Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Southeast Protests FEATURED ARTICLES - F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies, Miami Herald - Arresting The Future, By Tom Hayden - Miami police mistreated demonstrators, Miami Herald - What Would Castro Do?, by Jane Stillwater - School of Americas Demo 2003, by Rupert Fike QUOTE OF THE DAY "Police subsequently informed the larger world that a mob of menacing protestors had disobeyed orders to dissolve an unlawful assembly and were treated accordingly. In truth the police may have radicalized a new generation of America's future leaders." - - Tom Hayden (on last week's police riot in Miami) KNOW YOUR HISTORY - NOVEMBER 25th 1969 -- Protesting Britain's support for the U.S. involvement in Vietnam & its role in Biafra,  John Lennon returns his MBE (Member of the British Empire) to the Queen. 1986 -- Secret arms sales to Iran uncovered with Lt. Col. Oliver North directing the proceeds to the contras in Nicaragua. The Iran-Contra affair erupts as President Reagan & Attorney General Edwin Meese reveal that profits from secret arms sales to Iran have been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels. Fawn Hall smuggled important documents out of Lt. Col. Oliver North's office. 1996 -- In Belgrade, Serbia, 100,000 demonstrators protest nullification of municipal election results. RHINO HERE: Over a decade ago, Father Roy Bourgeois began protesting the existence of the U.S. Taxpayer paid for School of the Americas, known throughout Latin America as The School Of Assassins. On Sunday, he was there again with about 10,000 of his closest friends, including The Rhino, Rhino's old friend Rupert Fike, who wrote today's BOTTOM LINE, & Pete Seeger. Pete spoke about the old days, when there was only a handful of people willing to put their bodies on the line to call attention to the tragic results of U.S. foreign policy on the world's poor. He told us that with so many young people getting out into the streets in the last year, that for him, this was the most exciting time of his life. Today's offerings describe last weeks protests in Miami, Florida & Columbus, Georgia. Very different atmospheres, but both focusing on aspects of the same unjust policies. Meanwhile, a leaked, confidential FBI memorandum reveals they've been collecting extensive information on the tactics, training & organization of antiwar demonstrators & has been advising local law enforcement officials to report any suspicious activity at protests to its counterterrorism squads. F.B.I. Scrutinizes Antiwar Rallies By ERIC LICHTBLAU, Miami Herald, 11/22/03 MORE: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7334974.htm Arresting The Future By Tom Hayden, AlterNet , November 21, 2003 MIAMI, Friday 8:21pm EST - The police force continued operating with the brains and appetite of a carnivorous shark today as city officials kept demonstrating "the Miami model" of suppression even as protestors and trade ministers were leaving the city in droves... I moved alongside the advancing and retreating lines to take a photograph when I noticed that a policeman was aiming a shotgun straight at my chest. Fear leaped in me, then he pointed the weapon down. But a moment later he was looking down the barrel at me again. I was holding a camera, notebook and pen. Suddenly I found myself asking him, "Are you really pointing that fucking gun at me?" MORE: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17246 Protester complains of injuries - Civil liberties groups say a man hospitalized with head injuries is an example of how Miami police mistreated demonstrators. BY RICHARD BRAND, Miami Hearld, 11/24/03 A University of Massachusetts freshman who says he suffered a severe head injury at the hands of police when they arrested him during FTAA protests last week remained at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Sunday. Edward Owaki, 19, originally charged with disorderly conduct, said that during his time in custody he received minimal medical treatment for his head wound -- despite his complaints of dizziness and vomiting spells. MORE: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/7334974.htm What would Castro do:  Hypocrisy in Miami by Jane Stillwater, 11/24/03 Leaders of the Cuban exile community of Miami clearly out-Castro-ed their former nemesis this week as Dade County tactical squads, under the leadership of elected Cuban-American politicians, brutally suppressed citizens' Constitutional rights -- to free speech, freedom of the press and free assembly -- with an abandon and verve that would have had even Fidel himself open-mouthed. The Cuban exile community's holier-than-thou attitude toward human rights in Cuba is now a thing of the past.  Under the direction of Cuban exiles and their allies, police in full riot gear tear-gassed, beat and jailed hundreds of peaceful demonstrators. Bones were broken and faces were smashed indiscriminately. Tactical squads, using unprovoked and savage brutality on American citizens legally expressing their right to dissent against faulty government policies that will drive their jobs overseas, also threatened and/or jailed several members of the press who were reporting on the event as well as hundreds of non-violent demonstrators including a delegation of soccer moms wearing "Kucinich for President" T-shirts.  After this demonstration of unprovoked force, any further attempts by the Cuban Exile community to criticize Castro can and will be labeled as hypocrisy of the first degree. Before we "bring democracy" to Cuba, let's first try bringing it to Miami. 7:41:14 AM    comment

RHINO'S BOTTOM LINE - School of Americas Demo 2003 School of Americas Demo 2003 by Rupert Fike, Special to Rhino's Blog, 11/25/03 Rolling into Columbus Ga. on a sunny Saturday morning for the annual School of Americas demonstration and vigil at the gates of Fort Benning I park downtown and hop on a shuttle bus that will take us to the Fort. Suddenly I am in a kind of middle-America we all need to remember is out there - a busload of the sweetest protestors imaginable - from a Church of Christ in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. They talk like the good folk of Lake Woebegone. They are shortish, stocky, grey-haired. They look as if they had just walked out of a Wal-Mart sale on hand towels. They group around me, a curiosity, someone from the South. They want to know why I am there. I tell them I am part of The extended Farm community who did soy, water and medical work in Guatemala in the 70s. Some smile and nod, filling in the others who can't hear me. I hear, "Well isn't that something!" several times. Outside, the scenery of an Army base town floats by - pawn shops, ammo stores, surplus outlets. I ask them why they are there. A slightly built man in a plaid shirt answers - Their congregation had begun a church-to-church outreach program with a village in Chiapas, Mexico back in the early 80s. He spoke proudly of their accomplishments before bad things began to happen. Like the massacre of 21 women, 15 children and 9 men by Mexican paramilitary forces. And on the Oshkosh group's last visit to Chiapas, they asked what would be the best thing they could do for the village. The answer across the board was, "Close down the School of Americas." So here they are for the fifth straight year. As usual there is a stage set up outside the Ft Benning gates, but this year the Army blasts (and I mean BLASTS) a Kafkaesque tape loop of "patriotic music" including marches, anthems, country and western kick-some-3rd world-butt ballads, etc. On the one hand it is an admission that after 12 years, the demonstration has gotten to them and that they feel threatened by it, but on the other hand, the zillion decibels are just plain obnoxious - a Psychological Operation designed to wear down the senses of anyone in the vicinity of their speakers. Father Roy Bourgeois gives a stirring welcoming, shouting over the blasting 1984 soundtrack just behind him. He notes that this new Army strategy is a sign of weakness rather than strength on their part.  Other speakers and musicians follow. UAW to Argentinan nuns. Pete Seeger gets everybody going. The sun beats down. The Puppitistas, over a hundred stilt walking, banner-waving, helicopter holding, drum beating performers. Veterans from the recent Miami's WTO protests circulate and tell their stories. Mid-afternoon, a woman from Where Are the Children campaign speaks as best she can (some due to emotion, some due to the Army speakers) of her two boys who were taken out of her home in El Salvador never to be seen again. It is a moment. It is a scene even Michael Moore could not have choreographed.  "They busted into our home in the middle of the night," she says, working to keep her throat from closing. From behind the stage during her pause, the strains of America the Beautiful smash aggressively over the crowd, " . . . America, America,  . . " She gets it together to go on. "The last I saw of my boys they were crying to me for help . . . "  Speakers- "God shed his grace on thee . . . "   The mother then turned and pointed to the Benning Gates, "And later I was to find out that the men who took my boys were trained right there, in that place!" Speakers - " . . . and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea." Later I flag down a cab to take me back downtown. The cabbie is a sad-looking, ciggie smoking woman, another snapshot of middle America. We drive in silence for a bit before she says, "Mind if I ask you a question?"  "Shoot."  "Do they ever give reasons for not closing down that School?" "RHINO'S BLOG" is the responsibility of Gary Rhine. (rhino@kifaru.com) Feedback, and requests to be added or deleted from the list are encouraged. SEARCH BLOG ARCHIVES / SURF RHINO'S LINKS, AT: http://www.rhinosblog.info RHINO'S OTHER WEB SITES: http://www.dreamcatchers.org (INDIGENOUS ASSISTANCE & INTERCULTURAL DIALOG) http://www.kifaru.com (NATIVE AMERICAN RELATIONS VIDEO DOCUMENTARIES) Articles are reprinted under Fair Use Doctrine of international copyright law. http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html All copyrights belong to original publisher. Tell a friend about Rhino's Blog 6:29:46 AM    comment

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