Subject: MORE ON REPRESSION AND RESISTANCE : FROM THE CENTER
FOR
THEADVANCED STUDY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS AND SOCIAL
MOVEMENTS,GRENOBLE, FRANCE.
21
January 2004
Grenoble, France
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
The Grenoble Center for the Advanced Study of American Institutions and
Social Movements is continually receiving information implicating the Bush
Administration and its Zionist allies with serious criminal activities.
We recommend that our readers visit our Research Center web site and read
Professor Bertell Ollman's essay "WHY WAR WITH IRAQ? WHY NOW? PHANTOM
REASONS AND REAL ONES" at
<http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/ciesimsa/ateliers/a19/art19-42.html>.
Below, in item A., is an article sent to us by Professor Edward
Herman, on
the tragic death of two infants at an Israeli Check Point.
Item B. below is a new petition calling for the removal of George
W. Bush,
who has been accused of treason against the United States for his
activities leading up to the 9/11 attack on American citizens in New York
and Washington, D.C.
Item C. is a disturbing article, "Its All About the E-Vote," sent
to us by
Monty Kroopkin (San Diego, California) which describs alarming
irregularities in the new electorial process in California, in preparation
for the November elections.
I
Sincerely,
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research
__________________
A.
from Professor Ed Herman :
Sent: Saturday, January 17, 2004 11:46 PM
Subject: Gideon Levy: "And the twins died"
Francis,
You can see this kind of article fairly often in the Israeli media, but
not
in the NYT or Philadelphia Inquirer. The wrong victims are humanized by
Gideon Levy, so that here self-censorship and powerful flak filter out
this
kind of news and analysis.
Ed Herman
-----------------
If there is one thing that has distinguished Israel's occupation over the
years, in Palestine as well as in Lebanon, is the sadism of it's occupying
army of which Israel constantly brags as to "its purity of arms." Here,
in
this article by Gideon Levy, its "purity of arms" is on full display.
Jeff Blankfort
<http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=380975>http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/objects/pages/PrintArticleEn.jhtml?itemNo=380975
>
>Ha'aretz
>Janaury 8, 2004
>And the twins died
>by Gideon Levy
>
>The twin girls died one after the other. The first to die was the one
who
>was born first, at the checkpoint. Several hours later came the death
of
>her sister, who was born a few minutes after they finally left the
>checkpoint, and who managed to reach the hospital alive. One lived for
>less than an hour, the other for less than a day. The death certificate
>lists their ages as one day old and zero. One died in the arms of her
>grandmother, the other was carried in the arms of her aunt, while their
>mother was lying in an ambulance, freezing, trembling, exhausted and
>humiliated after what she had gone through at the IDF checkpoint near
her
>village. This past Sunday, the two bespectacled soldiers at the checkpoint
>at the entrance to Deir Balut direct us with unusual politeness to the
>path through the fields that leads to the village. The asphalt road to
the
>village is regularly closed off with cement blocks and barbed wire,
>despite the fact that there is a manned checkpoint at the other end. Why
>is travel forbidden on the main road, and allowed only on the rocky path?
>Only in order to subject the 4,000 residents of this attractive village
to
>further mistreatment, and to pacify the settlers in the area, residents
of
>Paduel, Alei Zahav and Beit Aryeh, who whiz past on the well-paved Jewish
>roads. Lamis, 25, Raad, 36, and Sabaa, 15 months old. A young and
>attractive couple with a daughter, a house in the village and horses in
>the yard. They married five years ago. Raad studied accounting for four
>years in Bombay, India, worked as a croupier in the casino in Jericho
and
>is now unemployed, and makes a little money from agriculture, in his
>family's olive grove. A tattered black leather jacket and gel in his hair.
>The couple was eagerly awaiting the birth of the twins that Lamis was
>carrying. She was in her seventh month, and they knew that she was about
>to give birth. It happened about two and a half weeks ago, on the night
of
>December 21, a particularly cold night. Shortly after 1 A.M. Lamis woke
>Raad. She had contractions. Raad went outside, borrowed a car from a
>neighbor and drove to Zawiya, the neighboring village, to his wife's
>doctor, to get a letter of referral for the government hospital in
>Ramallah. The hospital in Nablus is closer, but the road is full of
>checkpoints, and for the hospital in Ramallah he needed a referral. The
>doctor gave him the letter and promised to order an ambulance from the
>infirmary in Beit Rima, about 20 kilometers from Deir Balut. Raad returned
>home, picked up his wife, and together they drove in the neighbor's car
on
>the rocky road, in the direction of the village checkpoint. His sister
and
>his mother joined them for the journey. Next to the concrete blocks of
the
>village checkpoint he stopped the car. It was shortly after 2 A.M. "I
have
>no words to describe the weather outside. Freezing cold and wind," recalls
>Raad. From the checkpoint he phoned the ambulance, which reported that
it
>was on the way. Lamis' condition deteriorated, her pains intensified,
and
>Raad's sister suggested that until the ambulance arrived they should wait
>in one of the houses near the checkpoint, in order to protect Lamis from
>the cold. The soldiers turned the spotlight on the car, from their
>watchtower. The couple managed to walk only a few steps, Lamis supported
>by Raad, until the voice of the soldier was heard from the tower: "Stop
or
>I'll shoot. Stop or I'll shoot." They froze in place. Raad says that he
>tried to explain to the soldiers that Lamis was about to give birth, but
>they only shouted, "Stand, stand." And so they stood outside, in the
>freezing cold, the young woman in labor and her husband. The minutes
>seemed like hours. Raad says that they stood between 15 minutes and half
>an hour. When he saw that Lamis' suffering was becoming unbearable, he
>decided to take her back to the car, no matter what. "You only die once.
>If he shoots, he shoots." He placed the bag of clothes in his hand on
the
>road, and carried his wife to the car. Lamis was trembling and crying.
>Afterward the ambulance arrived, and stopped on the other side of the
>checkpoint. Raad shouted to the medical team to quickly bring a stretcher
>for Lamis, but the soldiers in the tower also prevented the ambulance
>driver from leaving his vehicle. The ambulance driver, Rawahi al Haj,
a
>resident of Beit Rima, sounded very upset and angry this week. To a
>researcher for Physicians for Human Rights he said: "At 1:45 A.M. I
>received a call to pick up a woman about to give birth, at the Deir Balut
>checkpoint. After about 20 minutes I arrived at the checkpoint. I entered
>the checkpoint area and stopped. I began to honk to the soldiers. I honked
>a number of times, and not a single soldier came out. That lasted for
five
>to eight minutes. Then I decided to take a chance, and to continue in
the
>direction of the checkpoint. I got out of the ambulance and continued
in
>the direction of the iron gate at the checkpoint. I hoped I would at least
>be able to reach the woman in the car, on the other side of the
>checkpoint, on foot. I checked and saw that there was barbed wire beneath
>the locked iron gate. "The soldier in the tower started to shout: `Keep
>away from the gate or I'll shoot you.' I told him in English and in Arabic
>that there was a woman in labor in the car, and that I had to get there
in
>order to help her. I returned to the ambulance, took out the stretcher,
>pushed it under the iron gate, and together with the paramedic crawled
>under the gate and continued to walk toward the woman. We put the woman,
>who was trembling and wailing, on the stretcher, and continued in the
>direction of the checkpoint gate, in order to try to transfer her
>somehow." Meanwhile, a military jeep arrived at the checkpoint, with the
>officer who is apparently the only one with the key to the locked iron
>gate. The ambulance driver: "The soldier in the jeep started to ask us
for
>papers, while we were pushing the woman on the stretcher, under the iron
>gate. I tried not to give them any papers, and to run quickly toward the
>ambulance, but the soldiers insisted on the papers, and so we were delayed
>for another few minutes. The woman's situation continued to deteriorate.
>Finally I put her into the ambulance. I had just begun to drive, when
>after 10 meters I was forced to stop. The woman gave birth. We were still
>in the checkpoint area. "While I was trying to help her, a soldier came
>over to me and asked that we leave the checkpoint immediately, because
>standing there is prohibited. I shouted to him that the woman was giving
>birth. Two soldiers tried to peek into the ambulance, to see the birth.
I
>asked them to leave immediately." After the first girl was born, they
>quickly left the checkpoint and sped toward Ramallah. The driver explains
>that he wanted to get there before the second baby was born, so that at
>least her birth would take place in a hospital. Remember that Lamis was
in
>her seventh month, and the babies were premature. But after driving for
10
>kilometers, when they reached the village of Luban al Sharqiyeh, the
>second birth began. They stopped and Al Haj again served as midwife. In
>the ambulance it was very, very cold. They didn't allow Raad to travel
>with his wife in the ambulance, and he stayed behind. Lamis told him that
>both babies were born blue, but they cried and they were alive. The first
>infant died in the ambulance, apparently just before they entered the
>hospital. On the way her crying began to fade out, until it was silenced
>completely. When they brought her in, the doctor could only determine
her
>death. The time was almost 5 A.M. About four hours after the beginning
of
>the contractions, and about three hours after they embarked on their
>difficult journey.According to Raad's estimate, they were delayed at the
>checkpoint for about an hour and a half. The ambulance driver estimates
>that from the moment he arrived at the checkpoint until they left, an
hour
>passed. Whatever the case, the second infant was immediately brought to
>the ward for premature babies, and connected to a respirator and placed
in
>an incubator. She died the next afternoon. On the death certificate,
>issued in Ramallah, it says that both girls died from RDS, respiratory
>distress syndrome. They weighed about 1,500 grams each. Dr. Ilan Gal,
a
>senior physician at the Lis Maternity Hospital at the Sourasky Medical
>Center in Tel Aviv, explained this week that during the birth of twin
>preemies, the place of birth is of vital importance. "Most of the fetuses
>at these weights survive in proper conditions for treatment. The birth
>must take place in a hospital, because the first minutes of treatment
in
>such cases can be critical." An IDF spokesman: "At the request of the
>reporter, the IDF will conduct an investigation to clarify the
>circumstances of the case." What did you feel? Lamis: "What did I feel?
I
>should have given birth at home, and even died, rather than going to the
>checkpoint and begging the soldiers for hours to let us pass. I hope the
>Israelis will never taste what I tasted, and will not experience what
I
>went through. And that they will explain to their sons who serve in the
>territories that they should be a little bit humane. That they should
be
>human beings." They buried the two twins in the village cemetery, side
by
>side, in one grave. Next to them are buried Raad's two sisters, who died
>at an early age. Latifa died at the age of 22 and Moufida at the age of
>25. The couple had been planning to name the two girls after them.
_________________
B.
from Professor Elisabeth Chamorand :
19 January 2004
Subject : Recall Bush
Sign the petition! (And be entertained, a bit...)
http://www.bushrecall.org
__________________
C.
from Monty Kroopkin :
Date: Sun, 18 Jan 2004 21:34:48 -0800
Subject: Fw: CALL FOR ACTION from PDTF! It's All About the E-Vote!
To All:
It's all about the vote. When you come right down to it, all your hard
work
on behalf of democracy won't mean a thing if the votes aren't properly
counted. Look what happened in Florida (again!) as recently as last week
(see article at end of email). Imagine this happening (again!) next November.
The Peace and Democracy Task Force is working hard on this issue, doing
all
we can to inform. This week, we're asking those of you on this list - all
600 of you - to help. Please see the following Call For Action! from Sylvia
below.
Elissa
***
CALL FOR ACTION!
The San Diego County Registrar of Voters, Sally McPherson, has been taking
her show on the road. She is trying to convince voters that the Diebold
voting machines recently purchased by San Diego County - and to be used
as
early as the March 2 elections - are secure, although they have no voter
verified paper ballot. As the article below shows, there are serious
problems with these machines. Their lack of ability for a recount is only
one of the problems.
This Thursday, on January 22, Ms. McPherson will be speaking about these
machines at University Town Center's Forum Hall. We will be there too,
handing out literature, holding signs, informing people about the issues.
We are asking you to join us from 11:00 AM to noon.
If you are able to help with this important action or, if you are willing
to add your email to the "on call" list for future important actions,
please email me ASAP at spetros@sand.net (cc: to PeaceDemTF@aol.com)
Sylvia, Peace and Democracy Task Force
WHAT: People to pass out flyers about the problems with voting machines
and
urging people to vote absentee. We also need to get petitions signed.
WHEN: Thursday, January 22, from 11AM to Noon
WHERE: University Town Center's Forum Hall, upstairs in the Wells Fargo
Bank building, just to the west side of Nordstroms. (If you enter on La
Jolla Village Drive and park behind Nordstoms you can see the Wells Fargo
Bank.)
Board votes to certify House 91 results
By George Bennett, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
Saturday, January 10, 2004
In Florida's post-Votomatic era of election recounts, there is no squinting
at punch cards to try to divine the meaning of dimpled chads.
But the alternative, on display for the first time Friday, presented a
new
set of questions.
Required by state law to conduct a "manual recount" of an election in which
most of the voting was done on paperless electronic voting machines,
Broward County's elections canvassing board threw up its hands. After
debating about 90 minutes Friday afternoon, it decided to seek more
guidance from the state Division of Elections and revisit the issue Monday.
Palm Beach County's elections canvassing board grappled with the issue
for
half an hour Friday night, then voted to certify its portion of the
election results after determining there were no actual "ballots" to recount.
The counties were responding to Tuesday's tight special election for a
state House seat that covers portions of Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Out of 10,844 votes cast, returns showed Ellyn Bogdanoff defeating Oliver
Parker by 12 votes, with 137 voters casting blank ballots on touch-screen
voting machines.
Florida law requires a manual or hand recount of all "under-votes" and
"over-votes" in an election decided by less than 0.25 percent.
But touch-screens leave behind nothing to count by hand.
"The nonvotes exist in cyberspace," Parker complained to the Palm Beach
County canvassing board. "We have no way to bring them from cyberspace
to
real space to look at them."
Therefore, Parker argued, the election results could not be certified.
Palm Beach County Attorney Denise Nieman said the canvassing board faced
a
"quandary" but advised it to certify the results.
She noted that the state's recount statute contemplates examining "ballots"
and determining whether a voter made a clear choice on each ballot.
"You have to have a ballot to make a clear choice... There's no ballot,"
Nieman said.
Therefore, she said, the canvassing board can't determine a "clear choice"
for any of the under-votes and must let the results stand.
The canvassing board -- County Judge Barry Cohen, Elections Supervisor
Theresa LePore and County Commission Chairwoman Karen Marcus -- voted
unanimously to certify Palm Beach County's results, which account for about
5 percent of the votes in Tuesday's election.
The certification came at the end of a meeting that officially began about
10 hours earlier. The Palm Beach County canvassing board had just convened
Friday morning when the meeting was interrupted by a phone call from the
state Division of Elections. Canvassers were advised to hold off on their
recount until the division could establish guidelines on how to conduct
a
manual recount for a paperless election. The meeting recessed until Friday
night.
LePore assumed the state would send written guidance to the canvassing
board during the day. Instead, LePore said, she spent "several hours" on
the phone with Division of Elections Deputy Director Sarah Jane Bradshaw
and General Counsel Sharon Larson, but the division would not put anything
in writing.
"I have a concern they would not put that in writing... I have a problem
with that," LePore told the canvassing board.
A spokeswoman for Secretary of State Glenda Hood, whose office oversees
Florida elections, acknowledged that the county canvassing boards are
venturing into uncharted territory.
"I believe that this is the first time the manual recount issue has come
up
with the touch screens," said Hood spokeswoman Jenny Nash.
U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Delray Beach, sent Hood a letter Friday arguing
that electronic voting machines should be outfitted with printers so voters
could verify their ballots before they vote and elections officials would
have a paper record for any recount.
"These results are the latest wake-up call to the very real possibility
of
another national election debacle in Florida if we do not put in place
ballot printers for touch-screen machines," Wexler's letter says.
Hood had not seen the letter Friday and could not comment, Nash said.
Parker doesn't believe 137 voters showed up for a single-race election
and
decided not to vote. Frustrated that touch screens make it impossible to
examine under-votes to try to figure out voter intent, he sounded nostalgic
for the punch cards that fell from favor after the 2000 election.
"What we've really done is gone backward," Parker said. "At least with
the
old punch-card system, we would have had actual votes to count."
Source:
http://www.palmbeachpost.com/politics/content/auto/epaper/editions/saturday/news_f3ff583cd1c3223d00af.html
***
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*****************************
Francis McCollum Feeley
Professor of American Studies/
Director of Research at CEIMSA
http://www.u-grenoble3.fr/ciesimsa
Université de Grenoble-3
Grenoble, France