Congress

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:

Progressive activists have made comprehensive immigration reform a top legislative priority in the 2010 Congress. A key reason is the rapidly increasing harassment of immigrants. Different cultural communities are being targeted by governmental officials as well as nativist activists. Arab and Muslim peoples have experienced such discrimination since 2001, of course, but it is expected to increase in the wake of recent terrorism threats to the U.S.

Last week in Washington, new strict screening regulations against travelers from 14 so-called "terrorism prone nations" were enacted. To be carried out by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the Obama administration's decision was condemned by Muslim Public Affairs Council as "religious and ethnic profiling at its worst."

The Fellowship of Reconciliation today joined with 33 other national peace and anti-war groups to issue an open letter to President Obama that strongly opposes his anticipated decision to escalate the war in Afghanistan with the commitment of tens of thousands of additional U.S. troops.

The document calls increased war spending, in light of the ongoing U.S. economic crisis, an “utter folly” and names the war “a war against ordinary people, both here in the United States and in Afghanistan,” which “if continued, will result in the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of U.S. troops and untold thousands of Afghans” and “cause other people in other lands to despise the U.S.” as “the world’s richest nation making war on one of the world’s very poorest.”

For many years, peace activists engaged with Iran-U.S. relations worked hard to create an atmosphere for direct dialogue between the two counties. Their activities have had a wide range of aspects known as "track two" diplomacy; these people-to-people connections have led toward writing and talking to the U.S. Congress to encourage the members of the Senate and House to press for direct talks with Iran.

By Mark Svensson, with Tarik Abdelqader

For over 5,000 years, the practice of slavery has plagued the human species. Today, most people in the United States associate slavery with African-American history, formed by the transatlantic slave trade, and ended by the Emancipation Proclamation. Indeed, a widely accepted notion exists in our nation is that U.S. participation in slavery ended following Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation. Yet this notion could not be any further from the truth.

Can we imagine a white male nominee to the Supreme Court being asked how his race or gender clouds his judgment or gives him unfair bias in applying and upholding the rule of law? The degree to which this scenario is outrageous, funny, or unthinkable is the degree to which those identities are the invisibilized norm, the standard against which all else is measured as being “too much”, “too little”, “too strange”, “biased”, “other”. I love the insight of writer Adrienne Rich, “In a patriarchal society, ‘objectivity’ is the name we give to male subjectivity.” This applies as well to race and ethnicity in the United States, where whiteness is rarely named, let alone scrutinized as a historically constructed identity that grants unearned power and privilege. Yet in the public scrutiny of Sotomayor, it is made glaringly evident that whiteness = objectivity, impartiality, neutrality. What is implied screams loudly.

• U.S. Military Sites Set to Replace Plan Colombia
• Letter from the Field: The View from San José
• "Restrict or Neutralize": Offensive Intelligence Unveiled
• Uribe Left Washington Chastened
• U.S.-Funded Death Squad-Tied Unit
• News Briefs: Afghan Lesson; New Colombia Resource

U.S. Military Sites Set to Replace Plan Colombia

By John Lindsay-Poland

The United States is negotiating for the use of five military
facilities in Colombia, in an agreement whose objectives include
"filling the gaps left by the eventual cutting of [military] aid in
Plan Colombia," according to sources in Washington and Bogotá cited by an explosive article published July 1 in the weekly Cambio magazine.

CONGRESS TO VOTE ON AMENDMENT TO FORCE THE SOA/ WHINSEC TO RELEASE THE NAMES OF GRADUATES AND INSTRUCTORS

To send an email and fax to your Representative, visit
http://www.SOAW.org/vote
Start calling Congress NOW!

SOA Watch has received confirmation that Congress will vote on an amendment to the Defense Authorization Act that would require that the School of the Americas/ WHINSEC to release the names, ranks, country of origin, courses and dates attended of students and instructors at the institute.

The amendment will be offered by Representative Jim McGovern (D-MA), Representative Joe Sestak (D-PA), Representative Sanford Bishop (D-GA) and Representative John Lewis (D-GA) and we expect the vote to happen on Wednesday, June 24.

The news this week that the U.S. Senate hearing on the nomination of New York Appellate Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor will begin one month from now, on July 13th, provides an opportunity for reflection and organizing. Judge Sotomayor gives a strong positive first impression as a candidate and potential member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and her nomination also demonstrates this Administration’s capacity to garner interest and support.

In addition to the request we posted earlier calling on African leaders to save Zimbabwe from Robert Mugabe, we also invite you to send an e-mail to your U.S. Senators urging congressional action for peace and the restoration of democracy.

Here is the letter we hope you will send: