SECTION FIVE

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COLUMN SIXTY-FOUR, OCTOBER 1, 2001
(Copyright © 2001 Al Aronowitz)

Subject: AGITPROP NEWS: 9.25.1
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 01:42:20 -0400
From: "Alewitz, Mike (Dept. of Art)" ALEWITZM@mail.ccsu.edu
To: "Agitprop News" agitprop@listserv.ccsu.edu

LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT

AGITPROP NEWS: 9.25.1

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1.  I've Seen This Before

(The following are edited remarks by LaMP Artistic Dierector Mike Alewitz at the September 21 dedication of "Education for All," at the Magnolia School in Joppa MD.  The mural was part of a larger series called "The Dreams of Harriet Tubman."  The audience was composed of students and community leaders.)

This mural faced many obstacles to it's creation.  Not the least of these was an attack on the mural with painted swastikas and racist slogans.  In Baltimore, we have even been unable to get a wall for one of the other murals.

The reason these vandals attcked the mural here was because they are afraid. That's why we can't get a wall in Baltimore - fear.  In 2001 the image of this militant woman is still scary to those in power.

Harriet Tubman was an ordinary woman - illiterate and frequently ill.  She was no more talented than you or I. She triumphed because she became something greater. What made her extraordinary was the fact that she was part of a movement of tens of thousands of people who fought to overturn slavery.  There were others like her - Sojourner Truth and John Brown. There were tens of thousands whose names we don't know.  They formed a massive movement that overturned slavery.

Harriet Tubman was a woman of action.  But she was also an independant thinker.  She participated in all kinds of political discussions and decisions.  She participated in the abolitionist and feminist movements. She took positions that were unpopular.  She stuck to her principals.

Today we must follow in the footsteps of harriet Tubman.  Today we too must have a critical mind.

Last night I watched the President's speech on TV.  On the wall behind the TV is a photograph I have from 1971.  It's part of a demonstration of active-duty G.I's - soldiers- who were part of the movement against the war in Vietnam.  I keep that photo to remind me about what heroic accomplishments working people are capable of.

I looked from the photo back to the screen, and I watched as all the politicians applauded the talk of war.  I watched as they slapped each other on the back.  And I realized---I've seen this before.  I've seen these old men sending the young off to die.

I looked back at the photo and wondered how many of those bright and spirited young people never came back from Vietnam.

I asked myself - what would Harriet Tubman do if she were alive today.  I believe that she would continue her struggle for human justice.  And, as Martin Luther King was to point out---there can be no justice without peace.

I hope you all will also question what you see on TV.  Because in a few years, if they have their way, you too will face the prospect of being sent to fight and die in a foreign land.

What you do is is extremely important.  What you, and the rest of your generation do will determine the future for all of us.  I am dedicating this mural to those of you who choose to follow in the steps of Harriet Tubman--- to those of you who will define your own ideas---for those who decide to act for peace and justice.

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2.  Oedipus Bush 

"If George W. is sincere about wanting to hunt down and kill the people responsible for Osama Bin Laden, he might as well start with his father.  It was the Reagan/Bush CIA, after all, that made Bin Laden what he is today. Everybody knows this but nobody mentions it, partly because it's so inconvenient, and partly because we're so embarrassed by the obvious Freudian implications of it all, and the thought that thousands and thousands of people may be about to die for what boils down to a rivalry over the sexual favors of Barbara Bush."
-Woody Allen

 From: WaxBarn@aol.com

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3.  The Media March to War

"There is only one way to begin to deal with people like this, and that is you have to kill some of them even if they are not immediately directly involved in this thing."
--former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger (CNN, 9/11/01)

"The response to this unimaginable 21st-century Pearl Harbor should be as simple as it is swift-- kill the bastards. A gunshot between the eyes, blow them to smithereens, poison them if you have to.  As for cities or countries that host these worms, bomb them into basketball courts."
--Steve Dunleavy (New York Post, 9/12/01)

"America roused to a righteous anger has always been a force for good. States that have been supporting if not Osama bin Laden, people like him need to feel pain. If we flatten part of Damascus or Tehran or whatever it takes, that is part of the solution."
--Rich Lowry, National Review editor, to Howard Kurtz (Washington Post, 9/13/01 

"TIME TO TAKE NAMES AND NUKE AFGHANISTAN."
--Caption to cartoon by Gary Brookins (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 9/13/01 

"At a bare minimum, tactical nuclear capabilites should be used against the bin Laden camps in the desert of Afghanistan. To do less would be rightly seen by the poisoned minds that orchestrated these attacks as cowardice on the part of the United States and the current administration."
--Former Defense Intelligence Agency officer Thomas Woodrow, "Time to Use the Nuclear Option" (Washington Times, 9/14/01 

Bill O'Reilly: "If the Taliban government of Afghanistan does not cooperate, then we will damage that government with air power, probably. All right? We will blast them, because..."
 
Sam Husseini, Institute for Public Accuracy: "Who will you kill in the process? 

O'Reilly: "Doesn't make any difference."
--("The O'Reilly Factor," Fox News Channel, 9/13/01)

"This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack.... We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity.  We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers.  We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians.  That's war. And this is war."
--Syndicated columnist Ann Coulter (New York Daily News, 9/12/01)

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4.  Countries Bombed by the USA
 
China 1945-46
Korea 1950-53
|
China 1950-53
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-60
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Peru 1965
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991-99
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999

kominform@lists.EUnet.fi

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5.  Other Swell Friends Like bin Laden

sundaytimes.co.za

Osama bin Laden joins a long list of characters once backed by the United States'Central Intelligence Agency who have gone on to politically embarrass Washington.

Others include: Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, installed as Shah of Iran in 1953, after a CIA-backed military coup overthrows Mohammed Mossadegh.

Ngo Dinh Diem, 1950s South Vietnamese leader, whose support by the CIA would eventually culminate in the Vietnam war.

Haitian dictator "Papa Doc" Duvalier, who came into power in 1959. When he died, in 1971, his 19-year-old son, "Baby Doc", continued as dictator.

The CIA is implicated in the 1961 assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the Congo's first democratically elected president. The CIA-backed Mobuto Sese Seko was installed as dictator of Zaire.

General Castelo Branco, Brazilian dictator who took power in 1964 and went on to form South America's first death squads, secret police trained by the CIA.

Lon Nol, the CIA-backed Cambodian leader who assumed power in 1970 and immediately involved his country in the Vietnam conflict, an unpopular move which spawned the Khmer Rouge uprising.

General Augusto Pinochet, Chilean dictator who assumed power in 1973 after the assassination of Salvador Allende, South America's first democratically elected socialist leader.

Unita leader Jonas Savimbi, whose role in Angola's civil war has continued since 1975.

Sheik Abdel Rahman, Muslim extremist armed and trained by the CIA to resist the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, later implicated in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.

Nicaraguan dictator Anastasios Samoza II, whose National Guard took to the hills after his overthrow in 1979 and waged war against Sandinista government forces as the CIA-backed Contras.

Roberto D'Aubuisson, whose CIA-trained death squads massacred thousands in El Salvador in the 1980s.

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6.  U.S. Had Finalized Plans Before WTC Attack

By the BBC's George Arney

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

Russian troops were on standby.

Mr Naik said US officials told him of the plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin.

Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place--- possibly under the leadership of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah.

Mr Naik was told that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American advisers were already in place.

From: "Austin, Andrew" <austina@uwgb.edu>

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7.  Step Lightly

Ground troops may be necessary to seize Osama bin Laden but they will be entering a country containing one tenth of the world's land mines, left by Soviet occupation forces across 80 per cent of the land.

And what about those mines? If the Americans are even contemplating a ground force, it can enter only from Pakistan  the most dangerous main supply route it would be possible to find  and up the Kabul Gorge from Jalalabad. But the Russians seeded the perimeters of Jalalabad, Kandahar, Khost and Herat with anti-armour mines. There are, in Afghanistan today, more than 10 million mines. They lie in fields, on mountainsides, beside roads, around the big cities, along irrigation ditches. On average, between 20 and 25 Afghan men, women and children are blown up by mines every day  even if we take the lower figure, this indicates 73,000 civilian casualties from these mines in the past 10 years alone.

A military incursion would, therefore, need an army of mine clearance specialists as well as soldiers, men who would have to inch their way over the roughest terrain in the world  while under attack  to make the roads and countryside safe for the Americans and their allies. Of Afghanistan's 29 provinces, 27 are littered with mines.

During their savage 10-year occupation, the Russians also planted thousands of mines in "security zones" around Afghanistan's airports, power stations and government installations. Western non-governmental organisations working in the country two years ago estimated that it would cost $1 per mine to clear Afghanistan's 10 million mines and 45 days to clear merely a square mile of land. There are now two million disabled men, women and children in Afghanistan. No infantry can march across this territory.

INDEPENDENT (London) 18 September 2001

(excerpts)

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8.  Codename Embarrassment

An embarrassed Pentagon yesterday was forced to rethink its choice of codename for the war on terrorism declared by President Bush after Muslims complained that the name Infinite Justice was blasphemous.

The defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, distanced himself from the offending phrase, saying it had been thought up by "someone, somewhere", but doubting it would last.

He said: "Obviously, the United States does not want to do or say things that create an impression on the part of the listener that would be a misunderstanding."

A White House official said it was likely the name would be withdrawn after complaints from "Muslim clerics" that infinite justice could only be provided by God, not the US government.

GUARDIAN (London)Friday September 21, 2001

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9.  Thousands March in Portland

source - Red Emma <redemma13@yahoo.com>

Many thousands of people gathered on the South Park Blocks Sunday at noon to rally and march for peace. The event, put on by Portland Peaceful Response, had three themes:  (1) to mourn the victims of Tuesday's terrorist attack; (2) to speak out against racist scapegoating; and (3) to demand that there be no more violence, including no military retaliation by our government.  The crowd was the largest seen at any anti-war demonstration since the Gulf War ten years ago.  A count taken at one street corner registered 2,630 people.  Estimates of the total number of people ranged from 3,000 to 4,500.

Attendees and speakers ran the gamut from members of the local Middle Eastern community, to Native American and Christian spiritual leaders, to teachers and union activists, to long-time peace activists, and many more.  We all were very much heartened to see so many of our fellow Portlanders coming out and standing up for peace.  As several speakers remarked from the stage, the media accounts saying 85% of Americans support war do not seem so believable now.

There was no counter-demonstration, and I personally did not see any harassment or overt hostility from passers-by, although there may have been some.

__________________________________________

10.  Our Grief is Not a Cry for War

ARTISTS PERFORMANCE-- "OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR."

At 12 noon today, Saturday, over 100 artists all wearing black filed onto Union Square at 14th Street in New York City where many people have been gathering for the last 10 days to grieve and to try to make sense of what happened on September 11.  A hush fell over the crowd at Union Square as the artists took their places in a semi-circle. For one hour they stood in silence wearing face masks and placards silk-screened with "OUR GRIEF IS NOT A CRY FOR WAR."  The response to this performance was electric, many people coming up to take stickers, find out who these people were, and thank them. Some were in tears.

Hundreds of photographs were taken of this performance by people who saw it, including two by an AP photographer which landed on the yahoo.com homepage at 8:30 Saturday night.  Within an hour one of the pictures became the "most popular" photo on the site, having been sent to other people over 400 times.

The group who organized the performance were artists in film, video, visual art, theater, dance, spoken word. They do not want their grief to be used as a justification for war, attacks on Arabs and Muslims, and new repressive laws or clampdowns. More artworks and performances are being planned.

Artists Network of Refuse & Resist!

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11.  US Planned Domestic Terrorism

By David Ruppe

ABCNEWS.com

The U.S. military's top brass in the early 1960s concocted secret plans for terrorizing American cities, killing people on U.S. streets, even blowing up a U.S. military ship to build support for an invasion of Cuba, a new book reports. The civilian leadership, fortunately, nixed the ideas.

In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.

Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban emigres, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities.

The plans were developed as ways to trick the American public and the international community into supporting a war to oust Cuba's then new leader, communist Fidel Castro.

America's top military brass even contemplated causing U.S. military casualties, writing: "We could blow up a U.S. ship in Guantanamo Bay and blame Cuba," and, "casualty lists in U.S. newspapers would cause a helpful wave of national indignation."

Details of the plans are described in Body of Secrets (Doubleday), a new book by investigative reporter James Bamford about the history of America's largest spy agency, the National Security Agency. However, the plans were not connected to the agency, he notes.

The plans had the written approval of all of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and were presented to President Kennedy's defense secretary, Robert McNamara, in March 1962. But they apparently were rejected by the civilian leadership and have gone undisclosed for nearly 40 years.

__________________________________________

12.  1000 Protest Against War and Racism in Montreal

OVER 1000 PROTEST AGAINST WAR AND RACISM IN MONTREAL

MONTREAL -- September 23, 2001 - Over one thousand people demonstrated this afternoon against war and racism in downtown Montreal. The protest, called by the Emergency Coalition Against War Hysteria and Racism, was organized within one-week, and only publicized for a few days. It is part of ongoing grassroots anti-war events that have emerged here since September 11. Many more demonstrations and public events are planned in the upcoming weeks.

The demonstration began with a gathering at the Norman Bethune statue at Concordia University. Speakers on the outdoor sound system included a member of the local Afghan community, a member of a group organizing against the sanctions policy in Iraq (Voices of Conscience), and a representative of the South Asian Women's Community Center. The speakers voiced clear opposition to war, racism and some spoke too of the context of US imperialism in the world. There were many fears voiced by speakers about the human ramifications of any military intervention in the Middle East and South Asia.

Protesters, some chanting, took to the downtown streets, marching along Ste-Catherine Street. At its high point, the demonstration occupied several city blocks, and bystanders on the sidewalk were especially curious of the open and public display of dissent, with many expressing sympathy, and a few others expressing hostility.

From: lombrenoire lombrenoire@dojo.tao.ca

__________________________________________

13.  Thousands Rally for Peace in Germany Cities.

Reuters. 22 September 2001

BERLIN - Several thousand demonstrators took to the streets of Berlin and other German cities on Saturday shouting "No Third World War" and urging the United States not to answer attacks on its cities with more violence.

Carrying banners reading "Enough deaths" and "No retaliation," the demonstrators gathered outside the Berlin city hall. Police said a few thousand were on the streets. Smaller protests were also held in Cologne, Bremen and Kassel.

"We are here because we are worried about the reaction of the United States. The attacks cannot be justified but we need to think about what the real causes were," said one demonstrator, carrying his daughter on his shoulders.

At a smaller protest of Afghanis in Berlin and their supporters, protesters waved banners reading "Please don't answer violence with violence" and "No bombs on Afghanistan."

__________________________________________

14.  Make Love, Not War

Reuters. 22 September 2001. Marchers Protest Against War During EU Talks.

LIEGE -- About 1,000 protesters marched through the Belgian city of Liege under banners reading "Make Love, Not War" on Saturday as EU finance ministers discussed the September 11 assaults on the United States.

The organizers, a broad alliance of social rights groups and left-wing activists dubbed D14, headed toward the barricaded conference center where the ministers were meeting, saying they wanted to deliver a letter demanding peace and more social rights.

After the suicide plane attacks that left some 6,800 people dead or missing in New York and Washington, and European Union leaders' pledge of support for a U.S. riposte, the militants coupled calls for more jobs and democracy in Europe with an anti-war message.

"Today the first principle is to be anti-war and refuse to participate in U.S. action," D14 militant George Robert said.

"We think military action can only end in more deaths," another D14 activist, Raoul Hebebouw, told Reuters.

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15.  Minority Movement

A poll in more than 30 countries showed that although the majority of international public opinion opposes a massive U.S. military strike in retaliatation for last week's terror attacks in Washington and New York, in Israel and the United States the majority favors a military response against states shown to harbor terrorists. People questioned elsewhere preferred to see suspected terrorists extradited and put on trial.

"Seventy-seven percent of Israelis backed military action, while 54 percent of Americans were in favor," said Swiss polling firm Isopublic, which conducted the survey in Switzerland.

"Around 80 percent of Europeans and around 90 percent of South Americans favor extradition and a court verdict. By European comparison, calls for a tough military response were above average among the French [29 percent] and the Dutch [28 percent]," it said.

The surveys were done between September 17 and 19, around one week after the September 11 suicide attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington killed more than 6,000 people.

Clear majorities of between 70 and 80 percent supported limiting any strike to military rather than civilian targets, the survey found. Asked if their own country should support a U.S. military asssault, people in NATO countries other than Greece tended to agree.

Four out of five Danes backed the idea, followed by 79 percent in Britain and 73 percent in France. Greeks were the least enthusiastic with only 29 percent, below 53 percent in Germany and 58 percent in Norway and Spain.

The survey was carried out in Argentina, Austria, Bosnia, Britain, Bulgaria, Croatia, Denmark, Ecuador, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Portugal, Romania, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the United States and Zimbabwe.

robrod@uniserve.com

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16.  You Reap What You Sow

Colin Powell when asked how many civilians were killed during the Gulf War bombings (estimated to be in excess of 100,000) replied, "It's not a  number I'm terribly interested in."

Madeliene Albright, when asked if she had heard the figure of some 100,000 children killed by starvation and disease due to the embargo on Iraq, responded by saying, "We think it was worth it."

We must stop sowing.

Stop all terrorism. State terrorism included.

"Luci Murphy" voters1@CapAccess.org

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17.  God Will Not Be Mocked

Partial transcript of comments from the Thursday, September 13, 2001 edition of the "700 Club"

JERRY FALWELL: The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this.

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, yes.

JERRY FALWELL: And, I know that I'll hear from them for this. But, throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way---all of them who have tried to secularize America---I point the  finger in their face and say "you helped this happen."

PAT ROBERTSON: Well, I totally concur, and the problem is we have adopted that agenda at the highest levels of our government. And so we're responsible as a free society for what the top people do. And, the top people, of course, is the court system.

JERRY FALWELL: Pat, did you notice yesterday the ACLU, and all the Christ-haters, People For the American Way, NOW, etc. were totally disregarded by the Democrats and the Republicans in both houses of Congress as they went out on the steps and called out on to God in prayer and sang "God Bless America" and said "let the ACLU be hanged"? In other words, when the nation is on its knees, the only normal and natural and spiritual thing to do is what we ought to be doing all the time---calling upon God.

PAT ROBERTSON: Amen"

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18.  Mobilization Against Civil Liberties

By Peter Daniels

22 September 2001

The Bush administration's "Mobilization Against Terrorism Act," sent to Congress this week, contains provisions that constitute a sweeping attack on civil liberties.

The White House did not wait for Congressional action, using its own authority to amend the rules on detention of legal immigrants and foreign visitors. The rules were changed to allow the Immigration and Naturalization Service to detain legal aliens and visitors for 48 hours instead of 24 hours before deciding whether to charge them with any crime, and to hold them indefinitely without charges when the president declares a national emergency. A national emergency has now been enacted, and federal authorities are presently holding 120 people picked up since the September 11 plane hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and are searching for another 190. Justice Department officials have announced that all those non-citizens held in connection with the terror attack will be subject to indefinite detention.

The proposed legislation will make it possible for the attorney general to detain and deport immigrants without presenting any evidence to a court. It would also make it easier for the FBI to tap telephones, obtain search warrants and follow the movements of money. The FBI and other police agencies would be able to seize billing information like credit card numbers from Internet companies without a court order. Evidence obtained through electronic surveillance by foreign governments with methods that violate the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure would be allowable.

The legislation would also expand the definition of a terrorist to anyone who knows or "should know" that an organization they support in any way is a terrorist organization. It will enable law enforcement authorities to obtain the educational records of any student they deem a suspected terrorist.

papadop@peak.org

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19.  Freedom Toppled

On the evening of September 11 the FREEDOM GAME was vandalized. The artwork was in the Public Art Biennial at the Neuberger Museum of Art at the SUNY Purchase campus in Westchester County. The work which is 8 foot tall is in the shape of the letterform "F" that turns in the wind. There is a gameboard design on each side that includes text and images related to opposing views of freedom. The idea of the piece is that freedom is a contested concept and needs to be continually defined and understood. The work was wrenched off of the base and laid down. Authorities assume it was an act of students who were upset with the disaster in New York and elsewhere earlier in the day.  

Keith Christensen
website documentation: http://tigger.stcloudstate.edu/~kc/fg/index.html

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20.  Arab-Canadian Art Show Censored

"Ces pays qui m'habitent/ The Lands Within Me", presenting the work of thirty Arab-Canadian artists at the Museum of Civilization, Hull, is to be ˜postponed" until further notice. As participants in the exhibition, we voice our concern and outrage at this decision which was received this week with very short notice. The planned opening date  was Oct. 28th.

Exhibition preparations have been going on for five years. We have no doubt that the tragic events that took place on the September 11th in New York and Washington are in direct correspondence to the decision. A few days prior to that the Museum sent all the artists letters requesting a list of invitees and affirming the opening date (copies available upon request).

We believe that the decision was a political one. It is unfortunate that in this time of backlashes and a rise of racist attacks against members of our community, a federal government institution (one of the largest public museums in Canada) is assuming such an unproductive and unsupportive position.

In the midst of this recent wave of racism and intolerance governmental agencies and politicians are conducting various campaigns of cultural awareness and tolerance. It is troubling that the Museum of Civilization is taking exactly the opposite stance. It is postponing an important and unique cultural event that has the potential to counteract some of the prejudices that our community has so long endured.

The Museum has indicated that the purpose of the postponement is to provide a "context" for the exhibition in light of anti-Arab sentiment following the attacks on the U.S. on September 11th. We stress that this kind of "spin control" actually encourages such a sentiment by anticipating a racist response from the audience.

We firmly believe that cultural events such as this have a important educational and humanitarian role, and that they are needed at times like this more then ever. By postponing or canceling such an important exhibition, the Museum sends a message with grave implications, for example;

1) that any event involving Arab culture needs to be "spin-controlled".

2) that any present or future event conducted by or for the Arab-Canadian community is liable to be a security risk.

3) the assumption that all Canadians hold a position of antagonism towards the Arab-Canadian community, hence the risk of low attendance.

4) or simply the assumption could be made that bias, punitive, and racist collective measures have been approved by the Museum of Civilization's board of directors.

We believe that the Museum needs to stand up and show support for the Arab-Canadian community and to exhibit the exemplary art works made by Arab-Canadian artists. This will help bridge the divide between Canadians and will assist in bringing about an understanding between the Arab-Canadian and other communities. WE ASK THAT THE MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION RECONSIDER THE 'POSTPONEMENT' OF THIS EXHIBITION OR TO RESCHEDULE IT AT THE EARLIEST POSSIBLE DATE. 

WE REQUEST ALL WHO SUPPORT US TO CONTACT THE MUSEUM OF CIVILIZATION AND VOICE THEIR CONCERNS @:  

Dr. Victor Rabinovitch
President and Chief Executive Officer
(819) 776-7116
victor.rabinovitch@civilization.ca

Pierre Pontbriand
Vice President
(819) 776-8515
pierre.pontbriand@civilization.ca

Louise Dubois
Corporate Secretary and Director General, Strategic Planning
(819) 776-7115
louise.dubois@civilization.ca

Dr. Stephen Inglis
Director General
(819) 776-8239
stephen.inglis@civilization.ca
 

Sincerely,

Rawi Hage (exhibition artist) Montreal, rawi@sympatico.ca
Jayce Salloum (exhibition artist) Vancouver, jsalloum@aol.com
Laura Marks (writer/critic), Ottawa, laura_marks@carleton.ca

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21.  Clear Channel Censors

Clear Channel, one the world's largest radio networks, sent out a list of some 150 "lyrically questionable" songs to its radio stations -- recommending that the songs not be aired because they might offend listeners impacted by the attack. The songs which Clear Channel recommended censoring included:  

Louis Armstrong   "What A Wonderful World"
The Beatles       "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds"
The Beatles       "Ticket To Ride"
John Lennon       "Imagine"
Creedence Clearwater Revival      "Travelin' Band"
The Doors         "The End"
Elton John        "Rocket Man"
Jerry Lee Lewis   "Great Balls of Fire"
Peter Paul and Mary       "Blowin' in the Wind"
Simon And Garfunkel       "Bridge Over Troubled Water"
Cat Stevens       "Peace Train"
Don McLean        "American Pie"
Frank Sinatra     "New York, New York"
Edwin Starr/Bruce Springstein     "War"
REM       "It's the End of the World as We Know It"
Talking Heads     "Burning Down the House"
James Taylor      "Fire and Rain"

All Rage Against The Machine songs were also included on the Clear Channel list.

__________________________________________

22.  Unimaginable

Did US intelligence services ignore a French warning? -- In a rather shocking article in today's edition, the Paris daily Le Monde charged this morning that  "le FBI et la CIA ont neglige le risque terroriste et les informations donnees sur les kamikazes."

The Paris paper reported that at a meeting in Paris on September 5 and 6 between an delegation from the FBI and French counter-espionage DST police and DGSE militaires, DST investigators tried to draw the Americans' attention to the arrest in Minnesota of a Franco-Algerian man they regarded as very dangerous--a man taken into custody when he made instructors at a flight school suspicious because of his bizarre request for training on a jetliner flight simulator. He wanted, instructors said, to learn to fly a large jet, but only horizontally--he was disinterested in learning takeoffs and landings 

That man is now in custody in New York as a material witness.

DST investigators said that they warned the FBI representatives at the meeting that the suspect in their custody was known to be part of the Al-Qaeta terror network, and had strong ties to Osama bin Laden.

But the American delegation, Le Monde reports today, was preoccupied instead with administrative and procedural matters, and "n'avait guere prete attention a cette 'alerte.'"

Le Monde also writes that the Americans told the French team that terrorist attacks inside the US were impossible because they was "unimaginable."

papadop@peak.org

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23.  Aim for the Face

(AP) -- Kathy Rockel was amazed when her United Airlines flight last weekend began with an extraordinary message from the pilot: He informed passengers how to rise up and fend off hijackers.

"If anybody stands up and is trying to take over the plane, stand up together, take whatever you have and throw it at their heads," she quoted the pilot as saying. "You have to aim for their faces so they have to defend themselves."

The pilot also said passengers could fight hijackers by throwing blankets over their heads, wrestling them to the ground and holding them until he landed, Rockel said. And referring to the "we the people" preamble to the Constitution, she recalled, he said, "We will not be defeated."

"Everybody on the plane was applauding," said Rockel, a medical transcriptionist traveling from Denver to Washington, D.C., September 15 on United's Flight 564. "People had tears coming down their faces. It was as if we had a choice here, that if something were to happen we're not completely powerless."

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24.  Statements on the WTC

"We should take our example not from our military and political leaders shouting "retaliate" and "war" but from the doctors and nurses and medical students and firemen and policemen who have been saving lives in the midst of mayhem, whose first thoughts are not violence, but healing, not vengeance but compassion." Howard Zinn

"The crime is a gift to the hard jingoist right, those who hope to use force to control their domains. That is even putting aside the likely U.S. actions, and what they will trigger-possibly more attacks like this one, or worse. The prospects ahead are even more ominous than they appeared to be before the latest atrocities." Noam Chomsky

"As Palestinians who suffer daily from acts of Israeli aggression against our innocent people, we cannot find the words to express how shocked we were to see the horrific scenes on TV. We condemn such acts and we do not accept such horrific acts in the 3rd millennium where peace, prosperity and freedom should cover the whole world." Beir Sahour Municipality, Palestine

"The position of Cuba against all kinds of terrorist actions is well known. We cannot forget that for over 40 years our people has been victim of such actions, promoted from the territory of the United States itself. Due to historical reasons, as well as ethical principles, the Government of our country fully rejects and condemns the attacks committed against the above mentioned facilities, and expresses its sincerest condolences to the American people for the distressing and unjustifiable loss of human lives caused by such acts." Government of the Republic of Cuba

"The policies of militarism pursued by the United States have resulted in millions of deaths, from the historic tragedy of the Indochina war, through the funding of death squads in Central America and Colombia, to the sanctions and air strikes against Iraq. This nation is the largest supplier of 'conventional weapons' in the world-and those weapons fuel the starkest kind of terrorism from Indonesia to Africa. The early policy support for armed resistance in Afghanistan resulted in the victory of the Taliban-and the creation of Osama bin Laden." War Resisters League

"Where did bin Laden go to terrorist school? At the CIA! Don't take my word for it-I saw a piece on MSNBC last year that laid it all out. When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA trained him and his buddies in how to commit acts of terrorism against the Soviet forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against us. We abhor terrorism-unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing." Michael Moore

"Can anything curtail the carnage of capital, the carnage of terrorism, and the carnage of repressive reaction? Our best hope is to win institutional change that reduces profit-seeking and political subordination, while also reducing desires to lash out with mindless and inhumane terrorism." Michael Albert

Why not a foreign policy which by mutual efforts: advances the sciences, with research widening medical information to provide aid to everyone; advances agricultural knowledge to provide food and eliminate hunger and malnutrition; provides stricter safety in transportation vehicles, airplanes, railroads and automobiles; protects the entertainment industry, eliminates violent content and broadens racial cultural information and exchanges; shortens the work week for full employment at a living wage (yes, provide the plowshares instead of munitions); and protects the environment, its resources and the abundant living space of the wild creatures.

Abe

(97 yr old working muralist Abe Graber)  

__________________________________________

MIKE ALEWITZ
alewitzm@ccsu.edu
Department of Art
Central Connecticut State University
New Britain, CT  06050
Phone: (860)832-2359

________________________________________

LaBOR aRT & MuRAL PRoJECT (LAMP)

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