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November 30, 2001 - 3:35pm -- nick
News

As of late, there has been a great deal of discussion online about the case
of Katie Sierra, and what supporters can do to lend their voices to the
efforts to help Katie. On Nov. 28, I talked with Katie Sierra and his
attorney, Roger Forman, and I wanted to communicate the latest news and
ways they suggest people can support this case.

In case you're just learning about this case...

Katie Sierra, born in Panama, is a 15-year-old ninth grader at Sissonville
High School. in Charleston, West Virginia in the United States. She's
become the subject of national media attention after the high school
suspended her for anti-war sentiments and her desire to start a student
anarchist club. She was suspended for three days in October for defying
school orders not to form an anarchy club or wear T-shirts that include
slogans opposing the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. The handwritten message
on the T-shirt that got her in trouble read: ``When I saw the dead and
dying Afghani children on TV, I felt a newly recovered sense of national
security. God Bless America."

The school claimed Katie's actions disrupted student learning and a Kanawha
County Circuit judge upheld the suspension. The West Virginia Supreme Court
on Nov. 27 voted 3-2 not to consider Katie Sierra's petition to prevent the
lower court from "continuing to deny her freedom of speech.'' Her attorney
says federal court and other legal options are being considered.

Media reports of threats Katie's received are indeed true. She's being
homeschooled right now (in a program paid for by the school) because of
those threats (due to her parents' concerns, and the fact the school can't
guarantee her safety). She says she'd prefer to be in school. However, the
situation as it is has made that a problem.

Read the rest of the story at infoshop.org.

November 29, 2001 - 12:56pm -- jim
News
News

Aisha writes: "When Muhammad Rafiq Butt died in the New Jersey's Hudson County jail on
Oct.
23 after a month of detention, no one knew he was there. The
55-year-old
Pakistani restaurant worker was one of the 1,147 people detained for
questioning in the investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. Until county
officials announced that Butt had been found dead in his jail cell,
neither
the Pakistani consulate, Butt's family, nor members of the local
Pakistani
community knew of his incarceration.

The Justice Department has since confirmed that they have no evidence
linking Butt to the hijackers. Butt, instead, was being held by the
Immigration and Naturalization Service for overstaying his visitor's
visa
and lacking proper travel documents. Yet his detention was cloaked in
secrecy. Butt's name was expunged from immigration charging documents.

Human rights attorneys say many immigrants like Butt, who speak little
English, often do not understand that they have the right to make phone
calls to lawyers and loved ones. And some, such as political
dissidents,
have good reasons for not contacting their consulates. But civil
liberties
groups say Butt's virtual disappearance into detention on Sept. 19 is
just
one of many cases where the government has withheld public information
about
detainees. Non-citizens held on immigration charges are most vulnerable
because they have no right to an attorney while in custody. Butt
appeared at
his hearing with a translator, but without legal counsel.

For the full story, go to:

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11882"

November 29, 2001 - 9:39am -- jim
News
News

Hugo Chavez Defies Protests of His Economic Policies

CARACAS -- President Hugo Chavez dared Venezuela's largest business
federation Tuesday to proceed with a one- day strike to protest his economic
policies, saying his government's popularity would win the day.

``I dare them to have that strike. We will see who has more strength,
[business] or the sovereign people,'' Chavez said while inaugurating a
transportation law. ``I'm the head of state. You're not going to put me
against the wall; you're not going to blackmail me.'' ...

http://www.miami.com/herald/content/news/americas/digdocs/071008.htm

November 27, 2001 - 12:40pm -- jim
News
News

TAZ writes: "...sad to see another "voice of the people" disappear from our daily reporting, especially someone so near and dear and familiar with the present crisis of tenant and overdevelopment issues. Her passion and enthusiasum will be missed by all.

IN MEMORIAM: JULIA LOBBIA

Last night, we heard the upsetting news that Julia Lobbia, the Village Voice columnist for "Towers and Tenements", passed away Thursday after a bout with cancer. Under the pen name "J.A. Lobbia," Julia's writings focused on the problems tenants and neighborhoods face in New York City. We often reprinted her column in this newsletter -- her reporting being the only regular column in mainstream NYC media covering tenant and overdevelopment issues.

November 25, 2001 - 10:34pm -- autonomedia
News

World War III Report, #9

Bill Weinberg

Nov. 24, 2001

THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT

LIBERATION OR IMPERIALIST CARVE-UP?

A bloody stalemate has developed since the Taliban's retreat from the
Afghan capital of Kabul last week. Afghanistan is now divided between
three unstable forces: the increasingly faction-ridden Northern
Alliance, the Pashtun warlords who have risen against the Taliban in
the south, and the Taliban, now with control of less than a quarter of
the country. The US is deploying more elite units to try to tip the
balance against the Taliban. Reported the New York Times Nov. 24: "With
Taliban troops establishing strong pockets of resistance across a wide
swath of Afghanistan, the United States is using two bases in Pakistan
to send several hundred Special Operations forces in an attempt to kill
Taliban troops and capture Osama bin Laden."

In addition to besieged Kunduz in the northeast and the area around
Kandahar in the south, the Taliban have positions just south of Kabul,
and two locations near Jalalabad, just 40 miles from the Pakistan
border. Many of the Taliban troops are volunteers from Pakistan, the
Arab countries and elsewhere in the Islamic world. The Arab fighters
were denied requests for a safe corridor to flee to Pakistan, but the
New York Times reported Nov. 24 that Pakistani planes are being flown
into Kunduz to evacuate Pakistani Taliban fighters. Pakistan, until
recently backing the Taliban, is an important US ally and staging
ground for the war--while the Arab volunteers may have ties to Osama
bin Laden, believed to be hiding in Taliban-controlled territory.

A deal brokered in Northern Alliance-held Mazar-i-Sharif would allow
Afghan Taliban fighters to flee Kunduz while Arab volunteers would be
held in camps "until the alliance and the US-led coalition could decide
what to do with them." But the deal has yet to be finalized, US bombs
continue to fall around Kunduz, and panicked refugees are fleeing the
city for Northern Alliance lines. They said they were fleeing both the
bombardment and Taliban abuses of the civil population. (Newsday, Nov.
23)

November 22, 2001 - 6:55pm -- jim
News

Taliban puts $50 million price on Bush's
head

Ananova. 21 November 2001


The Taliban has offered a $50 million bounty for the capture of George W
Bush. The regime's head of security has made the announcement, and claims it
is double what the US has placed on the head of bin Laden.


Mohammed Saeed Haqqani says Osama bin Laden could not have carried out
the attacks in New York and Washington.
According to the Inquilab, he said: "Osama bin Laden does not have the
means to carry out such acts." He went on: "If the rich Americans have offered $25 million for Osama we
will give $50 million to anyone who can capture Bush for us, in spite of
being a poor country."


Haqqani claims all good Muslims will reject the opportunity to cash in
on the $25 million offered by the US. "All Muslims will side with their faith. No offer can tempt us," he
added.

November 22, 2001 - 1:20am -- nomadlab
Analysis & Polemic
News

Anonymous Comrade writes: "I just read this great piece on indymedia.org. It is by Carl Davidson, a serious organizer from the Vietnam-era anti-war and student movements.


Terrorism and the Present Danger:

A Perspective for the American Left

By Carl Davidson

Osama bin Laden's al-Quaida committed an atrocious crime against humanity on September 11, 2001. In addition to slaughtering thousands in New York City and Washington, DC , this organization of theocratic fascists is campaigning for the destruction of Western "infidel" civilization generally, with special emphasis on Americans and Jews. To do so, it is trying to rally and mobilize the one-fourth of humanity that makes up the Islamic world for the reactionary "jihad" or holy war it has declared.

The horrendous attack of Sept. 11 has thus thrown out a challenge to everyone--to the U.S. ruling class, to the American public, and to the international community.

It has also thrown down a challenge to the American left. For if we are to present ourselves as an alternative to the current leadership and policymakers of our country, then it is incumbent upon us to define how we would do things differently, not only strategically, but also in the face of the immediate present danger. In doing so, we must also be willing to take responsibility for the consequences of our ideas, proposals and actions.

November 18, 2001 - 12:37pm -- autonomedia
News
News

World War III Report #8.

Nov. 17, 2001

by Bill Weinberg

THE AFGHANISTAN FRONT

TALIBAN COLLAPSING; LOCAL WARLORDS SEIZE CONTROL

Backed by US and British air power and military advisors, the Northern Alliance swept through Taliban defenses this week, taking the cities of Mazar-i-Sharif, Herat and finally the capital, Kabul. Meanwhile, Pashtun tribal leaders rose against the Taliban in the south, taking Jalalabad. The Taliban have retreated to Kandahar, their traditional stronghold and de-facto capital, ceding control of most of the country with little resistance. However, the Northern Alliance, led by minority Tajiks and Uzbeks, display little loyalty to their imperial benefactors in Washington, who talk of a multi-ethnic coalition government (presumably led by Pashtuns, the largest and traditionally dominant ethnic group). The Taliban are on the run, but Afghanistan may be poised to collapse into tribal warfare.

Uzbek warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum holds northern Mazar-i-Sharif, positioning him to receive aid from Uzbekistan and Russia. In the west, Tajik warlord Ismael Khan has seized Herat, positioning him to receive aid from his traditional benefactor Iran. The Pashtun tribal warlords in the south are backed by Pakistan. The US is now backing all factions against the Taliban, but each regional power has its own proxy forces and agenda in Afghanistan. (New York Times, Nov. 16)

November 17, 2001 - 1:59pm -- jim
Analysis & Polemic
News

Anonymous Comrade writes:

"Historian and author Howard Zinn talks with AGR"

By Nicholas Holt, AGR

Howard Zinn is one of the most well known American
historians. In the introduction to a later edition of his
revolutionary work, A People's History of the United States,
Zinn wrote that his focus as a historian "is not on the
achievements of the heroes of traditional history, but on
all those people who were the victims of those achievements,
who suffered silently, or fought back magnificently."

Soon after the September 11th attacks on the World Trade
Center and the Pentagon, Zinn concluded an essay entitled
"Retaliation" with these remarks: "We should take our
example not from our military and political leaders shouting
'retaliate' and 'war' but from the doctors and nurses and
medical students and firemen and policemen who have been
saving lives in the midst of mayhem, whose first thoughts
are not violence, but healing, not vengence, but
compassion."

November 16, 2001 - 7:45pm -- autonomedia
Analysis & Polemic
News

Anonymous Comrade writes: "The following is a beginners guide to Islamic history by Anarchist writer Paul Bowman.

"Beyond the Undifferentiated Mass

Diversity in Islam for Absolute Beginners"

Paul Bowman

Roughly 1 in 5 of the world's population is muslim - that's over a billion people. Yet for all the talk about a global society with the telecommunication revolution bringing knowledge to the masses, what most westerners from christian backgrounds know about Islam can be written on the back of a small postage stamp. So here then is a crash course.

Fundamentalism?

Islam, like christianity is an expansionist religion rather than the traditionalist beliefs of a closed community. Conscious of itself as a new initiative, it seeks to preach to and convert pagan and unbeliever. However, whereas christianity found itself growing within a pre-existing state system (the Roman empire) and made concessions to a separate political power, Islam, starting as a means of filling a political vacuum, was the creative force of a new state.

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