AfterDowningStreet.org

t r u t h o u t | www.truthout.org
Trials Begin in Columbus, Georgia on Monday, January 30; grandmother, priests, retirees, nun, students among those prosecuted.
Washington - On Monday, January 30 thirty-two people ranging in age from 19 to 81 will begin federal trials for peacefully walking onto a military base in protest of a controversial Army training school. Each person faces up to six months in prison and a $5,000 fine for this act of nonviolent civil disobedience.

By Charles J. Hanley, Associated Press
The US Army in Iraq has at least twice seized and jailed the wives of suspected insurgents in hopes of "leveraging" their husbands into surrender, US military documents show.

Caracas, Venezuela – Gold star mother Cindy Sheehan has decided to run against California Senator Diane Feinstein if Feinstein does not filibuster the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel Alito. While in Venezuela attending the World Social Forum, Sheehan learned that several Democratic Senators had announced their plans for a filibuster but that Senator Feinstein, who’s up for re-election in November, had stated she would vote against the nomination but not filibuster it. "I’m appalled that Diane Feinstein wouldn’t recognize how dangerous Alito’s nomination is to upholding the values of our constitution and restricting the usurpation of presidential powers, for which I’ve already paid the ultimate price," Sheehan said.

Interview conducted by Jay Shaft-Coalition For Free Thought In Media
http://www.indybay.org/news/2006/01/1798467.php
Thousands of soldiers are returning from Iraq or Afghanistan and discovering that they cannot get access to medical and disability benefits. This is just one man's account among the thousands of very similar horror stories.

I share my pain with all the mothers who are victims of the empire
PEDRO DE LA HOZ, Granma
CARACAS— "There is no difference between my pain and that of an Iraqi mother or another that has lost a son or daughter to hunger, misery or lack of medical care in the impoverished and plundered countries. I share my pain with all the mothers who are victims of the empire’s policies."

By JESSELYN RADACK, FindLaw
Russell Tice, one of the whistleblowers who revealed the National Security Agency's program of warrantless domestic wiretapping to the New York Times, now faces the full fury and force of the Executive Branch. His revelation - one that was intensely in the public interest, as it exposed blatant lawbreaking by the President himself - has brought FBI agents to his door.

By David Swanson
A new poll conducted in Pennsylvania (a battleground "purple" state) by Zogby International and commissioned by OpEdNews.com found that 84.9 percent of Democrats said they would be likely to vote for a congressional candidate who "supports having impeachment proceedings against President Bush." Only 7.0 percent said they were not likely to vote for such a candidate.

Bush-Cheney Impeachment Forum
Featuring: Kevin Zeese, Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, David Swanson, Ramsey Clark, Marcus Raskin, and Ralph Nader.
Monday, January 30, noon to 2 p.m.
Bus Boys and Poets, 14th and V Streets, NW, Washington, DC

Walker's World: Iran's really big weapon
By MARTIN WALKER
UPI Editor
WASHINGTON, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- The prospect of a mushroom cloud rising from the Dasht-e-Lut, Iran's Desert of Stones, may not be Tehran's greatest threat to international stability. A successful test of an Iranian nuclear weapon at some point in the next few years may prove less destabilizing than a simple free market economic measure that Iran is said to be planning for March of this year.

By Fintan Dunne, BreakForNews.com
LINK
A U.S. military spokesperson has condemned Iraqi insurgents as "barbaric thugs," after the scarred body of a senior U.S. military officer was discovered today in a house in Baghdad.

By Larry C. Johnson
When President George Bush is feeling political heat generated by questions about illegal domestic spying, secret overseas prisons, or prisoner torture, he seeks refuge in the solemn proclamation, "we are at war." The war excuse, which is usually accompanied by the elaboration that these excesses are necessary to protect the American people, does not hold water. If President Bush was serious about his insistence that we are at war, his Administration would be on a war footing. But, we are not.

By www.peace-action.org
Peace Action renews the call for a Nuclear Weapons-Free Zone in the Middle East. Re-opening negotiations toward achieving that goal is the best way—perhaps the only way—to halt without violence the prospect of a nuclear arms race in that deeply troubled part of the world. Additionally, achieving a Nuclear Free Zone in the Middle East would bring the world one step closer to eliminating both the problem of nuclear proliferation and the threat of nuclear war and could serve as a model solution for resolving similar tensions in other regions of the world.

By Jozef Hand-Boniakowski, Veteran For Peace and co-editor of http://www.metaphoria.org
Recently, I dropped into my town's local Vermont country store to pick up a
couple of bottles of a diet tea beverage. I typically avoid the local

DEMOCRACY NOW!:
* Hamas Wins Sweeping Victory in Palestinian Parliamentary Elections *
In the Occupied Territories, unofficial results indicate Hamas has won a
sweeping victory in the first Palestinian parliamentary elections in a

By Max Obuszewski
On July 2, 2005 Ellen Barfield and I were arrested and charged with “disturbance on protected property,” after seeking a meeting with William B. Black, Jr. the interim director of the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. Members of the Pledge of Resistance-Baltimore wanted to discuss these matters: The role the NSA played in eavesdropping on members of the United Nations Security Council during the 2003 debate on Iraq; John Bolton’s request for transcripts of intercepted conversations of many prominent politicians; the Agency’s role in monitoring the Pledge of Resistance; and its refusal to release documents on the Pledge, as part of a FOIA request, without being paid a fee of $1,915.

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | www.truthout.org
Back in 2002, with the country still reeling from the 9/11 attacks, fear that terrorists would again wreak havoc in the US led the White House to develop a sophisticated system aimed at identifying terrorists associated with al-Qaeda who lived in the United States undetected, and stopping them before they could strike again.

By CLAUDIO E. CABRERA, www.amsterdamnews.com
Hundreds of people came together in New York City this past weekend for a historic three-day tribunal indicting the Bush administration for crimes against humanity.

By WILBERT A. TATUM
Publisher Emeritus and Chairman of the Board, http://www.amsterdamnews.com
It was a one day story. Harry Belafonte spoke about the government of the United States and the government of Venezuela as well as other countries in the Caribbean. Belafonte had some harsh but totally true words to say about the president of the United States, George W. Bush. Bellafonte called him a terrorist and he was right. The response by George W. Bush, through his spokesman, was to dismiss Belafonte’s remarks as one dismisses the remarks of a crazy man. Harry Belafonte is not a crazy man. George W. Bush, by every definition available to us, is a terrorist. Where, then, are we as a nation and finally as a people?

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