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8.6.12

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Military Resistance 10H3

Almost Every Province That Immediately Surrounds Kabul Is Firmly In The Hands Of The
Taliban While Mohammad Said He Did Not Like The Taliban, He Thought His Life Was Better Before The U.S.-Led Invasion And Karzais Rule

A Mayor Is Better Off Than Karzai Because He Can Leave The City. Karzai Is A Prisoner In His Palace
[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.] We tried to travel to Parwan province its borders are just about six miles outside of Kabul. But because it is controlled by the Taliban, we only reached the outskirts; the security team we were traveling with in Afghanistan felt it was too dangerous to venture much further. 8.1.12 By Ali Arouzi, NBC News [Excerpts] Most Afghans you speak to in Kabul or outside of the capital fear that their country will once again be overrun by the Taliban or be engulfed by a civil war. And most of their criticism is aimed at President Hamid Karzai, who seems to have little control over the country outside of Kabul. (Of course, NATO troops especially American forces face scathing criticism as well). Almost every province that immediately surrounds Kabul is firmly in the hands of the Taliban: Logar, Wardak, Parwan, Kapisa, Laghman, and about 70 percent of Nangarhar are Taliban controlled, according to locals, and they all border Kabul. I recently traveled to Charai Qamber, a small village just about five miles southeast of Kabuls city limits, to speak with locals and find out what they think of the security situation. I asked Mohammad, one of the village elders who would only give his first name, what he thought of Karzais control over the security situation in the country. Did he think he seemed more like the Mayor of Kabul, rather than the president of Afghanistan? He roared with laughter and said, Not even mayor! Mohammad spoke about the president of his country with a tone of disdain. He said Karzai has done nothing for his village or for the country as a whole instead, he had made a few cronies in Kabul rich. While Mohammad said he did not like the Taliban, he thought his life was better before the U.S.-led invasion and Karzais rule. He also believed Karzai had only given the veneer of semi-stability in Kabul, but that it was beginning to show major cracks.

In the same village I spoke to a man named Babur, which means happiness, but he seemed far from it. Babur, who also only gave his first name, had a litany of complaints. He bemoaned the fact that his village had never been visited by an Afghan or American government official despite the fact that there was a U.S-funded military academy just a mile away from the village, which should have provided much needed jobs, but had not. Nor did he have a sense of security, even though they were just a few miles away from Kabul where there are checkpoints everywhere and heavily armed security forces. He also complained that his village did not have electricity or running water villagers have to walk half a mile to a well near the academy. He spoke with contempt about America but seemed to be fond of Iran and Pakistan. Not a good sign for winning hearts and minds. We tried to travel to Parwan province its borders are just about six miles outside of Kabul. But because it is controlled by the Taliban, we only reached the outskirts; the security team we were traveling with in Afghanistan felt it was too dangerous to venture much further. Even on the edge of the province I got the feeling that we were being watched very closely. No one approached us to talk, which is unusual in Afghanistan, and we received unwelcoming looks. Dr. Wadeer Safi, head of the political science department at Kabul University, said he has mixed feelings about the planned NATO draw down in 2014. I posed the same question to Safi about whether or not Karzai seemed more like the mayor of Kabul, rather than president. A mayor is better off than Karzai because he can leave the city. Karzai is a prisoner in his palace, he said with a laugh.

AFGHANISTAN WAR REPORTS

Michigan Soldier Killed During Combat In Afghanistan; Four More Wounded

Aug 3, 2012 The Associated Press ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. A 25-year-old from suburban Detroit has been killed, and four others from the state have been injured, during combat operations in Afghanistan. The Michigan National Guard said Spc. Kyle McClain of Shelby Township was instantly killed Wednesday when an improvised explosive device detonated near Salim Aka, Afghanistan. Four other members of the Augusta, Mich.-based 1433rd Engineer Company were seriously injured while on the same foot patrol. The injured soldiers include 29-year-old Staff Sgt. Robert Drebenstedt of Charlevoix, 24year-old Spc. William Barnett of Ypsilanti, Spc. 26-year-old Steven Nelson of Dollar Bay and 20-year-old Pvt. Joshua Colon of Grand Rapids. Military officials said the injured soldiers were transported to military medical facilities at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan. McClain is the 21st Michigan National Guardsman killed in action since 2003.

POLITICIANS REFUSE TO HALT THE BLOODSHED THE TROOPS HAVE THE POWER TO STOP THE WAR

Afghan Soldiers, Policemen, Or Security Guards, Largely In Units Being Trained Or Mentored By The U.S. Or Its NATO Allies, Have Turned Their Guns On Those Mentors
Its Already Happened At Least 21 Times In This Half-Year, Resulting In 30

American And European Deaths, A 50% Jump From 2011

[Thanks to Clancy Sigal who sent this in.] July 31, 2012 By Tom Engelhardt, TomDispatch [Excerpts] Imagine for a moment that almost once a week for the last six months somebody somewhere in this country had burst, well-armed, into a movie theater showing a superhero film and fired into the audience. That would get your attention, wouldnt it? James Holmes times 21? It would dominate the news. We would certainly be consulting experts, trying to make sense of the pattern, groping for explanations. And what if the same thing had also happened almost once every two weeks in 2011? Imagine the shock, imagine the reaction here. Well, the equivalent has happened in Afghanistan (minus, of course, the superhero movies). It even has a name: green-on-blue violence. In 2012 -- and twice last week -- Afghan soldiers, policemen, or security guards, largely in units being trained or mentored by the U.S. or its NATO allies, have turned their guns on those mentors, the people who are funding, supporting, and teaching them, and pulled the trigger. Its already happened at least 21 times in this half-year, resulting in 30 American and European deaths, a 50% jump from 2011, when similar acts occurred at least 21 times with 35 coalition deaths. (The at least is there because, in May, the Associated Press reported that, while U.S. and NATO spokespeople were releasing the news of deaths from such acts, green-onblue incidents that resulted in no fatalities, even if there were wounded, were sometimes not reported at all.) Take July. There have already been at least four such attacks. Note that these July attacks were geographically diverse: one in the Taliban south, one east of the capital in an area that has seen a rise in Taliban attacks, and two in areas that arent normally considered insurgent hotbeds. In 2007-2008, there were only four green-on-blue attacks, resulting in four deaths. When they started multiplying in 2010, the initial impulse of coalition spokespeople was to blame them on Taliban infiltrators (and the Taliban did take credit for most of them).

Now, U.S. or NATO spokespeople tend to dismiss such violence as individual pique or the result of some personal grievance against coalition forces rather than Taliban affiliation. While reaffirming the coalition mission of training a vast security force for the country, they prefer to present each case as if it were a local oddity with little relation to any of the others -- an isolated incident (that) has its own underlying circumstances and motives. (Privately, the U.S. military is undoubtedly far more worried.) In fact, there is a striking pattern at work that should be front-page news here. Greenon-blue attacks have been countrywide, in areas of militant insurgency and not; they continue to escalate, and (as far as we can tell) are almost always committed by actual members of the Afghan military or police who have experienced the American project in their country in a particularly up-close and personal way. In addition, these attacks are, again as far as anyone can tell, in no way coordinated. Nonetheless, they do seem to represent a kind of collective vote, not by ballot obviously, nor -- as in Lenins phrase about Russias deserting peasant soldiers in World War I -with their feet, but with guns. The number of these events is, after all, startling, given that an Afghan who turns his weapon on well-armed American or European allies is likely to die. So its reasonable to assume that, for every Afghan who acts on such a violent impulse, there must be a far larger pool of fellow members of the security forces the coalition is building who have similar feelings, but dont act on them (or simply vote with their feet, like the 24,590 soldiers who deserted in the first six months of 2011 alone). And scattered and disparate as they may be, they have a distinctly unitary feel to them. Whatever the singular bitterness or complaint behind any specific attack, a cumulative message clearly lurks in them that the U.S. military and Washington would undoubtedly prefer not to hear, and that reporters, even when they are toting up the numbers, prefer not to consider too deeply. After all, what could be more devastating 12 years after the invasion of that country than having such attacks come not from the enemies the U.S. is officially fighting, but from the Afghans closest to us, the ones we have been training at a cost of nearly $50 billion to take over the country as U.S. combat troops drawdown? To the extent that bullets can be translated into words, that message, uncompromising and bloody-minded, would be something like: your missions failed, get out or die.

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MILITARY NEWS

Afghanistan Veterans With Genital Wounds Receive Little Help From Pentagon:
Pentagon Decision Dashes The Hopes Of A Growing Number Of Young Americans Wounded In Combat
[Thanks to Clancy Sigal who sent this in.] 07/30/2012 By David Wood, The Huffington Post WASHINGTON -- For the growing number of soldiers and Marines whose genitals are damaged or destroyed by blasts from improvised explosive devices while in combat, the Pentagon has decided it will not provide some critical reproductive health benefits. To put it bluntly, if you are sent to war and an IED blast blows off your testicles, the U.S. government will not pay for your wife to have in vitro fertilization or artificial insemination using donated sperm. The new policy, quietly adopted without announcement by the Defense Department, responds to the growing demands of the more than 1,800 veterans with genital wounds that the government that sent them to war now help them return to normal life, including raising a family. The policy authorizes payment for some reproductive procedures for the first time, including limited in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination. But it also specifically excludes covering males who cannot produce sperm. Third-party donations and surrogacy are not covered benefits, the policy states firmly. The Pentagon decision dashes the hopes of a growing number of young Americans wounded in combat and unable to produce sperm who had wanted to start a family. In one recent U.S. military study, the average age of those with genital wounds was 24 years. The majority of those in military service -- 56 percent -- are married. Pentagon officials were not immediately available to explain their decision to deny benefits to couples like Heather and Mark Litynski, a Marine who lost both legs and his left arm, along with his testicles, to an IED blast in Afghanistan almost two years ago.

Heather, 27, and Mark, 26, had decided to use donor sperm to begin their longplanned dream of raising a family. But the cost of in vitro fertilization can be dauntingly high: at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda., Md., where Mark was a patient, it costs $4,800 to $7,000 for each procedure. They were hoping the military would cover the cost. When The Huffington Post contacted Heather Litynski about the new policy, she expressed deep disappointment. Given all the other benefits that combat veterans are given, including medical care, housing and educational support, she was shocked that the government would refuse to support procedures using donor sperm. This is one ugly hole in the system, she said. The only thing I can think of, and to me its not an excuse, is that it might involve some ethical issue. Im thinking, if a guy loses both testicles, why would ethics get involved in a familys decision to use donor sperm? Extending other assisted reproductive benefits to families in which the male can produce sperm, she said is a huge weight off a lot of peoples shoulders, which is good. I do appreciate that even this is being done. But I dont think its fair for all the families it doesnt help. Since 2005, at least 1,875 American troops have suffered genital wounds, including 51 so far this year. They are among the 34,440 American battle casualties caused by roadside bombs in Iraq and Afghanistan, a grim toll that includes over 3,000 dead and 31,394 wounded through May, according to the most recent Defense Department data. Most of those who suffer genital wounds also lose one or more limbs to IED blast, so the devastating loss of sexual function is compounded by the difficulties of adapting to life as an amputee with prosthetic limbs or a wheelchair. For these wounded warriors, the compensation policies of the Pentagon and the Department of Veterans Affairs can be infuriating. For instance, the VA pays up to $100,000 to the severely wounded like Mark Litynski to compensate for loss of income and to help finance adapting their home to wheelchairs and other needs. Late last year, the VA also agreed to pay up to $50,000 for damage to or loss of genitals in combat. But the VAs $100,000 lifetime cap on such compensation does not account for veterans who have been wounded as catastrophically as Mark Litynski.

He received the $100,000 for his amputations -- but nothing for his genital wounds that might have helped finance fertilization procedures or adoption, since hed already reached the lifetime cap. For wounded warriors and their spouses, many of whom are unemployed and without significant income, the issue of financing a family adds to the other issues they struggle with. Heather and Mark agonized over the issue of using donor sperm, the only option that would allow Heather Litynski to experience childbirth. Mark was okay with the idea, but Heather said she spent months going back and forth before I felt comfortable with my decision. Nobody, she said, referring to the Pentagon, should frown on that decision. She and Mark had decided to pay for their own artificial insemination procedure, and later to adopt a child. They are working to save the $40,000 they believe adoption will cost. They are at home now in Minnesota, where Mark -- now getting around on his prosthetic legs -- plans to go back to school. In an effort to prevent more such genital wounds as Mark experienced, the Pentagon last fall rushed 165,000 pairs of Kevlar-reinforced briefs to Afghanistan along with 45,000 sets of armored over-garments designed to blunt the impact of shrapnel and blast on the lower torso. The measure had limited effect, according to a preliminary study completed in Afghanistan this spring for Task Force Paladin, which is responsible for all counter-IED training and operations in Afghanistan. The unpublished study found that for those injured by IEDs, 33 percent of those wearing the protective garments suffered partial or complete destruction of the testicles, compared to 46 percent of those who were not wearing protection.

DoD Scumbags At Work Betraying The Troops, As Usual:

DoD Said For Two Years That Beneficiaries Must Bear More Of Their Health Care Costs In Order To Sustain The Benefit

Now DoD Grabbing $708 From Troops And Their Families Health Care Plan To Pay For Afghanistan Transportation Costs And Movement Of An Extra Carrier Strike Group To The Persian Gulf
Aug 2, 2012 By Patricia Kime - Staff writer. Army Times [Excerpts] The Defense Departments top budget officer Wednesday defended Pentagon efforts to shift $708 million in health funding to other military budget accounts, saying the surplus money the result of conservative cost projections made two years ago cannot go to new initiatives or be saved for the future. The Pentagon came under fire from military advocacy groups this week after lawmakers revealed that defense officials want to use Tricare funds to cover unexpected budget needs such as increased transportation costs caused by Pakistans shutdown of ground supply routes to Afghanistan and movement of an extra carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf. House Armed Services Committee members sent a letter to Defense Secretary Panetta July 24 asking for an explanation, given that the Pentagon has argued for the past two years that beneficiaries must bear more of their health care costs in order to sustain the benefit. By law, the funds must be used or will expire at the end of the fiscal year, Sept. 30. The Pentagon must request permission from lawmakers to transfer funds between accounts, because the practice essentially alters spending allocations already approved by Congress. In their letter to Panetta, House lawmakers questioned the new Tricare transfer request, given DoDs insistence this year that fees needed to be raised for retirees. Lawmakers also worry about research funding opportunities being lost. We have concerns about this reprogramming request because we believe there are serious health issues that our military service members and military retirees are currently facing that are of the highest priority, wrote Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., chairman of the House Armed Services Committees military personnel panel. Military advocacy groups such as the Military Officers Association of America and the National Association of the Uniformed Services expressed outrage that the Tricare

account is showing a surplus when the Pentagon has argued that without fee increases, military readiness will be affected. For months, the Defense Department has defended its proposals to punish beneficiaries with thousands (of dollars) a year in higher Tricare fees by claiming fastrising Tricare costs are eating us alive, retired Vice. Adm. Norb Ryan, president of MOAA. But the reprogramming memo the Pentagon just sent to Congress indicates these claims were flatly untrue and DoD leaders should have known it.

Lawyer Sues Navy On Behalf Of 105 Sailors Separated By Last Years Enlisted Retention Boards:
I Am Appalled At What The Navy Is Attempting To Get Away With By Breaking These Sailors Contracts Without The Proper Authority
Aug 2, 2012 By Mark D. Faram, Navy Times [Excerpts] An Oklahoma attorney filed suit before the U.S. Federal Court of Claims Thursday on behalf of 105 sailors separated by last years Enlisted Retention Boards. Roughly 2,000 ERB sailors remain on the Navys payroll with a month to go before their mandatory separation date of Sept. 1. Attorney E.W. Keller, a former state senator and Army officer, said he became aware of the ERB and its fallout when his office started hearing from sailors targeted for separation at Navy commands operating from Tinker Air Force Base, just outside Oklahoma City. After looking carefully at the law and regulations, I am appalled at what the Navy is attempting to get away with by breaking these sailors contracts without the proper authority, Keller said. Additionally, they put in place a selection process that was inherently unfair in the way it meted out these discharges and didnt fully take into account these sailors rights. The Navy conducted two Enlisted Retention Boards in August and September 2011. A total of 15,386 sailors in paygrades E-4 through E-8 were in ratings the service projected would be overmanned at the end of fiscal 2012. Of them, 2,946 were sent home.

In his Aug. 2 filing, Keller listed eight counts against the Navy. Hes challenging the Navys legal authority to break contracts under these circumstances. He alleges the conduct of the ERB was discriminatory and unfair, and the sailors rights under existing administrative separation rules were violated. He also is alleging that breaking career sailors contracts will cause them irreparable harm. As redress, hes asking that these sailors contracts be restored and that they be returned to active duty or, alternatively, that they be compensated monetarily for lost wages and benefits theyd have gotten had they served out their contracts. Though no hearing dates have been set yet, the case has been assigned to Judge Lynn Bush, who has been on the Court of Claims since 1998. Bush worked as a Navy lawyer serving as the senior trial attorney for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command from 1987 to 1989, according to a biography, and as counsel for the Chesapeake Field Activity of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command from 1989 through 1996.

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FORWARD OBSERVATIONS

At a time like this, scorching irony, not convincing argument, is needed. Oh had I the ability, and could reach the nations ear, I would, pour out a fiery stream of biting ridicule, blasting reproach, withering sarcasm, and stern rebuke. For it is not light that is needed, but fire; it is not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind, and the earthquake. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppose. Frederick Douglass, 1852

The past year every single day of it has had its consequences. In the obscure depths of society, an imperceptible molecular process has been occurring irreversibly, like the flow of time, a process of accumulating discontent, bitterness, and revolutionary energy. -- Leon Trotsky, Up To The Ninth Of January

Hiroshima-Nagasaki

Photograph by Mike Hastie From: Mike Hastie To: Military Resistance Newsletter Sent: August 05, 2012 Subject: Hiroshima-Nagasaki Hiroshima-Nagasaki The reason most Americans still believe that the dropping of the Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki were justified, is because if they werent, the American people would be faced with the most terrible realization-- National Shame. Once National Shame is exposed, it would dismantle the American belief system. Our belief system is our national identity, it is our American flag, and everything that is wrapped in it. So, we go from using the Atomic Bombs on Japan, to the Genocide we committed in Southeast Asia.

From there, we travel around the world to other countries we have bombed to perpetuate profit. The United States of America is dismantling the entire Middle East, so we can feed our dinosaur economy-- one country at a time, one day at a time. Shame, Shame, Shame... That is why the American people will never face the truth behind the most horrific act of murder ever committed in human history. In February of 1947, my military family was sent to Yokohama, Japan after the war. I was 18 months old. When our ship arrived in Japan, the devastation was beyond belief. These stories were told to me by my father, who was a military officer, and my mother. The Japanese were eating out of our trash cans. Such is the nature of American Empire. Mike Hastie Army Medic Vietnam August 5, 2012 War is so terrible, it makes the soul sit down. Mike Hastie Photo and caption from the portfolio of Mike Hastie, US Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71. (For more of his outstanding work, contact at: (hastiemike@earthlink.net) T) One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions. Mike Hastie U.S. Army Medic Vietnam 1970-71 December 13, 2004

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DANGER: POLITICIANS AT WORK

CLASS WAR REPORTS

Zambian Miners Kill Chinese Manager During Pay Protest

[Thanks to Alan Stolzer, Military Resistance Organization, who sent this in.] 5 August 2012 BBC Zambian miners have killed a Chinese manager by pushing a mine trolley at him at a coal mine in the south of the country. A second Chinese was injured, as were several Zambians on Saturday. The workers were on strike at the mine in protest against delays in implementing a new minimum wage. They were angry their wages were lower than a new minimum of $220 (140) a month paid to shop workers. Zambias minister of labour has gone to the Chinese-owned Collum coal mine in Sinazongwe, 325km (200 miles) south of the capital, Lusaka. Wu Shengzai, aged 50, has been killed by protesting workers after being hit by a trolley which was pushed towards him by the rioting miners as he ran away into the underground where he wanted to seek refugee, Southern province police commissioner Fred Mutondo told state news agency, the Zambia News and Information Services. He died on the spot while his colleague is in hospital. Last year, the Zambian government dropped charges against two Chinese managers accused of attempted murder after they fired on miners at the Collum mine during a pay dispute. Chinese firms own several mines in southern African countries, including coal and copper operations. Copper mining is one of Zambias main industries, providing nearly three-quarters of the countrys exports; many of the mining companies are foreign-owned, and China has invested more than $400m (250m) in Zambia. A 2011 report by Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that, despite improvements in recent years, safety and labour conditions at Chinese mines were worse than at other foreign-owned mines.

Many Residents Of Aleppo Now Say Mr. Assads Enemies Will Multiply Every Day He Keeps Up The Fight
I Was Supporting Him Because I Was Looking To Him As A Moderate, Secular And Liberal Leader, But That Was Until I Saw His Crimes
With His Crimes, Mr. Fadi Said, He Is Buying A One-Way Ticket Out Of The Country
04 August 12 By Damien Cave and Syrian Staff, The New York Times [Excerpts] Just before sunrise, a select group of Syrian rebel fighters steps away from the front lines here for a task their commanders now consider a vital and urgent part of the war effort: baking bread. The floppy moons that they produce, pita to Americans, usually go quickly to hungry residents and rebels. Bread is a mainstay of the Syrian diet - it accompanies every meal - and in a city paralyzed by two weeks of war, the bakery lines show that basic commerce has become a battleground of its own. The regime has tried to deprive our supporters of water and gas, and now they are using bread, said Basheer al-Hajeh, a member of Al Tawheed Brigade, one of the main rebel militias in Aleppo. But he said the rebels had learned how to fight back against the governments attempts to keep bread and other resources out of opposition-controlled areas. We took control of the wheat warehouses in Aleppos suburbs, he said. We have many of them, in several areas, and they might keep us supplied for weeks. The struggle to keep bakeries operating is part of a much larger fight over the Syrian economy, especially in Aleppo, the countrys commercial hub and its largest city. As the government of President Bashar al-Assad tries to project an image of normalcy, denying reports of runaway inflation, rebels say they are finding new ways to attract support from the business class and siphon off government resources.

Kamal Hamdan, a Lebanese economist who has worked extensively in Syria, said both sides were engaged in efforts to replace the peacetime economy with wartime alternatives. They are expecting a civil war that will take a long time and you have to sustain the daily life of the areas you are controlling, he said. Its part of the game. The government has a clear advantage. Its Central Bank reported foreign currency assets of about $17 billion, one month after the conflict started. According to an investment consultant in the capital, Damascus, the government now appears to be asking Russia for loans to continue propping up the economy. Many analysts also suspect that the Syrians have found a way to sell oil, despite sanctions from Europe. But after 17 months of conflict, the opposition is becoming more and more creative. In Damascus, for example, activists say there are merchants that pretend to support Mr. Assad, only to funnel government-supplied cooking fuel, gasoline, bread and water to the other side. We ask them not to defect, said Moaz, an opposition activist in Damascus. They will be rewarded later. Like others interviewed, he would not give his full name for fear of retribution. Rebels are also managing to create supply chains that route around governmentcontrolled areas with the help of private businesses. In some cases, merchants donate money. In others, they said, business owners support the families of rebel fighters or opposition supporters, in one case 50 families at once. And especially in Aleppo this week, more immediate acts of generosity have emerged, with fresh food suddenly appearing for those in need. One woman, a dentist who supports the opposition, said she recently helped distribute plates of schwarma, a local grilled meat dish, to 900 displaced people in five schools near a contested area of southwest Aleppo. As is often the case in war, food has become almost as important as bullets. Aleppo has grown especially desperate. Several videos posted online now refer to a food crisis, and some confirm that bakeries there have become opposition outposts, with long, loud lines snaking around corners as armed rebels keep order, telling customers that they are only paying what is needed to cover bakery expenses. Abu Mohammed, a rebel baker in eastern Aleppo, said that skirmishes sometimes break out among customers, especially when there is not enough to go around.

But his squad - seven to nine rebels baking and distributing bread - try to feed who they can and make sure no one gets preferential treatment, he said. Mr. Hajeh, the militia member and a spokesman for the main rebel unit in Aleppo, said that top leaders have already appointed someone to run all the citys rebelcontrolled bakeries, arranging grain deliveries and baker schedules. There is now at least one rebel-run bakery in every neighborhood of rebel control, he said. Usually, there are two or three. What we do is open the bakery with the owners consent and our own people bake the bread, he said. Other basic needs have been harder to manage. The rebels said they provide water to some areas, filling tanker trucks from wells outside the city, but milk is essentially unavailable. Gas prices have tripled to about $11 per gallon. Diesel prices and the cost of cooking fuel have skyrocketed, according to residents and black market sellers, while vegetable prices have also spiked. Cucumber prices have more than doubled. We try and help with other goods, but we dont have a lot of capacity, Mr. Hajeh said. Major businesses in Aleppo are suffering as well. Mr. Hamdan, the Lebanese economist, said that Aleppo usually accounted for about 30 percent of Syrias gross domestic product, slightly less than Damascus. But these days in Aleppo trade has essentially come to a standstill. Several factory owners said in interviews that their exports have dropped to practically nothing. Abu Abdu, 60, who owns a textile factory in Aleppo with about 55 employees, said 2011 was his worst year in five decades of business. And 2012, he said, will probably be worse. A garrulous Sunni who began working in his fathers factory as a teenager, he said his own views on the conflict have changed with his fortunes. Like many other merchants, he described himself as apolitical, so when the unrest started, the future seemed headed for a version of the past: in the 1980s, the government of Mr. Assads father violently crushed an Islamist revolt in Syria, killing thousands of people. But over time, he said he has begun to question the governments strength. In the 1980s, no one in the country or the world knew what was going on with the military crackdown, but today the media and satellite channels are broadcasting and showing the live photos of the military operations, he said. As a result, he said, the rebels have been tougher to portray as defeated.

President Bashar al-Assad made big promises that everything will be finished in days, then in weeks, then in months, he said. But today, here we are after a year and half and we see and hear the same false words and statements. Other upper- and middle-class residents described similar conversions. Many residents of Aleppo now say Mr. Assads enemies will multiply every day he keeps up the fight, creating more unemployment, more displacement and more hunger in a city whose business is business. I was supporting him because I was looking to him as a moderate, secular and liberal leader, but that was until I saw his crimes in Daraa, Homs, Hama, Dier al-Zour and now in my city, and against my relatives, said Abu Fadi, 45, who owns a failing travel agency in Aleppo. With his crimes, Mr. Fadi said, he is buying a one-way ticket out of the country.

Recent Incidents Of Brutality By Anaheim, Calif., Police Are Galvanizing A Neighborhood Response Against Police Violence
There Have Been Six Officer-Involved Fatal Shootings This Year Alone In Anaheim
July 30, 2012 By Michael Brown and Danielle Hawkins, Socialist Worker [Excerpts] Recent incidents of brutality by Anaheim, Calif., police are galvanizing a neighborhood response against police violence. On July 21, Anaheim police murdered Manuel Diaz by, according to witnesses, shooting him first in the back of the leg, and then, as he lay on the ground, shooting him in the back of the head. Police then unleashed a vicious assault on a crowd of residents of an East Side apartment complex, including small children. Police fired rubber bullets and bean bags, and let loose a police dog. The following day, another police killing--this time of a young man named Joel Acevedo-added to residents outrage. In response, residents of the Anna Drive neighborhood in Anaheim were joined by local activists and supporters for two subsequent rallies on July 24 and 29.

Protesters--galvanized by the shocking footage of Anaheim police standing around while a still-alive Diaz bled to death, as well as the footage of the subsequent assault on residents--congregated at City Hall July 24 in an attempt to gain access to a meeting. Later that evening, the crowd swelled to more than 1,000 people. Its not clear whether Anaheim riot police first gave an order to disperse and then began to move on the crowd or whether, as was reported by outlets such as the Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register, the crowds outrage boiled over and some members of the crowd began pelting police with rocks and bottles. Windows were smashed at several local businesses, as some 50 to 100 members of the crowd broke off from the group, according to police. Twenty-four arrests were made. The righteous anger and resistance expressed by members of Anaheims working-class Latino community, according to both Mayor Tom Tait and Police Chief John Welter, were supposedly egged-on by outsiders. Welter told the Register in an interview, I think the vast majority were from outside, and I think they were here for one reason and one reason only and that is to create havoc, damage property, cause injuries and in effect just attack the democratic way. Both Taits and Welters accusations of outsiders stirring up trouble are misplaced, and designed to deflect away from the fact that there have been six officer-involved fatal shootings this year alone in Anaheim. Blaming outsiders has been a tried-and-true tactic used by racist politicians and police officials since the civil rights movement, implying that locals arent up to the task of organizing against inequality. But of the 20 adults arrested, 18 were from Orange County, including 16 from Anaheim. Anaheim police responded to the rally by calling in reinforcements from every other city in the Southern California area, in addition to the Orange County Sheriffs Office and people dressed in military fatigues that many believed to be with the National Guard. They were mounted on horses and had military armored vehicles.

Saudi Anti-Regime Protesters Rally In Riyadh And Mecca Demanding The Release Of Political Prisoners And The

Downfall Of The US-Backed Puppet Monarchy

29 July 2012 Islamic Invitation Saudi anti-regime protesters have held fresh demonstrations across Riyadh as well as the holy city of Mecca to protest against the arrest of political prisoners. Chanting anti-regime slogans on Saturday, the angry protesters demanded the release of political prisoners and the downfall of the US-backed puppet monarchy. On Friday, Saudi security forces opened fire and injured several demonstrators in the eastern city of Qatif. Similar demonstrations were also held against the regime in the village of Awamiyah and the city of Buraydah. Tensions have been running high in Saudi Arabias oil-rich Eastern Province over the past weeks following the detention of Saudi cleric Sheikh Nemr al-Nemr. Sheikh Nemr was attacked, injured, and arrested by Saudi security forces, while driving from a farm to his house in the provinces Qatif region on July 8. Since February 2011, protesters have held demonstrations on an almost regular basis in Saudi Arabia, mainly in the Qatif region and Awamiyah, also in the Eastern Province, primarily calling for the release of all political prisoners, freedom of expression and assembly, and an end to widespread discrimination. However, the demonstrations have turned into protests against the Al Saud regime, especially since November 2011, when Saudi security forces killed five protesters and injured many others in the province. According to Human Rights Watch, the Saudi regime routinely represses expression critical of the government.

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Angola Inmates Are Taught Life Skills, Then Spend Their Lives Behind Bars:
Louisiana Leads The Nation In The Percentage Of Its Citizens Serving Life Without Parole
Nearly One In 10 Are Locked Up Forever On Drug Or Other Nonviolent Offenses
Three In Four Are African-American Men

May 15, 2012 By Cindy Chang, The Times-Picayune [Excerpts] ANGOLA -- People always said Johna Haynes was lucky because of the white hair that sprouted from the crown of his head since he was a baby. He acquired the nickname Patch from New Orleans police officers, who came to know him all too well. At 31, the patch has turned into a bald spot, the pale strands now dispersed throughout his close-cropped dark hair, leaving him prematurely gray. And still lucky? someone asked. He looked around incredulously at his surroundings -- a late summer Sunday afternoon in the Louisiana State Penitentiarys west yard, men playing basketball and lifting weights, stray cats sunning themselves on concrete ledges, an idyllic scene if one did not look to the barbed wire fences in the distance. Im lucky Im alive, he finally said. Something -- the white patch, divine intervention or just plain luck -- spared Haynes from a violent death, the fate of his brother, stepfather, stepbrother, cousin and innumerable friends. It did not spare him from another well-traveled path out of the Florida public housing complex: the winding, achingly bucolic bus ride to the penitentiary commonly known as Angola, where his own father served more than a decade and where Haynes is slated to spend the rest of his life without the possibility of parole.

Haynes estimates he stole at least 160 cars and committed at least 130 robberies in a brief, prolific criminal career before he was locked up forever at the age of 21. When he worked at a Shoneys restaurant in Metairie, he never once took the bus -- he always arrived in style on stolen wheels. The guns he took from parked cars at Carnival parades or the Bayou Classic became the guns he carried while selling drugs and the guns he used to rob people. He was shot at many times and watched others die, but he was never hit. Nor, he said, has he ever killed anyone. His dangerous lifestyle caught up to him in a different way -- life without parole for pointing a gun at a man and making off with his car and valuables. Two previous convictions, for stealing a car and for trying to escape from police custody, made Haynes a habitual offender. A young thug was off the streets for good. Louisiana leads the nation in the percentage of its citizens serving life without parole, fueling the states world-leading incarceration rate. Angola is clogged with prisoners who will grow old and die there. Some criminal justice experts believe life without parole should be reserved for heinous murders, solely as an alternative to the death penalty. The U.S. Supreme Court recently did away with the sentence for juveniles who have not committed murder; Haynes was barely out of his teens during his final armed robbery. Louisiana lifers used to get out on parole after serving 10 years and six months. The law was changed in 1979 to life means life. Since then, Angola has been filling up with men who, barring a rare reprieve, will spend the rest of their lives there. The pardon board only intervenes in extraordinary cases, and even then, governors are reluctant to sign the release papers, fearing a politically damaging relapse. Louisiana is one of six states where all life sentences are handed down without the chance of ever going before a parole board. First- and second-degree murderers automatically receive life without parole, on the guilty votes of as few as 10 of 12 jurors. Nearly 12 percent of Louisiana inmates, or more than 4,500 people, are serving life without parole -- the highest proportion in the nation, according to a Sentencing Project report. While most have committed violent crimes, nearly one in 10 are locked up forever on drug or other nonviolent offenses. Three in four are African-American men. In Texas, less than 1 percent of state prisoners are serving life without parole; the figure in Tennessee is 1.3 percent.

Vietnam GI: Reprints Available

Vietnam: They Stopped An Imperial War

Edited by Vietnam Veteran Jeff Sharlet from 1968 until his death, this newspaper rocked the world, attracting attention even from Time Magazine, and extremely hostile attention from the chain of command. The pages and pages of letters in the paper from troops in Vietnam condemning the war are lost to history, but you can find them here. Military Resistance has copied complete sets of Vietnam GI. The originals were a bit rough, but every page is there. Over 100 pages, full 11x17 size. Free on request to active duty members of the armed forces. Cost for others: $15 if picked up in New York City. For mailing inside USA add $5 for bubble bag and postage. For outside USA, include extra for mailing 2.5 pounds to wherever you are. Checks, money orders payable to: The Military Project Orders to: Military Resistance Box 126 2576 Broadway New York, N.Y. 10025-5657 All proceeds are used for projects giving aid and comfort to members of the armed forces organizing to resist todays Imperial wars.

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