Watch 60 Minutes piece on The Power of One
More Information:
http://www.warriorsjapan.webs.com/
Brentwood News: Bring Our Homeless Veterans Home
Steve Lopez of the Los Angeles Times pulled no punches in his article about the mismanagement of the Los Angeles VA and the lack of leadership by Congressman Waxman.
Bring our Homeless Veterans “Home” – September 2012 Issue
Over 20,000 Veterans have lost their homes.
Please Help and CALL WAXMAN TODAY. and or Create a press release and send it to National (They have a lot of stuff to get done and could probably use a team focusing on PR as there are many issues). Let’s care for our sisters and brothers that are vets and keep focusing on stopping the making of new vets. Here are Waxman’s contacts.
Washington DC
Phone: (202) 225-3976
fax: (202) 225-4099
Los Angeles Office
Phone: (310)652-3095
Fax: (323) 655-0502
War Crimes Times
Subscribe and More Information: http://www.warcrimestimes.org/
October 2012 Edition: http://www.scribd.com/doc/107521506/WCT-Fall-2012-IV-4-Final
Action Alert: Petition To Stop Use of Depleted Uranium
Petition link: http://www.change.org/petitions/change-the-us-un-vote-on-depleted-uranium-weapons-this-fall
Video, When The Dust Settles, has more information: http://youtu.be/UlGPtBX0IRY
Depleted uranium (DU) weapons are chemically toxic and radioactive conventional weapons designed to pierce armor.
Keep Space For Peace
International Week of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space
October 6-13, 2012
Satellites: the eyes, ears and brains of modern warfare.
Imaging satellites capture the visual images of the targets (including individual people) that warmakers wish to destroy. Signals satellites pick up voices and other sounds which further identify a target, while the GPS system provides the gunsight or bombsight which directs the bullet or bomb to its destination. All these same orbiting instruments of war help the Pentagon assess damage, often leading to more strikes repeating the same process. The addition of drones and other new age weapons bring us close to having no human being in the loop at all.
There is a perception among those aware of space that most orbital activity in the past five years has shifted to the private sector, and that federal government satellite activity has declined during the Obama administration. While civilian government agencies like NASA are facing cutbacks, satellite launches have kept up with a Bush-era pace. The satellites that manage spying, navigation, targeting, and military communications are launched by agencies such as the National Reconnaissance Office and the Defense Information Systems Agency, whose budgets are larger than ever, but whose activities take place largely out of the public eye.
While the satellites orbiting miles above our heads may be out of our sights, the ground stations they depend upon, in locations such as Menwith Hill, UK; Pine Gap, Australia; and Buckley Air Force Base, Colorado are vast bases that play a large role in local economies worldwide.
–FROM http://www.space4peace.org/actions/ksfpw12.htm
Keep Space for Peace Week is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom, Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (UK), Swedish Peace Council, and the Drone Campaign Network (UK).
CALIFORNIA ACTIONS
Santa Barbara, California (Oct 18-21) Challenging Robotic Warfare Technology: Education, Organizing, Strategy & Resistance Statewide Conference tierralinda@live.com
Vandenberg AFB, California (Oct 22) Back country non-violent resistance action to occupy Pentagon’s global drone and missile nerve center. tierralinda@live.com
Shooters walk free, whistleblower jailed
VIDEO REPORT about Bradley Manning: http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/media/panor165.html
Oct. 7 Gathering at Vietnam Memorial in New York
Members of the VFP Direct Action Team are organizing a gathering at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Plaza in New York City Oct. 7 at 6 pm. Our intention is twofold:
1. Nonviolent direct action to challenge and address the illegitimacy and weaken one of the prime pillars of the oppressive state–New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s “private army,” the heavily militarized NYPD. This is based on their many abuses of power but in this case, specifically the decision enforced on May 1 to deny veterans and others the right to peacefully assemble after 10 p.m. at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. And directly related to that:
2. As Vietnam veteran Paul Appell eloquently said, “War veterans, loved ones of the fallen, and certainly those living in war zones do not have the option of closing down their memories at 10 p.m. … Some of us are not going away at 10 p.m. or any other time. If they do not like it, maybe they should have thought of that before they sent us to war.”
On this day and at this place, our demands will be straightforward:
▪ Demand an end the the 11 year war in Afghanistan
▪ Demand an end to all U.S. wars of aggression
▪ Remember those who have fallen
▪ Stand up for our right, and duty, to assemble and organize
This is not intended as a mass public gathering, where we expect or want thousands and are articulating all the many ramifications of corporate militarization, nor is it a public education project. This gathering at the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial on Oct. 7 is intended as a very specific veteran-led direct action opposing war and the arbitrary use of force by the NYPD.
We are focusing on are the direct, long lasting-and immediate effects of war–where and to whom it happens–death, destruction, permanent injury and trauma to those in the war zone, and our inalienable right to assemble to address those very specific grievances.
Veterans, especially those who have been directly affected by war, affirm our peaceful purpose: Remember the fallen, get out of Afghanistan, end all wars and don’t tell us where and when we are permitted to assemble and exercise our fundamental human rights.
October 7 at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial will be a time to remember soulfully and with dignity those who have fallen in every rotten war America’s manipulative leaders have involved us in since the beginning.
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PHOTO: http://www.flickr.com/photos/stillburning/
Brian Wilson speaks at the tracks where he was run down by a train
WATCH VIDEOS
http://youtu.be/DqWoNjB6jdA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WHHIqaOQiQ&feature=share&list=UUS7Oszxmy3ZTWk4YaVb2Slw
Saturday, September 1, 2012
AT THE TRACKS — CONCORD NAVAL WEAPONS STATION
The 25th Anniversary of Brian Willson being run down and nearly killed by a US Navy Munitions train while engaging in Nuremberg Actions nonviolent blockade in protest of weapons shipments to Central America.
Arlington West Protest Shifts Focus To Iran
Read the article in the Independent: http://www.independent.com/news/2012/feb/12/arlington-west-shifts-focus-iran/#commenttoggle
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Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jonsphotos/
The Invisible War Screening September 15
THE INVISIBLE WAR
is a groundbreaking investigative documentary about one of our country’s most shameful and best kept secrets: the epidemic of rape within our US military. Today, a female soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan is more likely to be raped by a fellow soldier than killed by enemy fire with the number of assaults in the last decade alone in the hundreds of thousands. View Trailer: http://youtu.be/gflcgdfj82Q
September 15, 2012
6:30 pm
Presented by Veterans For Peace, Ventura County and Citizens for Peaceful Resolutions
Unitarian Universalist Church of Ventura
5654 Ralston St., Ventura, CA
More Information: (805) 258-6499
Note about Veterans For Peace International Convention
“Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.”– Albert Einstein
PEACE. It is a powerful word, isn’t it? I thought I truly understood its power until I attended my first Veterans For Peace International Convention as Executive Director of this organization this month in Miami, Florida. I can honestly say it was both inspiring and humbling for me to witness the patriotism and brotherhood (and, of course, sisterhood) of our membership as they took part in workshops, shared stories, leant support to those who needed it and listened – with open hearts and minds – to Phil Donohue, Alice Walker, Fr. Roy Bourgeois, Carlos and Melida Arredondo and many others whose remarks about the need for a new course in America rang true.
This convention broadened the reach of VFP as members from the United Kingdom, VFP’s newest international chapter, flew “across the pond” to be a part of the conversation.
Our theme this year was “Liberating the Americas: Lessons from Latin America and the Caribbean”. Our speakers, world-class experts on this vital part of the world, brought our members up-to-speed on the effects of war and unwanted American involvement in places like Guatemala, Honduras, Cuba, Columbia, Mexico and more. The truths they brought are unlike the censored information passed along through the standard media.
Presenters brought information to attendees on topics as far reaching as meaningful efforts for the people of Haiti to influencing Congress on the agenda of peace.
The biggest takeaway for me is the influence we can have, as an organization – with a membership that spans the entire 50 states and internationally. Our combined voices can make a difference in our country and in the countries we learned about in Miami. Your support – as a member and with your tax-deductible gift – ensures that our efforts will go on….until the message of peace is heard all throughout the country.
Please make your gift to Veterans For Peace today. Your gift supports the work of VFP as we work for an everlasting peace. Please remember that every gift matters and every gift to VFP is valued. Together we stand strong and together we can make a change.
In peace and solidarity,
Mike Reid
Executive Director
Graph of U.S Forces Abroad
Graph of U.S Forces abroad: http://www.vetfriends.com/images/Active%20Duty%20Dec31st%202011.jpg
