Montrealers Deliver a Fiery Message to Bush: You Are Persona Non Grata

by Charlotte Dennett, October 26, 2009

They threw shoes – so many shoes that hotel staff had to roll out a laundry bin onto the street to pick them all up, and even then, the bin could barely contain them all.

They chanted: “Bush: Assassin! Terroriste! Criminel!” and then, at the appropriate command, hurled more shoes toward the heavily guarded entrance of the Queen Elizabeth Hotel, where George W. Bush was scheduled to speak.

They waved signs: “Don’t Duck!” and “1.3 Million Dead Because of Bush” and “Bread Not Bombs for the Children of Iraq.” Some of the signs and chants were directed equally at Bush’s father. “You are a murderer too!”

And toward the end, they burned George W. Bush in effigy.

My friend Robin Lloyd and I were watching most of this noontime spectacle on October 22nd from inside the hotel, where we managed to gain entry flashing our press passes. Lloyd is a member of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and the publisher of Toward Freedom Magazine (now on-line at TowardFreedom.com) which has continued a tradition begun by her father of chronicling Third World resistance to colonialism and now, imperialism. She agreed to accompany me to Montreal to witness what I expected to be a lively example of a growing world wide movement aimed at holding George W. Bush and his top advisors accountable for torture and other high crimes and misdemeanors during his eight-year administration. If we were lucky, we would also witness our former president deliver his speech about “Eight Momentous Years.” He was addressing a well-heeled crowd invited by the Montreal Chamber of Commerce.

While we were waiting for Bush to show up, the hotel staff rolled the shoe-laden laundry bin back indoors, prompting me to pick one off the top of the pile as a souvenir. Minutes later, a security guard approached me and politely advised me that I’d better conceal the shoe in my purse. “I don’t think it would go over well if you were seen with a shoe at this time,” he said.
How very civil of him, I mused. Even the white-helmeted Montreal police outside acted with restraint, in marked contrast to the Darth Vader-like robocops who greeted demonstrators outside the recent G-20 meetings in Pittsburgh with tear gas, clubs and sound screams.

Still, it was an eerie sensation to be standing in a carpeted, well heated hotel (appropriately honoring monarchy) and watching shivering, mostly young protestors mouthing their chants outside, chants which were barely audible. Perhaps the hotel had been built with some kind of special plate glass to insulate guests from the din of everyday life. Robin and I figured that Bush had been ushered in through the back door, because we never saw him. His speech was by invitation only. Even the press had to be invited. The price of admission: $400. About a 1,000 people showed up. Bush reportedly charges up to $150,000 for each appearance.

Deprived of seeing the former president, the protestors outside seemed satisfied that they had delivered a message to him through their signs, which said: You are a War Criminal. And because you are, you are Persona Non Grata in Montreal.

The day before, they ran a full- page ad in the daily Le Devoir endorsed by 48 groups and 440 individuals. It read in part:

“We denounce the invitation from Montreal’s business circles to George W. Bush, whose polices were in violation of international law and led to such suffering worldwide. The ‘eight momentous years’ of Bush in the White House were first and foremost those of two wars of aggression and occupation which continue today, for whom the populations of Iraq and Afghanistan tragically continue paying the price of massive bombings of cities, of ‘collateral’ massacres of villagers, of carnage and destruction, for rape and other sexual violence, of torture and arbitrary detention.”

Their ad ended with a warning to fellow citizens “about the dangers that this ultra-conservative mind set continues to represent, with its sole concern for the big powers.”
Bush’s tour of Canadian cities, which the protestors dubbed “The Hypocrisy Tour,” has been designed to promote his upcoming autobiography and rehabilitate his tarnished image as president. Even his father, Bush 41, has been smarting from the criticism of his son. Bush pére recently criticized MSNBC hosts Keith Olbermann and Rachel Maddow for their sometimes edgy coverage of Bush Jr., calling them “sick puppies.”

“The way they treat my son and anyone who’s opposed to their point of view is just horrible,” Mr. Bush said. “When our son was president they just hammered him mercilessly and I think obscenely a lot of the time and now it’s moved to a new president.”

Russ Baker, the author of the Bush biography Family of Secrets, sees it differently, pointing out that if anyone can be criticized for vicious name-calling, it’s Bush Sr. Here was the man “who employed the political assassin Lee Atwater (look up Willie Horton) and gave Karl Rove his first job.” Besides, Baker adds, “it is hard to recall criticism of H.W.’s son that was wildly inaccurate, truly out of bounds, or not reflective of the awful reality of W.’s presidency.”

I asked one of the protestors about the Quebec government’s attitude toward Bush Jr. when he was in power. “Before the invasion of Iraq,” the young man explained, “government officials sided more with us because we had powerful demonstrations against the war all over the world. When we failed to stop the war, they became more cautious. The United States is very powerful both politically and economically, and many of our elected representatives did not want to go up against the US. And now we have Bush trying to slip under the radar screen in an effort to repair his image.”

“Are you satisfied with the turnout?” I asked. Some three hundred people had shown up.

“It’s not bad considering it’s on a weekday,” he replied. “What you see here are the most dedicated people, the people who are not going to give up in wanting to hold Bush accountable.”

I’d heard similar comments in the U.S. about the size of demonstrations being down, because people wanted to give President Obama the benefit of the doubt regarding the continuation of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. But now, almost a year into Obama’s administration, patience is waning. Meanwhile, the very committed have been at it all along. Wearing orange jumpsuits and black hoods, demonstrators haven been protesting outside federal buildings in Washington and other major cities, demanding accountability for the crimes committed by those at the very top of the Bush administration. Their only problem: few Americans know about their protests, because the national press has ignored them.

In Montreal, there was good regional coverage, even though the news did not make it over the border into the U.S. The Montreal Gazette ran a large picture of Bush being burned in effigy under the headline “Shoes Fly as George W. Bush Speaks in Montreal.”

Le Devoir described Bush as being “charming” to his audience, “telling jokes and winking at his Canadian hosts, all the while affirming that he had no regrets for decisions taken during his two terms in office, such as launching his country into a war in Iraq.”

The Gazette quoted Bush telling his audience “I am confident that I made decisions based on principle, that I made calls as best I could, and I did not sell my soul.”

Nonetheless, millions of Americans have indicated through polls that they want the former President prosecuted for his crimes, be they a murderous illegal war in Iraq, torture, or warrant-less spying on Americans. And if the demonstration in Montreal is any indication, those thoughts are shared beyond our borders. The sentiment underlying these protests is always the same: If we don’t hold these leaders accountable now for crimes they committed while in office, they and their successors will continue to commit them in the future. If we believe in the principle that no one, not even the President, is above the law, then its time we join with the “very committed” in the accountability movement and start acting on that principle.

Charlotte Dennett is the author of the forthcoming book, The People v Bush: One Lawyer’s Campaign to Bring the President to Justice and the National Grass Roots Movement She’s Encountered Along the Way, to be published by Chelsea Green in January

Global Research Articles by Charlotte Dennett

SOURCE: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=15842

Government to get special swine flu vaccine

Published: 18 Oct 09 12:00 CET

Just a week after it emerged that the German armed forces was getting a different kind of A/H1N1 vaccine to the general population, Der Spiegel magazine reports that the government will also get special treatment.

The general population will be offered the GlaxoSmithKline vaccine, called Pandemrix, which contains a new booster element, or adjuvant, as well as a preservative containing mercury.

Controversy has grown around the rapid licensing of the GSK vaccine – and a similar one being made by Novartis. Critics said not enough testing had been conducted before European licensing authorities rushed an approval.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, her cabinet members and ministry civil servants as well as those working for other agencies will get Celvapan, produced by US firm Baxter, which does not have the adjuvant or the preservative, according to Der Spiegel.

It is thought the adjuvant may lead to a stronger reaction in the patient – which to a certain degree is the point, meaning the vaccine can contain less of the virus yet still provoke the crucial immune system reaction.

But this is also what some say is the additional risk – and has led to stocks of the traditional kind of vaccine being bought in for pregnant women and young children.

Celvapan does not contain the adjuvant or the preservative. Rather, it contains entire dead viruses rather than the pieces which are in the traditional vaccine. The Baxter version is the one being given to the armed forces, as well as being made available for pregnant women and children.

It seems now that ministers and civil servants are to be included in that category.

“We have bought 200,000 doses of the non-adjuvanted vaccine Celvapan from the company Baxter,” Christoph Hübner, spokesman for the Interior Ministry confirmed to Der Spiegel.

It will be used for “state servants responsible for the maintenance of public order,” the magazine reported. Next to members of the cabinet and civil servants, this includes staff of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, which took the decision to order the new vaccine from GSK for the rest of the country. No explicit reason was offered as to why they should get the Baxter vaccine rather than the GSK version.

Chairman of the German Medical Association’s Drug Commission Wolf-Dieter Ludwig said the situation was a scandal. “We are unhappy about this vaccination campaign,” he said. The point of it was unknown, he suggested. “The health authorities have succumbed to a campaign by the pharma companies, which simply want to earn money from a supposed threat.”

Meanwhile some medical associations are advising their members not to administer the new vaccine. President of the German Association of General and Family Medicine, Michael Kochen, has called on German general doctors not to give it to patients. “The risks outweigh the benefits,” he said.

Wolfram Hartmann, president of the Association of Paediatricians, accused the government of making false scientific statements. He said children under the age of three should not be given the shots.

“The vaccine has not been tested on them, thus the risk is simply too great for it to be used,” he said, adding that children’s immune systems tend to overreact, which could be exacerbated by the adjuvants. He also criticised the use of mercury-containing preservatives. “One has deliberately kept this stuff out of vaccines for small children,” he said.

The Local (news@thelocal.de)

SOURCE: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20091018-22649.html

Dark Alliance: The CIA, the Contras, and the Crack Cocaine Explosion

Based on a series of explosive articles written for the “San Jose Mercury News”, this book uncovers the roots of the crack cocaine epidemic in America, revealing connections between a Bay Area drug ring, an L.A. street gang, and CIA-backed Nicaraguan Contras.

In July 1995, San Jose Mercury-News reporter Gary Webb found the Big One–the blockbuster story every journalist secretly dreams about–without even looking for it. A simple phone call concerning an unexceptional pending drug trial turned into a massive conspiracy involving the Nicaraguan Contra rebels, L.A. and Bay Area crack cocaine dealers, and the Central Intelligence Agency. For several years during the 1980s, Webb discovered, Contra elements shuttled thousands of tons of cocaine into the United States, with the profits going toward the funding of Contra rebels attempting a counterrevolution in their Nicaraguan homeland. Even more chilling, Webb quickly realized, was that the massive drug-dealing operation had the implicit approval–and occasional outright support–of the CIA, the very organization entrusted to prevent illegal drugs from being brought into the United States.

Within the pages of Dark Alliance, Webb produces a massive amount of evidence that suggests that such a scenario did take place, and more disturbing evidence that the powers that be that allowed such an alliance are still determined to ruthlessly guard their secrets. Webb’s research is impeccable–names, dates, places, and dollar amounts gather and mount with every page, eventually building a towering wall of evidence in support of his theories. After the original series of articles ran in the Mercury-News in late 1996, both Webb and his paper were so severely criticized by political commentators, government officials, and other members of the press that his own newspaper decided it best not to stand behind the series, in effect apologizing for the assertions and disavowing his work. Webb quit the paper in disgust in November 1997. His book serves as both a complex memoir of the time of the Contras and an indictment of the current state of America’s press; Dark Alliance is as necessary and valuable as it is horrifying and grim. –Tjames Madison

SOURCE: AMAZON.COM

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Deliver Us from Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of Endless Conflict

Reporting from war zones around the globe, acclaimed journalist William Shawcross gives us an unforgettable portrait of a dangerous world and of the brave men and women, ordinary and extraordinary, who risk their lives to make and keep the peace.

The end of the Cold War was followed by a decade of regional and ethnic wars, massacres and forced exiles, and by constant calls for America to lead the international community as chief peace-keeper. The efforts of that community — identified with the United Nations but often dominated by the world’s wealthy nations — have had mixed results. In Africa, the West is accused of indifference or too little, too late. In Cambodia, the UN presides over free elections, but the results are overridden. In Iraq, Saddam Hussein continues to defy the UN, and in Bosnia and Kosovo, the West acts hesitantly after terrible slaughter and ethnic cleansing.

Shawcross, a veteran of many war zones, has had broad access to global policymakers, including UN secretary general Kofi Annan, high American diplomats, peacekeepers and humanitarian-aid professionals. He has traveled with them to some of the world’s most horrifying killing fields. Deliver Us from Evil is his stark, on-the-ground report on the many crises faced by the international community and its servants as they struggle to respond around the world. He brings home the price many have paid attempting to restore peace and help alleviate terrible suffering. He illuminates the risks we face in a complex and dangerous world.

Some critics have concluded that some interventions may prolong conflict and create further casualties. The lesson we learn from ruthless and vengeful warlords the world over is that goodwill without strength can make things worse. Shawcross argues that recent interventions — in Kosovo and East Timor, for example — provide reason for concern as well as hope.

Still, the unmistakable message of the past decade is that we cannot intervene everywhere, that not every wrong can be righted merely because the international community desires it, or because we wish to remove images of suffering from our television screens. Nor can we necessarily rebuild failed states in our image. When we intervene, we must be certain of our objectives, sure of popular support and willing to expend the necessary resources — even lives. If our interventions are to be effective and humane, they must last for more than the fifteen minutes of attention that the media accord to each succeeding crisis.

That is a tall order. As Shawcross concludes, “In a more religious time it was only God whom we asked to deliver us from evil. Now we call upon our own man-made institutions for such deliverance. That is sometimes to ask for miracles.”

SOURCE: AMAZON.COM

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George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography

This is the groundbreaking classic exposé of the Bush family, cited by all that followed it, yet still unmatched. Exhaustively documented by intensive search of dozens of archives and months of interviews with government insiders, this biography digs up all the dirt — frightening, gory, hilarious — on the Bush dynasty:
How the Bushes made their fortune building up Hitler and the Nazi war machine ~ Iran-Contra ~ Zapata’s Watergate burglars ~ The Reagan shooting ~ The “war hero” story ~ The secret government ~ “Eugenic” population reduction plans ~ Kissinger, China, and genocide in the Third World ~ Luring Iraq to attack Kuwait ~ The Bush Leveraged Buyout Mob, theft of a nation ~ Jupiter Island, Skull and Bones, and other power bases.

Essential reading as long as this Anglo-American oligarchy directs American politics, the Unauthorized Biography is a vivid X-ray of the presidential dynasty, and the private forces dominating both major political parties.

SOURCE: AMAZON.COM

For more info, click on ‘Posted in’