[Nettime-nl] whose war?! I

["Pieter" <smallaxe@xs4all.nl>]

think think think think think think think think think think think think
think think think think think think think think think think think think

Friends,

There's been so much news & non-news to catch lately that it's enough to
make you wonder if that itself isn't part of whoever's disruption campaign
this may be.

However, indulge me if I decided to add to the chaos by collecting some
bits & pieces that I consider worthwhile that I've been receiving and
reading over the last 1.5 week. If you do not wish to receive this in the
future, simply let me know.

Some of you may already have received some of this from me before;
hopefully this will not be the case if this ever makes it to edition # 2.

Finally, although care has been taken to verify the origins of the
following reports, it is obvious that especially with the internet one
should be cautious to accept any information at face value, nor at a time
of war preparations for that matter.

I hope you are all well and if I failed to mention it before, I was
horrified to see the attacks that took place last week & deeply concerned
about my friends in the US especially. I can only hope the same horror
will not be perpetuated on others. In the same vein, not all of the
following articles may go down well with people who have actually lost any
relatives or friends during last week's attack, or who know anyone who
has, or who are simply otherwise affected. This overview is in no way
intended to be insulting to those who are presently grieving.

Best,

PB

1) anti-war petitions
2) John Pilger: Inevitable Ring to the Unimaginable
3) Michel Chossudovsky: Who Is Osama Bin Laden?
4) Larry Mosqueda: Shocked and Horrified
5) Former US military (or so he claims?) speaks at Indymedia
6) Statement by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
(RAWA)
7) Indian newsgroup
8) Overview Dutch anti-war actions by De Omslag
9) Bavarian interior minister threatens refugees with expulsion for
cheering during attacks

1) The on-line anti-war petition at
http://home.uchicago.edu/~dhpicker/petition is still up. Last time I
checked they counted 360,875 signatures, increasing by the thousands each
hour it seems (god knows how they manage that sort of traffic). I've sent
this to several of you before, and added a (rather short, perhaps)
deadline. My reason to do this was that a) there was a distinct tone of
urgency on their web site, and b) I believe petitions like these should
have a clear deadline, with a view to preventing email bombs and other
useless traffic and efforts to go on forever (and they should make it
clear what exactly is being *done* with all those signatures for that
matter). I have mixed feelings about this type of action, but at least
this one seems to be a sincere attempt, and they provide a lot of
information on their site, given their limited time and resources no
doubt. Whether Bush gives a flying diddleysquat whether the whole world
signs is anyone's guess of course, as is the question of how signing stuff
like this might or might not affect your future attempts to visit the US.
Judge for yourself. Two other petitions that I received can be found at
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/224622495 and
http://www.earthway.org/petition/Hauptseite.php , respectively. I somehow
felt these were less well thought out, but hey who am I to criticize.
There must be dozens of other petitions up by now. Whether you sign or
not, I suggest you not leave it at that. A final drawback of this type of
thing is that it's too easy for people to believe they've actually *done*
something -- or so I believe.

Some articles:

2) Inevitable Ring to the Unimaginable, by journalist John Pilger, Sept
13th
 http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/13-9-19101-0-24-43.html
A view on recent events not commonly found in the mainstream
media.

3) Who Is Osama Bin Laden? by Michel Chossudovsky, Professor of Economics,
University of Ottawa
http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO109C.html
I found this both highly insightful & deeply disturbing. His argument
seems to boil down to the fact that everybody's backing everybody, and the
CIA backs 'em all. Where does that leave us?
Find plenty of thought-provoking material at globalresearch's homepage
itself.

4) Shocked and Horrified, by Larry Mosqueda, Ph.D., The Evergreen State
College, September 15, 2001. A passionate anti-war appeal, as well as a
thorough, if not exhaustive one fears, listing of US atrocities since WW
II.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=64836

5) The next article from Indymedia is one of those things, it claims to be
written by a former US military. This is of course impossible to check.
Either way, I thought it raised some interesting points.
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=65562

6) A statement by the Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan (RAWA) has been widely circulated, most of you have already
seen it I'm sure. However, for those of you who felt touched by the idea
that Bush is now going to liberate Afghan women, why not hear their side:
http://rawa.fancymarketing.net/ny-attack.htm
More on this group by simply hitting the "home page" button of course (or
by deleting the ny-attack.htm bit from the address).

7) For an Indian take on current events (pretty near where the new
Armageddon is now being planned after all), try the newsgroup at
http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/
Take a look at their homepage while you're at it, at
http://www.sarai.net/ of course.

8) Finally, this is for Dutch interest mostly: the Omslag has gathered a
comprehensive overview of Dutch anti-war actions & other initiatives. Find
it on their website under "Amerika". Their original message follows below.

----- Original Message -----
From: <aktlst@omslag.nl>
To: <aktielijst@antenna.nl>
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 9:33 AM
Subject: [Aktielijst] Oproepen en initiatieven rond 'Amerika'

> Beste mensen,
>
> Alles wat we konden vinden aan actie-oproepen en initiatieven
> rond 'Amerika' staat nu op de nieuwspagina van
> http://www.omslag.nl
>
> Mocht iemand nog iets weten dat er nog niet op staat, dan houden
> we ons aanbevolen!
>
> Het gaat ons dus om actie-oproepen en initiatieven.
> Meningen, commentaren, verklaringen en standpunten hebben we al
> voldoende.
>
> Met vriendelijke groet,
>
> Omslag
>
> Dick Verheul
>
> * Globalisering - Lezing bij Omslag - Do 20 sep
> ---------------------------------------------------------
>   Omslag - Werkplaats voor Duurzame Ontwikkeling
>   Postbus 81 - 5600 AB Eindhoven - Tel. 040-2910295
>   E-mail omslag@omslag.nl - Web http://www.omslag.nl
> ---------------------------------------------------------
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> N.B. Je moet zelf abonnee zijn om te kunnen posten op de Aktielijst!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
> De Aktielijst:  |  Abonnement opzeggen? Stuur een E-mail aan
> voor nieuws en  |  majordomo@antenna.nl en schrijf in het tekstdeel:
> aankondigingen  |  unsubscribe aktielijst
> --------------------------------------------------------------------

9) Well, that's it for now. A final message from a German friend, who
tells me how two nights ago, the Bavarian interior minister appeared on a
local tv show, saying that security cameras in Bavarian refugee shelters
had recorded many refugees cheering over the attacks. His suggestion was
to deport them rightaway, no matter to what country and regardless of the
fact that some of them might already be married to German residents for
instance. The audience broke out into cheers over his suggestion.

My friend concludes by stating his fear that all sorts of groups who have
argued in favor of a more restrictive climate (a further enforcement of
the "European Fort", stricter control & surveillance, the diminishing of
democratic rights, etc.) will now seize the opportunity to have their
political cake & eat it, too.

For more non-mainstream media backgrounds & information, some obvious
links that spring to mind are

www.zmag.org
http://www.indymedia.org/
http://globalresearch.ca/

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