peace: [mpen-dayton4] FW: "TPP Gymnastics" & "Why the GOP is Hesitant to Denounce Trump's Bigotry" & "Sign the petition: Fix the Voting Rights Act" & "Gaza" and more

FYI. Best, Munsup

P.S. "He who dares not offend cannot be honest" - Thomas Paine
P.P.S. Please reply back to me with 'unsubscribe' on the subject line if you no longer want to receive my e-Newsletters. The convenient link to unsubscribe is no longer available due to security reasons.

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· FW: TPP Gymnastics

· FW: Why the GOP is Hesitant to Denounce Trump's Bigotry

· FW: Trump Slams George W. Bush for Veterans Group Speaking Fee

· FW: Today's Headlines: Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds

· FW: Pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015

· FW: Sign the petition: Fix the Voting Rights Act

· FW: The CIA's Creation of "Islamic Terrorism" on American Soil

· FW: Gaza

· FW: Robert Parry: "Whining White Southerners" | The Smirking Chimp

· FW: Scandal: Former Attorney General Eric Holder's new job

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From: khalfani718
Subject: TPP Gymnastics

FYI: From CLG News, a pair of stories about 'sausage making' (trade agreements)... - K

To facilitate passage of TPP, U.S. upgrades Malaysia in annual human trafficking report - sources | 08 July 2015 | The United States is upgrading Malaysia from the lowest tier on its list of worst human trafficking centers, U.S. sources said on Wednesday, a move that could smooth the way for an ambitious U.S.-led free-trade deal with the Southeast Asian nation and 11 other countries. The upgrade to so-called "Tier 2 Watch List" status removes a potential barrier to President Barack Obama's signature global ~~trade~~ corporate takeover deal. A provision in a related trade bill passed by Congress last month barred from fast-tracked trade deals Malaysia and other countries that earn the worst U.S. human trafficking ranking in the eyes of the U.S. State Department.

President Obama Accepts Slavery
in Order to Win TPP Trade Deal

Eric Zuesse

So that U.S. President Barack Obama can end a roadblock and win the agreement of other nations for his proposed Trans Pacific Partnership, he has decided to remove one of the nations, Malaysia, from the U.S. State Department's official list of countries that allow slavery. Malaysia, which recently found over a hundred graves of discarded slaves, has been on the U.S. State Department's "Tier 3" list of slave nations, along with North Korea, Zimbabwe, Syria, and Iran, but, unlike those other countries, Obama wants Malaysia to be included in his Trans Pacific Partnership; so, he has decided to remove Malaysia from that official list.

This was first reported by Reuters on July 8th, under the headline "Exclusive: U.S. Upgrades Malaysia in Annual Human Trafficking Report." Reuters announced: "The United States is upgrading Malaysia from the lowest tier on its list of worst human trafficking centers, U.S. sources said on Wednesday, a move that could smooth the way for an ambitious U.S.-led free-trade deal with the Southeast Asian nation and 11 other countries."

Zach Carter at Huffington Post headlined, later on July 8th, "Obama To Upgrade Malaysia On Human Rights Despite Mass Graves," and he reported that U.S. Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) issued a statement saying: "If true, this manipulation of Malaysia's ranking in the State Department's 2015 TIP report would be a perversion of the trafficking list and undermine both the integrity of this important report as well as the very difficult task of confronting states about human trafficking."

However, Senator Menendez, himself, has, behind the scenes, pushed for Obama's TPP and other mammoth 'trade' deals, including TTIP and TISA, even despite these deals allowing participating countries to look the other way and not prosecute when international corporations hire killers to assassinate labor union organizers in a given U.S. trade 'partner' country. So, Sen. Menendez is in no position to accuse this President of allowing slavery and even mass-murder of slaves, and he is not making any such accusation. In fact, Menendez was a no-show at the key vote in the Senate on Fast-Tracking — reducing from the Constitutionally required 67 down to the ordinary-law-required 51 Senators, which will be needed in order to approve, as constituting a U.S. law, a treaty — each one of this President's three gigantic 'trade' treaties. Menendez did this even though the Obama Administration has acknowledged that it considers a nation's murders of labor union organizers to be irrelevant to that country's suitability to be included in a 'trade' treaty as a favored nation and 'trading' partner, such as will be in the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP), or in its Atlantic equivalent, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).

Allowing murder of trade-union officials, and allowing slavery, are not, in either case, matters of law in any given country, because nowhere are those things technically legal. They are instead matters of not enforcing laws that are technically on the books. When corporations can become more internationally competitive by employing such tactics and paying public officials to look the other way, it's just a matter of economic competition and of minimizing government regulation of the economy. These are unofficial ways of boosting competitiveness, which — the U.S. President and his "Fast Track" supporters in Congress are now on record as accepting — do not disqualify a given country from being included as one of the treaty "Partners."

Recently, on May 25th, Britain's Guardian headlined "Malaysia migrant mass graves: police reveal 139 sites, some with multiple corpses," and reported that the corpses were probably Bangladeshi but that this had not yet been confirmed. "The revelation is likely to focus new attention on Malaysia's record in battling a scourge that activists say is carried out by criminal syndicates, likely with the complicity of authorities." It helps Malaysia stay internationally competitive. And the use of foreigners for this, reduces the likelihood of serious domestic political blowback from this particular means of the nation's increasing its economic competitiveness. This technique additionally helps to drive down wages within the given nation, and by that indirect means, makes the entire nation even more economically competitive. The Obama Administration is now officially categorizing the entire matter as simply expanding "free trade."

When the United States provides favored-nation treatment to nations where slaves are used, or where labor-union organizers are murdered, the United States is allowing U.S. international corporations to lower their production-costs by "shipping those jobs overseas" to countries where labor is cheaper (or even free, if the cost of bribes is not included). The beneficiaries of those lower (if any) wages are the owners of these international corporations. U.S. consumers might also benefit, if the lower production-costs get passed along to them; but, sometimes, that doesn't happen, and all of the benefits from other nations' union-busting and/or outright slave labor go only to the stockholders of the international corporations.

Under the U.S. Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision, which allows corporations to donate unlimited funds anonymously to U.S. political campaigns, there is no longer any way to prevent international corporations from participating in U.S. electoral politics — it's now "free speech" (no matter where the corporation is headquartered or incorporated), and any corporation is a "person," which has unlimited "free speech" regarding political matters. If those corporations (or, actually, their controlling stockholders) decide to do business that way, it's now only a private decision that they are entirely free to make, according to the U.S. Supreme Court.

An independent economic analysis was done of TPP, and it showed that international corporations will benefit enormously, but that the publics everywhere will become far worse off, if it goes into effect. An independent economic analaysis was also done of TTIP, and it produced the very same findings. However, corporate-backed economic analyses have produced contrary findings, and those are the studies that are officially cited. In current economic theory, the more that things are privatized, the better. Some economists personally object, but most economists who have successful careers do not. Endowed chairs in economics are sparse for dissenters. As the late economist Robert E. Prasch noted:

"Positions at the top twenty research universities are simply closed to scholars working outside the mainstream, and the next twenty on the list have every incentive to become caricatures of the top schools. The reason for this de facto policy of exclusion is not solely ideological. In this era of austerity, research faculties are expected to garner substantial outside funding, and these funds are typically granted to scholars whose work serves the funders ends."

In other words, there is a "free market" in economists, too.

And so, the "free market" will be expanded, no matter what; and there is likely to be considerable public cheering about it, regardless of what slaves, or non-unionized workers, or other possible objectors, might happen to think about it. International corporations might have lots of "free speech," but the real people who are at the bottom — not nearly as much. And, in Malaysia, perhaps, not at all.

———-
Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010, and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity.

From: Jimmy Franco Sr.; Moderator of LATINOPOV.COM
Subject: "Why the GOP is Hesitant to Denounce Trump's Bigotry""

Why the GOP is Hesitant to Denounce Trump's Bigotry

The recent campaign statements made by Republican candidate Donald Trump that Mexican immigrants are primarily "criminals, drug smugglers and rapists" have opened up a much needed political debate. These slurs and immigrant bashing have unearthed deeply ingrained racial views and unleashed a torrent of public criticism

continue reading

From: tbacane
Subject: FW: Trump Slams George W. Bush for Veterans Group Speaking Fee

I mostly always disagree with the loud mouthed fool called Rump, but in this case his slamming of GWB for taking a 100 plus speaking fee from a Veteran's group is spot on! Bush lied in getting our troops to invade Iraq (getting many killed and maimed) and now he has the balls to charge veterans to hear his ass speak is outrageous! He should be made to give every penny back. After all he and his fellow travelers including Cheney made millions from their lies and deceptions and our veterans got only body bags, guide dogs, metal limbs and mental wards. Tell GWB to give that money back to our veterans they deserve it!

Breaking from Newsmax.com

Trump Rips George W. Bush for Veterans Speech Fee of $120K

Donald Trump slammed former President George W. Bush on Thursday for charging over $100K to speak to a group of severely wounded military veterans — soldiers he himself sent to war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Read More Here

From: NYTimes.com
Subject: Today's Headlines: Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds

Psychologists Shielded U.S. Torture Program, Report Finds
By JAMES RISEN

The scathing report, commissioned by the American Psychological Association, says the C.I.A. used prominent outside psychologists to quell internal objections.

From: MARGARET
Subject: Pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015

Hi, I signed a petition to Rep. Bob Goodlatte (VA-6), Sen. Chuck Grassley (IA-1), and 2 others which says: "Congress must protect voters now by passing The Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015. The bill includes modern, common sense solutions to prevent racial discrimination in voting. Congress should give this bill the consideration it deserves and work together to restore the Voting Rights Act. Every day that Congress fails to act is a threat to voting rights in America!

Will you sign this petition? Click here:
http://petitions.moveon.org/sign/pass-the-voting-rights?source=s.em.mt&r_by=315978

Sign the petition: Fix the Voting Rights Act now.
Sign the petition to Congress:

"Thanks to the Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act is weaker now than when it was passed 50 years ago. Fight to pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the Voting Rights Act and block new efforts to suppress African-American and Latino votes."

Add your name:

Fifty years ago this summer, at the height of the civil rights movement, Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act to prohibit racial discrimination in voting. The law wasn't perfect, but it frequently stopped states with a history of discriminatory voting laws from preventing African-Americans and Latinos from voting.

But In 2013, the right-wing ideologues on the United States Supreme Court handed down a shameful decision that gutted the Voting Rights Act, ending decades of protection for minorities against discriminatory and unfair attempts to limit voting based on one's race.

Progressive champions in Congress have just introduced the Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore the Voting Rights Act and stop Republicans in states around the country from enacting racist voter ID and voter suppression laws.¹ We need to keep the pressure on Congress to crack down on racial discrimination in voting.

Sign the petition: Stop voter suppression and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act. Click here to sign the petition.

While the Supreme Court didn't invalidate Section 5, a key part of the Voting Rights Act, it threw out the basic formula that has been used practically since the bill's passage in 1965 to determine where the Justice Department must provide approval before local election rules that would suppress the votes of African-American and Latino citizens can be put into effect. Voter suppression rules can still be challenged by the Department of Justice after the fact, but this often happens too late to prevent minority voters from being blocked from the polls. The court's decision effectively guts the Voting Rights Act, rendering it useless until Congress updates the coverage formula for Section 5.

Republicans didn't waste any time in taking advantage of this ruling for electoral gain. Within hours of Supreme Court's decision, several states in the South immediately announced that they would pursue onerous new voter ID laws that were clearly designed to make it harder for African-Americans and Latinos to vote.² All told, 395 voting restrictions have been passed at the state and local levels in the past five years alone.³

Sign the petition: Stop voter suppression and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act. Click here to sign the petition.

The Voting Rights Advancement Act is the strongest voting rights bill ever introduced in the United States Congress. It would require states with a history of recent voting discrimination to clear changes to voting laws with the Department of Justice, require any new state voter ID laws are reviewed and approved by the federal government, and block new efforts to suppress African-American and Latino votes.

Crucially, the bill would also give the U.S. Attorney General the authority to send federal election observers to monitor elections in which there's a risk of voting discrimination.

If Congress doesn't act, the 2016 election will be the first presidential election in 50 years in which voters don't have the full protections of the Voting Rights Act. We need to pressure Congress to act now to stop racial discrimination in voting.

Sign the petition: Stop voter suppression and pass the Voting Rights Advancement Act. Click here to sign the petition.

Add your name:

From: James Lucas
Subject: FW: The CIA's Creation of "Islamic Terrorism" on American Soil

The CIA's Creation of "Islamic Terrorism" on American Soil
By Dr. Paul L. Williams on Global Research, July 03, 2015

URL of this article:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cias-creation-of-islamic-terrorism-on-american-soil/5460047

PW10

Islamic paramilitary camps have been set up in the United States and Canada to train African American Muslims in guerilla warfare. After months of training on firing ranges and obstacle courses, the black Muslims are sent to Pakistan where they receive advanced training in explosives. Many never return.

Stories about these camps are not new. They have been reported by the main stream media, including Fox News.

The origin of these compounds for would-be jihadis dates back to 1979, when the Agency sent hundreds of radical Islamic clerics to the United States in an effort to recruit African American Muslims for the holy war against the Soviets in Afghanistan.

The Tablighi Missionaries

By and large, these missionaries hailed from Pakistan and belonged to Tablighi Jamaat, a Muslim movement with 150 members in 213 countries.[1] Upholding a strict interpretation of Islamic law (shariah), the Tablighi were united in their resistance to Western culture; their insistence that Muslims should avoid contact with all those who do not share their beliefs; and their approval of jihad by sword (jihad bin saif).[2] Members of the movement gathered every year for three days in the small Pakistani town ofRaiwind.

In 1979, Sheikh Mubarek Ali Gilani, a Tablighi missionary from Lahore, Pakistan, arrived in Brooklynwhere he called upon members of Dar ul-Islam, a notoriously violent street gang, to take arms in the great jihad. Scores answered his call and were headed off to Pakistan with payments of thousands of dollars in cash and promises of seventy houris in seventh heaven, if they were killed in action.[3]

Welcome To Islamberg

By 1980, the Agency realized that considerable expense could be saved by setting up paramilitary camps under the supervision of Shiekh Gilani in a rural area of the country. An ideal location was located near Hancock New York at the base ofPointMountain, where the east and west branches of the Delaware River converge to form the headwaters that flow throughPennsylvania and New Jersey to theAtlantic Ocean. The rocky terrain was infested with rattlesnakes, and the woods were home to black bears, coyotes, wolves, and a few bobcats. Islamberg, a seventy acre complex, came into existence.

Firing ranges and obstacle courses were set up in Islamberg along with a massive underground bunker and a landing strip. The residents lived in single-wide trailers that lined the hillside. The settlement contained a small shack that served as a laundry facility; a claptrap community center; a tiny grocery store, and a masjid. A sentry post was placed at the entranceway.[4]

The sound of gunfire and explosions emanating from the property alarmed local residents, who filed complaints with local and state law enforcement agencies. But a marked law enforcement vehicle never appeared at the compound.[5] Islamberg was off-limits to police inspection on the spurious grounds of "national security."

The camp also came to contain an illegal cemetery where bodies were buried in unmarked graves.[6] This alone should have warranted a raid by the New York State Police. But not even dead bodies could prompt a police investigation.

When Islamberg was established, Gilani presented himself as an employee of the CIA and the future jihadis, who resided in the compound, called themselves CIA operatives.[7] Few in law enforcement doubted the professed credentials of the Muslim newcomers.

Communities of the Impoverished

Islamberg was a great success. Hundreds of African American Muslims made their way to Afghanistan and joined the ranks of the mujahedeen. Several were killed in action.[8] Others, including Clement Rodney Hampton-El, returned to the U.S. to plot the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York.[9]

Under the CIA's directions, a host of other paramilitary camps were established in such places as Red House, Virginia; Commerce, Georgia; York, South Carolina; Dover, Tennessee; Buena Vista, Colorado; Macon, Georgia; Squaw Valley, California; Marion, Alabama; Talihina, Oklahoma; and Toronto, Ontario.[10]

Gilani placed Islamberg and the other camps under a governing organization called "Jamaat ul-Fuqra" or "the community of the impoverished." He established the headquarters of this "charity" in Lahore. The American arm of Jamaat ul-Fuqra became the Muslims of the Americas," a tax-exempt corporation with Gilani's mosque in Brooklynas its address.[11]

Increased Need of Radicals

The Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989 did not spell an end to the CIA's support of radical Islam. Throughout the 1990s, Dr. Ayman Zawahiri, al Qaeda's second in command, travelled at the expense and bidding of the CIA throughout Central Asia, where he cultivated new armies of jihadis to destabilize the newly created republics. His efforts resulted in the uprising of the Chechens against the Russian Federation, the attempted toppling of the government in Uzbekistan, and the insurgence of the Uigurs in the Xinjiang provinceof China.[12]

A dutiful operative, Dr. Zawahiri met regularly with U.S.military and intelligence officials at the U.S.embassy in Baku, Azerbaijanto plan the Balkan operations in which the CIA worked with al Qaeda to overthrow the government of Slobodan Milosevic for the creation of "Greater Albania," encompassing Albania, Kosovo, and parts of Macedonia. [13]

These operations, particularly in the Balkans, required the recruitment of more and more jihadis. Gilani's camps continued to prosper. And more and more of his African American recruits appeared among the rank and file mujahedeen in various theaters of warfare throughout the world.

Dr. Zawahiri's help was so valuable that he was granted permanent U.S.residence by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service in January 2000.[14]

The Rise of ISIS

After 9/11, the Agency continued to cultivate Islamic holy warriors to maintain the "strategy of tension" in the Middle East, the Balkan states, and Central Asia and to mount new uprisings in Africa to expandU.S.hegemony. The grand purpose of these enterprises wasUSeconomic and political control ofEurasia. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former Secretary of State and leading strategist for the Council on Foreign Relations, writes:

For America, the chief geopolitical prize is Eurasia. . . . Now a non-Eurasian power is preeminent in Eurasia – - – and America's global primacy is directly dependent on how long and how effectively its preponderance on the Eurasian continent is sustained. . . . To put it in a terminology that harkens back to the more brutal age of ancient empires, the three great imperatives of imperial geostrategy are to prevent collusion and maintain security dependence among the vassals, to keep the tributaries pliant and protected, and to keep the barbarians from coming together.[15]

In accordance with the strategy of keeping "the barbarians from coming together," ISIS forces were and are trained at a secret U.S. military base in the Jordanian town of Safawi.[16] The weapons for ISIS came, compliments of the Agency, from the arsenal of deposed Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi. The shipment of these weapons to ISIS in Syria was supervised in 2012 by David Petraeus, the CIA director who would soon resign when it was alleged that he was having an affair with his biographer.[17]

Supply and Demand

In response to the increased demand, Gilani continued to churn out more and more African American jihadis. More and more training camps opened, including one in Texas.[18] More and more bodies were buried in unmarked graves. More and more complaints were made to law enforcement officials. And more and more graduates from the training camps made their way toPakistan.

Blowback

Of course, there was blowback to the CIA's establishment on Islamic paramilitary camps on American soil. Over the years, numerous members of Jamaat ul Fuqra have been convicted in U/S. court of such crimes as conspiracy to commit murder, firebombing, gun smuggling, and workers' compensation fraud. Others remain leading suspects in criminal cases throughout the country, including ten unsolved assassinations and seventeen firebombings between 1979 and 1990.[19]

In 2001, a resident of the ul-Fuqra camp in California was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting of a sheriff's deputy; another was charged with gun-smuggling; and twenty-four from the camp in Red House, Virginia were convicted of firearms violations.[20]

By 2004 investigators uncovered evidence that purportedly linked both the Washington, DC "sniper killer" John Allen Muhammad and "Shoe Bomber" Richard Reid to Gilani's group and reports surfaced that Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl had been captured and killed in the process of attempting to gain an interview with Sheikh Gilani in Pakistan.[21]

By 2015, Jamaat ul-Fuqra had been involved in more terror attacks on America soil (30 and counting) than all the other terrorist groups combined. Despite these attacks, the group has never been placed on the official US Terror Watch List, and the Muslims of the Americascontinues to operate as a legitimate non-profit, tax-exempt organization.[22]

The Warning

Investigators, including Patrick Walsh and William Krayer, who have visited Islamberg and other paramilitary settlements, believe that the next major attack on US soil will emanate from Gilani's jamaats of homegrown terrorism. Based on the history of the CIA's involvement in the creation of these camps, such an attack may occur in accordance with the Agency's own design.

Dr. Paul L. Williams is the author of Operation Gladio: The Unholy Alliance between the Vatican, The CIA, and the Mafia.

Notes

[1] Alex Alexiev, "Tablighi Jamaat: Jihad's Stealthy Legion," Middle East Quarterly, no. 1 (Winter 2005)

[2] Jane I. Smith, Islam in America (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), p. 161.

[3] Robert Dannin, Black Pilgrimage to Islam (New York:OxfordUniversity Press, 2002),

[4] Douglas J. Hagmann, "Special Report: Jamaat ul-Fuqra Training Compound Inside the U.S.," Northeast Intelligence Network, February 28, 2006.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Paul L. Williams, Crescent Moon Rising: The Islamic Transformation of America (Amherst,New York: Prometheus Books, 2013), p. 134.

[7] "Afghanistan Update," Daily Telegraph (London), August 5, 1983; Los Angeles Times, August 5, 1983.

[8] Ibid

[9] Zachary Crowley, "Jamaat ul-Fuqra Dossier," Center for Policing Terrorism, March 16, 2005.

[10] Gordon Gregory and Sonna Williams, "Jamaat ul-Fuqra," Special Research Report, Regional Organized Crime Information Center, 2006.

[11] Ibid.

[12] Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, "Whistleblower: Al Qaeda Chief Was US Asset," Huffington Post, May 21, 2013.

[13] Sibel Edmonds, "Know Your Terrorists: Ayman al-Zawahiri," Boiling Frogs Post, February 16, 2013.

[14] Rory McCarthy, "The Real Ayman al-Zawahiri," The Guardian, August 5, 2005. See also Michel Chossudovsky, The Globalization of War (Montreal: Global Research Rublishers, 2015), p. 111.

[15] Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy and Its Geostrategic Imperative (New York: Basic Books, 1997), pp. 20, 40.

[16] "Americans Are Training Syria Rebels in Jordan," Reuters, March 10, 2013.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Ryan Mauro, "Islamic Terror Enclave Discovered in Texas," The Clarion Project, February 18, 2014.

[19] "Jamaat ul-Fuqra: Terror Group ofPakistan,"Institute ofContact Management, 2001.

[20] Ibid.

[21] "The Jamaat ul-Fuqra Threat," Stratfor, Security Consulting Intelligence Resources, June 3, 2005.

[22] Patrick B. Briley, "AL Fuqra: U.S. Islamic Terror Network Protected by FBI, U.S. State Department, Liberty Post, July 28, 2006.

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article.
Copyright © Dr. Paul L. Williams, Global Research, 2015

From: Cecilie Surasky; Deputy Director, Jewish Voice for Peace
Subject: Gaza.

One year ago today, Israel began its overwhelming 50-day military attack on Gaza while the world's governments looked on. Israel was armed—and diplomatically protected—by my country, the United States.

Over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, the vast majority of them civilians. Seventy-one Israelis were killed, 5 civilians.

You took to the streets, the airwaves, and social media to say the loss of any life was one life too many, and that one of the world's most technologically advanced armies had to stop bombing people hiding in schools, apartments, and hospitals.

People, we all reminded the world, who had already suffered for years from dispossession, the Israeli military-enforced occupation, and siege.

Today, we are re-releasing the Gaza Names video and website we produced with the Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU). Narrated by Wallace Shawn, and featuring many artists and activists you will recognize, this 4 minute video shows the names and some of the faces of those who were killed.

It reminds us that Palestinians in Gaza are still living under siege. Still traumatized. Still resilient. And still fighting for their freedom.

Please, share this video far and wide.

I know it is difficult to watch. When I see the images of families, I can't help but imagine my own.
But it is our obligation to witness, and more importantly, to take action.

The Palestinian-led Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement is 10 years old this week. Nonviolent BDS campaigns to pressure Israel to abide by international law are making a difference faster than anyone ever imagined. They are uniting diverse people from around the world who believe in justice, equality, and dignity for all peoples of Israel/Palestine.

This movement must and will grow. Please. Join us.
Please, recommit to building a movement for justice. Let's lead with actions, not just words.

From: Judy Burnette
Subject: Robert Parry: "Whining White Southerners" | The Smirking Chimp

" .... Instead of confronting the real and ugly history, they have devised a fictional one that is reinforced by the many symbols of the Confederacy, from the many statues of Confederate generals to the Confederate battle flag (now waved as an international symbol of white supremacy) to the honors given to Confederate President (and Mississippi slaveholder) Jefferson Davis. ... "

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/node/62937

From: Becky Bond; Political Director, CREDO Action from Working Assets
Subject: Scandal: Former Attorney General Eric Holder's new job

Tell Congress: Subpoena Eric Holder's communication with his corporate law firm

Petition to the leadership of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees:
"Subpoena all communications between former Attorney General Eric Holder and Covington & Burling while he served at Department of Justice and investigate any potential conflict of interest."

Add your name:

It's the revolving door at its most despicable. Eric Holder spent six years as attorney general, and failed to prosecute banks for their criminal wrongdoing or put any bank executives behind bars. Now, he's set to rejoin his old white-collar criminal defense firm, making millions each year helping Wall Street bankers avoid criminal consequences.¹

Worse, it was just reported that the firm, Covington & Burling, has kept an empty 11th floor corner office for Holder awaiting his return. Combined with Holder's purchase a year ago of a $1.5 million condo just 300 feet from his new office raises serious questions about how long Holder knew he would be getting a major payday from his old firm even while it continued to represent companies under Department of Justice investigation. If the firm and Holder agreed on a future job offer, that alone could violate criminal laws.²

The leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary committees owe it to the American people to explore all communications between a sitting attorney general and a firm that appears to have been holding a job for him while its clients negotiated legal settlements with the Justice Department.

Tell Congress: Subpoena former Attorney General Eric Holder's communications with his corporate law firm
while serving as head of the Department of Justice. Click here to sign the petition.

Wall Street banks committed fraud that crashed the economy and then illegally foreclosed on countless homeowners, but still not a single big bank executive has gone to jail. In many cases, the Justice Department under Eric Holder's leadership refused even to prosecute banks for criminal acts, despite whistleblowers coming forward to guide investigators to the key evidence. In the rare cases where prosecutors brought charges, they quickly agreed on settlements that allowed banks to get off the hook with empty promises, token fines, no admissions of wrongdoing, no one losing their job, and no one going to jail.

We knew that Eric Holder's long career in white-collar criminal defense biased him against confronting mega banks, and many expected him to return to Covington & Burling after he left office. But only recently did it come to light that the firm had reserved a space for him in its new building well before he had announced his attention to resign. Not only that, last year Holder and his wife purchased a $1.5 million just 300 feet from the firm's downtown office, a move that many interpret to suggest he knew he would return. The firm's chairman even admitted in an interview that Holder's return was "a project I've been working on since I started as chair [in 2008]."³

Did Covington & Burling make concrete promises to Holder while he was still serving as attorney general? Holding a corner office alone could constitute a violation of U.S. criminal code prohibiting "an arrangement concerning prospective employment."⁴

Tell Congress: Subpoena former Attorney General Eric Holder's communications with his corporate law firm
while serving as head of the Department of Justice. Click here to sign the petition.

Even if there is no smoking gun of criminal behavior, the mere fact that Holder will now make millions getting rich criminals off the hook is a revolting example of the revolving door. Covington & Burling represents JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, and nearly every other Wall Street titan. Disturbingly, the firm's marketing materials include glowing references to Lanny Breuer. In Breuer's four years as head of the Justice Department's criminal division under Holder, he sent not a single banker to jail for crimes committed during the financial meltdown. In 2013, Breuer left the DOJ for a job at Covington where his salary was reported to start at around $4 million a year. The firm is notable for helping big banks find the legal justification for much of the rampant securitization that led to the financial crash and ensuing foreclosure fraud.⁵

Covington & Burling has already brought on six of Holder's colleagues from the Justice Department, including the former head of the criminal division who refused to investigate banks, and the firm reportedly views Holder as a "rainmaker" who will bring in new business. Holder himself recently said his role model is a former attorney general who used his position to became the first lawyer to charge $1,000 an hour.⁶ Even if Holder never shows up in court to represent his clients, he and Covington & Burling clearly plan to trade on expertise and insider connections to defend illegal behavior and rake in big bucks.⁷

Holder's new job is already a national disgrace. The least the leaders of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees can do is make sure it isn't criminal, as well.

Tell Congress: Subpoena former Attorney General Eric Holder's communications with his corporate law firm
while serving as head of the Department of Justice. Click below to sign the petition.

http://act.credoaction.com/sign/subpoena_holder?t=7&akid=14931.1004336.gHo0V0

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