Green card holders, beware! 9-28-2006

28, September 2006  Green card holders, beware!

Readers should be aware of a new law which may adversely impact green card holders Consider the case of Gurdev Singh Gill. Gill arrived in California from India in 1986. He began his American experience purchasing a gas station but soon acquired enough capital to purchase farm land. Like so many other Sikhs who had hailed from Punjab, Gill’s hard work and love of the land resulted in fulfilling the ‘American dream.’  Within a few years Gill had expanded a small ranch into a thriving 300-acre grape farm.  He gained local celebrity status last June appearing on the front cover of the American Vineyard magazine being nominated ‘Farmer of the Year’ for his contributions to the local community. He applied for US citizenship to culminate a successful career as an agro-farmer. 

The proverbial ‘shoe dropped’ when his application for citizenship was denied. Gill had fallen victim of to the draconian new law, One Strike, You’re Out. 15 years earlier the Gill family owned a gas station which became the target of drug dealers who would often vandalize his store. One day, Gill became incensed and feeling threatened took out his gun from his pick up and fired in the air. Gill was fined and given probation for possessing a firearm. Nothing more happened until Gill applied for US citizenship. His citizenship was denied and the court ordered Gill be deported because his earlier infraction made this frail 82 year ‘model citizen’ a ‘dangerous criminal’.  Bob Jobe, Gill’s attorney, has experienced the same selective use of the one strike rule in many parts of the country. This may well be a new tool to ethnically cleanse non-whites.  Other green card holders are also falling victim to the perverse interpretation of the one strike rule. Lucas Guttentag, who teaches immigrants' rights at UC Berkeley and Stanford law school, believes, “This is the most punitive immigration laws we've seen, I think, for a hundred years.” I would urge readers to contact their local representatives in Washington and demand that Gill’s deportation order be revoked and revocation of the One Strike Law. In the meantime all green card holders who are eligible for citizenship should not delay their application lest they become victims of the ‘One Strike Law.’ 

War on Terror 9-28-2006

28, September 2006               War on Terror

Spy agencies have confirmed what most Americans already know, namely, that the Iraq war has exacerbated the so called ‘war on terror’ and made America more vulnerable and less safe. Bush has displayed a callous disregard for the sanctify of human life – Americans and Iraqis -  by launching a war of terror on a sovereign state and sending thousands of innocent people to their early graves, fueling Islamic radicalism and deep hostility towards the US.

The Bush administration is now using the same script to intimidate and threaten Iran. Let us hope that logic will triumph over fear and our lawmakers will see fit to resist the failed policies of this reckless, dishonest and thoroughly incompetent administration. Finally, what is puzzling is the logic in creating 16 disparate spy agencies to perform essentially the same services. The average US citizen, armed with a calculator and a basic knowledge of the Iraq war would surely have come to the same conclusion and saved the treasury a great deal of money.

Torture American Style 9-21-2006

21, September 2006 Torture American Style 

Once again the Bush administration is pressuring Congress to serve as a rubber stamp to continue the despicable practice of torturing detainees. The pro-torture, anti-democratic neocons are attempting to slither around the Geneva Conventions humanitarian protections for detainees and thereby legitimize the CIA’s brutal interrogation tactics. Information extracted under torture is not only morally repugnant but worthless. A case in point was the rendition and torture of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar. Mr. Arar was sent to Syria where completely false information was extracted under torture. Arar was completely vindicated by a Canadian Commission which issued a scathing report highly critical of both the US and Canadian governments. It is ironic that Syria, condemned for sponsoring terrorism, was selected as a target site for extracting information under torture! This should be a wakeup call for all Americans, especially we ‘brownies’ that may fit into a physical profile and merit unwanted attention from nervous security officials. 

It is laudable that Senator McCain and his colleagues are attempting to reign in the attempts of the Bush administration to gut the Geneva Conventions. However, what is critically absent from the McCain-Graham-Warner amendment is the absence of the writ of habeas corpus which gives detainees the right to challenge their detention. Abolishing habeas corpus would mean that anyone could ‘disappear’ and not be able to seek justice and protection through the US courts. This would be death blow to democracy and may serve as a brutal instrument to stifle dissent. This must not be allowed to happen. Congress needs to stiffen its spine and restore its oversight duties on this runaway presidency. Please contact your elected representatives and voice your support for the humane treatment of detainees and strict enforcement of the writ of habeas corpus.  

Response to local letter writer RE: Israel 9-18-2006

18, September 2006         Response to local letter writer RE: Israel                         

Norman Licht (Weekly, Sept. 15) repeats the Israeli official propaganda line that it is the Palestinians who are responsible for the lack of progress in bringing about a peaceful settlement of the Middle East crisis.  Sadly, this is a myth that has been perpetuated with a ‘Goebel’s like repetition (people will believe untrue statements provided they are repeated often enough). Our politicians have used this to great advantage. Remember the mantra, “Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat because he possessed WMD’s”? Similarly, the Israeli government has repeated the mantra, “the Palestinian Authority; Hamas are terrorists and therefore we have no negotiating partner.”

Meanwhile land belonging to the Palestinians has been stolen and its indigenous inhabitants removed at gunpoint. Israel has stolen millions of dollars of funds belonging to the Palestinians driving up unemployment and exacerbating the suffering. A record number of children are suffering from acute malnourishment, others have committed suicide. A new documentary that is sending shock waves through the country, Occupation 101, has ignited indignation from Americans of all stripes who are incensed that our tax dollars are being used by Israel to terrorize and subjugate a defenseless people, namely the Palestinians. Occupation 101 was shown yesterday in San Jose at a sold out audience. I urge readers to go to www.occupation101.com to see the trailer. 

Iraq – no 911 connection & no WMD’s 9-12-2006

12, September 2006               Iraq – no 911 connection & no WMD’s

The latest Senate Intelligence Committee report – release delayed until after the mid-term elections!  - concluded that Hussein had no connection to Bin Laden and the 9/11 attacks. This finding, coupled with the absence of any WMD’s should put to rest the bogus attempts of the Bush administration to justify the war on Iraq. The American people were deliberately misled by an administration determined to establish its unwelcome presence in the Middle East and steal its precious oil resources. Sadly our lawmakers and a compliant media allowed this massive fraud to be perpetrated.  CIA intelligence reports were ignored and opposition deemed ‘unpatriotic’.

The only proper course of action is for US troops to withdraw from Iraq immediately, extend an unconditional apology to the Iraqi people and offer payment of reparations for the ‘shock and awe’ destruction of their  infrastructure and the killing of so many of their people. Bush and his gang of neocons should be removed from office for ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’. A staggering number of 8,000 Iraqis (understated Pentagon numbers) are dying each week. ‘Staying the course’ is no longer an option!  I urge readers to obtain a copy of ‘HUBRIS: The Inside Story of Spin, Scandal, and the Selling of the Iraq War by journalists Michael Isikoff of Newsweek and David Corn of The Nation, which described in detail the White House shenanigans in the run-up to the Iraq War.

9/11 Docudrama 9-8-2006

8, September 2006                             9/11 Docudrama

        

Well, the White House penchant of distorting the facts to deflect mounting criticism of its abysmal failure to reign in Osama Bin Laden    is in full swing. Its latest partner in crime is the ABC television network which unleashed a media blitz to promote its fictional account of 9/11. The new docudrama, called “the Path to 9/11”, erroneously claims to be factually based on the 9/11 Commission Report. Scriptwriter Cyrus Nowrasteh, a friend of Rush Limbaugh, claims President Clinton had "frequent opportunities in the '90s to stop Bin Laden in his tracks -- but lacked the will to do so." By playing fast and loose with the facts, ABC and its parent, Disney Productions, dishonors the victims of 9/11 in a crude attempt to ‘swift boat’ the democrats.

The fictional account, depicts a scene of a CIA official claiming he had Osama Bin Laden in his sights and seeks permission from the Clinton White House to ‘make his day’ only to be denied by Clinton’s executive order. Sandy Berger, President Clinton's National Security Advisor, and Richard Clarke – the counterterrorism czar for the Clinton administration has characterized the scene as "a total fabrication”. Roger Cressey, a top Bush and Clinton counterterrorism official, said it was "something straight out of Disney and fantasyland. It's factually wrong. And that's shameful."  I urge readers to call Walt Disney president, Robert Iger, and demand an unconditional public apology to all those officials that have been maligned by such gross fabrications.  

Torture 9-8-2006

8, September 2006                 Torture

The Bush administration has now admitted the existence of secret foreign torture dungeons, euphemistically called black sites. This comes as a huge embarrassment to our so called European allies who have steadfastly denied the existence of such ‘black holes.’ It is puzzling why the Europeans would choose to cooperate and cover-up the criminal conduct of our administration. New guidelines on the interrogation of ‘enemy combatants,’ euphemistically referred to as an "alternative set of procedures" for detainees forbidding water –boarding (simulated drowning), hooding and snarling dogs implies that these despicable practices were previously approved by this administration – a clear violation of the Geneva Convention which strictly forbids cruel and unusual punishment of detainees.

Our great nation, symbolized by the Statute of Liberty, was once the most admired democracy in the world. Sadly, we have now become the pariah of the world despised for our support for despotic regimes such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, and the brutal treatment of prisoners. We have clearly lost our moral compass allowing our administration and their corporate benefactors to subjugate smaller, weaker nations to relieve them of their precious resources at the barrel of a gun. For shame!