US WAR ON TERROR/OFTERROR NEWSLETTER #11

OMNI NEWSLETTER ON US “WAR OF TERRORISM,” #11, April 12, 2014.    Compiled by Dick Bennett for a Culture of Peace.  (#4 Jan. 19, 2012; #5 May 29, 2012; #6 July 19, 2012; #7 Sept. 27, 2012; #8 May 28, 2013; #9 July 19, 2013; #10 Jan. 16, 2014).

“Number of private U.S. citizens killed in terrorist attacks in 2010: 15.  Number killed by falling televisions: 16.”  (“Harper’s Index,” August 2012, p. 9).   Yet our warrior leaders and their war-monger supporters have produced two full-scale “anti-terror” wars (and three small-scale invasions) to defend “America” and “freedom” at the price of trillions of dollars and tens of thousands of innocent people.  In my 10 newsletters on the “War on Terror” plenty of evidence supports the idea of a War on Falling Televisions!   However, it always was a War OF Terror.

 Here is the link to all OMNI newsletters: 

http://www.omnicenter.org/newsletter-archive/   Here is the link to the Index:  http://www.omnicenter.org/omni-newsletter-general-index/

 Related Newsletters:  Afghanistan, Air War,  Allende’s Overthrow (9-11), Bases, Bush, CIA, Domestic Repression, Drones, Fear, Guantanamo, Homeland Security, Imperialism, Indefinite Detention, Iraq, Lawlessness (USA),  McCarthyism (domestic and foreign), Militarism, National Security State, 9-11, Obama, Pakistan,  Pentagon,  Secrecy, State Terrorism,  Surveillance, Terrorism,  Torture , War Crimes, Wars, and more.

My blog:
We Have a War Department/We Need a Peace Department

http://jamesrichardbennett.blogspot.com/

See:  9/11 Newsletters

“Of all the enemies to public liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other.  War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. . . .”   James Madison, “Political Observations,”  April 20, 1795.

Or : INSTEAD OF A WAR ON TERRORISM LET’S DECLARE WAR ON IGNORANCE, WAR ON HATRED, WAR ON KILLING, OR BETTER:  A PEACE ON TERRORISM, PEACE ON IGNORANCE, PEACE ON HATRED, PEACE ON KILLING.

Petition for Peace:

I just signed the petition "The US President and US Congress: End wars and the attack on our civil liberties here in the US" on Change.org.

It's important. Will you sign it too? Here's the link:

http://www.change.org/petitions/the-us-president-and-us-congress-end-wars-and-the-attack-on-our-civil-liberties-here-in-the-us?share_id=fGatKXIWJr&utm_campaign=signature_receipt&utm_medium=email&utm_source=share_petition

Thanks!  Dick

Contents of #4-10 at end.

Contents of War of Terrorism Newsletter #11

Repeal the Authorization

Pierce on Johnsen, Authorization for the Use of Military Force and Permanent War

FCNL, Write Your Congressman to Vote to Repeal the Authorization

FCNL, End Permanent War

Cockburn, Failure of the War of Terror

Davies, Failure of War of Terror

Beinart, End of US “Exceptionalism”

Scheer, Afghanistan: 3 Decades of Disaster

Alex Kane, Abuses of the “War”: Hashmi, Maximum Security Prisons, Solitary Confinement

Boardman, US a Terrorist Nation

Dick: Yemen Not US a Lawful Nation

Greenberg, Guantanamo’s First 100 Days

Greenwald and Hussain, Moazzam Begg

Susan Faludi’s The Terror Dream: Two Reviews

Arkansas Congressional Delegation

Post-9/11 Authorization for the Use of Military Force and Permanent War

Gregory D. Johnsen wrote, "Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that Congress didn't think about how the war would end when it passed the AUMF on Sept. 14, 2001, but after more than a dozen years, we are no closer to an answer." (photo: unknown)

Required Reading

By Charles Pierce, Esquire, RSN, 19 January 14

 f you read nothing else this weekend, read Gregory Johnsen's somewhat epic performance on Buzzfeed about the original Authorization for the Use of Military Force that came out of the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the permanent state of war that one 60-word sentence in that document created in the United States, a phenomenon that the Founders specifically and repeatedly warned against. (Johnsen is the recipient of first Michael Hastings Fellowship, named for the renowned journalist who died in an automobile accident last year.) If nothing else, the piece functions as a very loud warning siren against upending the rule of law and the separation of powers out of fear and panic. War, Mr. Madison cautioned, is "the true nurse of executive aggrandizement." We have traded his wisdom for the undying partisan hackery of apparatchiks like David Addington and John Yoo. It is not a good trade.

Unbound by time and unlimited by geography, the sentence has been stretched and expanded over the past decade, sprouting new meanings and interpretations as two successive administrations have each attempted to keep pace with an evolving threat while simultaneously maintaining the security of the homeland. In the process, what was initially thought to authorize force against al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan has now been used to justify operations in several countries across multiple continents and, at least theoretically, could allow the president - any president - to strike anywhere at anytime. What was written in a few days of fear has now come to govern years of action.

The piece goes on to illustrate with painful clarity a meek and timorous Congress, which had allowed so much of its constitutional war powers to leach into the executive over the previous five decades that most of its members had forgotten how to exercise them at all, let alone how to exercise them at a moment of national trauma. (One pissant aide to a forgettable schlub like Dennis Hastert gets to bulldoze past legitimate constitutional questions because we...must...do...something, and everybody acclaims him a hero.) Congress -- in the persons of Joe Biden and John Kerry, among others -- tries to cover its ass but ends up taking what everybody knows is a dive. And, after the dive, we see Yoo, who should have been kept away from the councils of government for the same reason we keep Charlie Manson out of the cutlery, immediately find a way to renege on a deal that had been cut with the Congress and expand the president's power beyond anything remotely conceived of in the Constitution.

Maybe it shouldn't be so surprising that Congress didn't think about how the war would end when it passed the AUMF on Sept. 14, 2001, but after more than a dozen years, we are no closer to an answer. "This is a bizarro war," Jack Goldsmith told me recently. A tenured law professor at Harvard who worked in the Office of Legal Counsel under George W. Bush, Goldsmith has written a pair of books on national security law. "What we don't see, we don't care about."

Read the whole thing and understand how we got to where we are today, when the president is going to deliver a speech about the NSA revelations, arguing for "reforms" in which there is no good reason to believe. Read the whole thing and see in it the seedbed for unlimited drone warfare and whatever comes after that, which undoubtedly will be worse. Read the whole thing and understand how Abu Ghraib happened and why Gitmo is still open. Read the whole thing and watch the relentless abandonment of self-government over the past 13 years. Read the whole thing and realize that we are no longer even the nation we pretend to be, Read the whole thing and realize how much the late Osama bin Laden actually won.

Dear Dick Bennett, I’ve spent much of the last month in Capitol Hill offices talking about the 2001 law that authorized the war in Afghanistan, expanding armed drone attacks, NSA spying and indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay. In office after office, from Republicans and Democrats, I’ve heard staffers saying their boss would be open to repeal of this sweeping law. But staff report they need to hear more from their constituents to make this a priority. With your help we’re hoping to organize at least 3,000 messages into congressional offices asking for repeal. Please email your representative today with the message that as the U.S. ends its military involvement in Afghanistan, our country also ought to repeal the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force that authorized that war and so much more. Last year we had 185 votes in favor of repeal – just 33 short of the total we need to win passage in the House. But congressional offices say they need constituent support to vote confidently for repeal. And right now they aren’t hearing enough from their constituents. Your representatives are back home this week for the Presidents Day recess. Your messages this week will amplify the advocacy of nearly 40 groups across the country who are working with us to meet in person with their representatives around this recess. We’ve spent the past four months organizing delegations to lobby in person during this week, bringing the message in person to influential representatives that it’s time to end the state of endless war that the authorization allows. You also have an important part to play in getting this message into offices. Please write to your representative today, then forward this email to 3 friends and ask them to write as well. Help get to 3,000 messages.Make sure your representative hears this week that it’s time for the endless war to end. Thank you for your support of peace, Sincerely, Elizabeth Beavers Foreign Policy Assistant

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Dear Dick Bennett, You can help end the endless war. Please join my colleagues Elizabeth Beavers and Jim Cason for a lively conference call tomorrow night at 8 p.m. to learn more about FCNL’s work and what you can do in your community. The American people and our Congress are asking hard questions about the idea and practice of “permanent war” that has shaped U.S. policy since 9/11. In the past months, the Senate has rejected new sanctions that would undermine Iran diplomacy, Congress has refused to endorse military action in Syria, and the Pentagon budget has been cut. But the law that provides the legal underpinnings for drone strikes, detentions at Guantanamo Bay, government surveillance, and the war Afghanistan remains on the books. Unless Congress acts, this sweeping law – the Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) – will continue to be used to justify a U.S. policy based on permanent war. FCNL is working diligently alongside others here in Washington to convince Congress to repeal this law and bring this dark chapter of our country’s history to a close. But to achieve the ambitious goal of repealing this law, we need your help. Here’s what you can do now: 1. Join FCNL’s call tomorrow night Please RSVP to foreignpolicy@fcnl.org if you plan to join the call. Then on February 5 at 8 p.m., call 1-213-342-3000 and enter access code 86511. 2. Write your representative now Ask her or him to cosponsor legislation that would repeal the Authorization for the Use of Military Force. Rep Adam Schiff’s bill, H.R. 2324, has bipartisan support and would end the Authorization on December 31, 2014. We see an excellent opportunity to repeal the AUMF and end the authority Congress created for endless war. Last year, 185 representatives—just 33 shy of the number needed for a bill to pass—voted to repeal the AUMF. With your help, this year we can and will persuade 33 additional members of the House to support this legislation when it comes to a vote again this summer. Sincerely, Diane Randall P.S. There are even more opportunities coming up for you to advocate to repeal this law. Find out how you can be a part of our Presidents Day week of action in February and ourSpring Lobby Weekend in March. "Al-Qua'ida's Second Act" By Patrick Cockburn, The Independent, posted March 21 HAW Brings together all five parts of the author's detailed  series on the failure of the War on Terror, with special focus on Saudi Arabia "We Need to End the Disastrous Failure of the War on Terror" By Nicolas J. S. Davies, AlterNet.org, posted February 3, 2014. Highlights the increase in terrorist incidents from 208 in 2003 to 5,000 or more every year since 2005.  [Sent to me by HAW, Historians Against War.] "The End of American Exceptionalism" By Peter Beinart, National Journal, posted February 3, 2014 Argues that conservative policies, including overseas interventions, have undermined the bundle of beliefs called American exceptionalism.,  [Sent to me by HAW.]

FOCUS: Robert Scheer.  “The Super Bowl of War: Three Decades of Failure in Afghanistan.”  
Robert Scheer, Truthdig, Reader Response News, Feb. 4, 2014 
Scheer writes: "... you would have to be drunk on Bud not to notice that the three decades since the United States first meddled in Afghanistan have been an unequivocal disaster and that those who did not survive - NATO combatants and far larger number of Afghan natives - died in vain." 
READ MORE

“The War on Terror's Insane Abuses Continue.” 
Alex Kane, AlterNet , 19 January 14 Reader Supported News

Kane reports: "Today, the 33-year-old Hashmi remains under solitary confinement at the Administrative Maximum Facility (ADX) near Florence, Colorado, a maximum security federal prison. In total, he's toiled under the harsh confines of solitary confinement for six years, doing untold damage to his mental health." 
READ MORE

William Boardman,  “American Terrorists on Both Sides of War”   Reader Supported News, Feb. 14, 2014  Boardman writes: "You're not supposed to know the U.S. kills civilians. You're not supposed to think of your own country as a state sponsor of terrorism."  READ MORE

AHMED QADRI SENTENCED TO DEATH BY YEMENI COURT

     Our leaders claim the purity of the rule of law and denigrate other nations’ lawlessness.  Yet Yemen proves the opposite.  Ahmed Qadri, “an al-Qaida militant,” was sentenced to death by a Yemeni security court for “taking part in a 2010 bombing that killed a dozen soldiers at an intelligence facility in Aden.”  That is what civilized nations do against murderers: you go to court with the evidence and you prosecute and punish.   Yemen, one of the poorest and most primitive and reportedly lawless countries in the world, follows its judicial system in the prosecution of even mass murderers.

     In contrast, the US executes suspected murderers or persons suspected of planning murder, surely an abhorrent example of extreme lawlessness.   Yet this degraded, extremist  behavior is practiced by the president of the United States in his drone assassinations, who is supposed to be a model for the “rule of law” USA.  Dwight Eisenhower denounced “preventive war.”  That’s what Hitler espoused and justified.  But for Eisenhower, “I wouldn’t even listen to anyone seriously that came in and talked about such a thing.”  Surely Eisenhower would say the same about presidential “preventive murder.”   --Dick

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Start reading The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days on your Kindle in under a minute.  Don't have a Kindle?Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.  Share

The Least Worst Place: Guantanamo's First 100 Days by Karen Greenberg .

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Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2010 Named one of the Washington Post Book World's Best Books of 2009, The Least Worst Place offers a gripping narrative account of the first one hundred days of Guantanamo. Greenberg, one of America's leading experts on the Bush Administration's policies on terrorism, tells the story through a group of career officers who tried-and ultimately failed-to stymie the Pentagon's desire to implement harsh new policies in Guantanamo and bypass the Geneva Conventions. Peopled with genuine heroes and villains, this narrative of the earliest days of the post-9/11 era centers on the conflicts between Gitmo-based Marine officers intent on upholding the Geneva Accords and an intelligence unit set up under the Pentagon's aegis. The latter ultimately won out, replacing transparency with secrecy, military protocol with violations of basic operation procedures, and humane and legal detainee treatment with harsh interrogation methods and torture. Greenberg's riveting account puts a human face on this little-known story, revealing how America first lost its moral bearings in the wake of 9/11.

MOAZZAM BEGG

Moazzam Begg Arrest: Criminalizing Muslim Political Dissent. 
Glenn Greenwald and Murtaza Hussain, First Look, Reader Supported News, Feb. 28, 2014 
Greenwald and Hussain write: "Moazzam Begg, a native-born British citizen of Pakistani descent, spent three years incarcerated in the most notorious detention camps created in the post-9/11 'War on Terror': all without ever being charged with any crime." 
READ MORE

THE TERROR DREAM: Fear and Fantasy in Post-9/11 America.   By Susan Faludi.   351 pages. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company.

John Leonard.  “Macho Security State.”   New York Times Book Review (Oct. 14, 2007).  “Susan Faludi says that since 9//, we’ve been urged to revert to mythic notions of gender roles. . . .confabulated by our government ministers and news media heavies, a ‘security myth’ and a ‘national fantasy’ starring John Wayne and Dirty Harry as the Last of the Mohicans.”   “We’ve sleepwalked into hallucination, regression, and psychosis….of a celebrity/media culture and national security state that honors men more as warriors, actors, cowboys, athletes and killers than for skilled labor, company loyalty, civic duty, steadfast fatherhood, homesteading, caretaking and community-building. . . .”

Contact Arkansas Congressional Delegation

Arkansas is represented in Congress by two senators and four representatives. Here is how to reach them. None of the senators or representatives publishes his e-mail address, but each can be contacted by filling in forms offered through his website.

SENATORS Sen. John Boozman Republican, first term 320 Hart Senate Office Building Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-4843 Fax: (202) 228-1371 Arkansas offices: FORT SMITH: (479) 573-0189 LITTLE ROCK: (501) 372-7153 LOWELL: (479) 725-0400 Website: www.boozman.senate.gov Sen. Mark Pryor Democrat, second term 255 Dirksen Office Building Constitution Avenue and First Street NE Washington, D.C. 20510 Phone: (202) 224-2353 Fax: (202) 228-0908 Little Rock office: (501) 324-6336 Rep. Tom Cotton 4TH DISTRICT Republican, first term 415 Cannon House Office Building Washington 20515 Phone: (202) 225-43772 Arkansas offices: CLARKSVILLE: (479) 754-2120 EL DORADO: (870) 881-0631 HOT SPRINGS: (501) 520-5892 PINE BLUFF: (870) 536-3376  Website: www.cotton.house.gov Contents #8  May 28, 2013 Sirota, “Terrorism” Is Retaliation for US Terrorism PBS Frontline,  Dana Priest and William Arkin’s “Top Secret America” Notes by Dick Dick Bennett, Puritan Roots of US Permanent War, Connecting Fulbright’s The Arrogance of Power Boston Murderers Are Terrorists But US Not State Terrorist?  3 Essays    Greenwald, Scheer, Ackerman Bello, Permanent Prisoners, No Charge, No Trial, the Wars Fought for “Freedom”?! Honigsberg, Human Consequences of War on Terror: Mass Killing, Maiming, Exile Brooks and Manza, Public Opinion Toward War on Terror, Fear Justifies Mass Slaughter Film on Canada’s “War on ‘Terror’”:  “The Secret Trial 5”:  US  Infecting Other Nations Tharoor, Canada’s Terror Plot Singham, FBI Sets Up “Terrorists’ for Permanent Fear Greenwald on Andrew Sullivan Aronson, War on Terror a US Creation Sibel Edmonds, CIA Whistleblower Gagged  Looking Back Sirota, Draft Ended 40 Years Ago June 30, 1973.  Did it ensure Permanent War for the Warmongers? Woodworth, Reviewing Evidence of 9/11 Looking Ahead Bob Baskin, Peace Alliance:   President Obama’s Speech to Decrease War on Terror More to be checked. Contents #9 OMNI Book Forum July 17 Support Cong. Lee’s Bill to Repeal AUMF/Authorization for Use of Military Force Gibson, Repeal the “Patriot Act” President Obama’s Speech on Counter-Terrorism Noam Chomsky, US War of Terror Ellen Ray, 2 books Aaronson, FBI’s Construction of Terror War Mayer, The Dark Side, Rev. Bettie Lu Lancaster Herman, Taking Liberties Contents #10  Jan. 16, 2014 TomGram and Nick Turse Greenwald Film, Unmanned Scahill, Perpetual War Filkins, Rise of Taliban, Invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq Chatterjee, CIA Bungled War on Terror (War OF Terror) Mazzetti, CIA and Drones, How CIA Became Mossad Engelhardt,  CIA Kidnapping Case in Italy UN Special Rapporteur Report on Extra-Judicial Killing Davies, War on Terrorism Good for Business Neumeister, Ghailani Appeals Johnsen, Al-Qaeda in Yemen What is the mission of OMNI?  a world free of war and the threat of war, a society with equity and justice for all, a community where every person’s potential may be fulfilled, and an earth restored. OMNI asks for commitment to high goals because the leaders of the world powers too often have failed even to THINK such ideals good for all species.

REPRESENTATIVES Rep. Rick Crawford 1ST DISTRICT Republican, second term 1771 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4076 Fax: (202) 225-5602 JONESBORO: (870) 203-0540 CABOT: (501) 843-3043 MOUNTAIN HOME: (870) 424-2075 Website: www.crawford.house.gov Rep. Tim Griffin 2ND DISTRICT Republican, second term 1232 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington, D.C. 20515 Phone: (202) 225-2506 Fax: (202) 225-5903 Arkansas offices: LITTLE ROCK: (501) 324-5491 Website: www.griffin.house.gov Rep. Steve Womack 3RD DISTRICT Republican, second term 1119 Longworth Office Building New Jersey and Independence Avenues SE Washington 20515 Phone: (202) 225-4301  Fax: (202) 225-5713 Arkansas offices: ROGERS: (479) 464-0446 HARRISON: (870) 741-7741 FORT SMITH: (479) 424-1146 Website: www.womack.house.gov Con

END TERRORISM NEWSLETTER #11