Mar 22 2011
The Activist Beat – 03/22/11
The Activist Beat with Rose Aguilar, host of Your Call on KALW in San Francisco is a weekly roundup of progressive activism that the mainstream media ignores, undercovers, or misrepresents.
This past Saturday marked the 8th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. It came and went with barely a mention in the national media. Jane Arraf, an Al Jazeera English correspondent in Baghdad, recently told me that there are very few US reporters in Iraq. Arraf has covered Iraq since 1991. She says she’s stunned when people say the war is over.
Since the invasion, over one million Iraqis have been killed, millions have been displaced, and living conditions are so bad, Baghdad has been rated the least livable city in the world by the Mercer Quality of Living survey. Over 4,400 American soldiers have died and 60,000 have been wounded.
The invasion and occupation will ultimately cost $3 trillion, according to economist Joseph Stiglitz and Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes.
Even though the media and politicians constantly focus on the deficit, the increasing military budget is rarely mentioned.
Military spending and budget cuts to social services were major issues at protests across the country this weekend. Demonstrators marked the invasion in a number of cities, including Corvallis, Oregon, Atlanta, Georgia, and St. Paul, Minnesota. The Uptake reports that a thousand people marched in St. Paul. It was the largest gathering in years.
At the protest in front of the White House, 113 peaceful demonstrators were arrested, including many veterans and Daniel Ellsberg, the former US military analyst who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971.
Daniel Ellsberg was released and arrested the very next day at an action outside the gates of the Quantico Marine Brig in Virginia. That’s where 23-year-old Bradley Manning is being held for allegedly passing classified government documents to WikiLeaks, including a video that shows American troops shooting and killing 11 people in Iraq in 2007.
About 400 people gathered to support Manning and protest the way he is being treated by the Obama administration and the military. According to Manning’s lawyer, for the past 10 months, he’s being held in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day in a tiny cell less than 50 miles from the White House. On March 2, it was revealed that Manning was stripped of his clothing and forced to spend the night naked without any sheets or a pillow then stand for inspection the next morning without his clothes. President Obama recently said the conditions are “appropriate and meeting our basic standards.”
Manning faces 22 charges for exposing war crimes. If he’s found guilty of “aiding the enemy,” he could face the death penalty.
Thirty-five people were arrested for protesting his inhumane treatment, including Retired Colonel Ann Wright. In 2003, she was one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in protest of the US invasion of Iraq.
Several videos show the Virginia State Police in riot gear using their shields to knock Wright and others down to the ground. The Washington Post reports that some officers were carrying automatic weapons.
Actions also took place in Portland, Minneapolis, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, London, Berlin, Vienna, and Vancouver.
Signs read: Americans have the right to know. Free Bradley Manning.
Rose Aguilar for Uprising.
Comments Off on The Activist Beat – 03/22/11
