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St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2007/12/28/Business/Retiree_health_plans_.shtml
Retiree health plans can be cut
The EEOC says its ruling will help preserve benefits, but the AARP andothers say the practice is discriminatory.
By CHRISTINA REXRODE, Times Staff Writer
Published December 28, 2007
There was a time, when health care costs weren't rising at twice the rate ofthe cost of living, that employers promised their workers lifetime medicalbenefits.
Now, faced with a wave of baby boomers on the brink of retirement, thosecompanies have a formal escape clause.
On Wednesday, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruled thatemployers don't have to offer health benefits to retired workers once theyturn 65 and are eligible for Medicare. Many companies already requireworkers who retire before 65 to register for Medicare when they're oldenough, but the EEOC ruling gives legal merit to the practice, which hasbeen challenged in court.
The government's move earned praise from some employer and labororganizations, but swift condemnation from the AARP.
The retiree group says the practice is just legalized age discrimination andlets employers off the hook for health care commitments they've made.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/29/ohio_campus_recalls_impact_of_poll_lines/?rss_id=Boston.com+--+Latest+news
Ohio campus recalls impact of poll lines
By Andrew Welsh-Huggins, Associated Press Writer
December 29, 2007
GAMBIER, Ohio --Kenyon College student Ann Shikany couldn't wait to vote forthe first time. When she finally got the chance, she waited. And waited.
Shikany stood, sat, ate and napped in line for more than 10 hours in 2004 inthis college town, home to the longest voting lines in the country. Shefinally cast her vote for Democrat John Kerry over President Bush about 1a.m.
"We all agreed that everyone should stay," Shikany recalled recently. "Thatwas very important and kind of inspiring."
Instead of turning her off, the experience galvanized her and others atKenyon College, a private liberal arts school of 1,600 students. Shikany,21, is now a senior who has voted in off-year elections since and is lookingforward to voting again in the 2008 presidential election.
There are no outward reminders of the voting marathon at the quiet,tree-lined campus that sits on a hill surrounded by farmland in centralOhio. Students active in politics say that day's legacy is more interest invoting rights.
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/29/romney_officials_approved_clinic_loan/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
Romney officials approved clinic loan: Worcester facility to provideabortions
By Frank Phillips, Globe Staff
December 29, 2007
Former governor Mitt Romney's economic development agency granted initialapproval to a tax-exempt bond last year for a Planned Parenthood clinic inWorcester that will provide abortions, just two months before he left officeand began highlighting his antiabortion position as a presidentialcandidate.
Asked about the $5 million financial deal yesterday, the Romney campaignsaid the former governor was not aware it was under consideration whenPlanned Parenthood won preliminary approval in November 2006.
Romney repeatedly used the power of his office while governor to advancesocially conservative positions, including restricting stem cell research,pushing abstinence-only sex education in schools, and vetoing a bill toincrease access to emergency contraception in hospitals.
In the case of the abortion clinic funding deal, the Republican candidate'sspokesman Eric Fehrnstrom said Romney would have attempted to block it - ifhe had known about it.
"Mitt Romney is prolife," Fehrnstrom said. "He did not know about this loan.It was made by an agency that does not report to the governor. If it did, hewould have told them not to do it."
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Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/29/as_huckabee_gains_steam_establishment_sees_a_threat/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
As Huckabee gains steam, establishment sees a threat: Upstart candidatebreaking GOP mold
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
December 29, 2007
WEST DES MOINES - The Republican establishment is galvanizing againstupstart GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, worried that the formerArkansas governor is unreliably conservative and unprepared for thechallenges of a general election campaign or the Oval office.
On the campaign trail here, Huckabee is winning over voters with a folksy,self-deprecating message rooted in the conservative tenets of faith andfamily. Recent polls show him overtaking chief rival Mitt Romney despitebeing vastly underfunded in the most expensive presidential campaign inhistory.
Huckabee's surge in recent weeks appears to have stunned and maddened theparty's conservative hierarchy. While the GOP establishment hasn't lined upbehind any other single candidate, it has steadily raised the volume of itsobjections to Huckabee as his plausibility as a candidate has grown.
The Club for Growth, an influential advocacy group favoring lower taxes andreduced government spending, has attacked Huckabee for what it calls hishigh-taxing ways when he was governor, and is running a TV ad campaignagainst Huckabee in Iowa, making Huckabee the only GOP candidate to be hitin the state with a negative ad from fellow Republicans.
Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, the standard-bearing conservativemagazine, warned in a recent anti-endorsement of Huckabee that the"unvetted" governor was "manifestly unprepared to be president of the UnitedStates and that his nomination would be "an act of suicide" for the party.
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Boston.co
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2007/12/29/as_huckabee_gains_steam_establishment_sees_a_threat/?rss_id=Boston+Globe+--+Today%27s+paper+A+to+Z
As Huckabee gains steam, establishment sees a threat
Upstart candidate breaking GOP mold
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff
December 29, 2007
WEST DES MOINES - The Republican establishment is galvanizing againstupstart GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee, worried that the formerArkansas governor is unreliably conservative and unprepared for thechallenges of a general election campaign or the Oval office.
On the campaign trail here, Huckabee is winning over voters with a folksy,self-deprecating message rooted in the conservative tenets of faith andfamily. Recent polls show him overtaking chief rival Mitt Romney despitebeing vastly underfunded in the most expensive presidential campaign inhistory.
Huckabee's surge in recent weeks appears to have stunned and maddened theparty's conservative hierarchy. While the GOP establishment hasn't lined upbehind any other single candidate, it has steadily raised the volume of itsobjections to Huckabee as his plausibility as a candidate has grown.
The Club for Growth, an influential advocacy group favoring lower taxes andreduced government spending, has attacked Huckabee for what it calls hishigh-taxing ways when he was governor, and is running a TV ad campaignagainst Huckabee in Iowa, making Huckabee the only GOP candidate to be hitin the state with a negative ad from fellow Republicans.
Rich Lowry, editor of the National Review, the standard-bearing conservativemagazine, warned in a recent anti-endorsement of Huckabee that the"unvetted" governor was "manifestly unprepared to be president of the UnitedStates and that his nomination would be "an act of suicide" for the party.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/washington/29bush.html?hp
In Surprise Step, Bush Is Vetoing a Military Bill
By STEVEN LEE MYERS and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
December 29, 2007
CRAWFORD, Tex. - For months President Bush harangued Democrats in Congressfor not moving quickly enough to support the troops and for bogging downmilitary bills with unrelated issues.
And then on Friday, with no warning, a vacationing Mr. Bush announced thathe was vetoing a sweeping military policy bill because of an obscureprovision that could expose Iraq's new government to billions of dollars inlegal claims dating to Saddam Hussein's rule.
The decision left the Bush administration scrambling to promise that itwould work with Congress to quickly restore dozens of new military andveterans programs once Congress returns to work in January.
Those included an added pay raise for service members, which would havetaken effect on Tuesday, and improvements in veterans' health benefits,which few elected officials on either side want to be seen opposing.
Mr. Bush's veto surprised and infuriated Democratic lawmakers and even someRepublicans, who complained that the White House had failed to raise itsconcerns earlier.
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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/29/us/politics/29check.html
Remarks on Pakistan Are Tailing Huckabee
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK
December 29, 2007
In discussing the volatile situation in Pakistan, Mike Huckabee has madeseveral erroneous or misleading statements at a time when he has been underincreasing scrutiny from fellow presidential candidates for a lack offluency in foreign policy issues.
Explaining statements he made suggesting that the instability in Pakistanshould remind Americans to tighten security on the southern border of theUnited States, Mr. Huckabee said Friday that "we have more Pakistaniillegals coming across our border than all other nationalities, except thoseimmediately south of the border."
Asked to justify the statement, he later cited a March 2006 article in TheDenver Post reporting that from 2002 to 2005, Pakistanis were the mostnumerous non-Latin Americans caught entering the United States illegally.According to The Post, 660 Pakistanis were detained in that period.
A recent report from the Department of Homeland Security, however, concludedthat, over all, illegal immigrants from the Philippines, India, Korea, Chinaand Vietnam were all far more numerous than those from Pakistan.
In a separate interview on Friday on MSNBC, Mr. Huckabee, a Republican, saidthat the Pakistani government "does not have enough control of those easternborders near Afghanistan to be able go after the terrorists." Those bordersare on the western side of Pakistan, not the eastern side.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/24/AR2007122401193_pf.html
The Most Popular Opinions of the Year
Saturday, December 29, 2007; 12:00 AM
The Opinions section of washingtonpost.com is not immune to that afflictionso common in journalism this time of year: toptenitis. What follows is alist of the 10 most popular stories of the year, ranked by number of pageviews. Click on the links to see what all the fuss was about.
10. How the GOP Could Win by Richard Cohen, published June 26.
Was this popular because so many Republicans read it with hope or because somany Democrats read it with dread? Probably both. Cohen tries to show howdismal approval ratings and an unpopular war don't necessarily spell doom onElection Day.
9. The Gonzales Clown Show by Dan Froomkin, published April 20.
The writer of washingtonpost.com's "White House Watch" earned multiple spotson the list. In this column, Froomkin writes about how the then-attorneygeneral accepted a blow to his reputation in order to deflect attention fromthe White House.
8. Why Do They Hate Us? by Mohsin Hamid, published July 22.
A Muslim novelist who split his childhood between Pakistan and Californiaseeks to answer the question.
7. Fitzgerald Again Points to Cheney by Dan Froomkin, published May 29.
This is the most popular of the several columns Froomkin wrote about thelegal tribulations of vice presidential adviser I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
6. I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty. by AndrewBacevich, published May 27.
A father tries to make sense of his nation's tragedy and his family's.
5. Victory Is Not an Option by William E. Odom, published Feb. 11.
A former head of Army intelligence argues that Congress should wake up tothe failure in Iraq and the futility of trying to democratize that country.
4. Bush: 'I Am Relevant' by Dan Froomkin, published Oct. 17.
The president said it, but Froomkin has his doubts.
3. Pratfall in Damascus, editorial, published April 5.
The Post's editorial board criticizes House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's trip toSyria and her statements about negotiating peace with Israel.
2. Why Bush Will Be a Winner by William Kristol, published July 15.
A rousing (and controversial) defense of the president's legacy. Therebuttal, Why Bush is a Loser by David Corn, was also high on themost-popular list. But the top spot goes to:
1. Retreat Isn't an Option by Liz Cheney, published Jan. 23.
On the day of the State of the Union address, the vice president's daughter,a former deputy assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs,argues in favor of continuing the Iraq war.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802299.html
The Right Way to Engage Iran
By Michael McFaul and Abbas Milani
Saturday, December 29, 2007; A19
As the year draws to a close, it's important to note that the U.S. debate onIran is stalled, trapped between "regime changers" vs. "arms controllers,""hawks" vs. "doves," and "idealists" vs. "realists." The NationalIntelligence Estimate released this month offers an opportunity to escapethis straitjacketed debate by embracing a new strategy that would pursueboth the short-term goal of arms control and the long-term goal of democracyin Iran.
The NIE's "key judgment" that Iran suspended its nuclear weapons program hasthrust the arms controllers onto center stage. Because the nuclear threat isno longer immediate, the arms controllers insist that the time is ripe forthe United States to engage in direct diplomacy with Tehran as a way tochange the regime's behavior, but not the regime itself -- specifically, topersuade the mullahs to suspend their nuclear enrichment program.
Those who profess to back regime change claim that the NIE changes nothingand that the United States should continue to use coercive power,potentially including military strikes, to counter Tehran.
Both sides have part of the strategy right, but on its own neither offers along-term vision for dealing with Iran.
It is folly to assume that advocates of military strikes are in the samecamp as those who advocate regime change. There is no better way to prolongthe life of the autocratic regime in Tehran, to strengthen increasinglyweakened radicals such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thanbombing Iran. Thankfully, the NIE has made military strikes less likely.
more . . . . .
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802445.html
The Pakistan Test
Some presidential candidates show they can respond quickly to a foreignpolicy crisis. Some flunk or foul.
Saturday, December 29, 2007; A18
THE ASSASSINATION of Benazir Bhutto presented U.S. presidential candidateswith a test: Could they respond cogently and clearly to a sudden foreignpolicy crisis? Within hours some revealing results were in. One candidate,Democrat John Edwards, passed with flying colors. Another, Republican MikeHuckabee, flunked abysmally. Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican JohnMcCain were serious and substantive; Republicans Mitt Romney and RudyGiuliani were thin. And Barack Obama -- the Democratic candidate who claimsto represent a new, more elevated brand of politics -- committed an uglyfoul.
Let's start with Mr. Edwards, who managed not only to get PakistaniPresident Pervez Musharraf on the phone Thursday but also to deliver astrong message. The candidate said he had encouraged Mr. Musharraf "tocontinue on the path to democratization [and] to allow internationalinvestigators to come in and determine what happened, what the facts were."Those are words the Pakistani president needs to hear from as many Americansas possible. He has yet to confirm that the Jan. 8 parliamentary electionswill go forward and risks a destabilizing backlash against his owngovernment unless he delivers a full and credible account of the authors andcircumstances of Ms. Bhutto's killing.
Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain also endorsed Pakistan's continueddemocratization. Each cited an acquaintance with Ms. Bhutto or Mr. Musharrafand opportunistically trumpeted their foreign policy experience -- but bothalso offered some cogent analysis. Ms. Clinton rightly cited "the failure ofthe Musharraf regime either to deal with terrorism or to build democracy,"adding that "it's time that the United States sided with civil society inPakistan."
At the other extreme was Mr. Huckabee, whose first statement seemed merelyuninformed: He appeared not to know that Mr. Musharraf had ended "martiallaw" two weeks ago. That was better than the candidate's next effort, whenhe said an appropriate U.S. response would include "very clear monitoring ofour borders . . . to make sure if there's any unusual activity of Pakistaniscoming into our country." The cynicism of this attempt to connect Pakistan'scrisis with anti-immigrant sentiment was compounded by its astonishingsenselessness.
By comparison, the Giuliani and Romney statements were anodyne -- theydeployed slogans about fighting terrorism or "jihadism" while avoidingserious comment about Pakistan. Mr. Obama similarly began by offering blandcondolences to Pakistanis and noting that "I've been saying for some timethat we've got a very big problem there."
Then Mr. Obama committed his foul -- a far-fetched attempt to connect thekilling of Ms. Bhutto with Ms. Clinton's vote on the war in Iraq. After thecandidate made the debatable assertion that the Iraq invasion strengthenedal-Qaeda in Pakistan, his spokesman, David Axelrod, said Ms. Clinton "was astrong supporter of the war in Iraq, which we would submit was one of thereasons why we were diverted from Afghanistan, Pakistan and al-Qaeda, whomay have been players in the event today."
When questioned later about his spokesman's remarks, Mr. Obama stifflydefended them -- while still failing to offer any substantive response tothe ongoing crisis. Is this Mr. Obama's way of rejecting "the sameWashington game" he lambasted earlier in the day? If so, his game doesn'tlook very new, or attractive.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802571.html
A Tighter Ship at Justice
Michael Mukasey limits political contacts.
Saturday, December 29, 2007; A18
ATTORNEY GENERAL Michael B. Mukasey should be commended for making good onhis promise to reverse a policy that undermined the integrity of the JusticeDepartment.
During the tenure of John D. Ashcroft, President Bush's first attorneygeneral, dozens of Justice Department lawyers were authorized to speak withWhite House personnel about pending civil or criminal investigations. Duringthe tenure of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, hundreds of White Houseand Justice Department employees were given such clearance. These extensivecontacts raised concerns about too much White House intrusion in what shouldlargely be an apolitical Justice Department.
This month, Mr. Mukasey dramatically pared back the number of officialsauthorized to conduct such conversations. Under the new policy, only the topfour Justice officials are cleared -- and to speak only with the top twolawyers at the White House. For practical reasons, these four officials --the attorney general, deputy attorney general, associate attorney generaland solicitor general -- may authorize a subordinate to speak with the WhiteHouse about a particular case, but Mr. Mukasey's Dec. 19 memorandum makesclear that these delegations should be "limited to the fewest number ofpeople practicable."
The memo allows Justice Department employees below the top four slots tocommunicate directly with White House personnel on such non-law-enforcementmatters as budgeting and legislation. The memo also carves out an exceptionfor national security matters to ensure "frequent and expeditiouscommunications" about counterterrorism and counterespionage issues, althoughthese contacts must be brought to the attention of the attorney general ordeputy attorney general.
Mr. Mukasey explains that the limitations are intended to ensure that thereis "public confidence that the laws of the United States are administeredand enforced in an impartial manner." That is the right goal.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/28/AR2007122802493.html?hpid=artslot
Muslim Women Who Become Homeless Have Limited Options
By Jackie Spinner
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 29, 2007; B01
They sleep in mosques. Or on the streets. Or in Christian-oriented sheltersthat might hold prayer meetings or services at odds with their own religiousbeliefs. For Muslim women without a place to live, particularly those whohave been battered or are immigrants, being homeless can test their faith atthe time they need it most.
When Muslim women are sent to shelters that serve the general population,they are often exposed to lifestyles that challenge their faith, such asdrinking, abusing drugs, eating pork and undressing or bathing in front ofothers, says Imam Faizul Khan of the Islamic Society of Washington in SilverSpring. They return from such shelters "with sad stories," he says.
The Virginia Muslim Political Action Committee estimates that severalhundred Muslim women are homeless in the Washington region, based on U.S.Census Bureau data and local surveys. That is a small fraction of thehomeless population and of the estimated 250,000 Muslims in the region, butlocal Islamic leaders say the problem has grown in recent years. Kahn saidhomelessness in the Muslim community was almost unheard of several yearsago.
Some Islamic leaders have begun to raise money to establish more sheltersthat cater to the Islamic community. There are now just two serving theWashington-Baltimore area, according to local mosque leaders. The leaderssaid they were unaware of any in Northern Virginia.
A four-bedroom, one-bath shelter in downtown Baltimore, the al-Mumtahinahhome, holds 12 women. When the brick rowhouse is full, shelter directorNadia Auxila McIntosh squeezes women into a sitting room or dining room. TheIslamic Center of Maryland runs another shelter in Gaithersburg, with roomfor six to eight.
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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/27/AR2007122701468.html?hpid=sec-religion?hpid=sec-religion
`Gospel of Wealth' Facing Scrutiny
By ERIC GORSKI
The Associated Press
Thursday, December 27, 2007; 2:56 PM
-- The message flickered into Cindy Fleenor's living room each night: Befaithful in how you live and how you give, the television preachers said,and God will shower you with material riches.
And so the 53-year-old accountant from the Tampa, Fla., area pledged $500 ayear to Joyce Meyer, the evangelist whose frank talk about recovering fromchildhood sexual abuse was so inspirational. She wrote checks to flamboyantfaith healer Benny Hinn and a local preacher-made-good, Paula White.
Only the blessings didn't come. Fleenor ended up borrowing money fromfriends and payday loan companies just to buy groceries. At first shebelieved the explanation given on television: Her faith wasn't strongenough.
"I wanted to believe God wanted to do something great with me like he wasdoing with them," she said. "I'm angry and bitter about it. Right now, Idon't watch anyone on TV hardly."
All three of the groups Fleenor supported are among six major Christiantelevision ministries under scrutiny by a senator who is asking questionsabout the evangelists' lavish spending and possible abuses of theirtax-exempt status.
more . . . . .
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1207/7588.html
Edwards reaches new heights in Iowa
By: David Paul Kuhn
December 28, 2007 02:17 PM EST
DES MOINES, Iowa - John Edwards appears to have risen to a new high point inIowa, marking an upward trend over the past two weeks that places him in astatistical tie with Sens. Barack Obama of Illinois and Hillary RodhamClinton of New York.
A new Strategic Vision poll released Friday finds that the former NorthCarolina senator has the support of 28 percent of likely Democraticcacucus-goers, his best standing in Iowa over the past six months. Edwardsnow trails Clinton by only one point and Obama by two points, well withinthe poll's margin of error of 4.5 percent.
Today's survey confirms a string of polls in the past two weeks - another byStrategic Vision as well as recent polls by CNN and InsiderAdvantage. Alldemonstrate a steady ascension by Edwards, while Clinton and Obama appear tohave stabilized.
The Democratic race in Iowa, more than any time this year, is now absent aclear front-runner. With less than a week until the Iowa caucuses, thetriumvirate of Democratic leaders appears equally positioned to win thefirst contest of the 2008 presidential primary race.
But Edwards also comes into the Jan. 3 caucuses with particular advantages,some of which have been overlooked by the national media focus on anirresistible and historic Obama/Clinton duel. Edwards' campaign boasts themost deeply rooted rural operation, allowing it to possibly win smallprecincts across the state that could prove crucial in the final tally.
more . . . . .
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Forwarded from Victoria Lavin
Daily Queer News
dailyqueernews@yahoo.com
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122807T.shtml
Australian Gitmo Convict to Be Released
The Associated Press
Friday 28 December 2007
Adelaide, Australia - An Australian who became the first personconvicted at a U.S. war crimes trial since World War II leaves prison onSaturday, apologetic for "what he's supposed to have done and what peoplebelieve he's done," his father said.
David Hicks, who was captured fighting with the Taliban in Afghanistanin December 2001, pleaded guilty in March to providing material support toal-Qaida after more than five years at at Guantanamo prison and returned toAustralia to serve out his sentence.
He is due to be released in his home town of Adelaide but will facestrict controls on his movement because he was judged a security risk.
"He's looking forward to finally stepping out into the open," saidHicks' father, Terry, adding his son wants to go to find a job to funduniversity courses in environmental studies. "All he wants is to get out andtry and get some sort of normality."
The 32-year-old former kangaroo skinner's long detention at Guantanamowithout trial strained ties between Washington and one of its closest alliesin the fight against terrorism.
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Pew Research center
http://pewresearch.org/
Go to the website, above, for the following articles:
--
December 28, 2007Pakistan
View from Pakistan: Before Bhutto's Assassination, Public Opinion Was
Increasingly Opposed to Terrorism
What the former prime minister's death means for the country's stability ishighly uncertain, but it is clear that Pakistanis, while supportive ofdemocratic elections and disapproving of militant extremism, remain highlyskeptical of the U.S. Read moreSeasonal States
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New Year, New Laws
As partygoers count down the seconds toward New Year's Day, not everyonewill be celebrating. At least 31 states will start to enforce new laws, andsome of them can seem pretty tough, ranging from where you can smoke inIllinois to how much it costs to enter a strip club in Texas. Read more
--
Teen Content Creators
Some 93% of teens use the internet, and more of them than ever are treatingit as a venue for social interaction -- a place where they can sharecreations, tell stories, and interact with others. Read moreReligion inAmerica
--
The Death Penalty in America
Religious communities have been deeply involved on both sides of the capitalpunishment issue. As the Supreme Court prepares to hear arguments in a asechallenging use of lethal injection, a Pew Forum special report examines thehistory of the death penalty, arguments before the court and public opinion.Read more
--
Science in America: Religious Belief and Public Attitudes
The combination of widespread religious commitment and leadership in scienceand technology greatly enlarges the potential for conflict between faith andscience in the U.S. Read moreThe Daily Number
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9%: Pakistanis Say Suicide Bombings Justified
A few months before the assassination of former prime minister BenazirBhutto, only 9% of Pakistanis said that suicide attacks and other forms ofviolence against civilians are often or sometimes justified, a sharp declinefrom the 41% who expressed this view in 2004. Check back every weekday foranother number in the news. Read more
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December 28, 2007
Contact: Joanne Landy (212) 666-4001, cell (646) 207-5203
Anti-War Activists and Intellectuals Send Open Letter to Iranian Officials:
"RELEASE IRANIAN STUDENTS FROM PRISON NOW!"
NEW YORK, N.Y., December 28, 2007 The New York-based Campaign for Peace andDemocracy sent an open letter today to Iranian officials entitled "ReleaseIranian Students from Prison Now!" The text of the letter is below. It wassigned by 240 individuals, including Noam Chomsky, Ariel Dorfman, DanielEllsberg, Barbara Garson, Adam Hochschild, Doug Ireland, Kathy Kelly, JesseLemisch, Katha Pollitt, Stephen Shalom, Meredith Tax and Howard Zinn, aswell as a number of Iranians and Iranian-Americans. The letter was alsosigned by several members of the Czech group "No Bases Initiative"(Iniciativa Ne základnám), which is resisting the installation of a U.S.radar base in the Czech Republic.
The full list of signatories is available on request, or at thewebsite of the Campaign for Peace and Democracy, www.cpdweb.org
--
TEXT OF THE OPEN LETTER
December 27, 2007
OPEN LETTER TO:
· Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President
· Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie, Minister of Intelligence
· Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Head of the Judiciary
· Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, Leader of the Islamic Republic
· Gholamali Haddad Adel, Speaker of Parliament
Tehran, Islamic Republic of Iran
FROM: Campaign for Peace and Democracy, New York City
We are writing to strongly condemn the arrests in early December ofstudents in Tehran involved in courageous protests against repression; a keytarget of their protest was the arrest in May of three student leaders:Ehsan Mansouri, Ahmad Ghassaban and Majid Tavakkoli.
We call for the immediate release of the imprisoned students, aswell as all others in Iran who have been unjustly imprisoned. A partial listof the students we understand to be still in prison is: Nader Ahsani,Roozbehan Amiri, Said Aqam, Anousheh Azadfar, Keyvan Amiri Eliyasi, Rosa'Essa'ie, Mehdi Geraylou, Mohsen Ghamin, Ahmad Ghassaban, Mehdi Grabloo,Yaser Pir Hayati, Younes Mir Hosseini, Ilnaz Jamshidi, Ali Kalani, AliKhalili, Ehsan Mansouri, Amir Mehrzad, Hamed Mohamadi, Milad Moini, ArashPakzad, Rouzbeh Safshekan, Ali Salem, Nasim Soltan-Beigi, Majid Tavakkoli,Behuz Karimi Zadeh, and Behrang Zandi.
We wish to state that we are unalterably opposed to a military attackon Iran by the United States or any other nation. An attack would bedevastating to the people of Iran. We reject too the hypocrisy of the U.S.government when it protests repression in Iran while turning a blind eye toor actively abetting comparable or worse repression in countries with whichit is allied like Saudi Arabia, as well as undermining civil liberties athome and torturing prisoners. But that in no way deters us from protestingin the strongest terms the denial of basic democratic rights to the peopleof Iran. We protest because we believe in these rights, and also because wesee social justice activists in Iran and all countries as our natural alliesin building a peaceful, democratic world.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
THE CAMPAIGN FOR PEACE AND DEMOCRACY advocates a new, progressive andnon-militaristic U.S. foreign policy -- one that encourages democratization,justice and social change. Founded in 1982, the Campaign opposed the ColdWar by promoting "detente from below." It engaged Western peace activists inthe defense of the rights of democratic dissidents in the Soviet Union andEastern Europe, and enlisted East-bloc human rights activists againstanti-democratic U.S. policies in countries like Nicaragua and Chile.
Campaign for Peace and Democracy
Co-Directors: Joanne Landy, Thomas Harrison, Jennifer Scarlott
2790 Broadway, #12, New York, N.Y. 10025 (212)666-4001 Fax:
(212)866-5847
Email: cpd@igc.org Web: www.cpdweb.org
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