran smoothly, and only four persons were
reportedly arrested.
Anti-war activists gathered at a park in the small central Texas
town of Crawford but out of sight of Bush’s ranch there. Others
gathered in Fayetteville, North Carolina, home of Fort Bragg, one
of the biggest US military bases.
“I hate George Bush and everything he stands for and this war
of vanity,” said Don Marshburn, 72, a disabled Navy veteran
from Newton Grove, North Carolina. “I’m sick of bombs.
It didn’t do anything over there and it didn’t do anything
over here.”
In Chicago, protesters carrying banners and pounding drums gathered
on the city’s Michigan Avenue before marching through downtown.
Lines of police in full riot gear lined the streets as the march
progressed to the downtown Federal Plaza.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson addressed the demonstrators, encouraging
them to express their opposition to the war by voting against President
Bush in this year’s general election.
“We are a great nation,” Jackson said. “It’s
time to fight back: Remember in November.”
Bush remains defensive
At a campaign rally in Florida, President George W. Bush touted
Iraq as an “essential victory” in Washington’s war
on terror and hit back at criticism of his decision to invade without
more international support.
“I’m all for united action, and so are our 34 coalition
partners in Iraq right now,” he said. “Yet America must
never outsource America’s national security decisions to the
leaders of other countries.”
Claiming that differences of opinion over the war belonged “in
the past,” he stated that “any sign of weakness or retreat
simply validates terrorist violence and invites more violence for
all nations.”
A year after the start of the Iraq war, Saddam Hussein has been
overthrown and captured, but no weapons stockpiles have been found.
These assumed presence of these stockpiles was the main US rationalization
for the war.
In Iraq itself, security itself had been heightened for the anniversary,
but no official ceremonies were organized to mark the day. There
were no reported demonstrations for or against the invasion and
occupation.
Correspondents say the majority of Iraqis are pleased that former
president Saddam Hussein has been ousted, but deeply resent the
occupation of their country and are impatient to have their own
government.
Sources : BBC, Reuters, Infoshop.org
Israel assassinates Hamas leader
By George Wright
Mar. 22 — Palestinian militants today warned of swift
and bloody retaliation against Israel after it “opened the gates
of hell” by assassinating Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual
leader of militant group Hamas.
Yassin was killed in a missile strike by Israeli helicopters as he
left a mosque in Gaza city at dawn. Seven other people, including
the 67-year-old’s bodyguards, were killed. Another 17 -- including
two of Yassin’s sons -- were injured in the attack, according
to initial reports.
Witnesses described a horrific scene, with a large area of the pavement
where the missiles landed covered in blood and strips of clothing.
Yassin, who used a wheelchair, was said to have been directly hit
by the first missile, leaving his body severely disfigured.
Taxi driver Yousef Haddad, who was in a nearby shop at the time of
the attack and was one of the first on the scene, told the Associated
Press: “His wheelchair was twisted. Two or three people were
lying next to him on the ground. One was legless.”
Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, said to have personally overseen
the operation, brushed aside international condemnation and vowed
to continue the “daily” war on terror. He said Yassin was
an “arch-terrorist” responsible for orchestrating a wave
of suicide bombings.
An Israeli defense spokeswoman said the assassination of Yassin --
the most prominent Palestinian leader to be killed in more than three
years of Israeli-Palestinian fighting -- was a “life-saving mission.”
But Hamas and other militant groups warned of an immediate explosion
in violence in the Middle East as an estimated 200,000 mourners poured
on to the streets of Gaza for Yassin’s funeral procession.
His body, wrapped in a green Hamas flag, was carried along the route
in an open coffin, accompanied by an honorary Hamas guard.
In scenes repeated in towns across the occupied territories, angry
crowds called for revenge against Israel and the US, and masked militants
fired automatic rounds into the air.
Violent clashes between demonstrators and Israeli security forces
broke out and at least four Palestinians -- including a 13-year-old
boy and a journalist -- were reported to have been killed when Israeli
soldiers fired on the crowds.
“Words cannot describe the emotion of anger and hate inside our
hearts,” said Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh, who was a close
associate of Yassin.
Abu Abeer, spokesman for a group of militant Palestinian organizations
in the occupied territories, told pan-Arab satellite channel al-Arabiya
there would be “swift and serious” repercussions.
“They have opened the gates of hell,” he warned. “For
us, everything is now permissible after this assassination.”
For the first time, Hamas threatened revenge on the US as well as
Israel, saying that US backing of Israel had made Yassin’s assassination
possible. The White House denied any involvement in the operation.
“All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the
retaliation for this crime,” Hamas said in a statement.
Within hours of the assassination, large protests erupted in Lebanon,
Yemen and Egypt, where students flooded onto the streets of the capital
Cairo and burned US and British flags.
Yassin, who escaped an Israeli assassination attempt last September,
was sentenced to life imprisonment by Israel in 1989 for founding
Hamas and inciting Palestinians to attack Israelis.
He was released in 1997 as a goodwill gesture to Jordan’s King
Hussein after a failed Israeli attempt to assassinate another Hamas
leader in Amman.
According to the Israeli daily Ha’aretz, the Israeli security
cabinet made the decision to target him once more following a double
suicide bombing at the Ashdod port earlier this month in which 10
people were killed.
Sharon oversaw the operation, receiving constant updates from military
officials at his Negev ranch, the paper reported.
Political leaders across the Arab world and beyond lined up to condemn
Israel’s action, while the US appealed for calm on both sides.
The Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Qureia, said: “This is
one of the biggest crimes that the Israeli government has committed.”
Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat described the assassination as a
“barbaric crime.” His aides expressed fears that he might
be next on Israel’s list of assassination targets.
In London, prime minister Tony Blair’s official spokesman said:
“What has happened this morning is clearly a setback. There is
no point pretending otherwise. It goes without saying that the prime
minister also condemns today’s killing.”
EU foreign ministers said in a joint statement that the “extra-judicial
killing” was likely to ignite tensions in the Middle East.
Condoleezza Rice said the United States did not have advance warning
of the assassination. She said: “It is very important that everyone
step back now and try now to be calm in the region. There is always
a possibility of a better day in the Middle East.”
But in Kuwait -- one of the US’s closest allies in the Arab world
-- the prime minister, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Sabah, warned: “Violence
will increase now, because violence always breeds violence.”
Meanwhile, Israeli security forces were placed on high alert following
the attack. Israel closed its borders on the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
barring all Palestinians from entering. Israel’s military commander,
Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, met senior officers in Tel Aviv to
discuss the possible fallout, and more forces were ordered to the
Gaza Strip.
In a first response, Palestinian militants fired 10 home-made rockets
toward an Israeli settlement in Gaza. There were no immediate reports
of injuries.
Source: Guardian (UK)
Bush ignored al-Qaida threat before
Sept. 11
By Rupert Cornwell
Washington, DC, Mar. 22— A veteran White House anti-terrorism
official has accused President George Bush of ignoring the threat
from al-Qaida before Sept. 11, 2001 - and then at once seeking
to hold Iraq responsible, despite being told by intelligence advisers
that Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks.
In an interview with the CBS program 60 Minutes yesterday, Richard
Clarke, who served under Presidents Reagan and Clinton as well as
both Bushes, described a meeting with Bush a day after Sept. 11 at
which the President put pressure on him to go after an Iraqi connection:
“I want you to find out whether Iraq did this.”
When Clarke, then the White House policy co-coordinator on anti-terrorism,
told him US intelligence had concluded that Iraq had no links with
al-Qaida terrorism, Bush was insistent. “He came back at me and
said, ‘Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there’s a connection.’
And in a very intimidating way ... I mean that we should come back
with that answer.”
Clarke’s claims, set out in greater detail in a book published
today entitled Against All Enemies, is bound to fuel debate on two
entwined issues that may be decisive in the 2004 presidential election
- whether this Bush administration could have done more to prevent
Sept. 11, and precisely why and when it decided to go to war with
Iraq.
In the case of the latter, the book will only reinforce the suspicion
that Bush’s recourse to the United Nations in September 2002,
and the few weeks of UN inspections before the war, were a fig leaf.
The impression given by Against All Enemies is that the basic decision
to topple Saddam was taken before, or at the latest shortly after,
the attacks on New York and Washington. Last night the White House
flatly denied the charges, dismissing Clarke’s accusations as
“an audition for a job” on the campaign of John Kerry, the
Democratic nominee designated to face Bush in November.
But they come at a highly sensitive moment. This week, Clarke and
former senior Clinton aides including his Secretary of State, Madeleine
Albright, will testify to the independent federal commission examining
the background to the World Trade Center attacks. They will insist
that during the 2000-01 presidential transition they repeatedly warned
that al-Qaida was the biggest foreign threat faced by the US.
Only four days after Bush’s inauguration, Clarke says he wrote
to Condoleezza Rice, the President’s national security adviser,
seeking a cabinet-level meeting on al-Qaida and international terrorism.
But nothing happened. Only a week before the September attacks was
the cabinet meeting held.
It was outrageous, Clarke told 60 Minutes, that the President was
running for re-election “on the grounds he’s done such great
things about terrorism. He ignored it. He ignored terrorism for months,
when maybe we could have done something to stop 9/11.”
Instead, the incoming Bush team focused on the same Cold War issues
that pre-occupied his father’s administration, notably the “Star
Wars” missile defense shield, and Iraq. “It was as if they
were preserved in amber from when they left office eight years earlier,”
he said.
At a meeting in April 2001 attended by Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary
of Defense and a decade-long advocate of toppling Saddam, Clarke again
warned of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden. But Wolfowitz, he says, would
have none of it. “No, no, no, we don’t have to deal with
al-Qaida. Why are we talking about that little guy? We have to talk
about Iraqi terrorism against the United States.”
Wolfowitz is known to have called for an attack on Iraq at a Camp
David meeting on Sept. 15, 2001, just four days after the attacks.
According to Clarke, however, the focus at the White House was on
Iraq even sooner, on Sept. 12.
Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iraq’s most influential Shia Muslim
cleric, said on Mar. 21 that the United Nations must not endorse the
US-backed interim constitution because it could lead to the break-up
of the occupied country.
“The religious establishment fears the occupation authorities
will work on a new UN resolution to give the interim constitution
international legitimacy,” he said. “We warn that any step
will not be acceptable to the majority of Iraqis and will have dangerous
consequences.”
The ayatollah said the proposed three-person presidential council,
which would be composed of a Sunni Muslim, a Kurd and a Shia Muslim,
would be required to make unanimous decisions. “This builds a
basis for sectarianism,” he said.
Source: Independent (UK)
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