Fw: Message from the People of Fallujah

 

----- Original Message -----

From: "Ken Freeland" <kenfree@ev1.net>

To: <kenfree@ev1.net>

Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 7:57 PM

Subject: FW: Message from the People of Fallujah

-----Original Message-----
From: Couples Company [mailto:couplescompany@comcast.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 1:31 PM
To: Laura Dawn Lewis
Subject: Message from the People of Fallujah


The US has now become Israel in the manner that we approach occupation,
conquest and human rights.  That is the last thing we want to be.  The
below has been authenticated--LDL

http://www.couplescompany.com/Features/Politics/2004/FallujahPlea.htm

Message from the
people of Fallujah

This letter was sent by representatives of the people of Fallujah to the
UN secretary general Kofi Annan and published in the United Kingdom on
October 31, 2004.

"IT IS more than evident that US forces are committing daily acts of
genocide in Iraq. As we write, these crimes are being perpetrated
against the city of Fallujah.

US war planes are launching their most powerful bombs against the
civilian population, killing and wounding hundreds of innocent people.
Their tanks are pounding the city with heavy artillery.

As you know, there is no military presence in the city. There have been
no actions by the resistance in Fallujah in the last few weeks because
negotiations are in progress between representatives of the city and the
Allawi government.

The new bombardment by the US has begun while the people are fasting
during the celebration of Ramadan. Now many of them are trapped in the
ruins of their homes and cut off from any outside assistance.

On the night of 13 October a single US bombardment destroyed 50 houses
and their inhabitants. Is this a crime of genocide or a lesson about US
democracy? The US is committing acts of terror against the people of
Fallujah for only one reason to force them to accept the occupation.

Your Excellency and the whole world know that the US and their allies
have destroyed our country on the pretext of the threat of weapons of
mass destruction.

Now, after their own mass destruction and the killing of thousands of
civilians, they have admitted that they have not found any.

But they have said nothing about the crimes they have committed. The
whole world is silent, and even the killing of Iraqi civilians is not
condemned. Will the US be paying compensation, as it made Iraq do after
the 1991 Gulf War?

We know that we live in a world of double standards. In Fallujah the US
has created a new and shadowy target "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

Al-Zarqawi is a new excuse to justify the USAs criminal actions. A year
has passed since this new excuse was dreamed up, and every time they
attack homes, mosques and restaurants, killing women and children, they
say. We have launched a successful operation against al-Zarqawi.

They will never say they have killed him, because he does not exist. The
people of Fallujah assure you that this person is not in the city, nor
probably anywhere else in Iraq.

Many times the people of Fallujah have asked that if anyone sees
al-Zarqawi they should kill him. We know now that he is nothing but a
phantom created by the US.

Our representatives have repeatedly denounced kidnapping and killing of
civilians. We have nothing to do with any group that acts in an inhumane
manner.

We call on you and the leaders of the world to exert the greatest
pressure on the Bush administration to end its crimes against Fallujah
and pull its army back from the city.

When they left a while ago, the city had peace and tranquility. There
was no disorder in the city. The civil administration here functioned
well, despite the lack of resources.

Our offence is simply that we did not welcome the forces of occupation.
This is our right according to UN Charter, according to international
law and according to the norms of humanity.

It is very urgent that you, along with other world leaders, intervene
immediately to prevent another massacre. We have tried to contact UN
representatives in Iraq to ask them to do this but, as you know, they
are sealed off in the maximum security Green Zone in Baghdad and we are
not allowed access to them.

We want the UN to take a stand on the situation in Fallujah.

Best wishes, in the name of the people of Fallujah, the shura council of
Fallujah, the trade union association, the teachers union, and the
council of tribal leaders "

Kassim Abdullsattar al-Jumaily: President
The Study Center of Human Rights & Democracy


On behalf of the people of Fallujah and for:
Al-Fallujah Shura Council
The Bar Association
The Teacher Union
Council of Tribes Leaders
The House of Fatwa and Religious Education

This letter was first published in the Bristol Stop The War News - U.K

Faith in America By PAUL KRUGMAN- NYT

Americans continue to have faith in our democracy, despite all the dirty tricks, unreliable voting machines, twisted TV ads.  Today is our day to go to the mountain, and cast our vote.  May God guide our people to make the choice that will brighten the future!  In His name,   Carol Wolman

 

On this mountain the LORD of hosts
will provide for all peoples.
On this mountain he will destroy
the veil that veils all peoples.

Isaiah 25: 6

http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/today.htm

Faith in America

By PAUL KRUGMAN
The New York Times

Schwartzreport.net

Florida's early polling was designed to make voting easier, but enormous voter turnout swamped the limited number of early polling sites. Over the weekend, people in some polling places had to stand in line for four, five, even six hours, often in the hot sun. Some of them - African-Americans in particular - surely suspected that those lines were so long because officials wanted to make it hard for them to vote. Yet they refused to be discouraged or intimidated.

Here's what a correspondent from Florida wrote to Joshua Marshall, of talkingpointsmemo.com: "To see people coming out - elderly, disabled, blind, poor; people who have to hitch rides, take buses, etc. - and then staying in line for hours and hours and hours ... Well, it's humbling. And it's awesome. And it's kind of beautiful."

Yes, it is. I always get a little choked up when I go to the local school to cast my vote. The humbleness of the surroundings only emphasizes the majesty of the process: this is democracy, America's great gift to the world, in action.

But over the last few days I've been seeing pictures from Florida that are even more majestic. They show long lines of voters, snaking through buildings and on down the sidewalk: citizens patiently waiting to do their civic duty. Those people still believe in American democracy; and because they do, so do I.

In truth, I wasn't sure what would happen in Florida this year. After all that has gone wrong with voting in that state, it seemed all too possible that many people would simply give up and stay home.

But it's already clear that the people of Florida - and, I believe, America as a whole - have refused to give in to cynicism and spin.

Far from being discouraged by what happened in 2000, they seem to realize more than ever - and better than those of us in the chattering classes - what a precious thing the right to vote really is. And they are determined to exercise that right.

And it's not just in Florida. Similar stories are coming in from across the country, wherever early voting is allowed: everywhere, huge numbers of voters are coming to the polls, determined to exercise their democratic rights.

Of course, most Americans won't get their chance to vote until today, but I have no doubt that they will turn out in record numbers. I don't think the rain that will blanket some parts of the country will deter them. Regardless of their politics, most Americans understand that this is a crucial election, and that never before has their vote mattered so much for the nation's destiny.

The talking heads on TV will no doubt frame all of this in partisan terms: light turnout favors one party, heavy turnout favors the other. True enough.

But this isn't a zero-sum game: the more people vote, the more vital is our democracy.

By coming to the polls, citizens are literally giving a vote of confidence in American democracy. And in so doing, they are proving themselves wiser than some of those they elected.

Those who govern us seem to have learned little from the 2000 electoral debacle: voting machines are still unreliable, voting officials are still unforgivably partisan.

But the public seems to have learned a lesson. Instead of becoming cynical, people seem to have become motivated. After an election in which a few hundred votes determined the fate of the nation, after four years of an administration that has demonstrated, for good or ill, that it matters a lot who becomes president, citizens know that their votes matter. And they are determined to cast those votes.

What will happen when they do cast those votes? I don't know; neither does anyone else. That's how democracy works.

Regular readers won't be in any doubt about who I want to win, though New York Times rules prevent me from giving any explicit endorsement. (Hint: it's the side that benefits from large turnout.) Above all, though, I want to see democracy vindicated, and the stain of 2000 eradicated, by a clean election in which as many people as possible get to cast their votes, and have those votes counted.

And all the evidence says that's what the American people want, too. May all of us get our wish.
posted at 1:19 AM 2 comments