A Courtroom Speech By Rosemarie Jackowski

On March 20, 2003, I participated in a peaceful protest against the war. I was arrested, incarcerated, handcuffed, booked, fingerprinted, had mug shots taken, put on trial, convicted and sentenced. My conviction is currently under Appeal in the Vermont State Supreme Court. Courtroom procedure allows the condemned the Right of Allocution. This was the first time that I was allowed to speak freely and openly to the court. Below are my words, as I spoke them, to Judge David Suntag, in Vermont District Court, in Bennington, Vt., on October 7, 2004.

Your Honor, I would like to express my gratitude to you, the Prosecutor Mr. McManus, the members of the Bennington Police Department, to my family, especially Christine, to all those who support me, and especially to Mr. Saltonstall.

It is my profound respect for the Rule of Law that brought me to the 4 corners on March 20, 2003. At the precise moment of my arrest, the federal government of the United States was bombing civilians. The bombing of civilians is a violation of international law, a violation of U.S. treaties, a crime against humanity, and a war crime. Now that same government is sitting in judgment of many who have protested the war. Last week, in a court in Philadelphia, Lillian Willoughby, an 89-year-old deaf woman, in a wheelchair, was sentenced to prison. She had participated in a peaceful protest. Also in Philadelphia, Andrea Ferich, a 22 year old, was sentenced and she has just spent a week in solitary confinement. She also had participated in a peaceful protest. I have just been told that Michael Berg, father of Nick Berg, was arrested in a peaceful protest on Saturday, in Washington. All over this country, hundreds of those who have peacefully protested the war, are now condemned by the government. The way that this country is headed, eventually, all people of peace will be behind bars. I am in solidarity with them and all others who have resisted the government in the past, or will do so in the future.

Your Honor, it is with deep respect that I voice some concerns. How can it be that a nation, that is itself in violation of the law, can then hope to impose the rule of law on its citizens? I believe that either the rule of law applies to everyone, or else it applies to no one. Even a nation as powerful as the United States, can not have it both ways. The fact that the government of the U.S. is in violation of the law, is a fact that has been documented by many around the world. William Blum, one of the world’s leading historians, and also former member of the U.S. State Dept., has authored several books on the topic…even naming one of his books about US foreign policy, Rogue State.

I have here a copy of the Indictment of 19 charges against members of the government as compiled by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. [I held the documents up for all to see.] Also, here is a statement from a group of U.S. law professors. The statement is entitled “U.S. Lawyers Warn Bush on War Crimes.” Also, here is a report from an international human rights organization that is accredited by the United Nations. This report documents extensive U.S. war crimes in Iraq. This is just a small sample of information that is easily available. Can all of these experts be wrong? Also, I have here an Associated Press report that was released shortly before my arrest, stating that the U.S. was threatening to use nuclear weapons. That, too, is a war crime.

Your Honor, I believe that our government will not regain its legal and moral authority until it gives up its life of International Crime, and in the words of William Blum, is no longer a rogue state. It is important to say here, that the war in Iraq is not the first violation of human rights and International Law by the U.S. The abuse of people, people just like you and me, started back in 1492 and has been a consistent pattern ever since. Talk to some Native Americans, especially now that Columbus Day is upon us. Talk to our black brothers and sisters. Talk to the people of Diego Garcia or Panama or Hiroshima or Cuba….the list is endless.

As individual citizens, we all have rights and responsibilities. I believe that it is the responsibility of all citizens to resist any government, anywhere, anytime, when that government is slaughtering civilians. I, and many other protesters that I know, would gladly spend the rest of our lives in prison, if only the U.S. would stop bombing civilians.

I have always been opposed to any form of violence. Seeing the photographs of the bombed Iraqi children has changed my life and strengthened my commitment to working for justice for those children. I do not understand how anyone can stand by silently, while knowing that civilians are being bombed. If what I, and the many thousands of others who protested the war, did, was wrong…what then would be the right thing to do? If you saw a child being beaten up and murdered on Main Street by a gang of thugs, should you write a letter to the editor or call your congressman or write a book on how adults should interact with children? Of course not. When children are being killed, immediate, direct, and powerful intervention is called for. What the other protesters and I did should be criticized in only one area. We all did too little. To all of the people of Iraq, I would like to say, “I am sorry. I will try to do better in the future.”

I pray for the day when factory workers join with farmers, and police officers join with poets, and judges join with veterans in protesting the illegal acts of our government. Now is a time in history when silence is the greatest of all crimes.

What happens to me here today is not important. Since the day of my arrest, more than 13,000 Iraqi civilians, many of them children, have been killed. That IS important.

Rosemarie Jackowski is an advocacy journalist living in Vermont. She can be reached at dissent@sover.net.

Medical Prescription

Meaning to get a rifle for a while now. A high powered sniper rifle with an equally powerful scope, so I can see the look in the eyes of my prey, the moment the bullet hits their forehead. You should get one too, all of us should. We should also get accesories of battle fatigues, hunting knives, handguns, the works. Why? Why the hell not?

Then its practice, practice and some more practice. No need to practice on dumb targets or bottles, there’s plenty of crows for our benefit. If you miss, just keep practicing till you start seeing some blood oozing from your prey’s body parts. Armed and dangerous Bangladeshis should then proceed to any border town and there are many on the menu. Get a comfortable position, stock it with the essentials and start shooting anything Indian that moves. The hunt is on, it’s open season for us too. Haven’t you heard, it’s now illegal for Bangladeshis to sit idle when their fellow countrymen are being killed left, right and center. It’s illegal to be an inactive spectator and its specially illegal to feel helpless to oppression & injustice. Our elected officials are too busy lining their pockets and shipping it abroad, so stop being naive thinking that its their job. The Army is too busy making money also; check out the Trust Banks, Sena Kalyan Trust, (Destiny 2000) & the UN Peace keeping missions. I don’t want to get started with the criminals.. i meant the Police Force. They are too busy to think about lil’ ol’ you.. the common, helpless, innocent man/woman! So wake up and make your own bed, breakfast & coffee, your maid isn’t gonna clean your house for you.

If you want something done right, then do it yourself. Get yourself some machines of destruction, for the sake of defense if offense is not your cup of tea. Why? Have you looked at the newspapers recently or for a decade or so? Take a sabbatical from the world of social media, parties, hollywood, tv serieses and glamour and bite into reality. There is no security in your country. You are more llikely to die of unnatural causes at home, on the roads, in Masjids or in public places than naturally dying in bed. The Police might kill you or a speed-freak driver or your servant or a politician or even a businessman or even a student leader. It’s open season on you, because the population has boomed & life expectancy is at its highest, thus you are just another statistic. No one cares, not even the ones you pay with you taxes to protect you! So what do you do? Buy a weapon today or become a dead statistic.

Protest peacefully! haahaa, what a joke! The government goons will sweep onyou with machetes & barettas while unarmed, civilian you get a good beating or give your life on the streets. Protest with a gun and they’ll sit up and take notice. Protest by killing a corrupt cop a day or better yet a government official but the best targets would be a politician. Kill a politician a day to keep anarchy away! ACT NOW!

Our Spring

Rumble, rumble
Brewing trouble
Underneath
Serenity, a fairy tale
Molten elements in waves

Flowers have bloomed on bamboo groves
The rats are flossing their teeth
The dawn of mayhem is calling
Embroidered with war & famine
Peace elusive, forecasted

Silence before the blast
The sonic boom cuts through
The earth envelops, reclaims
Death it’s feces

The silent slowly awakes
Raises it’s hands in protest
Wages it’s tongues in rebellion
Fearless facing Goliath
Determined to change destiny
Forcing winter away
For the blossoming of the spring of contentment

More than Words

 

 

 

 

 

 

Action speaks much louder than words. Much louder! So why are we so inactive in chasing the dream of being a better person, a better human being? Better guardian of our fellow man, animals or the earth. We sit in front of our TV screens and see death & destruction upon the aforementioned, without lifting a finger tip to assist our brothers & sisters. One or two from amongst us do, lift a finger listening to their voices within. We criticize them too.

 

 

Silly of me to bring this up at a time like this when floods, hurricanes & political upheaval are upon us as a nation & that the “war on Islam” & victimizing innocent men, women & children are afoot worldwide, from the scrutiny of a citizen of The Nation of Islam. Still, we sit still, waiting for things to pass & be forgotten. Not a word uttered in the defense of one’s neighbour that we so fondly, (falsely) call our brother. Some of us claim that it is ‘their’ fight, trial or misery & that inactivity on the part of the onlooker is the standard action to be taken after the news or movie segment or the latest catastrophe hits. Where has this inactivity led us humans to? To inhumanness, if I may. All the lessons of our forefathers were mere folk tales of our childhood nostalgia. If it hasn’t hit you yet, it might hit your child’s conscience & one fine day he’ll question your conscience. A shrug of your shoulders or a phrase of falsehood might lead him to unaccountable ways, one day.

 

 

 

 

Words… words are nothing unlike the lies of politicians that have robbed us blind for generations. So why are we fond of speaking big words in public gatherings deafeningly. An empty drum beats loudly & the onlookers treat them like demigods. Why do these members of parliaments sit on their large behinds on towel adorned seats in the secretariats or at parliament rather than being with the people of his constituency? Listening to their grievances & solving them as is their job description. The elected officials forget their people as soon as they get elected, only to return back to beg for their votes with their propaganda blaring from rented speakers, just before the next election. Parents like politicians seem to have lost their morals also. They speak of principles & love laced words of standing by their children at times of strife & trial. Their words are proven false at their first crime & their inactivity emanates smoke signals of their claims of unconditional love being nothing but falsehood.

 

 

        Words… they cut like a knife. That must be the reason for another dictator to suppress voices & oppress his own people to keep his grip on power. Oppression has never perished the Truth. It has only made the masses conscious of it being suppressed. Some of us are blinded by the propaganda of falsehood, straining our voices to defend untruths, because it suits us & our lifestyles. My generation lives today in a world of falsehood, broken promises & conflict within the family, community or with other fellow humans of other races, religions, creeds or nations for reasons better understood by barbarians. Our previous generation takes responsibility for giving us birth & claim to have given us independence from the oppressors. We hold them responsible for the mess we see our world to be in, due to their insensitive ways with the environment, people, poverty, politics, law & order & most of all for keeping quite while their so called brothers raped our nation, tattered to shreds our culture & stained our beautiful religion, trashed our environment, among a list of things, just for personal gain.

 

        Oppressors are not solely blamed for the state of affairs today; those who stood silent & endured the oppression are equally responsible according to Holy Scriptures. Forget the collaborators of the enemy. What about the millions that stood silent during the carnage before the independence of the then East Pakistan and after? There was complete anarchy after independence. Banks were looted; innocents were raped & killed by the thousands, property was forcefully occupied, the weak were governed by the strong. A faulty foundation can never hold a sound building. It might collapse like house on cards at the hint of a moderate earthquake. Well the quake has hit & society as we know it is collapsing as we speak. Our beloved nation is wandering aimlessly for direction & leadership & so is our battered & tarnished Nation of Islam. An abstract war has been declared long ago. We just can’t wake up to smell the coffee. Then it just might not be coffee brewing in the first place. The truth isn’t just out there; it exists in your hearts & minds. One just has to look a little deep for it in this world of endless falsehood. I urge you to start acting now. Take action if you see injustice, first with your hands, if unable to, then speak against it, if one is unable to do either then possess hate for it in your hearts. Don’t just sit there!

Attacks by Buddists on Muslim children & women in Thailand

Pattani, Thailand- Unknown assailants attacked an Islamic
boarding school and mosque with war weapons in Yala province, part of
Thailand’s troubled deep South, in a dawn assault that left 16
injured, police said.
Police said the unknown assailants used M-79 rocket-propelled
grenade launchers to fire on the school in Yaha district of Yala, 760
kilometres south of Bangkok, an area that is already under curfew.

The attack injured 16 people, most of whom were teenage students,
said a Yaha police officer who asked to remain anonymous.

A grenade was also fired on a nearby mosque shortly after the
school attack, but no one was injured.

Yaha has been under a night to dawn curfew since last month, when
suspected Muslim militants attacked a passenger van in broad
daylight, killing eight Thai-Buddhists, including three women, but
spared the life of the driver, a Thai-Muslim.

Historical Event MAp of persecution of Muslims of Pattani, SOuth Thailand and Buddhism Thainess

 

Key historical dates:

 

1390-1902

 

Independent sultanate of Patani, comprising the present-day provinces of Patani, Yala, Narathiwat, and parts of Songkhla, ended when the

Kingdom of
Siam formally incorporated the sultanate.

 

1909

 

Anglo-Siamese Treaty recognized Siamese control over Patani and drew a border between Patani and the Malay states of Kelantan, Perak, Kedah and Perlis. The local aristocracy was deposed in favour of officials who spoke only Thai and reported exclusively and directly to
Bangkok.

 

1932

 

Constitutional monarchy was introduced with a parliamentary government.

 

1938

 

Regime of Phibun Songkhram came to power and it followed a policy of forced assimilation into mainstream ‘Buddhist Thainess’ aimed at creating the monolithic character of the state.

 

1940s

 

Emergence of Patani People’s Movement (PPM), a separatist movement fighting for an independent Patani

 

 

1948

 

250,000 Thai Malays petitioned the UN to oversee the accession of Patani, Narathiwat and Yala to the new Federation of Malaya.

 

 

28 April 1948

 

Dusun-nyor riot: clashes between Muslim villagers and police and military forces, led by religious leader, Haji Abdul Rahman, resulted in the deaths of some 400 Muslims, thousands more fled to Malaysia

 

 

1950s

 

Expansion of Malay resistance was accelerated by formation in Malaya of the Gabungam Melayu Patani Raya (GAMPAR, the Greater Patani Malayu Association), an organization set up to incorporate Thailand’s four majority Muslim provinces into Malaya and the Patani People’s Movement, a Thailand-based organization with the same goal.

 

1959

Time reports on ‘America’s broken-down Army’

Time reports on ‘America’s broken-down Army’ RAW STORY Published: Thursday April 5, 2007     President Bush’s rush to send thousands of additional troops into combat in Iraq has pushed the US Army to the point of crisis, according to an article by Mark Thompson in Time. As a result of the increased pressure to add more troops on the ground in Iraq, soldiers are receiving inadequate training, leaving them less equipped to handle combat. Time writes of one soldier, Matthew Ziemer, who was killed just two hours after taking up his combat post in Iraq, having been in Iraq only a week. Prior to deployment, Zeimer received nine weeks of basic training but was forced to miss the standard 4 weeks of pre-Iraq training that troops deployed previously received. “Instead, Zeimer and about 140 other members of the 4,000-strong brigade got a cut-rate, 10-day course on weapon use, first aid and Iraqi culture,” writes Thompson. “That’s the same length as the course that teaches soldiers assigned to generals’ household staffs the finer points of table service.” According to Thompson, that lack of training may have contributed to Zeimer’s death. “Zeimer’s mother was unaware of the gap in her son’s training until TIME told her about it on April 2,” he writes. “Two days later the Army disclosed that Zeimer may have been killed by friendly fire.” The Army has been stretched thin in other critical areas as well. “Disintegrating” equipment, lack of armor, and more frequent deployments with shorter breaks have led retired Army general and former Secretary of State Colin Powell to declare the active Army “broken.” Gear and equipment is now left in the war zone for use by newly arriving troops, which “grinds the equipment into scrap up to 10 times as fast as in peacetime,” Thompson writes. “The lack of guns and armor back home has a boomerang effect: many of the troops training in the U.S. are not familiar with what they’ll have to depend on once they arrive in Iraq.” Extended deployments with shorter breaks are leading to a decrease in morale and an increase in cases of suicide, desertion, and post traumatic stress disorder. “Ever since the war started, they’d be saying all they wanted to do was to get back to their buddies in Iraq to keep on fighting,” one retired general said of wounded soldiers he visited at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. “Now it’s more about getting out and wondering about civilian jobs. There’s very little chatter about rejoining the unit.” Excerpts from the article follow… # A volunteer Army reflects the most central and sacred vow that citizens make to one another: soldiers protect and defend the country; in return, the country promises to give them the tools they need to complete their mission and honor their service, whatever the outcome. It was Bush, on the eve of the 2000 election, who promised “to all of our men and women in uniform and to their parents and to their families, help is on the way.” Besides putting Powell at State, the President reinforced his Administration with two former Defense Secretaries: Vice President Dick Cheney and, in the job for a second time, Donald Rumsfeld. So it is no small irony that today’s U.S. Army finds itself under the greatest strain in a generation. The Pentagon made that clear April 2 when it announced that two Army units will soon return to Iraq without even a year at home, compared with the two years units have traditionally enjoyed. One is headed back after 47 days short of a year, the other 81. “This is the first time we’ve had a voluntary Army on an extended deployment,” says Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer who advises his old service. “A lot of canaries are dropping dead in the mine.” The main consequences of a tightly stretched Army is that men and women are being sent into combat with less training, shorter breaks and disintegrating equipment. When those stories get out, they make it harder to retain soldiers and recruit them in the first place. “For us, it’s just another series of never-ending deployments, and for many, including me, there is only one answer to that—show me the door out,” wrote an officer in a private e-mail to Congressman Steve Rothman of New Jersey. # LINK TO FULL TIME ARTICLE

World Bank invites bids for Red Sea-Dead Sea canal study

World Bank invites bids for Red Sea-Dead Sea canal study

dpa German Press Agency Published: Thursday April 5, 2007

Amman- The World Bank has invited international companies to
bid for a feasibility study to examine the environmental and social
impacts of the 5-billion-dollar Red Sea-Dead Sea Water Conveyance
project on the surrounding countries, officials said Thursday.
“The overall objective of the 15.5-million-dollar study is to
evaluate the conveyance of water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea as
a way to address environmental degradation of the Dead Sea region,”
according to the project’s statement.

The three littoral states – Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian
Authority – have placed advertisements in major local dailies
inviting interested firms to present their offers.

Divided into two sections, the study focuses on the environmental
and social impacts as well as the overall feasibility of the proposed
canal. Companies will be allowed to bid for the whole study or just
one part.

The firm that wins the bid will also be required to examine the
possibility of seawater desalination and energy production.

The World Bank said the winning company should submit its report
within two years. The eventual construction of the canal is expected
to cost around 5 billion dollars, officials said.

The Red-Dead project is part of an international effort to save the
Dead Sea, the level of which has been dropping at a rate of 1 metre
per year, largely due to diversion of water from the River Jordan for
agricultural and industrial use.

During the past 20 years alone, it has plunged more than 30 metres,
prompting experts to warn that it could dry up within 50 years.

The proposed canal will be built along the border with Israel in
Wadi Araba, pumping 650 million cubic metres (mcm) of water annually
from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea. It is expected to generate 550
megawatts of electricity.

The project also entails the setting up of a desalination plant
that provides Jordan with 850mcm of potable water a year.

© 2006 – dpa German Press Agency

A Wall as a Weapon

by Noam Chomsky

February 23, 2004

 

It is a virtual reflex for governments to plead security concerns when they undertake any controversial action, often as a pretext for something else. Careful scrutiny is always in order. Israel’s so-called security fence, which is the subject of hearings starting today at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, is a case in point.

Few would question Israel’s right to protect its citizens from terrorist attacks like the one yesterday, even to build a security wall if that were an appropriate means. It is also clear where such a wall would be built if security were the guiding concern: inside Israel, within the internationally recognized border, the Green Line established after the 1948-49 war. The wall could then be as forbidding as the authorities chose: patrolled by the army on both sides, heavily mined, impenetrable. Such a wall would maximize security, and there would be no international protest or violation of international law.

This observation is well understood. While Britain supports America’s opposition to The Hague hearings, its foreign minister, Jack Straw, has written that the wall is “unlawful.” Another ministry official, who inspected the “security fence,” said it should be on the Green Line or “indeed on the Israeli side of the line.” A British parliamentary investigative commission also called for the wall to be built on Israeli land, condemning the barrier as part of a “deliberate” Israeli “strategy of bringing the population to heel.”