Radical media, politics and culture.

News

Anonymous Comrade writes "The Mississippi Clarion-Ledger is reporting that an army reserve platoon with members from the southeast United States has been arresested for refusing an order to deliver fuel to a base north of Bagdad."

Platoon Defies Orders in Iraq

Miss. soldier calls home, cites safety concerns


By Jeremy Hudson


A 17-member Army Reserve platoon with troops from Jackson and around the Southeast deployed to Iraq is under arrest for refusing a "suicide mission" to deliver fuel, the troops' relatives said Thursday.


The soldiers refused an order on Wednesday to go to Taji, Iraq — north of Baghdad — because their vehicles were considered "deadlined" or extremely unsafe, said Patricia McCook of Jackson, wife of Sgt. Larry O. McCook.


Sgt. McCook, a deputy at the Hinds County Detention Center, and the 16 other members of the 343rd Quartermaster Company from Rock Hill, S.C., were read their rights and moved from the military barracks into tents, Patricia McCook said her husband told her during a panicked phone call about 5 a.m. Thursday.

Jacques Derrida, French Father of Deconstructionism, Dies at
74

PARIS (Reuters) — French philosopher Jacques Derrida,
the founder of the school of deconstructionism, has
died of cancer at the age of 74, France Info radio
said on Saturday. It said Algerian-born Derrida had died on Friday of
cancer of the pancreas.


Derrida, who divided his time between France and the
United States, argued that the traditional way we read
texts makes a number of false assumptions and that
they have multiple meanings which even their author
may not have understood.

FBI seizes Global Indymedia Servers

http://nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/126066/index.php

http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/WwwFeaturesWorkpad

infoshop.org story

Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Haiti Information Project writes

October 2, 2004
"Armed Resistance to Imperialism in Haiti.
Slum under siege"
Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP)

A slum in the capital is under siege from the Haitian National Police (HNP) following three days of violence and unrest. Heavily armed units of the HNP attempted to enter the slum of Bel Air at 9:00 p.m. last night and were met with armed resistance. Shots could be heard throughout the area for several hours as residents fought a pitched battle with the police who were forced to withdraw under heavy fire.

Haiti Information Project writes:

UN/Brazilian Troops Stand-By As Haitian Police Provoke
Violence

Haiti Information Project

Port au Prince, Haiti (HIP) — Last September 11th
more than 10,000 Lavalas militants took to the streets
to demand the return of President Jean-Bertrand
Aristide. The marchers were accompanied by a large
contingent of Haitian police who returned fire when
unidentified gunmen shot at the demonstration as it
passed the Office of National Insurance on Delmas 17.
The crowd immediately took up the chant, “Down with
the army. Long live the police!”

Another march was planned for September 30th marking
the thirteenth anniversary of the military coup that
overthrew Aristide in 1991. Although organizers for
the march received permits from the Haitian National
Police (PNH) it was clear from the beginning something
was amiss. The first noticeable difference was the
absence of police escorts that normally ride shotgun
at the head and tail of these types of sanctioned
demonstrations. These days the police are also aided
by roving UN vehicles that monitor the negotiated
route of the demonstration. They were conspicuously
absent as well.

"World Wide Web Inventor Warns Of Patent Licensing Royalty Threat"

Steven Burke, CRN

Speaking at the Emerging Technologies Conference at M.I.T. on
Wednesday, World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee said that
royalty-free standards are key to advancing the online world.


Berners-Lee, director of the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C),
told several hundred attendees at the MIT conference that it's
"very important" that everyone involved makes sure the Web is not
"tripped up by software patents."

Saddam to Declare Candidacy for Iraqi Elections

Hasan Cucuk, Zaman Online

Overthrown Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who was arrested by US forces last December, reportedly plans to run as a candidate in the Iraqi elections scheduled for January 2005.


Saddam's lawyer Giovanni di Stefano told Denmark's B.T. newspaper that Saddam decided during one of their discussions that he would declare his candidacy for the elections.


Stefano said that there was no law that prevented Saddam from appearing on the ballot. He added that Saddam hopes to regain his presidency and palaces via the democratic process.


Contrary to the statements of Iraqi Interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi, Stefano claims, "Saddam has no chance to be tried before the elections. Moreover, no international law prevents him from coming forward."


Saddam's lawyer defends that the ambiguity in Iraq will favor Saddam at the polls. Stefano remarked that a recent Gallup poll indicates that 42 percent of the Iraqi people want their former leader back.


Meanwhile, evaluating the conditions of Saddam in jail, Allawi said that Saddam had asked him for mercy.

Jorge Martín writes

Hands Off Venezuela Peru Organiser Jailed in Bolivia

Cesar Zelada is a well known student activist in Peru. He is also a member of the Fuerza de Izquierda Socialista, a left wing group, and the organiser of the Hands off Venezuela campaign in Peru.

He was in Bolivia as part of a delegation of Peruvian student activists invited by the Youth wing of the Bolivian Workers' Union (COB - the Bolivian TUC) to show solidarity with the struggle of the Peruvian students, particularly those at the
Oruro Technical University.

Anonymous Comrade writes, "The Department of Defense authorized Stars and Stripes is reporting that US troops stationed in Germany are grumbling over a proposed change to the Uniform Code of Military Justice:"

Troops Say Proposed UCMJ Change Unfair in Prostitution-Legal Germany

Jessica Inigo, Stars and Stripes

RHEIN-MAIN AIR BASE, Germany — Troops stationed in Germany are seeing red over the Pentagon’s proposal to add an anti-prostitution charge to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, and it’s not just the glow from the local red light district.

Military personnel and their families on Rhein Main Air Base, only minutes from one of the largest red light districts in the world, are angered by the Department of Defense announcement to change the UCMJ. Those interviewed largely agree that Germany is not the place to enforce such a law.

U.S. Vets Ask Bush to Halt Canadian 'Tribute to Cowards'

Monument Planned for City of Nelson Is an Insult, They Say

David Pugliese, Vancouver Sun


OTTAWA — The largest combat veteran's group in the United States has asked President George W. Bush to tell the Canadian government that a monument in British Columbia to Vietnam War draft-dodgers should not be built.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars says the proposed monument, to be erected in Nelson, is a tribute "to cowards" and a slap in the face to the 42 million Americans who have served in the military over the years.

Pages

Subscribe to News