Protests: Free Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange and Bradley Manning!

A friend of mine's work network is government operated -- recently she discovered that they now block pages like the wikileaks facebook page, news stories about Julian Assange on Democracy Now, on Guardian UK, etc., but some other stories about the same topic do get through.

I suppose if the words show up in the url in a particular way, or maybe a combination of factors, but just wanted to remark how ORWELLIAN it is to try to randomly block web pages that have random PUBLIC NEWS COVERAGE of the wikileaks saga.

You'd think it would be too embarrassingly idiotic for them to try to censor information in this way, but pathetically, they apparently think they are doing something meaningful.

"Julian Assange’s accuser, Anna Ardin, has connections with the Swedish secret police, the CIA, anti-Cuban terrorists, and the Swedish social democratic government. "

-What is your source on this? Is it coming from Israel Shamir?He has been spreading disinformation about this. If you have another source not based on Shamir, I would love to read it.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/04/309818.html

For twenty years the Jewish Israeli journalist Israel Shamir has been living a double life as a Swede called Jöran Jermas. Official files show Shamir’s own picture and Siberian place and date of birth (11 June 1947) on the Swedish man’s passport. It’s not another of Israel (Adam) Shamir’s many pen names; it’s a completely different identity. None of this appears in the résumée promoted on his website as The Shamir Legend: so where does legend end and mythology begin?

It was a simple enough question – “Who are you?” But for once the voluble Shamir fell silent when he saw our evidence. From Arizona his publisher Carol Adler at Dandelion Books said “I have not yet heard back from him; I emailed him; I know he is aware you copied me on your correspondence to him.”

A brand new ‘super-dissident’ essayist was launched into cyberspace four years ago: it was a linguistic adventure too, it being his first work in English. The obscure middle-aged Russian translator became an instant celebrity, feted as a straight-talking Jewish Israeli whistle-blower. He was rewarded with international speaking tours, books about the Palestine conflict and positions on committees.

Shamir now says he quit Judaism some time ago and joined the orthodox Christian Church of the Holy Land. He writes that he grew disgusted not just with Zionism but with what he now considers the racist and predatory nature of the Jewish faith itself. Jews tricked the Romans into crucifying Jesus Christ, he reasons, and so Jews today can be called “Christ-killers” – which he does in his writings.

Today a number of Palestine campaigns in Europe and the US commend Shamir’s website and circulate his material. That’s how I came across his recent essay, ‘Tsunami in Gaza’. Nor was I alone. Internet fans of the American white-supremacist, David Duke, were urged to read the “very brave Israeli writer, the intrepid Israel Shamir” and to note “the depth of anti-gentile feeling in the Jewish faith” to which his essay testifies. In the UK, the British National Party endorses Shamir’s views online.

‘Tsunami in Gaza’ expands on an Israeli press report of orthodox Jews rushing to Thailand hoping to give Jewish corpses a religious burial. However, Shamir’s essay makes a shocking new claim (which he doesn’t substantiate); that the Thai government agreed to delay mass burials just to please the Jews, and so exposed countless Thai survivors and rescuers to greater risk of deadly epidemics. How did a small army of journalists miss that one? Nonetheless, this is all ‘evidence’ of Judaism’s wilful inhumanity and “nasty exclusiveness”.

“In face of the huge tragedy in South East Asia, this insistence of `not being counted among the goyim’ is especially offensive, bordering on denial of our common humanity. What is so bad about Thais, French, Chinese and other people who found their death in the catastrophe that you can't leave your dead lying next to them?

“Personally,” a British supporter of the Palestinians wrote to me, “I didn't find Shamir’s article anti-Jewish but certainly I did find it anti-Israel or anti-Zionist. I presumed he was Jewish himself so unless we follow the tortured example of the Zionists’ thinking and consider him a 'self-hating Jew’, then how can he be anti-semitic? (sic)”

Israel Shamir is equally comfortable with overtly anti-Jewish and White supremacist groups among his fan-base: "It is not White Racist Supremacism oppressing Palestinians,” he writes. “If I were a Palestinian, the White Nationalists would be my legitimate allies." In his view they have “a common enemy”, the Jews. If you’re intrigued to learn, for example, “Why Zionism is Racism but anti-semitism is not” then Shamir’s website is the place for you. Judaism is behind it all – and they’re all in it together. It’s the Jews’ fault Americans are dying in Iraq: their fault a hundred thousand Iraqis have been slaughtered. This is all hidden from us because Jews also run the media.

On the Shamir website is one apparently critical item – “The Shamir Legend” by Ratibor Petrushkin – Shamir’s former colleague at the far-right Russian weekly Zavtra. It starts well enough, mentioning 27 reasons why Shamir cannot really exist. Disappointingly it fails to outline a single one of them. Instead it copies a 560-word tribute from another Shamir website, the “First unofficial Russian site of Israel Shamir”, and then simply clears him of all 27 charges (whatever they were).

According to the authorised legend, Shamir was born in Novosibirsk in Soviet Siberia, the great-grandson of a rabbi. He was a brilliant student and a radical Russian writer. He migrated to Israel in 1969 and fought in the 1973 war. He spurned a career in law to become a journalist, spending time in the Far East and London. By 1980 he was back in Israel writing for papers and producing a book. He returned to the Soviet Union in 1989 and reported on its collapse until 1993 when he set up his present home in Jaffa.

Such is the legend. However, Israel Shamir first appeared on the Swedish census in 1984 (when the legend has him in Israel). In 1989 he wrote from his Stockholm address trying to sell the original Himmler’s war service diary to the Holocaust revisionist, David Irving. Shamir said he was acting for unnamed Russian businessmen. It fell through, but the correspondence is still on Irving’s website.

Publicly available Swedish government files show Shamir later became a citizen and is still registered as living in Stockholm, with his second wife – not in Jaffa. His first wife and their two sons also live in Stockholm. In 2001 Israel Shamir changed his name to Jöran Jermas. He was already a Swedish citizen, now he had the name to go with it. Finally, the National Passport Registry has provided a copy of Jöran Jermas’ passport file. It contains Israel Shamir’s photograph and his place and date of birth. We copied the file to Mr Shamir and his American publisher. We invited him to comment on this evidence, to explain it or denounce it – but he has said nothing.

By contrast his fellow Swede, the Palestine-born activist Ammar Makboul, was happy to speak about Israel Shamir: “Refuting one type of scapegoating with another is to substitute the demand for freedom, human rights and a just peace, with racist conspiracy theories. And that’s the reason that we cannot accept Shamir as part of the Palestinian solidarity movement.” The Palestine Solidarity Association in Sweden has shunned Shamir’s latest collection of essays and sales are low. In October Shamir’s “L’autre Visage d’Israel” (Israel’s Other Face) was de-published by Balland/Blanche in France. They removed it from bookstores and stripped it from public libraries less than a fortnight after going on sale.

One puzzle has been solved, but questions remain: "Who is "Israel Shamir"? Is he "Jöran Jermas"? Or are they both fictional? What about his other aliases, “Vassili Krasevsky” and “Robert David” (inter alia?)? More important still, whoever he is, what's his game?"


© 2005 Manfred Ropschitz

Manfred Ropschitz is a journalist and broadcaster based in the UK. He's an anti-Zionist Jew, the son of a Polish Holocaust survivor and an active supporter of Palestinian rights since the late 1970’s.

Exposing truth about war crimes is no crime at all. Yes, and more than that exposing truth about war crimes ought to include the Nuremburg Trials (1945-46) chaired by U.S. Judge Jackson who wrote into international law,that the planning and doing of aggressive war is the supreme international crime on the planet earth, as it actuates all other crimes, high,low, big and small. He further says that it is the supreme international crime on earth whether Germany does it or the U.S.A. does it.

The U.S. Constitution says that international treaties signed on to by the U.S.A. are to be treated as the supreme laws of the land. This shows that internationally and nationally the Bush-Obama regimes are in violation of international and national laws that they are sworn to uphold. They therefore are committing high crimes and misdemeanors. Which is an impeachable offense, and further they are guilty of the worst sort of supreme international war crimes possible on the planet, and the U.S. Constitution says that, when the government elected by the people no longer serves the American people, the people have the right and duty to impeach (reform) and or abolish it (revolution) and replace it with one that does serve the needs of the people.

Everyone can see that aggressive war as foreign policy for the pollution caused by motivation, coal, gas, oil, and atomic energy is causing a detriment to the American people and the world's people, plants and animals and consequently these law breakers ought to be stopped, and the U.S. Constitution upheld as replacing said aggressors for pollution with a government that does serve the needs of the American people. Hence a second revolution as necessary, prescribed by the U.S. Constitution itself. Uphold the anti-fascist covenants!! Stop the endless wars for more pollution. Workers of the world, unite!!

I was asked for sources on the statement, "Julian Assange’s accuser, Anna Ardin, has connections with the Swedish secret police, the CIA, anti-Cuban terrorists, and the Swedish social democratic government."

I do have more sources to cite besides the ones I’ll list here, but at the moment this is all I have the time for:

Reports say Anna Ardin worked at the Swedish embassies in Buenos Aires during the time when the Social Democrats were in power, and the Swedish embassy in the U.S. This is backed by Fredrik Folkunger, chargé d'affaires ai, Embassy of Sweden, Buenos Aires who states on her own website, "Anna Worked with Various Issues and Different sections of the embassy.... Anna quickly became an appreciate­d member of the Embassy staff"

So she was directly representing the Swedish social democratic government, of the Social-Democratic Labor Party (SAP), that sent troops to Afghanistan, sent Egyptian asylum seekers back to be tortured, and allowed CIA rendition flights.

In addition, Anna Ardin works with the well financed Swedish based anti-communist Revista de Asignaturas Cubanas. Here are a couple of her articles.

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=1277

http://www.miscelaneasdecuba.net/web/article.asp?artID=1271

An article in the Miami Herald by Juan Tamayo (8 December) states, “Ardin visited Cuba about four times between 2002 and 2006 as a representative of Swedish social democrats, said Manuel Cuesta Morua, head of Cuba's Arco Progresista, a social-democratic dissident group.”

She was expelled from Cuba for her counter-revolutionary activities according to the Internationalist.

According to the Miami Herald article, Cuesta Morúa complained that she “wrongly alleged that some European funds for Cuban dissidents had been mishandled.” The accuracy of her allegations of mishandled funds by these imperialist bankrolled counter-revolutionaries is not the main question here, however. The question is, how would she have the knowledge to even make that accusation. The obvious answer is that she was tasked to do so and was acting as their control.

Further ties to anti-Cuban terrorist were published on Counter-punch, including ties to CIA agent Luis Posada Carriles who, among other things, murdered 73 people by planting a bomb on a Cuban airliner in 1976. One of the authors of that piece was, however, Israel Shamir, a source that you believe to be discredited. I, however, advise against so quickly jumping on that bandwagon.

The only evidence presented in the article you cite shows that Israel Shamir has apparently gone under another name. From there we are supposed to be led to believe that something very sinister is at work in that name change.

The article you cite against Israel Shamir states that Israel Shamir calls Jews Christ-killers, claiming he argues that “Jews tricked the Romans into crucifying Jesus Christ, he reasons, and so Jews today can be called “Christ-killers” – which he does in his writings.” Yet a search of what he has actually said in context found no such arguments when he uses the term. Here is an actual quote from him in that regard, “I say to you, each one of us has to see oneself as is he personally stands on Via Dolorosa, and decides, whether the execution will be carried out. If we keep our mouth shut, we deserve to be called 'Christ killers'. If we stop it, we shall change history. The sins of the past, scarlet as blood, will become white as snow,"

Instead of anti-Semitism, he is comparing Israelis, Jews, and Americans to the spectators of an execution who should do something to prevent it.

A similar sort of claim was this one in the Jerusalem Post, “Russian-language journalist Israel Shamir told a largely Jewish audience: 'Jews only exist to drip the blood of Palestinian children into their matzas.' No one protested."

Israel Shamir responded to this saying:

“It is obviously rubbish. I certainly did not say the words they attribute to me. Have no doubt, the nice middle-class Jewish audience in Tel Aviv, where the misquoted talk was given, would protest such silly stuff instead of pouring their love on the speaker. The purpose of the JP allegation was to smear these wonderful people, who work very hard on charity lines to feed the hungry and clothe the needy in the besieged villages. It is to be regretted that Ali Abunimah and Hussein Ibish were deceived by the right-wingers' blood libel against Israeli supporters of Palestinian rights.”

Your article by Manfred Ropschitz also claims the Israel Shamir said, “It is not White Racist Supremacism oppressing Palestinians” and going on to say, “If I were a Palestinian, the White Nationalists would be my legitimate allies." But it gives no source. Yet a Google search of that “quote” only brings up your article by Manfred Ropschitz. Likewise, searches of other anti-Semitic things he has supposedly said don’t bring you to a single writing by him. Only articles denouncing him.

In stark contrast to the things being said about Israel Shamir in Manfred Ropschitz’s article, here is what his website says about Jews:

“Israel Shamir, a leading Russian Israeli writer, is a champion of the "One Man, One Vote, One State" solution seeking to unite Palestine & Israel in one democratic state. Shamir's work and that of his contributors speaks to the aspirations of both the Israelis and the Palestinians seeking an end to the bloodshed, true democracy and lasting peace.”

Here is a short biography of Israel Shamir and a short writing by him that seems much more in touch with who Israel Shamir is than the article by Manfred Ropschitz:

http://shamir.mediamonitors.net/index.html

And short of the five-year-old attempt by Manfred Ropschitz at character assassination that you re-posted here, you have done nothing to back your claim that Israel Shamir’s work on the question of Anna Ardin is in any way "disinformation". Here is that useful Counter-Punch piece:

Making a Mockery of the Real Crime of Rape
Assange Beseiged
By ISRAEL SHAMIR and PAUL BENNETT

http://www.counterpunch.org/shamir09142010.html

What is the purpose of distracting attention from the perfectly reasonable question of how one knows the background of Julian Assange's accuser with a totally irrelevant attempt to slander Israel Shamir?

'cui bono' is a very interesting question indeed.
And perhaps before we get into the minutae of whether a Swedish social democrat is a CIA agent, we can apply some of that cui-bono historical-materialist x-ray analysis to the wikileaks project itself.
who indeed benefits from the latest 'leaks'?
Frankly I have yet to find anything that wasn't already common knowledge long ago.
Does that mean the empire, far from being manipulative puppet master is actually a paper tiger, merely reacting to events in a bumbling manner?
Some people very much in the know have gone so far as to suggest that things are not as they appear. For example, Zbignew Brzezinski:

extracted from:
"Cracks in the wilderness of mirrors"
By Pepe Escobar
Dec 4, 2010
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LL04Ak02.html

"...it is very enlightening to listen to what eminent Cold Warrior Zbigniew
Brzezinski has to say. He told the US Public Broadcasting Service that cablegate
is "seeded" with "surprisingly pointed" information, and that "seeding" is too
easy to accomplish....

"....Dr Zbig says that WikiLeaks may have been manipulated by intelligence
services with "very specific objectives". They could be, as he hints, internal
US elements who want to embarass the Barack Obama administration. But he also
suspects "foreign elements". In this case, the first on the list would be none
other than the state of Israel"

"As conspiracy theories go, this one is a cracker; could WikiLeaks be the head
of a real invisible "snake" - a massive Israeli disinformation campaign?
Evidence would include cables seriously compromising the US-Turkey relationship;
the cumulative cables painting a picture of a Sunni Arab-wide consensus for
attacking Iran; and the fact that the cables reveal nothing that demonstrates
how Israel has jeopardized US interests in the Middle East over and over
again...."

"....And then there's the conspiracy that didn't happen: how come the Pentagon,
for all its ultra-high-tech savvy ways, has not been willing, or able, to
completely shut down WikiLeaks?...."

and, extracted from:
Ex-National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski
Spokespersons of US Right 'In Most Cases Stunningly Ignorant'
12/06/2010
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,733079,00.html#ref=nlint

[...]
Brzezinski: There are slightly mystifying aspects to this whole operation. I do
see some strange degree of emphasis on some issues.

SPIEGEL: For example?

Brzezinski: Just look at the degree of emphasis that has been put in the initial
wave of revelations on discrediting several pro-American Arab governments by
highlighting their demands for military action against Iran. That could be very
troublesome within some Arab countries. It's also interesting that so much
emphasis is put on leaks that could be calculated deliberately to damage
American-Turkish relations.
[...]

The most important information being released has to do with U.S. war crimes and U.S. crimes against humanity. Documentation of these crimes from the very people who committed them is extremely useful today just as the release of the Pentagon Papers were useful during the Vietnam War.

Regarding your concern about Obama’s reputation, I don’t share your concerns. The more this embarrasses the criminal regime of Barrack Obama, the better. The antiwar movement did not let the Johnson's criminal Democrat Party regime off the hook; in fact their chants of "Hey Hey LBJ, How Many Kids Did You Kill Today!" followed him everywhere in the world he went. We should have the same attitude towards Obama.

As far as the diplomatic stuff is concerned, I find it far less interesting. And if it is being used, as you speculate, by that U.S. armed terrorist state killing Palestinians (Israel) to isolate U.S. imperialism from that U.S. armed terrorist state killing Kurds (Turkey), and that's a big if, I still see that as far less important than the good work that is being done exposing U.S. war crimes and U.S. crimes against humanity.

Without Wikileaks, U.S. crimes like shown in this photo would not have gotten the coverage they got. And just yesterday Wikileaks just released further revelations on the widespread use of torture by U.S. imperialism.

A motion was passed at the Oscar Grant meeting to endorse the Jan 8th, Clock Tower action in SC and to draft a solidarity statement. I also plan to propose the same motion to PFP[CCC], DVC SDS &the just formed "Movement for a Democratic Society". I anticipate no opposition in any venue and there is discussion of sending down a contingent. Keep up the good fight. We're building support in the East ,North and South Bay.

Israel Shamir's deeply ingrained antisemitism was called out by Electric Intifada nearly a decade ago, and it is a sign of just how screwed up Counterpunch is that they still bother to publish the guy in any form. Most of the pro-Palestinian movement have washed their hands of him and justly so.

Shamir says, "I think it is every Muslim's and Christian's duty to deny the Holocaust, to reject this belief, just as Abraham and Moses rejected the idols. Any person who confesses to God should deny the Holocaust."

And if Cockburn et al can't see anything troubling in that then they have clearly lost the plot. Again.

I didn’t make a single apology for Israel Shamir. I did, however, show that the man has been slandered and warned against jumping on the bandwagon against him based on the evidence presented. By investigating him further I did find important problems with him.

I did find that quote in one an interview with him after I posted my first comments. The whole interview is very bad. He denies, as he puts it, the Jewish version of the Holocaust, saying that many people other than Jews died, but all the Jews want to talk about is themselves because they think they are special and nobody else counts. While it is true that there are some tendencies in this direction, talking about 6 million Jews and not mentioning for instance Serbs, communists, or 30 million citizens of the Soviet Union murdered, what is obviously far more important than condemning this tendency is acknowledging the massive suffering that Jews also suffered. The whole interview is very bad. A number of his other comments are also offensive like what he says about racism (claims it doesn't exist) and he says that atheism is a crime.

Here is that interview:

http://alazerius.wordpress.com/2009/08/11/forintelsen-ar-en-avgud-intervju-med-israel-shamir/

Yet, he is still just one of many sources and he also provides a number of good sources for what
he wrote. The fact that he very bad on some issues should be a source of concern, but there are plenty of other sources that back what I wrote in the flyer.

When you're a Holocaust denier, it's not slander to call you a Holocaust denier. And that's the case with Israel Shamir. And you'll pardon me if I don't say - "oh, ignore the neo-Nazi parts of Shamir, the rest are solid gold."

The real disappointment, though, is Counterpunch, which long ago ceded any credibility on the antisemitism issue and have just been bitten by it once again. Quoting Holocaust deniers as if they were journalists. You couldn't make it up.

"When you're a Holocaust denier, it's not slander to call you a Holocaust denier."

I absolutely never said it was. The obvious slander against him was printed in the Jerusalem Post. And, as you can see by what I posted, my defense of him was in the cautious short-lived form of looking for validation of what was stated about him. I lost interest in defending him after finding some other anti-Semitic things that it could be confirmed that he actually did say. But I have no apology for being careful about what people said about the man and checking it out for myself.

There are plenty of false charges of anti-Semitism being thrown around by the pro-Zionist movement against everyone who supports Palestinian human rights, so I think it is the obligation of people to check out the validity of those charges before we just let them stick. In this case at least some of the charges did, however, turn out to be true; and this despite Israel Shamir’s Jewish background (with him currently converted to Christianity).

Nor have I ever been a supporter of Counterpunch. I have been, and remain, highly critical of the site as can be seen in the following comment after a Cockburn article from Counterpunch:

http://www.americanpendulum.com/2010/08/thank-you-glenn-beck-by-alexander-cockburn/

I have already denounced Israel Shamir's position regarding the holocaust in this thread. And I have pointed out that he is not a necessary source regarding what has been stated in my article defending Wikileaks, Julian Assange, and Bradley Manning. Let's please return to that subject, and feel free to start a new discussion thread on the important issues you are raising, perhaps by writing an article on those other subjects and posting it as a separate article.

This is really pathetic. Where to begin? Sigh...

The Santa Cruz Coalition to free Julian Assange and Bradley Manning is anything but a coalition. How many local Santa Cruz organizations were contacted about joining this coalition? Let's see, no WILPF, no RCNV, no Women In Black, no Veterans for Peace, et al. The list is very telling by who wasn't contacted or included.

The list of endorsers misrepresents several organizations:

--The State Central Committee of the Peace and Freedom Party has not endorsed this event, and neither has the P&F Party Santa Cruz County Council. Neither of the above were approached for an endorsement. If anything, it should read, Contra Costa County Council of the Peace & Freedom Party.
--The Students for a Democratic Society should read Diablo Valley College chapter of SDS.

Both of the above endorsements were provided by Frank Runninghorse and do not accurately reflect any endorsement by the parent organizations. Frank Runninghorse's problematic history has already been addressed in previous posts.

--The League for a Revolutionary Party sounds like the Revolutionary League for a Workers’ Party, and is most likely Steve forgetting what he named his organization, membership of one.

As to the rest of the speakers...

James Cosner, a professor of history. Uh-huh... An adventuristic activist prone to solo actions that serve to discredit the causes he champions. Last sightings in Santa Cruz ... arrested for illegal postering in support of Mumia, and briefly ran a speaker's group at the Vet's Hall featuring ex-BLA, ex-AIM, and other 'overthrow the government' types.

Don't know Bob Meola. Perhaps Berkeley folks can enlighten us?

Everyone in Santa Cruz knows Robert Norse, and he, like Cosner, also engages in actions that serve to discredit the causes he champions. (I'm being very polite here.)

Steve Pleich, recently ran for SC City Council, with a decent platform. Possibly the least discredited activist on the speaker line-up, but if he hangs with the rest of these guys any longer, all bets are off.

Steven Argue is the Revolutionary League for a Workers’ Party and Liberation News. To portray himself as a mere member of these so-called organizations is blatant chicanery. They are Steve and Steve respectively, and nothing more.

MDS is the Movement for a Democratic Society, and the parent organization was not contacted for an endorsement. Probably another Frank Runninghorse chapter and endorsement.

And, finally, where is the supposed march going? In this time of heightened tension downtown, Steve proposes a march to where? The "Coalition" doesn't say. Irresponsible, at the very least. In a flier sent out, there is mention of buses of people coming in from San Francisco and Oakland. My prediction is that there will be no buses, but the police will have a beefed up presence nevertheless, and crack down due to the un-permitted nature of the event. (Correct me if cop puncher Steve applied for a permit from the SCPD for his march, hah!)

If folks really want to support Bradley Manning, (and you should), then go to the official Bradley Manning support site http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and join their efforts. Also helping out with Manning's defense are Courage to Resist http://www.couragetoresist.org . These two organizations both have mailing lists and further info on how to get involved and are giving actual support. It is telling that neither of these organizations have endorsed the Santa Cruz event. Bradley Manning & Julian Assange deserve real support, not posturing from pseudo-revolutionaries.

If you want to go to the event, then by all means do so, but please do not donate any money at the event. There is absolutely no accountability with the individuals involved. Send your money to the above two legitimate organizations.

Stay informed and stay aware...

I find it interesting that those who opposed this action and passed on cop slanders of speakers also say it is irresponsible to march under the current climate. Under the current climate of government repression aimed at the New Year’s Parade? And let the petty dictators of the Santa Cruz City Council and their cops have their way violating First Amendment rights? I say it is irresponsible not to march. And yes, despite a whole lot of whining and denials from that law and order liberal, real organizations did endorse the action we had a real event that was a success.

We marched without a permit - which is the way it should be. In Oakland the necessity to get a permit is not just a logistical thing but it also has political dimensions. At every Oscar Grant event that I saw the permit became a question of "what will the police allow or permit" and that question stifled a great deal of initiative on the part of the organizers and participants.

I'm not saying we should always march without a permit, just that it should be okay to do so, and that it was perfectly fine that we did so Saturday. We blocked traffic, we drew in a number of people from the crowd to march with us. What's wrong with that?

Generally the downtown atmosphere was not very receptive - people were focused on shopping, maybe - but in situations like that I don't expect much. We created some disruption, which was exactly the point.

I really don't understand why the previous poster thinks that marching is irresponsible.

The U.S. Constitution in part says that international treaties signed on to by the U.S.A. are to be treated as the supreme laws of the land. Why then is the anti-fascist covenants being ignored and violated, by the previous governments since the anti-fascist second world war. Take for example the United Nations Charter which was brought into being by the anti-fascist fighters, and sets the goal of liberation as the ending of aggressive war as the nations foreign policy.
This is clearly the point the Charter makes when it states for all the world to see, that the UN intent and its Charter says that it will make war just a long distant memory for the coming generations. The Geneva Conventions of war also points out three obvious war crimes that the U.S. led coalition of the willing is doing throughout the worlds' Holyland, 1) targeting and killing civilians, 2) torturing and killing POWs, 3) collective punishment such as bombing to rubble villages, towns, and cities throughout the middle east when it is international law that such action to kill a militant or two is a war crime.

Nuremburg Trials chaired by U.S. Judge Jackson also says that the planning and doing of aggressive war is the supreme international crime on the planet earth, as it actuates all other crimes high, low, big and small. He further says that it is the supreme crime on earth whether Germany does it or the U.S.A. does it. The U.S. Constitution says that when an elected government no longer serves the needs of the people, it is the duty and right of the American people to reform or abolish it and replace it with a government that does serve the needs of the American people (revolution) . Pollution wars for more oil, and aggressive wars planned and done by the U.S. military and its government does not serve the needs of the American People. Surely they will rise and make a new non-polluting and non-waring government soon, before the planet is destroyed by U.S. Pollution and war.