Wednesday, February 06, 2008

Other Items

In a unique blend of art and activism, photographer Kathryn Palmanteer is using her talent for photography and her passion for politics to create self-dubbed "political art". Her photography exhibit of portraits of US War Resisters is being showcased at Ryerson University this week to relay the message that these Resisters should be welcomed in Canada.
"I used these documentary portraits to give voices to the voiceless, allowing them to have the opportunity to tell their stories,” said Palmanteer.
[. . .]
Each photograph is a portrait of a US soldier who has come to Canada seeking refugee status. Underneath each photograph is a quote that underlines why the subject is a resister of war. Along with the various marines and navy military that are featured, there are also wives of US War Resisters who are resisters themselves.The exhibit, aptly titled "From a Whisper to a Roar," is taking place at the Credit Union Lounge in the Podium Building. The photographs will be on display until Thursday from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The above is from Lauren Miele's "Photographer captures essense of war resisters" (The Eyeopener) and staying on the subject of war resistance and ending the illegal war, real leaders from an earlier time are coming forward. Not PDA -- Pathetic Democrats of America -- who get together to endorse Bambi. Not people exiled from the left in real time for attempting to use a movement for their own pathetic political ambitions. Not people who wished they'd been active but really weren't. No, real leaders from the period who can share what really ended that earlier illegal war. From Jon Telvin's "Heartland activists reunite" (Minneapolis Star Tribune):


In 1970, they were young idealists, "sons of the establishment" who were fed up with the war in Vietnam and fueled by a radically changing culture.
Today, more than three decades after being caught raiding draft boards, charged with "sabotage of the national defense" and sentenced to prison, the protesters who became known as the Minnesota 8 and drew national attention are back, sans one.
Led by former monk and seminary student Frank Kroncke, the group has formed a new organization called Peace and War in the Heartland, which will include campus discussions, exhibits and a play about their lives this month sponsored by the History Theatre.
They hope to link Vietnam to the war in Iraq and provoke discussion and activism by young people.
The group will launch with a fundraiser Thursday at the Cabooze bar in Minneapolis, and later will sponsor a discussion with Daniel Ellsberg, the former military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers.
Ellsberg, who testified in one of the trials, says he was inspired to turn over the documents partly because of the actions of the Minnesota 8.


In the New York Times, Solomon Moore and Khalid al-Ansary offer "American Soldiers Kill 3 Iraqis in Raid" and we heard the official explanation yesterday so let's stick with what reporters found out on their own as opposed to in an MNF press release:

According to the Iraqi police, all four casualties were relatives living in a tiny one-room house. The dead were Ali Hamed Shihab, 47, a farmer; his wife, Naeema Ali, 45; and their son, Dhiaa Ali, 18. The wounded child was the couple’s 16-year-old daughter. Another relative, an 11-year-old girl, died Tuesday on the way to a hospital, Iraqi authorities said.
The house is in Door, a village about 100 miles north of Baghdad. A reporter for The Associated Press went to the house on Tuesday and saw three bodies and shell casings on the floor, and quoted a relative who said she had seen American soldiers kick open the door and fire their weapons without provocation.
On Sunday, United States military officials acknowledged that American troops had mistakenly killed nine Iraqi civilians in Iskandariya, 25 miles south of Baghdad, the capital. Iraqi authorities said the victims included several checkpoint guardsmen.


The reporters also explore the "mysterious" death of Munthir al-Mosawi, Sadr loyalist, who was "held for three days on a Baghdad arrest warrant" (held "at the Amara airport") and is now dead. Mysterious? How mysterious is this:

A medical report concluded that Mr. Mosawi had died of a "bullet in the head," a military official who had read the document said.

Seems pretty clear, he was killed in custody.

What else seems clear is that with attention focused on the primaries, the US military slipped three deaths into the record with little attention. Yesterday, ICCC had 1 death for the month (40 for the month of January) and today they have four. M-NF skipped the announcements of the deaths. So between now and yesterday morning, the death toll increased by three.

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