by James Cogan, (posted by Ythzak) - November 22, 2004
Fallujah has been laid waste. It is a hell on earth of shattered bodies, shattered buildings and the stench of death. The city will enter history as the place where US imperialism carried out a crime of immense proportions in November 2004.
 The US military has no idea how many Iraqis—combatants and noncombatants—have been killed by the thousands of tons of explosives and bullets it has unleashed on the city. Mortuary teams have only just began collecting the dead in the city, while no attempt has been made yet to clear and search the rubble and debris, beneath which hundreds of bodies may be buried.
When questioned on the scale of Iraqi casualties, US marine spokesman Colonel Mike Regner told a press conference on Monday, "I don't know". The estimate that somewhere between 1,000 and 2,000 Iraqi fighters are dead is nothing more than a guess.
The testimony of Fallujans who fled the city during the onslaught has led Amnesty International to conclude "the toll of civilian casualties is high". Out of a population of some 300,000, the International Committee of the Red Cross believes as many as 50,000 women, children, sick and elderly were in Fallujah when the assault began on November 7.
Read More
Related Stories:
Falluja: The 21st Century Guernica
Bush Coming To Ottawa And Why We Must Resist
Senior Sunni cleric killed in Mosul
Iraqi civilians gunned down at checkpoint
ICRC blasts inhumanity of Falluja battles
by Pearl Gottschalk, Tuesday November 16, 2004
The threat of coastal oil and gas development looms over BC's wild and beautiful Pacific coast. For over thirty years there have been both provincial and federal moratoria in place to protect Canada's Pacific coast from oil and gas development. Currently, the BC government is intensively pressuring the federal government to lift their moratorium in order to open up the Pacific coast to oil and gas development by Chevron and Shell.
Coastal oil and gas development would seriously harm our marine ecosystems, fishing and seafood industry, and whale-watching industry through pollution and seismic testing (sonic blasts in the ocean that kill and harm marine life). At stake is the ecological integrity of our Pacific coast and the livelihoods of thousands of BC citizens that depend on these traditional coastal assets. We need your help to protect Canada's wild Pacific coast from inappropriate, dirty development.
More than seventy different interest groups ranging from tourism and fishermen to First Nations and environmental groups have joined together in the Oil Free Coast Alliance, and are on the provincial and federal governments to maintain the moratoria on any coastal oil and gas development off BC's coast. Here are some of the reasons: Read more
Petition to Stop Coastal Oil and Gas Development off Canada's Pacific Coast
by Radhippie - November 18, 2004
The New York Daily News has obtained FBI documents linking former Liberal cabinet minister Alfonso Gagliano to the Bonanno crime family.
According to the NYDaily News, Gagliano is a "made man" in the Brooklyn-based organization. His name appears in testimony provided by Frank Lino, a former capo in the Bonanno family turned FBI informer.
More details are sure to emerge in the coming days and this is definately going to get interesting. There is a connection between the BC Liberals and the BC-based federal Liberal organizers and several outstanding questions regarding their suspected involvement in cross-border drug smuggling operations.
New York Daily News story |
Toronto Star Article
posted by editorial staff VAN-IMC - Saturday September 25, 2004
KEEP INDYMEDIA ALIVE ON CANADA'S WEST COAST
VANCOUVER AND VICTORIA INDYMEDIA NEEDS YOUR HELP
Vancouver and Victoria Indymedia are in danger of disappearing. We are a victim of our own success. The amount of traffic on our website generates a band width cost of approximately $400.00 a month for Vancouver and $100.00 a month for Victoria. Until recently, all bandwidth costs were covered by one kind, anonymous donor, who does not want to be the sole supporter anymore, and really who can blame them.
To donate, please visit the Vancouver IMC donation page. Please give generously. Donations from Victoria should be noted, for VICIMC.
Cheques can be sent to:
Vancouver IMC c/o #510-207 West Hastings St Vancouver, BC, V6E 4L5
posted by radhippie - Tuesday October 12, 2004
Over 500 people gathered in the Walbran on Saturday to help the Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the San Francisco based Rainforest Action Network create an aerial work of art amongst the destruction of clearcut logging.
The event, known as the Tree of Life celebration brought grassroots activists from across the island into the Walbran Valley. Guided by aerial artist John Quigley, the group formed an image photographed by a helecopter in a four year old Weyerhaeuser clearcut. The image calls for both Weyerhaeuser and the general public to Wake Up to the devestation caused by clearcut logging. Over 200 members of Victoria's Gettin' Higher Choir led the crowd in song before Quigley started arranging individuals over a 60,000 square foot area. As the image formed, the rain which had been driving all day, suddenly stopped and the sun poked through the rainforest clouds, just long enough for the aerial shot to be taken.
 “Weyerhaeuser is turning beautiful British Columbia into a scarred landscape, shares Brant Olson, director of The Old Growth Campaign at Rainforest Action Network. “On Saturday, we came together to bear witness to what Weyerhaeuser calls ‘variable retention,’ industry greenwashing for virtually clearcut. With logging rights to almost half of Vancouver Island and an increasing percentage of the Boreal, Weyerhaeuser has colonized many of Canada’s last pristine old growth forests and is leveling them one cut block at time. Old growth forests are the ecological cornerstone of a stable climate and essential providers of fresh air and pure water. It is time for Weyerhaeuser to wake up, end its destructive practices and protect old growth forests worldwide.”
"Ancient forests are as much a part of BC's identity as the Canucks and whale-watching,” said Ken Wu, executive director of Western Canada Wilderness Committee Victoria. “Seventy five percent of Vancouver Island’s pristine old growth forests have already been destroyed, and less than six percent of the island’s productive forests are protected. Clearly, the movement to protect Vancouver Island's ancient forests like the Upper Walbran Valley is growing. Thousands of concerned citizens are speaking out and making it clear that Weyerhaeuser is not welcome in the Upper Walbran Valley, and it’s to the detriment of Weyerhaeuser and the government to ignore them.”
More photos -1- | -2-
WC2 public statement
RAN press release
 The FBI Raids Indymedia.orgUPDATE on FBI RAIDS
posted by Stefania Milan at Antiwar.com, Monday October 11, 2004
LONDON - Agents from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Thursday seized two Internet servers in Britain that host the Web sites of the global news network Indymedia. Two days later, there was still no clarification of why the computers were confiscated or who is holding them.
The confiscation came just days before the European Social Forum, the region's major civil society gathering, in which Indymedia is to have a strong presence. Read more
Thursday October 7, 2004 - 3:44pm Pacific
posted by Guamanian 4:33pm Pacific
Appears to be the seizure of a single box in the UK, rather than a widespread coordinated raid.
From IndyBay, list of sites on the seized box:
(15:25) New list of IMCs affected: ambazonia, uruguay, andorra, pl, wester mass, radio, uk, antwerpen, nice, nantes, lille, euskalherria, liege, oost-vlaanderen, belgrade, west-vlaanderen, portugal, prague, marseille, galiza, basque, germany media, italy, and brasil.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/10/1698191.php
posted at Pittsburg Indymedia 3:42pm Pacific
Breaking: FBI seizes hard drives of IMC server in the UK
The FBI issued a subpoena to Rackspace (an Internet Service Provider with offices in the US and London) to physically remove an Indymedia server located in London.
The servers hosted numerous local IMCs: the global indymedia site, Belgian and African IMCs, Palestine, UK, Germany, and Brasil. Many are still not back up.
Micah of the global imc-tech collective said, "We suspect it has to do with an FBI request that we take down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police. They claimed there was threats and personal information, but there was nothing of the sort. The undercover police that were photographed on the page were photographing protesters. Rackspace is a US company, but have colocation in the UK where these servers are (err, were) located. So this is about Swiss police, on a French site, on a server in England, taken away by American federal police... can I be the first to say WTF?!"
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC, last month the FCC shut down comunity radio stations around the US including in Pittsburgh, and now the FBI is shutting down IMCs around the world.
posted by Radhippie - 3:47pm Pacific
It appears that the FBI has seized much of the European and African Indymedia network. Details are unclear at this time but we will keep you posted all night. Look for upcoming stories throughout the night
posted by Crackerjack - 3:16pm Pacific
Today at about 18:00 CET FBI raided the indymedia servers hosted by Rackspace both in US and England. At present, the italian indymedia and numerous other local IMC websites are obscured, while the reasons why the hard drives were taken are still unknown.
by Yusuf Islam - Wednesday September 29, 2004
The former Cat Stevens says he hasn't changed but the U.S. has.
I was flying to Nashville last week with my 21-year-old daughter to explore some new musical ideas with a record label there. Ironically, I was trying to remain low-profile because of the speculation that it might have raised in the music world about a return of "the Cat." Media attention was the last thing I wanted. But it seems God wanted otherwise.
 Toward the end of our journey from London to Washington, the plane was diverted. The captain announced something about "heavy traffic." After landing in Bangor, Maine, six tall, blue-uniformed officers boarded and surrounded me and my daughter.
"Is your name Yusuf Islam?" they asked.
"Yes," I confirmed.
"Do you mind coming with us and answering a few questions?"
At that point my heart stopped, and my daughter's face turned aspirin-white. This was the start of the nightmare.
Read More
posted by Radhippie, Saturday September 18, 2004.
Reuters is the oldest news-gathering organization in the world. Bascially, Reuters is a pool of thousands of independent, (freelance) journalists around the world. They cover events in areas where the mainstream media doesn't have fulltime reporters. This week, Reuters accused Winnipeg based CanWest Global of inserting the word TERRORIST(s) in place of words such as INSURGENT(s), FIGHTER(s) and MILITANT(s). CanWest owns much of the mainstream media in Canada.
"CanWest, one of the largest media conglomerates in Canada, is failing its responsibility towards all Canadians, not just Arabs and Muslims," said Canadian Arab Federation president Omar Alghabra in today's Toronto Star. The Canadian Arab Federation has joined the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations in calling on the Canadian Press Council to review all of CanWest's print publications, which include the Victoria Times Colonist, and both Vancouver dailies.
Yesterday, the CBC reported, "In one Reuters story, the original copy reads: "… the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which has been involved in a four-year-old revolt against Israeli occupation in Gaza and the West Bank." In the National Post version, printed Tuesday, it became: "… the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, a terrorist group that has been involved in a four-year-old campaign of violence against Israel."
CanWest issued a rebuttal through the Ottawa Citizen. In their sound-off section, an editorial without a byline asserts, "...The Citizen receives wire service reports from many news organizations; in order to ensure consistency in the terms used by these various sources, editors sometimes change words such as "militant" to "terrorist," if it more accurately describes the person committing a violent act. Anyone who deliberately targets civilians in pursuit of a political goal is a terrorist, and we use that term."
Well, I guess that clears it up. Or does it? It is highly unlikely we will see the Bush regime described as "terrorists" in CanWest publications even though they have targeted and killed more civilians in the past two years than all acts of terrorism in the past decade combined. Think about this for a second friends. Much of the information you read in the mainsteam media comes from wire-sources such as Reuters and Associated Press. They have journalists in places the corporate media does not. In it's bid to keep a sense of continuity to it's reporting of world events, CanWest (based in Winnipeg) alters the context of observations from journalists reporting from the scene of an event.
 Freedom Road: U.S. Soldiers Defect to CanadaU.S. Army privates Brandon Hughey and Jeremy Hinzman are seeking asylum in Canada, having deserted from the U.S. Army in opposition to the occupation of Iraq. Their legal struggle for political asylum will be a test of Canada's position regarding U.S. military personnel who object to being used as cannon fodder by the Bush regime to further its expansionist goals in the Gulf region.
Hinzman, as well as his young family, and Hughey are represented by Jeffry House, a lawyer who has begun the process of applying for refugee status and hopes to convince immigration officials that Jeremy and Brandon "should not have been forced to take part in an illegal war that violates basic norms of human decency."
The stakes are high for US deserters and enlisted resistors, who may face the death penalty or long prison terms if deported to face US military courts. Will Canada stand on our Vietnam-era tradition of offering asylum? Or will we cave to the predictable US pressure and threats?
Support Sites: Hinzman, Hughey | More Info: CBC Video and Links | Rabble.ca Interview | Comment on this Story... | Sources: Global Indymedia with links from AggroGator and edits by Victoria IMC
Last updated: Fri, 26 Nov 2004 14:22:00 -0800
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Stop Oil Drilling Campaign Begins
Federal Liberals Connected to the Mafia?
Victoria and Vancouver IMCs need your help
Rainforest Action Network & WC2 bring Tree of Life to Walbran Valley
Something Bad Has Begun
CanWest Global Accused of Changing Context of Reuters Newswire Reports
