Thursday, December 23, 2010

Wikileaks

Over the past few weeks, American politicians have been calling for the censor and prosecution of Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. In fact, some people in our government have been calling for Assange to be prosecuted for treason which is ridiculous since he's not a U.S. citizen and because of that cannot be a traitor. Still others have branded Wikileaks a "terrorist" which is just as ridiculous since terrorism is the willful murder of innocent civilians or military actions against the same for political purposes. The only thing being murdered in the case of Wikileaks is the credibility of the U.S. and it's leaders, both Republicans and Democrats.

Another method being deployed against Wikileaks is to smear it's founder Julian Assange with  rape allegations. First, in Sweden having unprotected sex with a consenting adult female is considered rape. Such an allegation in the United States would be laughed out of court. Yet, this charge is being pursued by Sweden due to pressure from Washington and Stockholm's desire to please the U.S. Government. Washington's tactic is to smear the messenger and thereby taint the message which is nothing new.

Many of these leaked reports from Wikileaks are already well known throughout the world. Going back several months ago when Wikileaks released a video of an American helicopter gun ship murdering innocent civilians in Iraq, most of the people in the world, especially the Arab world knew about this event. The only people shielded from that news by a self censoring media were the Americans and that's the point. People around the world, from Latin America to Southeast Asia and on to the streets of Baghdad who have been on the receiving end of U.S. foreign policy already know many things hidden from the American people. That's what Washington is most afraid of, the American people learning what their government is up to, especially when that government is spending trillions of dollars to do so while at the same time it is asking the poor and middle classes to endure sacrifices and pain.

In closing, any government which continuously lies to its citizens and or has too many secrets is neither free nor democratic!

Kenneth Dalton
President
VFP 21, N.J. & VVAW

Sunday, December 19, 2010

Vets for Peace Arrested at the White House


Daniel Ellsberg (in video above) joined with hundreds of Veterans For Peace members from across the nation to take a message of dissent to President Obama on December 16. 

Veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan, Gulf War I, Vietnam and other overseas military actions, accompanied by military families and other peace activists, chained themselves to the White House fence or otherwise refused police orders to leave. The civil disobedience, which led to 131 arrests, was done on  the day the latest official report about the military situation in Afghanistan was released. Two members of Veterans For Peace, Chapter 21 NJ, Jules Orkin and Stefan Neustadter, were among those arrested in protest of continuing the counter-productive and wasteful wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Those arrested also included Ellsberg, the former Marine officer who leaked the Pentagon papers, retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, FBI whistleblower Colleen Rowley, and Pulitzer prize-winning war correspondent Chris Hedges, noted Examiner.com blogger Gregory Patin. "While small in numbers, this protest is significant because it was organized and led by veterans who have served their country," Patin wrote. "It is also significant that it was completely ignored by the mainstream media on a news day largely filled with sports news and holiday shopping reports."

But Veterans For Peace was determined to send a message directly to Obama by getting arrested in front of the White House while throwing piles of postcards signed by antiwar activists over the White House fence.

"We are dedicated to exposing the true costs of war and militarism," said Mike Ferner, national president of Veterans for Peace, as reported in The Huffington Post. "We've killed well over a million people. We've orphaned and displaced five times that number at least. And here in our own country, we've managed to throw millions of people of out work and out of their homes," Ferner said at a press conference. "There is a connection there. That connection is the true cost of war."

"Citing information available for every city and state in America on the Cost of War website," The Huffington Post report by Dan Froomkin added, "the former Navy hospital corpsman noted that his hometown of Toledo alone has sent almost a billion dollars into the war effort."