Three Peace Events Announcements Peace Concert; Peace Rally; Britain: Stop the War Events === Peace Is Theme Of Vets Week Concert Singers, musicians, and songwriters of the Bay Area will perform songs of peace at a benefit "Veterans Week Peace Concert" on Saturday, November 13, from 7 to 10 p.m., in Berkeley. The place: the Connie Barbour Room at the Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists (BFUU), Bonita Avenue and Cedar Street. Among the performers (whose pictures are at http://warandlaw.org) will be: * Annie and the Vets (Anne E. and Phil Pflager and George Johnson), an ensemble of Veterans for Peace "promoting peace through music." * Vic Sadot, singer-songwriter. * Julie Smolin, versatile violinist and singer. * Daniel Zwickel ben Avram, singer, guitarist, and composer. Sponsored by BFUU's Social Justice Committee, the concert will aid both BFUU and the War and Law League (WALL). At least a $10 donation is suggested. If you're short of funds, come anyway. Refreshments will be available. Donors who sign with WALL will get the new pamphlet "OUR LONGEST WAR: U.S. vs. the people of Afghanistan -- and now Pakistan." Travel directions are at bfuu.org, (510) 841-4824. For more information, you may contact Jeannette at (415)738-8298 or [log in to unmask] The nation has officially observed Veterans Day, November 11, since 1954. Earlier it was Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I in 1918. == Let's Rally to Restore Peace Monday 01 November 2010 by: Marjorie Cohn, t r u t h o u t | Op-Ed photo (Photo: Ava Lowery; Edited: Jared Rodriguez / t r u t h o u t) In their Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert effectively demonstrated how the media hypes fear. They brought out Kareem Abdul Jabbar to show that not all Muslims are terrorists. A couple of musical numbers dealt with the wars we are fighting. But neither Stewart nor Colbert mentioned Iraq or Afghanistan and how they are allowed to continue by the hyping of fear. Like his predecessor, President Obama also hypes fear - by connecting his war in Afghanistan to keeping us safe, even though CIA Director Leon Panetta recently admitted that only 50 to 100 al-Qaeda fighters are there. Hoping to put the unpopular Iraq war behind him, Obama declared combat operations over, although 50,000 US troops and some 100,000 mercenaries remain. Tragically, both wars have largely disappeared from the national discourse. On October 22, WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 previously classified US military documents about the Iraq war. They contain startling evidence of more than 1,300 incidents of torture, rape, abuse and murder by Iraqi security forces while the US government looked the other way. During this time, the Bush administration issued a "fragmentary order" called "Frago 242" not to investigate detainee abuse unless coalition troops were directly involved. US authorities failed to investigate hundreds of reports of torture, rape, abuse and murder by Iraqi soldiers and police. Manfred Nowak, the United Nation's Special Rapporteur on Torture, called on Obama to order a complete investigation of US forces' involvement in human rights abuses. Many reports of abuse are supported by medical evidence. Prisoners were shackled, blindfolded and hung by their wrists and ankles. Some were whipped with cables, chains, wire and pistols. Some were burned with acid and cigarettes. Electric shocks were applied to genitals, fingernails were ripped off and fingers cut off. Some were sodomized with hoses and bottles. Six died from their torture. And there are reports of widespread killing of civilians by US and other coalition forces. But after a couple of days of reporting about the largest incident of whistle blowing in our history, news of the WikiLeaks revelations has disappeared from the news cycle. Both torture and the targeting of civilians are war crimes. And, in spite of the reports of torture, Obama completed the handover of 9,250 detainees to the Iraqi government in July 2010. In so doing, he has violated the Convention Against Torture, which forbids a party from expelling, returning or extraditing a person to a country where there are substantial grounds to believe he will be in danger of being subjected to torture. This is called nonrefoulement. The United States has ratified the Torture Convention, making it part of US law under the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution. The newly released documents show that between 2004 and 2009, at least 109,032 Iraqis died, including 66,081 civilians. More than 80 percent of those killed in incidents related to convoys or at checkpoints throughout Iraq were civilians. Pregnant women were shot dead, priests were kidnapped and murdered and Iraqi prison guards used electric drills to get prisoners to confess. A US helicopter crew was granted approval to attack two Iraqis on the ground even though the pilots reported that the men were trying to surrender. Under the 1907 Hague Regulations, it is prohibited "to kill or wound an enemy who, having laid down his arms, or having no longer means of defence, has surrendered at discretion." Last year, 239 American soldiers took their own lives and 1,713 soldiers survived suicide attempts; 146 soldiers died from high-risk activities, including 74 drug overdoses. One-third of returning troops report mental health problems, and 18.5 percent of all returning service members have post-traumatic stress disorder or depression, according to a study by the Rand Corporation. Stewart spent a whole show last week interviewing Obama about everything from health care to the economy. But neither man mentioned the wars, even though the billions spent on them could go a long way toward fixing the economy and paying for health care. It is time to put the wars back on the national agenda. Iraq Veterans Against the War issued a statement saying, "We grieve for the Iraqi and Afghan lives that were lost and destroyed in these wars. We also grieve for our brothers and sisters in arms, who have been lost to battle or suicide ... We demand a real end to both wars, including immediate withdrawal of the 50,000 "non-combat" troops who remain in Iraq. The Iraq War Logs underscore the urgent need for peace, healing, and reparations for all who have been harmed by these wars. The first step is to bring our brothers and sisters home." We cannot rely on Obama to end the wars. It's up to us to put sustained pressure on him to do it. === STOP THE WAR COALITION Newsletter No.1176 01 November 2010 Email [log in to unmask] Tel: 020 7801 2768 Web: http://stopwar.org.uk Twitter: http://twitter.com/STWuk 1) THREE WEEKS TO AFGHANISTAN NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION AFGHANISTAN: TIME TO GO - TROOPS HOME NOW NATIONAL DEMONSTRATION SATURDAY 20 NOVEMBER 2010 ASSEMBLE 12 NOON SPEAKERS' CORNER HYDE PARK LONDON MARCH TO TRAFALGAR SQUARE There are three weeks till the TIME TO GO demonstration in London on Saturday 20 November. The demonstration is timed to coincide with the Lisbon NATO conference at which Afghanistan will be the main talking point. For all the talk of diplomacy and troop drawdown, there are more NATO troops in the country than at any time since 2001. This year has seen the highest number of casualties amongst Afghan civilians and NATO troops since the invasion, and there is widespread recognition that the war is a disaster. The 20 November demonstration, which has been called by Stop the War, CND and the British Muslim Initiative, will be led by members of military families who oppose the war and want to see their loved ones return immediately. They will be joined by Joe Glenton, the soldier who went to prison for refusing to return to Afghanistan to fight a war he believed to be unjustified. College and school students from across the country will be out in force, raising the slogan "Fund Education Not War" and protesting against a war that has now lasted as long as World I and World War II combined. Coaches are being organised to bring protesters from outside London. The list of towns organising coaches, and details of how to book a place, will be updated here: http://bit.ly/cDXKmN 2) HOW TO HELP BUILD THE DEMONSTRATION We do not want anyone after the demonstration to be able to say they were not on the demonstration because they did not know about it. This is why we are asking all our supporters not just to come on the demonstration but actively to help publicise it as widely as possible. Everyone can contribute: * EMAIL: Email all your contacts with details of the demonstration and encourage them to join us; * LEAFLETING: Order leaflets, window posters and stickers from the national office (020 7801 2768) and use them to spread the word among your friends, family, work colleagues, fellow students etc; * FACEBOOK, TWITTER, BLOGS: If you use social media networks, these can be one of the most effective ways of publicising the demonstration very widely; * LOCAL STOP THE WAR GROUPS: If there is a local group in your area, they will very much welcome you joining their activities promoting the demonstration. Call the national office for contact details. 3) SPREADING THE WORD IN LONDON Campaigning for the November 20 demonstration will be particularly intense in London over the next three weeks, with systematic leafleting of tube stations, mosques, shopping centres, work places, colleges, schools etc. Public meetings, cavalcades and street theatre events are planned by London Stop the War Groups. If you live in London, any time you can spare to help mobilise for the demonstration will be very much appreciated. Contact the Stop the War national office for details of activities in your area: call 020 7801 2768 or email [log in to unmask] 4) MILITARY FAMILIES GO TO DOWNING STREET On Friday 19 November - the eve of the national TIME TO GO demonstration -- Joan Humphries, who lost her grandson in Afghanistan, will lead a group of military families who are campaigning to get the troops out of Afghanistan to deliver a letter to David Cameron in Downing Street. They will be joined by former soldier Joe Glenton, who will hand into Cameron all his military medals. 5) STOP THE WAR'S NATIONAL CONFERENCE A BIG SUCCESS Stop the War's national Conference last Saturday brought together 300 anti war delegates from across the country. The atmosphere was lively and purposeful throughout a day of debates, which included contributions from Tony Benn, the Guardian's Seumas Milne, Kate Hudson from CND and Mohammed Sawalha from the British Muslim Initiative. A strategy document was adopted which committed Stop the War to continuing its campaigns over Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine, Iran and against the growing racism against Muslims. There was a high proportion of new and young activists at the conference, with particularly impressive contributions from college and school students, who reported a growing anger against the war in the context of the government's draconian cuts in public expenditure. The conference took particular satisfaction in the fact that the war criminal Tony Blair can no longer show his face in public for fear of the outrage it will provoke. But, as George Galloway pointed out, it is Blair's face behind bars that the anti-war movement is ultimately working towards. The final session was brought to its feet a number of times by the speeches of Tony Benn, George Galloway, ex-soldier Joe Glenton and Joan Humphries from Military Families Against the War, and the delegates left the conference is determined mood to do everything possible to make the 20 November demonstration truly representative of the anti-war majority in this country. _____________________________________________ Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. 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