When the people are free, when the people are informed of the facts, the people are positioned to exercise their political rights. This is the case in rural Vermont, where average citizens are forcing the issue of the failed Iraq war onto the ballot for further public discussion. This is common sense in action.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2902

Bear Any Burden: The Heavy Cost of Using U.S. Troops as Experimental Test Subjects

The article below describes the terrible price paid by many of our Nation's soldiers so that the Department of Defense and the drug industry can have an endless supply of human test subjects for experimental drugs.

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/?Page=Article&ID=2901

by Margaret K. Loehr

Common Dreams

02/28/05

The U.S. began bombing Vietnam with B-52's in 1966. Twenty thousand combat soldiers were on the ground at that time, a small percentage of what was to come. That summer I lived on an Army base in Colorado. What I experienced there broke my heart and changed me as a person. Today, to the tune of the same rhetoric, same politics, same promises of freedom, we again send our youth to sacrifice and die. My long ago summer seems like it was yesterday...

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0228-23.htm


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

by Joshua Frank

AntiWar.Com

03/01/05

Silence is complicity, and the antiwar movement is speechless. No visible opposition to the Iraq war has shown its face for months. Hopefully, that will change on March 19, the second anniversary of the Iraq invasion, when millions of protesters take to the streets around the world. Yet a concerted effort to assemble opposition to the war here in the U.S. has failed to develop...

http://www.antiwar.com/orig/jfrank.php?articleid=5011


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Guardian [UK]

03/01/05

When Vermont towns hold their annual meetings this year, they will likely be dominated by such typical local issues as school spending and whether to buy a new road grader. But on Town Meeting Day set for Tuesday, 52 of the communities also were expected to debate the Iraq war and the Vermont National Guard's role in it as they consider whether to adopt a nonbinding anti-war resolution. The resolution asks President Bush and Congress to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq and calls for the Vermont Legislature to establish a commission to study the effects of deployments on the state...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4833079,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

http://tinyurl.com/4ld49

FORWARD THIS TO PEOPLE YOU THINK WILL BE INTERESTED

NEWS FLASH: Bush Family War Profiteering

POST THIS EMAIL TO PEACE AND JUSTICE LISTS

Every day the occupation of Iraq does damage to Iraq, the United States and the world. Anti-war activists recognize it is time to re-ignite efforts to end the war and bring the troops home. Democracy Rising, founded by Ralph Nader and a founding member of United for Peace and Justice, is proud to announce its' 'Stop the War' campaign designed to empower grass roots organizations as well as individual activists throughout the country to end the war as soon as possible.

As you will see on our website, http://www.DemocracyRising.US, we provide tools you can use:

Iraq War Facts: A compilation of key facts, statistics and reports on the Iraq War and occupation. Armed with these facts you will become a more effective advocate - not only will you have a strong rationale for opposing the war but now you will have the facts to back it up.

E-Postcards to make it easy to spread the word - get people involved. The e-postcards can include a photo of U.S. war protests or of the horrors of the war as a way to encourage involvement in anti-war efforts. To send a picture as an E-Postcard, find the picture in the Multimedia Gallery and then click

Up-to-Date News from our news feed. You can get a daily news video from Iraq as well as connections to all the latest news on the war and occupation.

Highlight Anti-War Activists: Democracy Rising will regularly profile peace activists, authors and elected officials. Our first interview is with Jimmy Massey and his wife Jackie. Jimmy is an Iraq War vet who has become an outspoken peace activist. Read his interview and you'll understand better why this war must end.

Contact Decision Makers: Through our 'Stop the War' Campaign we make it easy for you to contact your elected officials, an email, write or call to let them know it is time to stop the war and bring the troops home.

Influence the Media: We'll be sending out action alerts that provide a coordinated campaign to influence the media and urge more complete coverage of the impact of the war and occupation. Coming soon will be a page with email address for letters to the editor for major media outlets.

The anti-war movement had an impressive beginning, putting millions of people in the streets throughout the world. The arguments we put forward before the invasion have come true - the occupation has become a quagmire, made us less safe, costs hundreds of billions of dollars, weakened U.S. relationships around the world - it is a catastrophic failure and the longer it goes on the more damage it will do. Democracy Rising wants to help all of us create an even stronger anti-war movement that not only elected officials hear - but one they cannot ignore.

We can end the war in Iraq if we act together with a concerted effort at stopping the war and bringing the troops home.


Kevin Zeese
http://DemocracyRising.US

President John Sweeney and the General Executive Council of the AFL-CIO

Across the country, local, district, and national unions, labor councils, state labor federations and numerous other labor organizations representing millions of working people have adopted resolutions condemning the war in Iraq, and calling for an end to the occupation and return of all troops to their homes and families.

Among these are national unions like SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, APWU, NPMHU/LIUNA, and UE; allied organizations like the Coalition of Labor Union Women, Pride at Work and the Labor Council for Latin American Advancement; State Labor Federations in California, Maryland/DC, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin; and fifteen or more labor councils across the country.

110 of these organizations have banded together to form U.S. Labor Against the War (USLAW), a national organization committed to ending the war, returning the troops, restoring funding to social programs and government services, and changing the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

Union members and their family members are being killed, wounded, disabled and psychologically traumatized in a war that has already killed almost 1500 U.S. military personnel, wounded more than 10,500 others, a war in which more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died. This war is siphoning resources from our communities, starving or eliminating essential public services and social programs, eroding our democratic rights, and making our country even less secure.

It is time for labor to speak out! At this time of discussion about renewing our labor movement, how can we not discuss the most urgent issue facing American and its working families? We ask you to put the issue of the war on the agenda of the up-coming Executive Council meeting. And we urge the national leadership of the AFL-CIO to oppose this reckless, illegal and immoral war.

More specifically, we ask for action on the following proposals by the Executive Council and the quadrennial convention of the AFL-CIO.

The AFL-CIO should demand an immediate end to the US occupation of Iraq and return of U.S. troops to their homes and families, and the reordering of national priorities toward peace and meeting the human needs of our people; and

Through its community service programs, the AFL-CIO and its state and local affiliates should assist union members and their families who are called upon to serve in the armed forces and returning veterans by identifying and providing information about resources and services available to meet their needs, by advocating for their interests, and by protecting their jobs, seniority and benefits and those of unorganized workers in similar circumstances.

Sisters and brothers, this war is draining away precious resources essential to meet human needs of working and poor people. It is undermining our security by alienating the U.S. from the community of nations and by provoking the spread of terrorism. It is weakening rather than reinforcing the rule of international law. It has led to an erosion of our most basic rights and liberties. And it is doing terrible direct harm to many thousands of military families.

We, the American labor movement, should take a stand and speak out on the biggest issue facing working people and the country as a whole. We urge you to join us!


Informant: Bigraccoon

A politically connected start-up firm, awarded a no-bid contract to provide security for Baghdad's airport, defrauded U.S. taxpayers of tens of millions of dollars, two top former workers charge in a lawsuit unsealed Friday.

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/9872408.htm


From Information Clearing House

A government contractor defrauded the Coalition Provisional Authority of tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction funds and the Bush administration has done little to try to recover the money, an attorney for two whistle-blowers told Democratic lawmakers...

http://207.44.245.159/article8176.htm