Iglesia Católica Obliga A Sacerdotes Pedófilos A Ponerse Una Campanita En El Cuello

Ciudad del Vaticano, El Vaticano

 Respondiendo a la creciente opinión pública criticando la actitud permisiva y aparentemente apática de la Iglesia Católica para con los curas que han abusado sexualmente de menores de edad, El Vaticano emitió una orden obligando a los sacerdotes pedófilos de ponerse una campanita en el cuello para poder así alertar a los menores de su presencia.



"Ya no se nos puede acusar de ser permisivos para con nuestros hermanos sacerdotes que han pecado con algún muchachito lengüilargo", aseguró satisfecho Giovanni Scoparagazzi, el relacionista público del Vaticano, refiriéndose a la orden papal de que se le ponga una campanita a los párracos pedófilos. "Con esta directiva, proveniente directamente del Santo Padre, nos estamos encargando de que sea fácil que los monaguillos más seductores sepan por dónde viene el cura, y así puedan huirle a tiempo. ¡Ahora cualquier nenito que venga con lloriqueos de que lo manoseó algún cura, sabremos que fue porque le dio la gana de no escapar de sus alcance!".





La directiva también fue acompañada de una "fuerte sugerencia" de que se identifique a los curas agresores con una calcomanía estilo "Hello, My Name Is" que indique su nombre y una advertencia para la feligresía. "Por ejemplo", explicó Scoparagazzi, "el Padre Murphy de Wisconsin, quien abusó de más de 200 niños sordos, deberá andar con un sellito en su sotana que rece así: 'Salve! Meum nomen est Pater Murphy. *Caveat! Pote te abusare!'. Con esa clara advertencia en latín (el idioma oficial del Vaticano y por ende de Dios), más vale que ningún otro nenito sordo venga con balbuceos incomprensibles de que Murphy lo sobeteó. Y por si las moscas, el texto deberá estar igualmente en Braille, para que los nenitos ciegos estén a salvo también y sepan que deben mantenerse alejados del párroco en cuestión. ¡Espero que ahora les conste que cuando la Iglesia Católica actúa, actúa de verdad!".











El Papa Benedicto XVI ordenó esta medida "preventiva y seguramente innecesaria" par de semanas después de su visita a Gran Bretaña, donde admitió haber experimentado "gran sorpresa y tristeza" al enterarse de los abusos cometidos por algunos sacerdotes -- ¡bueno, tan "sorprendido" como puede estar alguien quien por años ha sabido de dichos abusos y quien ha incluso protegido al menos a uno de los agresores!

 

 

 

 

El Santo Padre defendió su presunta permisividad e inacción crasa diciendo que la filosofía del Vaticano era de ofrecer "comprensión y perdón" a estos sacerdotes quienes "sufren de una aflicción que no escogieron voluntariamente". Al increparle que por qué entonces la política oficial de la Iglesia es de rechazar a los curas homosexuales, Su Santidad replicó airado: "¡Deja de tratar de entramparnos con nuestras propias inconsistencias!". Benedicto XVI insistió que "mi orden de ponerle una campanita avisora a los párrocos acusados de abuso sexual es lo más que podemos hacer al respecto".




Cuando se le preguntó si un paso mayor no sería simplemente expulsar del sacerdocio y excomulgar a los padres pedófilos, el Papa admitió: "Ok, ok, bueno... esto es lo más que vamos a hacer al respecto".

Trade in Mammoth Ivory 'Is Fueling Slaughter of African Elephants'

Conservationists fear that legal trade is being used as a front for laundering of poached tusks

by Michael McCarthy

It is 4,000 years or more since the last woolly mammoths, with their spectacularly curved tusks and heavy shaggy coats, roamed the icy wastes of Siberia and Alaska. Climate change and hunting by prehistoric humans are thought to have driven them to extinction.

Although elephants are plentiful in Southern African countries such as Botswana and South Africa, in some countries of Central and West Africa, poaching is now pushing populations to extinction. (photo by Flickr user exfordy)

But the trade in ivory from the tusks of the ancient animals is now booming - and may present a risk to the future of the African elephant, conservationists fear.The bodies of thousands of woolly mammoths have been found preserved in the frozen Siberian tundra, and the tusks are the best-preserved part of all.
According to a report, as much as 60 tonnes of Siberian mammoth tusks are being exported from Russia every year, mainly to China, where they end up in the workshops of its flourishing ivory-carving trade, being turned into brooches, pendants, figurines and thousands of other ivory objects, and sold around the world.
Conservationists are concerned that this legal trade could be used as a front for the laundering of illegally poached elephant ivory, thereby fuelling the poaching of elephants. The trade in African elephant ivory was outlawed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Cites, in 1989, to halt the plunge in elephant numbers.
"Wild elephant populations were decimated by the ivory trade. By the time the 1989 Cites ban came into force, Africa's elephants had been reduced by more than 50 per cent," said Mark Jones, programmes director at Care for the Wild, the international wildlife charity which commissioned the mammoth ivory report. "Poaching continues to threaten wild elephants. Anything that encourages the continued demand for ivory products, whether mammoth ivory or elephant ivory, could potentially exacerbate this threat."



The report, by Edmond and Chrysee Martin, paints a remarkably detailed picture of a flourishing and valuable commerce in extinct animals - worth more than $20m (£12.6m) annually.
It points out that trade in woolly mammoth ivory has been going on in Russia and the rest of Asia for thousands of years, and reached a peak in the 19th century, but during the communist period from 1917 to 1991 business declined sharply.
However, since the early 1990s the domestic and international trade in mammoth tusks has reopened and expanded owing to the freeing-up of the Russian economy, more foreign visitors to the country and greater demand for ivory because of the Cites ban.


"In recent years," says the report, "60 tonnes of mammoth tusks have been exported annually from Russia, mostly to Hong Kong for carving in mainland China." There are also carving industries in parts of Russia, but most of these objects are sold on within the country.
Hunting for the tusks is now a major activity. "Every year from mid-June, when the tundra melts, until mid- September, hundreds if not thousands of mostly local people scour the tundra in northern Siberia looking for mammoth tusks," the report reveals.
"All are Russians, as foreigners cannot obtain a permit to collect tusks. Some tusks are easily seen on the banks of rivers while others are detected on the flat lands. All types of transport are used to transport the tusks: boats, lorries, aeroplanes and even helicopters."


The centre of the trade is the Siberian town of Yakutsk. Once the tusks are accumulated, traders send large planes to pick them up and send them to Moscow. They are paid for by weight. With the average export price of mammoth ivory in 2009 being $350 per kilogram, or $350,000 per tonne, the current trade is worth about $21m per year to Russia. The vast majority of the tusks are sent to Hong Kong, although some also go to Germany and the US. Nearly all are then re-exported to mainland China, where there is a well-established ivory carving trade, and where they are crafted into ivory objets d'art: some stay in China for domestic sale but many are sent back for sale to Hong Kong, and all around the world.
"Many thousands of recently made mammoth ivory items are for sale in Asia, Europe and North America," says the report.


"People wishing to buy an elephant ivory object may purchase a similar one crafted from mammoth ivory that is legal and free of cumbersome paperwork. Mammoth ivory items are not for sale in Africa. If mammoth objects were to be offered in Africa, they could be a cover for elephant ivory items."
However, the report's authors fall short of calling for a mammoth ivory ban, saying there is no evidence that the worldwide mammoth ivory trade is yet affecting either the African or Asian elephant.



"For this reason, and because the species is extinct and large quantities of tusks are still available in Siberia, it is the opinion of the authors that a ban on mammoth ivory commerce is not currently justified," says the report.
Yet they sound a cautionary note, saying: "In future, a problem could occur if mammoth tusks of Chinese-made ivory items were brought into African countries, where law enforcement is poor, specifically as a cover for illegal elephant ivory carving and sales."
Although elephants are plentiful in Southern African countries such as Botswana and South Africa, in some countries of Central and West Africa, poaching is now pushing populations to extinction.



Chad is thought to have only a few hundred left while Senegal and Liberia may have fewer than 10. Sierra Leone's last elephants were wiped out by poachers in November last year.
In Kenya, whose wildlife protection measures are among the strongest in Africa, the number of elephants killed by poachers rose from 47 in 2007 to 98 in 2008 and 214 in 2009. Reports suggest that at least 15 tonnes of African ivory tusks and pieces - the equivalent of up to 1,500 elephants - were seized in, or en route to, Asia during 2009.
Mammoth facts: The history - and prehistory - of a colossal creature
The woolly mammoth, mammuthus primigenius, sometimes also called the tundra mammoth, is perhaps the best known of the several species of mammoth which existed in prehistoric times, due to the many well-preserved carcasses found in the frozen tundra of Siberia.



Woolly mammoths were no bigger than Asian elephants, though their spectacular curving tusks were in a class by themselves, reaching up to seven feet long and weighing as much as 70kg each - which, at $500 per kilo for the best quality, is a lot of ivory, and a lot of money for the finder.
Protected against the cold in their long, shaggy coats, they roamed the frozen plains of Eurasia during the Ice Age, but declined to extinction about 10,000 years ago, probably because of human hunting, though it is thought that small groups may have survived into historic times.
It is believed that a dwarf subspecies may have survived on Wrangel Island, in the Arctic Ocean, until as late as 1,700BC.


Rumours persist that the animal may still survive in tiny numbers in the taiga, the vast Siberian plain forest, much of which remains unpenetrated - but nobody has ever provided any convincing evidence.

Rising Energy Demand

Published on Thursday, September 23, 2010

Rising Energy Demand Hits Water Scarcity 'Choke Point'

by Peter Boaz and Matthew O. Berger

WASHINGTON - Meeting the growing demand for energy in the U.S., even through sustainable means, could entail greater threats to the environment, new research shows.



The study was carried out by Circle of Blue, a network of journalists and scientists dedicated to water sustainability, and could have implications not just for the relationship between energy demand and water scarcity in the U.S. but elsewhere in the world, as well. "It is not just that energy production could not occur without using vast amounts of water. It's also that it's occurring in the era of climate change, population growth and steadily increasing demand for energy," explained Circle of Blue's Keith Schneider, who presented the findings in Washington Wednesday.

"The result is that the competition for water at every stage of the mining, processing, production, shipping and use of energy is growing more fierce, more complex and much more difficult to resolve," he said.

About half the 410 billion gallons of water the U.S. withdraws daily goes to cooling thermoelectric power plants, and most of that to cooling coal-burning plants, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Meanwhile, climate change is leading to decreased snowmelt, rains and freshwater supplies, says Circle of Blue.

One of the things missing from the discussion, then, is the recognition that saving energy also saves water, the group contends.



The U.S. government has not been blind to the conflict between energy and water needs. The first part of a report commissioned by the U.S. Congress in 2005 laid out the consequences of not paying enough attention to water supply issues in increasing energy production. The second part, which would have laid out a research agenda and begun developing solutions, has yet to be made public, says Schneider.
He says the U.S. Department of Energy has declined repeated requests to explain why the report has not been published.
Energy demand in the U.S. is expected to increase by 40 percent as the U.S. population rises above 440 million by 2050. The water supply will not be able to support that growth, Schneider says.


Renewable sources of energy will certainly be a large part of trying to meet that energy demand, but these, too, come with a hidden water cost.
In 2009, the U.S. dedicated 23 million acres of public lands in six states for new solar electricity-generating plants as part of its economic stimulus package, which apportioned nearly 100 billion dollars for clean energy projects. Though the plan appeared promising, environmentalists soon began to point it could have damaging, unintended consequences. Schneider notes that criticism of the impact the water-cooled solar plants could have on water priorities in the U.S. Southwest even came from within the government.
"In arid settings, the increased water demand from concentrating solar energy systems employing water-cooled technology could strain limited water resources already under development pressure from urbanization, irrigation expansion, commercial interests and mining," wrote Jon Jarvis, then head of the National Park Service's Pacific West Region, in a February 2009 internal memo. "Solar generating plants that use conventional cooling technology use two to three times as much water as coal- fired power plants," Schneider noted.


In other countries, the threat of water scarcity is even more pertinent.
Egypt, for example, has a population of approximately 82 million, but an annual water quota of about 86 billion cubic meters - and the population is expected to rise by more than 10 million people in the next decade.
Yet 30 European blue chip companies are set to invest 560 billion dollars over the next 40 years to build solar power plants in North Africa as part of the Desertec Industrial Initiative. Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia have agreed to work with the initiative. Comparing this project with the U.S.'s, Schneider notes that in an environment that faces even greater water scarcity than the southwestern U.S., such projects could prove disastrous.



Circle of Blue calls the intersection of a rising demand for energy and diminishing supply water a "choke point", but energy development - whether of the fossil fuel or renewable variety - is just one aspect of the water scarcity crisis that is unfolding in various regions of the globe.


Yemen is widely seen as the place where this scarcity will hit first and hardest.
"Analysts are worried Yemen could be the first country in the world to effectively run out of water," said Christine Parthemore, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security, where she studies the intersection of natural resources and security issues. She spoke at a separate event Wednesday.
Yemen, which has no rivers and cannot afford desalination, is drawing water at around 400 times its replacement rate, she says, and this looming crisis is compounding other issues in the region, like the fact that Yemen has become a key recruiting spot for groups like al Qaeda.
"We are about to see water wars in the future," said U.S. General Anthony Zinni. "We have seen fuel wars; we're about to see water wars."

 

Our alien moon base, Gerald Ford's pedophilia, and 20 other unlikely claims from The Untold History of America

By Alan Scherstuhl, Thu., Sep. 23 2010 @ 6:00AM

 

The Untold History of America: 1492 - 1963

Author: Ray Bilger
Date: 1996
Publisher: "Phoenix Source Distributors," which is probably just Ray Bilger
Discovered at: Savers, Overland Park

Representative Quote:

"Powerful international forces have been manipulating America from behind the scenes since long before 1776. These forces have been orchestrating wars, installing presidents, controlling our Congress and the courts, illegally and unlawfully controlling our money system, mind-controlling the citizens through television and more subtle means, manipulating the weather, and much more, in a plan designed to culminate in the eventual destruction of America and her Citizens."

 

Faced with irrational patterns, our minds grasp toward conclusions. That's why you might feel more engaged by the opening of a mystery than its conclusion, or why boys believe chatty strippers and waitresses just might love them back, or why a genuine human adult might post to the Internet an entirely serious piece titled "Lady Gaga, The Illuminati Puppet."

But that's hardly enough to explain The Untold History of America, a book more crazy/upsetting than a clown-tongue bidet.

 

Across each page the madness fireworks: Nikolai Tesla taught the U.S. Navy time-travel, Henry Kissinger is a Bolshevik, "International Bankers" send earthquakes and volcanoes to destroy America, the space shuttle Challenger was "taken out," and - weirdest of all - the bankers and the feds and the Council on Foreign 

  

Relations faked Roswell and all the other alleged UFO crashes.

 

He writes:

"Information available indicates that vast underground bases in the Southwestern U.S. house hundreds of Earth-based 'flying saucers' with a huge army of genetically produced 'little greys' that will be armed with laser type guns which will kill most efficiently."

The goal?

"But we must remember that this threat does not come from outer space, it comes from evil minds right here on planet Earth; from those who would destroy Earth, and it may even include a 3-dimensional holographic projection of 'Jesus' in the sky to save you, courtesy of Project Blue Beam."

For most Studies in Crap authors, this declaration would be crazy enough. But Bilger has the heart of a champion. He continues on, complaining that the forgotten NBC alien-invasion drama Dark Skies turned out "to be a highly laughable comedy" designed to prepare the public for this fake invasion.

(The culprits? "The CEOs of NBC are always members of the Council on Foreign Relations, which is part of our One World Government, the United Nations.") But then he mentions this:

"In 1954 President Eisenhower set a meeting at Holloman Air Force Base with a race of extraterrestrials described as 'large-nosed grey aliens.'"

And:

"It is not clear (but doubtful) that JFK knew (as MJ-12 certainly did) that a joint Alien, United States and Soviet Union base already existed on the moon."

So, let's walk through Bilger's theory. Our world leaders pretended to cover up fake close encounters in order to prep us for a fake alien invasion even as they covered up real close encounters. This is like if a nun accused a schoolboy of having dirty thoughts, and the schoolboy distracted her by sticking his hand in his pants.

While he disdains our lying history books, Bilger isn't above cut-and-pasting a picture and caption from one of them.


In fact, the book has but two images. Here's the other:


I think it's safe to say that one wasn't cribbed from Houghton-Mifflin.

Anyway, Bilger doesn't shy away from the term "conspiracy." Instead, he attempts to carve out a case with the chisel of Logic, which in his hands is less steel and strong than it is a slice of microwaved Little Caesar's.

He argues that anytime government officials meet "in private with some advisors, or secretaries, or ministers, or consultants, and a decision is made to withhold some small amount of information from the general population ... then, by definition, we have a conspiracy."

Thus:

"The true history of the world is a history of conspiracies. There is not then, nor can there ever be, such a thing as conspiracy theory. There can only be conspiracy fact."

Here are his finest "conspiracy facts":

• "Gerald Ford was a 33rd degree Freemason, a member of the C.F.R. and the Bilderbergers, and was and is a brutal pedophile."
• "The Illuminati established their American branch one month before the colonists declared their independence in 1776."
• "[Eleanor] Roosevelt and Hillary [Clinton] both appear to come from major drug-running families!!"
• "J.F.K. was killed because he had informed MJ-12 that he intended to reveal the presence of aliens to the American people (and not with the lies that NBC TV is showing with Dark Skies.

•  "Carefully left out of the King James Bible is any reference to reincarnation, but included was the idea that Jesus died for our sins and that he will save us. And the masses eat it up like lambs to the slaughter."
• "The Global Controllers have been busy working on a plan which they call the Global Plan 2000, which indicates the year by which they fully intend to have the world enslaved unto them and operating under their One World Government."
• "The Bolsheviks were not initially in control of the U.S. Government under the Reagan Administration. That changed, however, and they were back in control by December of 1981."
• "How many of the multitudes appear to believe that a 9 to 5 job is the way to go, with a beer in front of the TV in the evening , and sports programs on Sunday afternoons? Sounds a lot like the Roman Empire before the collapse, don't you think?"
• "When we finally actually enter the Photon Belt, we will feel a slight jolt or shock, similar to putting your finger in a light socket. In that instant you will have changed from a Corporeal person to an Atmospherean person, if your body can make the change. If you cannot, no need to worry, it's guaranteed to be interesting no matter what happens."

And here's his wildest idea of all:

"This book could well be an important new textbook for all high schools in America."

 

NRDC's Action Center

Action Center

Welcome to NRDC's Action Center! Here you'll find all the tools, tips and information you need to help protect the earth's extraordinary wealth of natural treasures. To receive email alerts on urgent issues needing your immediate action, join our Activist Network. You can update your subscription information at your Personal Action Profile.

Tell President Obama to increase fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks

In April the Environmental Protection Agency finalized vehicle emissions standards that will make millions of new cars, SUVs, minivans and pick-up trucks use fuel more efficiently, but President Obama has instructed the EPA to take these standards to the next level. Urge President Obama, before the September 30th proposal deadline, to make sure his administration sets the bar high for both cars and trucks in order to reduce our dependence on oil and cut global warming pollution.

Take Action Now

 

 

 

 

Tell Congress not to weaken Clean Air Act protections

 

 

As the EPA prepares to set standards for global warming pollution from power plants, refineries and other major polluters, some members of Congress want to weaken the Clean Air Act and give industries free rein to dump harmful pollution into our air. Urge your senators and representative to hold polluters accountable for their emmissions and oppose any legislation that would undermine the Clean Air Act.

Tell your senators not to abandon comprehensive climate and energy legislation

 

 

Thanks to a handful of Republican and Democratic obstructionist senators, the Senate failed to act on legislation that would have strengthened our economy, increased our national security and reduced the dangerous pollution causing global warming. Tell your senators that you will not accept failure in the face of one of the biggest crises of the 21st century.

Californians: Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to sign important environmental bills

  

 

The California legislature finished its work on August 31st and sent hundreds of bills to Governor Schwarzenegger, including several that would benefit the environment and public health. Urge Governor Schwarzenegger to sign AB 1405, SB 346 and AB 737 to increase investments in low-income communities most harmed by air pollution, reduce copper in waterways and increase recycling.

Urge your representative to co-sponsor the Toxic Chemicals Safety Act

 

 

The Toxic Chemicals Safety Act would strengthen the current law regulating the use of industrial chemicals, which was enacted in 1976 and is in serious need of an overhaul. Urge your representative to co-sponsor the Toxic Chemical Safety Act (H.R. 5820).

Tell the EPA to strictly regulate dangerous coal ash disposal

 

 

The EPA is considering two options to regulate coal ash waste, which contains toxics such as arsenic, chromium, lead and mercury. Urge the EPA before the September 20th comment deadline to choose the stronger option that would set protective and federally enforceable regulations for coal ash disposal.

Tell President Obama to stop letting industry dump mining waste in our waters

 

 

Across the Appalachians, coal mining companies are destroying entire mountains in a practice known as mountaintop removal mining and are polluting thousands of miles of streams and rivers as they dump the waste into our waters. Urge President Obama to reinstate the previous longstanding prohibition on dumping mining waste into streams and lakes.

Tell Congress to help end mountaintop removal mining and protect the Appalachian Mountains

 

 

Because of weakened provisions in the Clean Water Act, waste from mountaintop removal mining may be dumped into nearby valleys and streams, but now the House of Representatives has the opportunity to restrict this dangerous process. Tell your representative to support and co-sponsor the Clean Water Protection Act (H.R. 1310).

Tell Congress to increase funding for global clean water

 

 

Safe drinking water is essential for human health and economic development, but dirty water causes disease and death around the world, especially in children. Tell your senators and representative to increase funding for global clean water projects.

Tell PETCO and PetSmart to protect kids from dangerous pesticides in flea products

 

 

Although safer options exist for controlling fleas on our pets, dangerous pesticides used in flea collars and other products remain on store shelves. Tell PETCO and PetSmart to protect kids and pets by removing pet products with these toxic chemicals from its stores.

Urge your representative to co-sponsor the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act

 

 

Polluted stormwater runoff threatens water quality across the nation, but we can put rain water back into the ground where it falls by increasing natural systems like trees, green roofs and rain gardens. Urge your representative to co-sponsor the Green Infrastructure for Clean Water Act (H.R. 4202).

Tell Congress to close the "Halliburton Loophole" to protect drinking water from contamination

 

 

The "Halliburton Loophole" exempts hydraulic fracturing, an oil and gas production method that has been linked to water contamination, from Safe Drinking Water Act regulations. Urge your senators and representative to co-sponsor legislation to repeal the Halliburton Loophole.

Tell your senators to save our waterways from uncontrolled pollution

 

 

The Clean Water Restoration Act would restore Clean Water Act protections to vital water bodies declared unprotected because of Supreme Court decisions. Tell your senators to co-sponsor the Clean Water Restoration Act.

Tell the Canadian government that tar sands mining is threatening North America's birds

 

 

Tar sands mining and drilling in Canada's boreal forest is destroying critical nesting areas for millions of birds. Tell the Canadian government to halt any expansion of this destructive practice.

Urge the Department of Agriculture to act now to save bees

 

 

Although honey bees are crucial to producing about one-third of all the food we eat, the Department of Agriculture has failed to meet crucial research needs to determine the cause of colony collapse disorder, which is devastating hives across the country. Urge the Department of Agriculture to act now to save bees.

Fidel y Malcolm X: Encuentro histórico hace 50 años

“Mientras el Tio Sam esté contra ti, sabes que eres un hombre bueno”, fue uno de los comentarios que Malcolm X le hizo a Fidel Castro el 19 de septiembre de 1960, cuando se encontraron en el Hotel Theresa de Harlem, por única e histórica ocasión.


Fidel había acudido a Nueva York para participar en la Asamblea General de la ONU. La Revolución Cubana tenía poco más de año y medio en el poder, pero la oposición del gobierno norteamericano al proceso naciente era ya manifiesta. Un hostil ambiente anticubano era sembrado a través de la prensa y las declaraciones de los voceros del gobierno estadounidense. Los dueños de los más céntricos hoteles neoyorkinos se negaron a alojar a la delegación cubana. El único que ofreció sus servicios exigió condiciones humillantes.
Mochila al hombro y con traje de campaña, el Primer Ministro cubano irrumpió entonces de improviso en la Organización de Naciones Unidas y planteó su determinación de acampar en los jardines de la sede del organismo mundial. Inmediatamente se hizo patente la solidaridad de la comunidad latina y la afronorteamericana.

La delegación cubana fue invitada a alojarse en el Hotel Theresa, en pleno corazón de Harlem, el barrio pobre del pueblo negro neyorquino. Entre los coordinadores de aquella acción estaba Malcolm X, por aquel entonces dirigente de la Nación del Islam.
El encuentro entre estos dos líderes, en la habitación que ocupaba Fidel, fue fraterno y abarcó numerosas reflexiones filosóficas y políticas. Se habló de Cuba y del pueblo afronorteamericano, de Lumumba y de África, del racismo y de la solidaridad. Unas palabras del Comandante en Jefe sellaron la razón que unió en afinidad a estos hombres: “Luchamos por toda la gente oprimida”
Uno de los periodistas invitados a aquel histórico encuentro, Ralph D. Matthews escribió un artículo parra el semanario New York Citizen-Call, que fue publicado el 24 de septiembre de 1960. Cubadebate lo reproduce para sus lectores:

En el cuarto de Fidel

Para ver al primer ministro Fidel Castro después de su llegada al Hotel Thersa de Harlem había que atravesar un pequeño ejército de policías de Nueva York que vigilaban el edificio, y agentes de seguridad estadounidenses y cubanos.
Pero una hora después de la llegada del dirigente cubano, fuimos admitidos Jimmy Booker del periódico Amsterdam News, el fotógrarfo Carl Nesfield y yo al cuarto de la tempestad del Caribe y lo escuchamos intercambiar ideas con el líder musulmán Malcolm X.
El doctor Castro no quería perder el tiempo con reporteros de los diarios, pero admitió a dos representantes de la prensa negra.
Malcolm X fue uno de los pocos que pudieron entrar porque recientemente había sido nombrado a un comité de bienvenida para dignatarios visitantes que fue establecido en Harlem por el Consejo Comunitario para el 28ª Cuartel de Policia.

Seguimos a Malcolm y sus ayudantes, Joseph y John X, por el pasillo del noveno piso. Estaba lleno de fotógrafos, contrariados porque no habían podido ver al barbudo Castro, y lleno de reporteros enfadados porque los oficiales de seguridad seguían empujándolos hacia atrás.
Pasamos de largo y, uno por uno, fuimos admitidos al cuarto del doctor Castro. Se irguió y nos dió un apretón de manos a cada uno. Parecía estar de muy buen humor. La calurosa bienvenida en Harlem parecía resonarle aún en los oídos.


Castro vestía traje militar verde de faena. Yo esperaba que estuviera tan desaliñado como aparece en las fotos de los periódicos. Para sorpresa mía su atuendo informal estaba inmaculadamente planchado y resplandeciente.
Su barba en la tenue luz del cuarto era color café con una pizca de rojo.
Después de las presentaciones se sentó a la orilla de la cama, le pidió a Malcolm X que se sentara a su lado y habló en su curioso inglés chapurrado. Los que estábamos a su alrededor no oímos las primeras palabras que dijo, pero Malcolm sí lo oyó y respondió: “Para usted el centro de la ciudad fue como hielo. Pero aquí es más acogedor”.
El primer ministro sonrió con agrado. “Ah, sí. Aquí sentimos el calor”.


Después el dirigente musulmán, tan combativo como siempre, dijo: “Creo que verá que el pueblo de Harlem no es tan adicto a la propaganda que sacan en la alcaldía”.
En un inglés tentativo, el doctor Castro dijo: “Eso yo lo admiro. Yo he visto cómo la propaganda puede cambiar a la gente. Su pueblo vive aquí y enfrenta esa propaganda constantemente y sin embargo comprende, Eso es muy interesante.”
“Somos 20 millones”, dijo Malcolm, “y siempre comprendemos”.
Miembros del grupo de Castro entraron del cuarto adjunto, haciendo que el pequeño recinto se sintiera más apretado. La Mayoría de los cubanos fumaban largos puros, y cuando algo les hacía gracia se reían echando la cabeza hacia atrás y soplando humo al reírse.
Los ademanes de Castro al conversar eran extraños. Se tocaba la sien con los dedos al subrayar algo o se tocaba el pecho como para cerciorarse de que todavía estaba allí.
Su intérprete traducía las oraciones más largas de Malcolm X al español y Castro escuchaba atentamente y sonreía cortesmente.

Fidel Castro y Malcolm X

Durante su conversación en Cuba, Castro y Malcolm  cubrieron mucho terreno en lo filosófico y en lo político.

Refiriéndose a sus problemas con el Hotel Shelbourne el doctor Castro dijo; “Tiene nuestro dinero, Catorce mil dólares. No querían que vinieramos aquí. Cuando supieron que vendríamos aquí querían acompañarnos”.
Sobre la discriminación racial dijo: “Luchamos por toda la gente oprimida”. Pero alzó la mano para advertir,
 “No quería intervenir en la política interna del país”.
Y después, con un leve tono de advertencia, hablando todavía sobre el tema general de la desigualdad racial, el doctor Castro dijo: “Hablaré en la Asamblea (refiriéndose a la Asamblea General de Naciones Unidas)”
Sobre África:
“¿Hay noticias de Lumumba?” Malcolm X respondió con una gran sonrisa al oír mención del dirigente congolés. Castro alzó entonces la mano. “Vamos a tratar de defenderlo (a Lumumba) enérgicamente”.
“Espero que Lumumba se hospede aquí en el Theresa”.
“Hay 14 naciones africanas que entran en la Asamblea. Somos latinoamericanos. Somos sus hermanos”
Sobre los negros norteamericanos:
“Castro está luchando contra la discriminación en Cuba, en todos lados”.
“Ustedes no tienen derechos y quieren sus derechos”.
“Nuestro pueblo está cambiando. Ahora somos uno de los pueblos más libres del mundo”.
“En Estados Unidos los negros tiene más conciencia política, más visión que nadie”
Sobre las relaciones entre Estados Unidos y Cuba"

En respuesta a la afirmación de Malcolm de que “Mientras el Tío Sam esté contra ti, sabes que eres un hombre bueno”, el doctor Castro respondió, “No el Tío Sam, sino los que controlan aquí las revistas y los periódicos….”
Sobre la Asamblea General de la ONU:
“Habrá una lección formidable que aprender en esta sesión. Muchas cosas van a ocurrir en esta sesión y los pueblos tendrán una idea más clara de sus derechos”.
El doctor Castro finalizó la conversación intentado citar a Lincoln. “Se puede engañar a una parte del pueblo parte del tiempo…” pero le falló el inglés y alzó los brazos como para decir: “Ya saben lo que quiero decir”.

Fidel Castro y Malcolm X

Malcolm, parándose para despedirse, explicó lo que era su organización musulmana a un reportero cubano que acababa de llegar. “Somos seguidores del [Elijah] Muhammad. Él dice que podríamos sentarnos a limosnear por 400 años más. Pero si queremos nuestros derechos ahora, tenemos que…” Aquí se detuvo y sonrió enigmáticamente, “Pues….”


Castro sonrió. Sonrió de nuevo cuando Malcolm le relató un cuento. “Nadie conoce al amo mejor que sus sirvientes. Hemos sido sirvientes desde que nos trajo aquí. Conocemos todos sus trucos. ¿Se da cuenta? Sabemos todo lo que va a hacer el amo antes de que lo sepa el mismo”
El dirigente cubano escuchó la traducción al español y luego echó la cabeza para atrás riéndose animadamente: “Sí”, dijo con entusiasmo, “Sí”.
Dijimos nuestro “adiós” y nos marchamos por el apretado pasillo, tomando el ascensor de la calle donde la multitud todavía se arremolinaba.
Un entusiasmado vecino de Harlem lanzó a la noche un grito de “¡Viva Castro!”

MalcolmX.com

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925 in Omaha, Nebraska. His mother, Louise Norton Little, was a homemaker occupied with the family's eight children. His father, Earl Little, was an outspoken Baptist minister and avid supporter of Black Nationalist leader Marcus Garvey. Earl's civil rights activism prompted death threats from the white supremacist organization Black Legion, forcing the family to relocate twice before Malcolm's fourth birthday.

"When my mother was pregnant with me, she told me later, a party of hooded Klu Klux Klan riders galloped up to our home... Brandishing their shotguns and rifles, they shouted for my father to come out."

Regardless of the Little's efforts to elude the Legion, in 1929 their Lansing, Michigan home was burned to the ground. Two years later, Earl's body was found lying across the town's trolley tracks. Police ruled both incidents as accidents, but the Little's were certain that members of the Black Legion were responsible. Louise suffered emotional breakdown several years after the death of her husband and was committed to a mental institution. Her children were split up amongst various foster homes and orphanages.

Growing up

Malcolm was a smart, focused student. He graduated from junior high at the top of his class. However, when a favorite teacher told Malcolm his dream of becoming a lawyer was "no realistic goal for a nigger," Malcolm lost interest in school. He dropped out, spent some time in Boston, Massachusetts working various odd jobs, and then traveled to Harlem, New York where he committed petty crimes. By 1942 Malcolm was coordinating various narcotics, prostitution and gambling rings.

"...Early in life, I had learned that if you want something, you had better make some noise."

Eventually Malcolm and his buddy, Malcolm "Shorty" Jarvis, moved back to Boston. In 1946 they were arrested and convicted on burglary charges, and Malcolm was sentenced to 10 years in prison. (He was paroled after serving seven years.) Recalling his days in school, he used the time to further his education. It was during this period of self-enlightenment that Malcolm's brother Reginald would visit and discuss his recent conversion to the Muslim religion. Reginald belonged to the religious organization the Nation of Islam (NOI).
Intrigued, Malcolm began to study the teachings of NOI leader Elijah Muhammad.


Muhammad taught that white society actively worked to keep African-Americans from empowering themselves and achieving political, economic and social success. Among other goals, the NOI fought for a state of their own, separate from one inhabited by white people. By the time he was paroled in 1952, Malcolm was a devoted follower with the new surname "X." (He considered "Little" a slave name and chose the "X" to signify his lost tribal name.)

A born leader

Intelligent and articulate, Malcolm was appointed as a minister and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam. Elijah Muhammad also charged him with establishing new mosques in cities such as Detroit, Michigan and Harlem, New York. Malcolm utilized newspaper columns, as well as radio and television to communicate the NOI's message across the United States. His charisma, drive and conviction attracted an astounding number of new members. Malcolm was largely credited with increasing membership in the NOI from 500 in 1952 to 30,000 in 1963.


 The crowds and controversy surrounding Malcolm made him a media magnet. He was featured in a week-long television special with Mike Wallace in 1959, called "The Hate That Hate Produced." The program explored the fundamentals of the NOI, and tracked Malcolm's emergence as one of its most important leaders. After the special, Malcolm was faced with the uncomfortable reality that his fame had eclipsed that of his mentor Elijah Muhammad.
Racial tensions ran increasingly high during the early 1960s. In addition to the media, Malcolm's vivid personality had captured the government's attention. As membership in the NOI continued to grow, FBI agents infiltrated the organization (one even acted as Malcolm's bodyguard) and secretly placed bugs, wiretaps, cameras and other surveillance equipment to monitor the group's activities.

A test of faith

Malcolm's faith was dealt a crushing blow at the height of the civil rights movement in 1963. He learned that his mentor and leader, Elijah Muhammad, was secretly having relations with as many as six women within the Nation of Islam organization. As if that were not enough, Malcolm found out that some of these relationships had resulted in children.

"I am not educated, nor am I an expert in any particular field... but I am sincere and my sincerity is my credential."

Since joining the NOI, Malcolm had strictly adhered to the teachings of Muhammad - which included remaining celibate until his marriage to Betty Shabazz in 1958. Malcolm refused Muhammad's request to help cover up the affairs and subsequent children. He was deeply hurt by the deception of Muhammad, whom he had considered a living prophet. Malcolm also felt guilty about the masses he had led to join the NOI, which he now felt was a fraudulent organization built on too many lies to ignore.
Shortly after his shocking discovery, Malcolm received criticism for a comment he made regarding the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. "[Kennedy] never foresaw that the chickens would come home to roost so soon," said Malcolm. After the statement, Elijah Muhammad "silenced" Malcolm for 90 days. Malcolm, however, suspected he was silenced for another reason. In March 1964 Malcolm terminated his relationship with the NOI. Unable to look past Muhammad's deception, Malcolm decided to found his own religious organization, the Muslim Mosque, Inc.

A new awakening

That same year, Malcolm went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The trip proved life altering. For the first time, Malcolm shared his thoughts and beliefs with different cultures, and found the response to be overwhelmingly positive. When he returned, Malcolm said he had met "blonde-haired, blued-eyed men I could call my brothers." He returned to the United States with a new outlook on integration and a new hope for the future. This time when Malcolm spoke, instead of just preaching to African-Americans, he had a message for all races.

"Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth."

After Malcolm resigned his position in the Nation of Islam and renounced Elijah Muhammad, relations between the two had become increasingly volatile.


FBI informants working undercover in the NOI warned officials that Malcolm had been marked for assassination. (One undercover officer had even been ordered to help plant a bomb in Malcolm's car).
After repeated attempts on his life, Malcolm rarely traveled anywhere without bodyguards. On February 14, 1965 the home where Malcolm, Betty and their four daughters lived in East Elmhurst, New York was firebombed. Luckily, the family escaped physical injury.

The legacy of "X"

One week later, however, Malcolm's enemies were successful in their ruthless attempt. At a speaking engagement in the Manhattan's Audubon Ballroom on February 21, 1965 three gunmen rushed Malcolm onstage. They shot him 15 times at close range. The 39-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival at New York's Columbia Presbyterian Hospital.

"Power in defense of freedom is greater than power in behalf of tyranny and oppression, because power, real power, comes from our conviction which produces action, uncompromising action."

Fifteen hundred people attended Malcolm's funeral in Harlem on February 27, 1965 at the Faith Temple Church of God in Christ (now Child's Memorial Temple Church of God in Christ). After the ceremony, friends took the shovels away from the waiting gravediggers and buried Malcolm themselves.

Later that year, Betty gave birth to their twin daughters.
Malcolm's assassins, Talmadge Hayer, Norman 3X Butler and Thomas 15X Johnson were convicted of first-degree murder in March 1966. The three men were all members of the Nation of Islam.
The legacy of Malcolm X has moved through generations as the subject of numerous documentaries, books and movies. A tremendous resurgence of interest occurred in 1992 when director Spike Lee released the acclaimed movie, Malcolm X. The film received Oscar nominations for Best Actor (Denzel Washington) and Best Costume Design.
Malcolm X is buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York.

Nine Years, Two Wars, Hundreds of Thousands Dead – and Nothing Learnt

by Robert Fisk

Did 9/11 make us all go mad? How fitting, in a weird, crazed way, that the apotheosis of that firestorm nine years ago should turn out to be a crackpot preacher threatening another firestorm with a Nazi-style book burning of the Koran. Or a would-be mosque two blocks from "ground zero" - as if 9/11 was an onslaught on Jesus-worshiping Christians, rather than on the atheist West.

The World Trade Center site with memorial footprints of the twin towers visible

But why should we be surprised? Just look at all the other crackpots spawned in the aftermath of those international crimes against humanity: the half-crazed Ahmadinejad, the smarmy post-nuclear Gaddafi, Blair with his crazed right eye and George W Bush with his black prisons and torture and lunatic "war on terror". And that wretched man who lived - or lives still - in an Afghan cave and the hundreds of al-Qa'idas whom he created, and the one-eyed mullah - not to mention all the lunatic cops and intelligence agencies and CIA thugs who failed us all - utterly - on 9/11 because they were too idle or too stupid to identify 19 men who were going to attack the United States. And remember one thing: even if the Rev Terry Jones sticks with his decision to back down, another of our cranks will be ready to take his place. Indeed, on this grim ninth anniversary - and heaven spare us next year from the 10th - 9/11 appears to have produced not peace or justice or democracy or human rights, but monsters. They have prowled Iraq - both the Western and the local variety - and slaughtered 100,000 souls, or 500,000, or a million; and who cares? They have killed tens of thousands in Afghanistan; and who cares? And as the sickness has spread across the Middle East and then the globe, they - the air force pilots and the insurgents, the Marines and the suicide bombers, the al-Qa'idas of the Maghreb and of the Khalij and of the Caliphate of Iraq and the special forces and the close air support boys and the throat-cutters - have torn the heads off women and children and the old and the sick and the young and healthy, from the Indus to the Mediterranean, from Bali to the London Tube; quite a memorial to the 2,966 innocents who were killed nine years ago. All in their name, it seems, has been our holocaust of fire and blood, enshrined now in the crazed pastor of Gainesville.


This is the loss, of course. But who's made the profit? Well, the arms dealers, naturally, and Boeing and Lockheed Martin and all the missile lads and the drone manufacturers and F-16 spare parts outfits and the ruthless mercenaries who stalk the Muslim lands on our behalf now that we have created 100,000 more enemies for each of the 19 murderers of 9/11. Torturers have had a good time, honing their sadism in America's black prisons - it was appropriate that the US torture center in Poland should be revealed on this ninth anniversary - as have the men (and women, I fear) who perfect the shackles and water-drowning techniques with which we now fight our wars. And - let us not forget - every religious raver in the world, be they of the Bin Laden variety, the bearded groupies in the Taliban, the suicide executioners, the hook-in the arm preachers, or our very own pastor of Gainesville.


And God? Where does he fit in? An archive of quotations suggests that just about every monster created in or after 9/11 is a follower of this quixotic redeemer. Bin Laden prays to God - "to turn America into a shadow of itself", as he told me in 1997 - and Bush prayed to God and Blair prayed - and prays - to God, and all the Muslim killers and an awful lot of Western soldiers and Dr (honorary) Pastor Terry Jones and his 30 (or it may be 50, since all statistics are hard to come by in the "war on terror") pray to God. And poor old God, of course, has had to listen to these prayers as he always sits through them during our mad wars. Recall the words attributed to him by a poet of another generation: "God this, God that, and God the other thing. 'Good God,' said God, 'I've got my work cut out'." And that was just the First World War...


Just five years ago - on the fourth anniversary of the twin towers/Pentagon/Pennsylvania attacks - a schoolgirl asked me at a lecture in a Belfast church whether the Middle East would benefit from more religion. No - less religion! - I howled back. God is good for contemplation, not for war. But - and here we are driven on to the reefs and hidden rocks which our leaders wish us to ignore, forget and cast aside - this whole bloody mess involves the Middle East; it is about a Muslim people who have kept their faith while those Westerners who dominate them - militarily, economically, culturally, socially - have lost theirs. How can this be, Muslims ask? Indeed, it is a superb irony that the Rev Jones is a believer while the rest of us - by and large - are not. Hence our books and our documentaries never refer to Muslims vs Christians, but Muslims versus "The West".

And of course, the one taboo subject of which we must not speak - Israel's relationship with America, and America's unconditional support for Israel's theft of land from Muslim Arabs - also lies at the heart of this terrible crisis in our lives. In yesterday's edition of The Independent, there was a photograph of Afghan demonstrators chanting "death to America". But in the background, these same demonstrators were carrying a black banner with a message in Dari written upon it in white paint. What it actually said was: "The bloodsucking Zionist government regime and the Western leaders who are indifferent [to suffering] and have no conscience are again celebrating the new year by spilling the red blood of the Palestinians."



The message is as extreme as it is vicious - but it proves, yet again, that the war in which we are engaged is also about Israel and "Palestine". We may prefer to ignore this in "the West" - where Muslims supposedly "hate us for what we are" or "hate our democracy" (see: Bush, Blair and a host of other mendacious politicians) - but this great conflict lies at the heart of the "war on terror". That is why the equally vicious Benjamin Netanyahu reacted to the atrocities of 9/11 by claiming that the event would be good for Israel. Israel would now be able to claim that it, too, was fighting the "war on terror", that Arafat - this was the now-comatose Ariel Sharon's claim - is "our Bin Laden". And thus Israelis had the gall to claim that Sderot, under its cascade of tin-pot missiles from Hamas, was "our ground zero".

It was not. Israel's battle with the Palestinians is a ghastly caricature of our "war on terror", in which we are supposed to support the last colonial project on earth - and accept its thousands of victims - because the twin towers and the Pentagon and United Flight 93 were attacked by 19 Arab murderers nine years ago. There is a supreme irony in the fact that one direct result of 9/11 has been the stream of Western policemen and spooks who have traveled to Israel to improve their "anti-terrorist expertise" with the help of Israeli officers who may - according to the United Nations - be war criminals. It was no surprise to find that the heroes who gunned down poor old Jean Charles de Menezes on the London Tube in 2005 had been receiving "anti-terrorist" advice from the Israelis.


And yes, I know the arguments. We cannot compare the actions of evil terrorists with the courage of our young men and women, defending our lives - and sacrificing theirs - on the front lines of the 'war on terror". There can be no "equivalence". "They" kill innocents because "they" are evil. "We" kill innocents by mistake. But we know we are going to kill innocents - we willingly accept that we are going to kill innocents, that our actions are going to create mass graves of families, of the poor and the weak and the dispossessed.
This is why we created the obscene definition of "collateral damage". For if "collateral" means that these victims are innocent, then "collateral" also means that we are innocent of killing them. It was not our wish to kill them - even if we knew it was inevitable that we would. "Collateral" is our exoneration.

This one word is the difference between "them" and "us", between our God-given right to kill and Bin Laden's God-given right to murder. The victims, hidden away as "collateral" corpses, don't count any more because they were slaughtered by us. Maybe it wasn't so painful. Maybe death by drone is a more gentle departure from this earth, evisceration by an AGM-114C Boeing-Lockheed air-to-ground missile less painful, than death by shards from a roadside bomb or a cruel suicider with an explosive belt.
That's why we know how many died on 9/11 - 2,966, although the figure may be higher - and why we don't "do body counts" on those whom we kill. Because they - "our" victims - must have no identities, no innocence, no personality, no cause or belief or feelings; and because we have killed far, far more human beings than Bin Laden and the Taliban and al-Qa'ida.

Anniversaries are newspaper and television events. And they can have an eerie habit of coalescing together to create an unhappy memorial framework. Thus do we commemorate the Battle of Britain - a chivalric episode in our history - and the Blitz, a progenitor of mass murder, to be sure, but a symbol of innocent courage - as we remember the start of a war that has torn our morality apart, turned our politicians into war criminals, our soldiers into killers and our ruthless enemies into heroes of the anti-Western cause. And while on this gloomy anniversary the Rev Jones wanted to burn a book called the Koran, Tony Blair tried to sell a book called A Journey. Jones said the Koran was "evil"; Britons have asked whether the Blair book should be classified as "crime". Certainly, 9/11 has moved into fantasy when the Rev Jones can command the attention of the Obamas and the Clintons and the Holy Father and the even more Holy United Nations. Whom the gods would destroy...

If That 'Mosque' ISN'T Built, This Is No Longer America

by Michael Moore

I am opposed to the building of the "mosque" two blocks from Ground Zero.
I want it built on Ground Zero.

Why? Because I believe in an America that protects those who are the victims of hate and prejudice. I believe in an America that says you have the right to worship whatever God you have, wherever you want to worship. And I believe in an America that says to the world that we are a loving and generous people and if a bunch of murderers steal your religion from you and use it as their excuse to kill 3,000 souls, then I want to help you get your religion back. And I want to put it at the spot where it was stolen from you.
There's been so much that's been said about this manufactured controversy, I really don't want to waste any time on this day of remembrance talking about it. But I hate bigotry and I hate liars, and so in case you missed any of the truth that's been lost in this, let me point out a few facts:

1. I love the Burlington Coat Factory. I've gotten some great winter coats there at a very reasonable price. Muslims have been holding their daily prayers there since 2009. No one ever complained about that. This is not going to be a "mosque," it's going to be a community center. It will have the same prayer room in it that's already there. But to even have to assure people that "it's not going to be mosque" is so offensive, I now wish they would just build a 111-story mosque there. That would be better than the lame and disgusting way the developer has left Ground Zero an empty hole until recently. The remains of over 1,100 people still haven't been found. That site is a sacred graveyard, and to be building another monument to commerce on it is a sacrilege. Why wasn't the entire site turned into a memorial peace park? People died there, and many of their remains are still strewn about, all these years later.
2. Guess who has helped the Muslims organize their plans for this community center? The JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER of Manhattan! Their rabbi has been advising them since the beginning. It's been a picture-perfect example of the kind of world we all want to live in. Peter Stuyvessant, New York's "founder," tried to expel the first Jews who arrived in Manhattan. Then the Dutch said, no, that's a bit much. So then Stuyvessant said ok, you can stay, but you cannot build a synagogue anywhere in Manhattan. Do your stupid Friday night thing at home. The first Jewish temple was not allowed to be built until 1730. Then there was a revolution, and the founding fathers said this country has to be secular -- no religious nuts or state religions. George Washington (inaugurated around the corner from Ground Zero) wanted to make a statement about this his very first year in office, and wrote this to American Jews:

"The citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy -- a policy worthy of imitation. ...

"It is now no more that toleration is spoken of as if it were the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights, for, happily, the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens ...

"May the children of the stock of Abraham who dwell in this land continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other inhabitants -- while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree and there shall be none to make him afraid."

3. The Imam in charge of this project is the nicest guy you'd ever want to meet. Read about his past here.
4. Around five dozen Muslims died at the World Trade Center on 9/11. Hundreds of members of their families still grieve and suffer. The 19 killers did not care what religion anyone belonged to when they took those lives.
5. I've never read a sadder headline in the New York Times than the one on the front page this past Monday: "American Muslims Ask, Will We Ever Belong?" That should make all of us so ashamed that even a single one of our fellow citizens should ever have to worry about if they "belong" here.
6. There is a McDonald's two blocks from Ground Zero. Trust me, McDonald's has killed far more people than the terrorists.
7. During an economic depression or a time of war, fascists are extremely skilled at whipping up fear and hate and getting the working class to blame "the other" for their troubles. Lincoln's enemies told poor Southern whites that he was "a Catholic." FDR's opponents said he was Jewish and called him "Jewsevelt." One in five Americans now believe Obama is a Muslim and 41% of Republicans don't believe he was born here.
8. Blaming a whole group for the actions of just one of that group is anti-American. Timothy McVeigh was Catholic. Should Oklahoma City prohibit the building of a Catholic Church near the site of the former federal building that McVeigh blew up?
9. Let's face it, all religions have their whackos. Catholics have O'Reilly, Gingrich, Hannity and Clarence Thomas (in fact all five conservatives who dominate the Supreme Court are Catholic). Protestants have Pat Robertson and too many to list here. The Mormons have Glenn Beck. Jews have Crazy Eddie. But we don't judge whole religions on just the actions of their whackos. Unless they're Methodists.
10. If I should ever, God forbid, perish in a terrorist incident, and you or some nutty group uses my death as your justification to attack or discriminate against anyone in my name, I will come back and haunt you worse than Linda Blair marrying Freddy Krueger and moving into your bedroom to spawn Chucky. John Lennon was right when he asked us to imagine a world with "nothing to kill or die for and no religion, too." I heard Deepak Chopra this week say that "God gave humans the truth, and the devil came and he said, 'Let's give it a name and call it religion.' " But John Adams said it best when he wrote a sort of letter to the future (which he called "Posterity"): "Posterity! You will never know how much it cost the present Generation to preserve your Freedom! I hope you will make a good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven that I ever took half the Pains to preserve it." I'm guessing ol' John Adams is up there repenting nonstop right now.

Friends, we all have a responsibility NOW to make sure that Muslim community center gets built. Once again, 70% of the country (the same number that initially supported the Iraq War) is on the wrong side and want the "mosque" moved. Enormous pressure has been put on the Imam to stop his project. We have to turn this thing around. Are we going to let the bullies and thugs win another one? Aren't you fed up by now? When would be a good time to take our country back from the haters?
I say right now. Let's each of us make a statement by donating to the building of this community center! It's a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization and you can donate a dollar or ten dollars (or more) right now through a secure pay pal account by clicking here. I will personally match the first $10,000 raised (forward your PayPal receipt to webguy@michaelmoore.com). If each one of you reading this blog/email donated just a couple of dollars, that would give the center over $6 million, more than what Donald Trump has offered to buy the Imam out.
C'mon everyone, let's pitch in and help those who are being debased for simply wanting to do something good. We could all make a huge statement of love on this solemn day.
I lost a co-worker on 9/11. I write this today in his memory.
"The man who speaks of the enemy / Is the enemy himself."
-- Bertolt Brecht

EEUU investiga a soldados que mataban civiles afganos para divertirse

Nueva polémica relacionada con el Ejército de Estados Unidos. Doce soldados destinados en Afganistán están siendo investigados ante las sospechas de que se dedicaban a disparar por diversión a civiles afganos.
En concreto, el “grupo de la muerte” estaba compuesto por cinco soldados que supuestamente habrían asesinado a tres hombres afganos en diferentes ataques; a los otros siete militares se les acusa de encubrir estas muertes y de atacar a un último soldado que habría desvelado a sus superiores lo ocurrido.
Los implicados pertenecen a la brigada de infantería de EEUU en la provincia de Kandahar, al sur del país.Según revela el diario ‘The Guardian’, se trata de una de las más graves acusaciones de crímenes de guerra en Afganistán. Todos los soldados han negado los cargos que, si llegaran a demostrarse, resultarían en una condena a la pena de muerte o cadena perpetua.

Dedos como recuerdo

Todo empezó cuando el sargento Calvin Gibbs llegó a la base de Ramrod el pasado noviembre. Éste, que ya había estado en Irak, comentaba lo “fácil que sería lanzar una granada a cualquiera y matarle“.
Según el periódico ‘The Seatle Times’, la investigación la está llevando a cabo el Ejército estadounidense que está recabando testimonios de varios soldados en Afganistán.
Los investigadores dicen que Gibbs, de 25 años, trazó un plan con otro soldado, Jeremy Morlock, de 22, y otros miembros de su misma unidad para formar el grupo.
Una de las víctimas fue Gul Muldin, al que le tiraron una granada y le dispararon con un rifle en el pueblo de La Mohammed Kalay en enero.
Morlok y Andrew Holmes iban juntos cuando Gibbs, el líder del grupo, entregó la granada a Morlock. Éste seguidamente la lanzó y luego dijo que la explosión se había debido a un fuego causado por motivos que desconocía. Ese mismo día Morlock le dijo a Holmes que todo esto lo hacían por simple diversión y también le amenazó para que no contara nada.
Explica ‘The Army Times’ que uno de los soldados coleccionaba dedos de las víctimas como recuerdo; de hecho Morlock amenazó a Holmes mostrándole un dedo de un muerto, tal y como también cuenta ‘The Seatle Times’. Además, también se acusa a los soldados de robar hachís a varios civiles afganos.

Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret "kill team" that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies.

Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges. (Photograph: Public Domain)

Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians.In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan.
According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army's criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to "toss a grenade at someone and kill them".
One soldier said he believed Gibbs was "feeling out the platoon".
Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a "kill team". While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed "by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle", when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January.
Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall.
Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone.
The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade.
The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies.
Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted.
The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians.
The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it.
Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of "snitching", gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the "kill team".
Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury.
"Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn't have been mixed," Waddington told the Seattle Times.
 

What America Left Behind in Iraq

BY NIR ROSEN


Hundreds of cars waiting in the heat to slowly pass through one of the dozens of checkpoints and searches they must endure every day. The constant roar of generators. The smell of fuel, of sewage, of kabobs. Automatic weapons pointed at your head out of military vehicles, out of SUVs with tinted windows. Mountains of garbage. Rumors of the latest assassination or explosion. Welcome to the new Iraq, same as the old Iraq -- even if Barack Obama has declared George W. Bush's Operation Iraqi Freedom over and announced the beginning of his own Operation New Dawn, and Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has declared Iraq sovereign and independent.




Iraq has had several declarations of sovereignty since the first one in June 2004. As with earlier milestones, it's not clear what exactly this one means. Since the Americans have declared the end of combat operations, U.S. Stryker and MRAP vehicles can be seen conducting patrols without Iraqi escorts in parts of the country and the Americans continue to conduct unilateral military operations in Mosul and elsewhere, even if under the guise of "force protection" or "countering improvised explosive devices." American military officers in Iraq told me they were irate with the politically driven announcement from the White House that combat troops had withdrawn. Those remaining still consider themselves combat troops, and commanders say there is little change in their rules of engagement -- they will still respond to threats pre-emptively.



More... Iraq is still being held back from full independence -- and not merely by the presence of 50,000 U.S. soldiers. The Status of Forces Agreement, which stipulates that U.S. forces will be totally out by 2011, deprives Iraq of full sovereignty. The U.N.'s Chapter 7 sanctions force Iraq to pay 5 percent of its oil revenues in reparations, mostly to the Kuwaitis, denying Iraqis full sovereignty and isolating them from the international financial community. Saudi and Iranian interference, both political and financial, has also limited Iraq's scope for democracy and sovereignty. Throughout the occupation, major decisions concerning the shape of Iraq have been made by the Americans with no input or say by the Iraqis: the economic system, the political regime, the army and its loyalties, the control over airspace, and the formation of all kinds of militias and tribal military groups. The effects will linger for decades, regardless of any future milestones the United States might want to announce.





The Americans, meanwhile, worry about losing their leverage at a time when concerns still run high about a renewed insurgency, Shiite militias, and the explosion of the Arab-Kurdish powder keg everybody's been talking about for the last seven years. Many in the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wonder what Obama's vision for Iraq is. By the summer of 2006, Bush woke up every day and wanted to know what was happening in Iraq. Obama is much more detached
American diplomats also worry that they will soon lose their ability to understand and influence the country. In addition to Baghdad, there will soon be only four other posts. Much of the south will be without any U.S. presence: There will be no Americans between Basra and Baghdad, no Americans in Anbar or Salahuddin provinces.


 Some in the embassy fear they are abandoning the "Shiite heartland." The diplomats still in the country will have less mobility and access, even if they are nominally taking the lead over the military, because it will be harder to find military escorts when they want to travel. "You can't commute to a relationship," I was told.





At best, unable to secure areas to visit by helicopter or communicate with Iraqis navigating the hassle of trying to get into the Green Zone, the diplomats in the four outposts will act as listening posts or trip wires. They hope to be viewed as the honest broker between Kurds and Arabs in northern Iraq, where the American focus has shifted as part of the consolidation of "strategic gain."


But staffers complain that they lack the funding to do their job right, even though the four posts outside Baghdad are going to be very expensive. They say the United States has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the war in Iraq but is now pinching its pennies over secretarial salaries.



One hope for change rested on this year's national election, held on March 7, which ended in a virtual tie between former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi's Iraqiya party and Maliki's State of Law Coalition. The election nonetheless did represent a milestone in the country's political evolution. Regardless of the outcome -- Maliki contested but could not overturn the vote count -- the elections will not precipitate a return to civil war. The state is strong, and the security forces take their work seriously -- perhaps too seriously. The sectarian militias have been beaten and marginalized, and the Sunnis have accepted their loss in the civil war.




The Americans want to keep Allawi around for exactly that reason: They see him as mollifying Sunni anger. "We would like to see an important role for Allawi," U.S. Ambassador James Jeffrey said in an August press conference, arguing that the Shiite ex-Baathist was able to organize a historic shift in the post-war political dynamic by coalescing Sunni and secular forces behind a new democratic process. U.S. diplomats in Baghdad tell me that outgoing U.S. commander Gen. Raymond Odierno is extremely worried about a renewed insurgency if Allawi's Iraqiya list isn't satisfied.

Allawi can't simply be made prime minister, given that he doesn't have support from across the political spectrum. Instead he may be given an enhanced presidency with increased powers, coupled with some checks -- including term limits -- on Prime Minister Maliki.


Shiites and members of Maliki's cadre, meanwhile, are not at all pleased with the idea of a President Allawi. Oil Minister Hussein Shahrastani, who is close to Maliki, has warned the Americans that many in the Shiite elite would see a powerful Allawi presidency as a coup, overthrowing the new order and restoring the bad old Saddam days. Many in Maliki's party are strongly anti-Sunni, just as many in Allawi's party are strongly anti-Shiite, and they fear the repetition of history.


Maliki has told confidants that if he leaves office, everything he has worked for over the last four years will fall apart. He believes that he almost singlehandedly rebuilt the Iraqi state. Without him there is no State of Law party, since it was built around his reputation and Maliki is the individual candidate who won the most votes. The Sadrists would then become the most powerful Shiite bloc and the clock would turn back to the anarchy and misery of 2006.
It's hard to disagree. The prime minister has amassed a vast and relatively stable infrastructure of power. Removing him and his advisors and security institutions at a time like this could be disastrous. Maliki has managed to win over skeptical Sunnis after his 2008 attack on Shiite militias and remake himself into a candidate perceived by many as a secular nationalist.


The Americans certainly believe there are no non-Maliki scenarios, given the risk of the Sadrists taking over. "We've done the math," General Stephen Lanza, the outgoing U.S. military spokesman, said at an event in August.


"We have no real power or authority here," U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey said. "We have no right to interject ourselves in any kind of threatening way. The only thing we have said that comes close to a rethink of our policies is if you had a government where the Sadrists played a critical role, we would really have to ask whether we can have much of a future in this country given their political position." Beyond exiting the country, Jeffrey said, the United States might back off on its vigorous push to convince the United Nations to remove the Chapter 7 sanctions on Iraq, if the Sadrists were to take a dominant role in the government. "We probably wouldn't be too enthused with that mission," said Jeffrey, "and there are a thousand other examples like that." For their part, the Sadrists refuse to meet with the Americans.



The Sadrists are, however, talking with Allawi, offering support in return for control over the Ministry of the Interior and the release of at least 2,000 of their men from Iraqi detention. Allawi has justified his flirtation with the violently anti-American Sadrists on the grounds that they are merely misguided and can be controlled


But the controversies surrounding the still-unresolved contest point to some serious long-term political rifts. The increased pace of the U.S. withdrawal coupled with the still-unresolved state of the political map and meddling by the United States, the Saudis, Iran, and even Turkey, has lead to a vicious zero-sum competition as Iraqi leaders jockey for power.


Maliki was a popular candidate, supported by Iraqis for having crushed both Sunni and Shiite armed groups, and he came in first as an individual politician, with Allawi a distant second. But Maliki's candidates came a close second to Iraqiya -- a surprise after Allawi's dismal performance in 2005.




On the Allawi side are Sunnis, restless with perceived Iranian influence in the country. Opposition to Maliki often centers on his suspected ties to Iran -- an allegation that echoes the tendentious Sunni notion that an Arab cannot have a strong Shiite identity without being pro-Iranian. And notwithstanding the Bush administration's "80 percent" approach -- focusing on the Shiites and Kurds and ignoring the Sunnis -- the group's frustration could lead to destabilization. Sunnis might not be able to overthrow the new Shiite sectarian order, but they can still mount a limited challenge to it. The Kurds, with only the mountains as their friends (to paraphrase a Kurdish proverb), were able to destabilize Iraq for 80 years. Sunni Arabs are present in much more of the country and have allies throughout the Arab world who can supply them well enough to destabilize Iraq more than the Kurds ever could.