Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
KerryCounting * FallujaKilling * FloridaVotes?
20 November 2004
"We follow the law of armed conflict and
hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability,"
– Lt. Gen. John Sattler
* * * * * * * * * *
"The result has been a bloodbath. According to one recent study
appearing in the British medical magazine The Lancet, the US
invasion has resulted in 100,000 additional violent deaths in
the space of barely 20 months. This is the equivalent of a
September 11 every week-and-a-half in a country with
less than one-tenth the population of the US."
– Bill Van Auken
(From "The siege of Fallujah
America on a killing spree" item 3)
1) The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem Case
2) Progressive Democrats - breaking the silence on war in Iraq
3) "The siege of Fallujah - America on a killing spree"
4) Something stinks with voting machines in Florida - Experts Confirm!- - University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
Editor's Notes:Over 48,000 Americans have signed this following online petition to Congress
requesting an investigation into vote fraud. To read and sign, see:
A Petition to Congress requesting an investigation into the Presidential Election of 2004On this issue, John Kerry reappears, and supposedly at work in making sure all the votes are counted. It isn't easy keeping a slim hope alive, but what is happening in Fallujah is reason enough to do everything possible to make sure a democracy is still alive in the U.S. What would Kerry do if finding out he won? Gore did nothing, but one can hope, and give support where possible. More on evidence of vote fraud is in item 4. Thanks for reading, sharing the information.. Keep the faith - Get rid of the dictator.
1) The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem Case
The Next Step - a letter from John Kerry
November 20th, 2004 3:37 am
Dear Supporter,
I want to thank you personally for what you did in the election -- you rewrote the book on grassroots politics, taking control of campaigns away from big donors. No campaign will ever be the same.
You moved voters, helped hold George Bush accountable, and countered the attacks from big news organizations such as Fox, Sinclair Broadcasting, and conservative talk radio.
And your efforts count now more than ever. Despite the words of cooperation and moderate sounding promises, this administration is planning a right wing assault on values and ideals we hold most deeply. Healthy debate and diverse opinion are being eliminated from the State Department and CIA, and the cabinet is being remade to rubber stamp policies that will undermine Social Security, balloon the deficit, avoid real reforms in health care and education, weaken homeland security, and walk away from critical allies around the world.
Regardless of the outcome of this election, once all the votes are counted -- and they will be counted -- we will continue to challenge this administration. This is not a time for Democrats to retreat and accommodate extremists on critical principles -- it is a time to stand firm.
I will fight for a national standard for federal elections that has both transparency and accountability in our voting system. It's unacceptable in the United States that people still don't have full confidence in the integrity of the voting process.
I ask you to join me in this cause.
And we must fight not only against George Bush's extreme policies -- we must also uphold our own values. This is why on the first day Congress is in session next year, I will introduce a bill to provide every child in America with health insurance. And, with your help, that legislation will be accompanied by the support of hundreds of thousands of Americans.
There are more than eight million uninsured children in our nation.
That's eight million reasons for us to stay together and fight for a new direction. It is a disgrace that in the wealthiest nation on earth, eight million children go without health insurance.
Normally, a member of the Senate will first approach other senators and ask them to co-sponsor a bill before it is introduced -- instead, I am turning to you. Imagine the power of a bill co-sponsored by hundreds of thousands of Americans being presented on the floor of the United States Senate. You can make it happen. Sign our "Every Child Protected" pledge today and forward it to your family, friends, and neighbors:
http://johnkerry.com/EveryChild This is the beginning of a second term effort to hold the Bush administration accountable and to stand up and fight for our principles and our values. They want you to disappear; they are counting on that. I'm confident you will prove them wrong, and you will rewrite history again.
Here is what I want you to know. I understand the strength, commitment, and passion that are at the core of what we built together -- and I am determined to make our collective energy and organization a force to be reckoned with in the weeks and months ahead.
Let's roll up our sleeves and get back to work for our country.
Thank you,
John Kerry
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Confirmation That Kerry Is On The Voting Problem CaseAnd Some More Info
by Samuel A. Stanson
www.moderateindependent.com/v2i21update.htm= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Democrats take up fight over ballots Thursday, November 18, 2004
Bill Sloat
Plain Dealer Reporter
www.cleveland.com/election/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/isvot/1100782534290590.xml
2) Progressive Democrats - breaking the silence on war in IraqProgressive Democrats for America
Progressive Wing of the Democratic Party
Announces First Policy Statement and Ongoing Mission
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Organization Pledges to hold Democrats and Republicans Responsible to 57 Million Voters
Washington, DC--Progressive Democrats of America (PDA) announced its first policy initiative today in its drive to influence the platform and agenda of the national Democratic Party. Citing the slim 2.6% majority vote achieved in the recent election, the new statement released by PDA asserts, "We do not believe that the November election was a mandate to destroy Iraq while saving it nor an endorsement of the President's management of the conflict."
"Our objective is to demonstrate that the progressive movement is alive and growing both inside and outside the Party," said PDA director, Tim Carpenter. PDA was established as a counterbalance to the Democratic Leadership Council. Many rank-and-file Party members feel the DLC appeased conservatives and allowed a policy shift to the political right.
High profile thought leaders like writer and journalist Tom Hayden, have endorsed the PDA position statement. "It is George Bush's mistake now," said Hayden, "The role of all Democrats and concerned Americans is to make him end his denial, accept responsibility and take significant steps to end the American occupation and leave Iraq to the Iraqis."
PDA currently has 11 state caucuses with 15,000 registered members. The group has begun to work with its 22 other allied progressive organizations to launch a grassroots effort to influence the Democrats and put pressure on the current administration. In the wake of the November general election, this effort indicates the resilience of the grassroots movement established during the 2003-2004 Democratic Primary is still alive and represents the heartbeat of the Democratic Party.
The new PDA policy statement on Iraq reads as follows:
A Time To Break the Democrats' Silence on Falluja and the Escalation of the War in Iraq
As Progressive Democrats we call on our Democratic Party leadership to break the public silence on the bloodbath in Falluja. Sixteen hundred Iraqi insurgents are said to have been killed and countless others maimed, crippled or injured in a single week. Over thirty American soldiers are dead and several hundred are wounded. Over eighty major attacks have been launched on American positions in several other uprisings from Mosul to Baghdad. Despite military and administration public relations, the US-trained Iraqi forces cannot or will not stand on their own.
America is creating a slaughterhouse in the name of democratic elections. As foreigners, we are dividing Sunni from Shiite and Kurd in the name of a fragmented Iraqi unity. We are ominously alone, abandoned by fifteen of our Coalition allies - so far - and by the United Nations.
This military strike was timed to occur after the American presidential election. While the main responsibility lies with President Bush, the national Democratic Party leadership has supported and encouraged the military offensive in Falluja as well. Both parties have bloody hands.
It is time for the bipartisan collusion in this war to end. It is time for the Democratic Party to become faithful to its faithful rank-and-file through becoming the party of opposition. It is time to declare clearly that this war is a mistake. The conduct of the war is a mistake. America is squandering the lives of its soldiers, the revenues of its taxpayers, and the trust of its people for a mistake.
When will our party leaders join in asking who will be the last American to die for this mistake?
Progressive Democrats will neither wait nor be silent. We will organize locally as voices and voters for peace. We will hold our Congressional representatives accountable if they support a $75 billion blood-stained check for the Iraq war. We will point out the daily cost of the war to our deficits, our cities, health care, housing and anti-poverty programs. We will demand greater candor and respect for our combat soldiers while also honoring those troops and their families who choose to oppose the war in the tradition of the young John Kerry.
During the presidential campaign, we gave one hundred percent for a Democratic ticket that felt compelled to defend a mistake. We do not believe that the November election was a mandate to destroy Iraq while saving it nor an endorsement of the President's management of the conflict. It is George Bush's mistake now, and the role of all Democrats and concerned Americans is to make him end his denial, accept responsibility and take significant steps to end the American occupation and leave Iraq to the Iraqis.
###
MEDIA CONTACT:
Tim Carpenter
877-368-9221
Press Release URL:
pdamerica.org/press/pr-2004-11-18.phpProgressive Democrats for America - Web Site:
pdamerica.org
3) "The siege of Fallujah - America on a killing spree"The siege of Fallujah
America on a killing spree
By Bill Van Auken
18 November 2004
The televised broadcast of videotape showing a US marine executing a wounded, unarmed Iraqi at point-blank range inside a Fallujah mosque has provoked outrage throughout the Middle East, while creating a fresh crisis for the American military.
The marine has been suspended from his command, as the Pentagon initiates an official investigation into whether the killing constituted a war crime. "We follow the law of armed conflict and hold ourselves to a high standard of accountability," said Lt. Gen. John Sattler, commander of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force.
Please, general, spare us. This killing was noteworthy only because it happened to be captured on camera by an "embedded" reporter. Similar actions have taken place throughout the siege of Fallujah, where the rules of engagement essentially amounted to "kill anything that moves."
Once again-as in the crisis over the torture of Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib-the Pentagon will go through the motions of turning a young enlisted man into a scapegoat. The exposure of this one shooting will be used to obscure the reality that the entire operation in Fallujah constitutes a massive war crime carried out on the orders of the White House, with the active or tacit support of every segment of the American ruling establishment.
The razing of Fallujah has exposed the ugly face of US militarism to the world, while posing disturbing questions about the nature of American society itself.
The operation combined the Bush administration's lust for vengeance over the killing of four US mercenaries in the city last April with a cold-blooded exercise in exemplary punishment aimed at intimidating all those who oppose the continued US occupation of Iraq.
Fallujah now lies in ruins. While the US military claims to have killed up to 2,000 "insurgents," the number and identity of the dead are not so easily discerned. US forces have responded to small arms fire from houses and other structures by calling in artillery barrages, air strikes with 2,000-pound bombs and air-to-surface missiles together with volleys of tank fire. Homes, apartment buildings and nearly half of the city's 120 mosques have been destroyed or severely damaged in this fashion.
Eyewitnesses report human corpses littering the city's streets, gnawed at by starving dogs. Parents have been forced to watch their wounded children die and then bury their bodies in their gardens. According to one credible account, US troops machine-gunned an entire family of five to death when they tried to escape the fighting by swimming across the Euphrates River.
Civilians remaining in Fallujah were ordered to stay in their homes under a round-the-clock curfew or risk near-certain death at the hands of US troops. What was the fate of those who stayed inside? With the media reporting at least one out of every ten buildings flattened by the US bombardment, there is no way of knowing how many bodies lie beneath the rubble. It is also reported that US troops were equipped with thermal sights capable of detecting body heat inside houses. Any such detection was assumed to indicate the presence of "insurgents," prompting a lethal barrage.
Those wounded by US bombs, rockets and shells have been left to die. The first targets of the siege were the city's medical facilities. The city's main hospital was seized by Special Forces troops, while a clinic in the city was bombed, killing dozens of medical staff and patients.
A humanitarian catastrophe
The city's remaining population has gone over a week without electricity or water, and food has run out. In short, Fallujah faces a humanitarian catastrophe. There has been an effective blackout of any reporting on these conditions in the American mass media. The US military onslaught has turned an estimated 200,000 people into homeless refugees. The suffering of these people-the supposed beneficiaries of US "liberation"-evokes even less media interest.
What have the people of Fallujah and the rest of Iraq done to deserve such homicidal cruelty? What could conceivably justify the US military killing Iraqis for the "crime" of living in their own country?
The US troops sent into the city are indoctrinated with the lie that the invasion of Iraq is part of a "war on terrorism," and, on a more visceral level, that the violence inflicted upon the country's population can somehow be justified as revenge for the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City and Washington.
The result has been a bloodbath. According to one recent study appearing in the British medical magazine The Lancet, the US invasion has resulted in 100,000 additional violent deaths in the space of barely 20 months. This is the equivalent of a September 11 every week-and-a-half in a country with less than one-tenth the population of the US.
That the Iraqis had nothing whatsoever to do with September 11 has been officially confirmed by multiple US government reports and investigations. Even putting aside the lies about Iraq, the "war on terrorism" is itself a fraud, invented by Washington as a pretext for carrying out long-planned military actions. The September 11 plot emerged not out of Baghdad, but from within the murky world of American intelligence and its sponsorship of Islamic fundamentalist movements in the war against the Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
While US troops are being told to kill Iraqis to avenge terrorism, state sponsors of those who carried out the 9/11 attacks are well ensconced in the regimes of Saudi Arabia and Pakistan-Washington's close allies in the "war on terrorism"-and, in all likelihood, in the Bush administration itself.
The supposedly omnipresent threat of terrorism has been used as a pretext by Washington to justify its use of military power to pursue US geo-strategic interests through the domination of key global oil reserves. This imperialist motivation is clearly recognized the world over.
However, there is a peculiar and malevolent element within the conduct of this US policy. It is the sense, communicated from Washington, that America is motivated by a generalized anger against the rest of the world, and is using its violence in Iraq to teach everyone a lesson. The US doctrine of preventive war means what it says: we can do the same thing to any of you whenever we please.
US television news reports-once again dominated by retired military commanders and "embedded" reporters who speak as cheerleaders for the combat units they have joined-convey the sense that translating this anger into overwhelming violence is not only justified, but feels good too.
That the massacre of an innocent people more than 5,000 miles away can be promoted as a means of boosting public morale and fostering national unity is an indication of a society suffering from protracted and profound degeneration.
Historians investigating Hitler's Germany have spent some 60 years trying to fathom what made it possible for such a regime to arise in what was the most technically and culturally advanced country on the European continent. For all but the most facile "bad Hitler" theorists, the question arose: what were the deep contradictions within German society that gave rise to the murderous fury that Nazism unleashed against Europe?
While the atrocities carried out by Hitler's regime were on a different scale than those now being committed by the Bush administration, there are undeniable parallels. For the first time since the Wehrmacht swept through Europe, the world is witness to a major imperialist power launching an unprovoked war of aggression, placing an entire people under military occupation and carrying out acts of collective and exemplary punishment against civilian populations. Such heinous acts must be rooted in America's own social contradictions.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see:
www.wsws.org/articles/2004/nov2004/kill-n18.shtml
4) Something stinks with voting machines in Florida - Experts Confirm!- - University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
University professors and statistical experts something went wrong with Florida's electronic voting machines
11/18: University professors and statistical experts are sure something went wrong with Florida's electronic voting machines; call for investigation [Computer World]
University researchers challenge Bush win in Florida
'Something went awry with electronic voting in Florida,' says the lead researcher
News Story by Dan Verton
NOVEMBER 18, 2004 (COMPUTERWORLD) - Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, said today that they have uncovered statistical irregularities associated with electronic voting machines in three Florida counties that may have given President George W. Bush 130,000 or more excess votes. The researchers are now calling on state and federal authorities to look into the problems.
The study, "The Effect of Electronic Voting Machines on Change in Support for Bush in the 2004 Florida Elections," was conducted by doctoral students and faculty from the university's sociology department and led by sociology professor Michael Hout.
Hout is an expert on statistical methods at the Berkeley Survey Research Center and a member of the National Academy of Sciences.
According to the study, counties with electronic voting machines were significantly more likely to show increases in support for Bush between 2000 and 2004 compared to counties with paper ballots or optical scan equipment. This change cannot be explained by differences between counties in income, number of voters, change in voter turnout, or size of the Hispanic/Latino population, said Hout.
For the complete article, see:
www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.html= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - 'Stinking Evidence' of Possible Election Fraud Found in Floridaby Thom Hartmann
November 18, 2004
There was something odd about the poll tapes.
For the complete article, see:
www.commondreams.org/views04/1118-22.htmalso by Thom Hartmann - Restoring Trust in the Vote
Published November 15, 2004 by CommonDreams.org
www.commondreams.org/views04/1115-24.htm
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =