About 15 minutes is all it takes, maybe less. From Manhattan, you take the Holland Tunnel to New Jersey's Route 9/1, a left on to North Avenue and a quick right on to Dowd Avenue, and there: you've arrived at the Elizabeth Detention Facility. You wouldn't be the wiser if you missed it.

To give you a lay of the land, the Elizabeth Detention Facility is a windowless converted warehouse owned and operated by the for-profit Corrections Corporation of America, the largest private corrections company in the United States. The facility is huddled amongst the other masses of industrial buildings just down the street from the Anheuser Busch Company and across the street from the Newark International. It's hard to believe the inconspicuous facility houses over 300 detained asylum seekers and other non-criminal non-citizens. These people are hidden but not forgotten.

I had lunch this week with a labor union organizer from Iran seeking support for the rights of workers in Iran. One of his biggest fears was that the implementation of additional sanctions would serve the interest of Iranian leadership making the case for foreign intervention as the reason for solidarity across all sectors in Iran. While it may appear that factions in Iran are sharp and irreconciliable there is a clear warning that movements in the direction of reform, and the well-being of the Iranian public, would be severely affected by new sanctions. Jim Fine's assessment below extends that analysis and provides background we should have in hand on the state of the sanctions legislation in Congress.  Mark C. Johnson

From Jim Fine at FCNL

The Colombian military and police have, by far, the worst record of human rights abuses in the Western Hemisphere. Over the last 7 years, more than 2,000 innocent civilians have bee killed by the Colombian army and then presented as guerrilla or paramilitary killed in combat to bump up the body count numbers and qualify for bonuses, vacation time and promotions.  The Army has also been involved in the execution of horrific massacres of innocent civilians, including children such as Santiago and Natalia Bolivar and Deiner Guerra (18 months old, 5 and 11), chopped up with machetes in February 2005 along with their parents, all San Jose de Apartado Peace Community members.

Even though we might be made blind to the evil afoot, we will not be silent. This is the lesson of modern history. We will sing a new song as strangers in a strange land: Let My People Go. While the Egyptians, Israelis, and Americans conspire to keep us from seeing the conditions of life in the world’s largest prison (sorry, no visiting hours this month), there is a chorus, a voice, 43 nations rich, which is lifted in greater harmony and crescendo than ever before to call for raising the siege of Gaza and thereby increasing the security of Israel.

Iran is experiencing a very important and delicate time in its modern history.  These days there are hot conversations among Iranians, both inside the country and in the diaspora as well as among many who are interested in the future of the Middle East.  There are many arguments in trying to figure out that among different groups and players within the Iranian political theater who is right and who is wrong?  Which one, the “Greens” or the government is betraying the most important elements of the Revolution of 1979?

The three parts slogans, which became three ideological pillars of the Revolution has been Independence, Freedom and Islamic Republic.  31 years ago these three slogans was repeated over and over from variety of groups within the Iranian political spectrums.

Mark Johnson, director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, and several other FOR members were among more than 200 national leaders of religious organizations who wrote to Speak of the House Nancy Pelosi today calling for passage of the Fair Elections Now Act. In response to last month's extraordinary 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court on the Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission case, faith communities across the religious spectrum, faciliated by Common Cause, contacted Congress today to express their deep concern for swift action. The letter reads:

February 3, 2010

Dear Speaker Pelosi:

Martin Luther King scholar Richard Deats -- who was also close friends with the King family and a member of the national commission to create the Dr. King Holiday -- was the featured guest on a national webinar hosted last week by the Fellowship of Reconciliation. An audio file of the program will soon be available on FOR's website for on-demand listening.

Like all of us, Dr. King faced the problem of suffering and evil. There are many wonderful things in life, many so pervasive that we don’t even think about them -- like  hearts that beat continually, eyes that see, ears that hear, arms and legs that move: these we take for granted and may never have thought of them as daily miracles.

But we also have minds that think and that raise questions as seen, e.g. in the age-old questions pondered in the Bible: why do the wicked prosper? Why do we suffer? Why does evil occur? I am sure many of you have thought about this with the destructive earthquake in Haiti.

By Randall Amster, professor of peace studies at Prescott College, and executive director of the Peace & Justice Studies Association. Reposted from Waging Nonviolence.

Rethink Afghanistan is a ground-breaking, full-length documentary focusing on the key issues surrounding this war.

Sunday, Feb. 14, 2-5 PM 

Fellowship of Reconciliation