[Peace-discuss] VICTORY: CIA recruitment SHUT DOWN!

[John W.]

When I was a student in the late 1960s, we succeeded in getting the entire
ROTC program kicked off campus.  But a few years later, it was back.  Plus
ca change, plus que c'est la meme chose.  Congratulations, though.

John Wason



On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 10:28 PM, martin smith <send2smith at yahoo.com> wrote:

(see attached pics!)
>
> *Students Shut Down CIA Recruitment at UIUC*
> On April 9, members of the Campus Antiwar Network, Iraq Veterans Against
> the War, and the International Socialist Organization joined forces for a
> third annual protest against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
> recruitment session at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
> However this year, students and activists were stunned by their victory when
> the CIA canceled the session at the last minute, shamed by our tactics which
> exposed the Agency’s dark history of assassinations, political sabotage and
> torture.
>
> Outside the session door, one activist donned a black Grim Reaper cloak and
> stood with arms extended on a milk crate to greet potential recruits and
> remind them of the brutal atrocities conducted at Abu Ghraib with CIA
> complicity.  Another used a simple pillowcase as a hood and kneeled with
> arms clasped behind his back to show the treatment by prisoners common at
> Bagram Air Base and Guantánamo.  Others passed out informational leaflets
> and challenged attendees to consider the lies to be presented by the CIA,
> which claimed in their campus ad to be “looking for a diversity of people
> for the important job of keeping America safe.”
> Campus police showed up at the request of the CIA operative in attendance
> who, according to the officers, requested to “have us removed.”  However,
> the policemen checked our campus IDs and then notified us that we could stay
> as long as we did not impede traffic.  Five minutes later after our
> continued vigilance, we were thrilled when we heard that the CIA would
> cancel the session, claiming that since the student newspaper had shown up
> and taken pictures for an article featuring our protest that security had
> been compromised.  We suspect their true motive for cancelling was their
> embarrassment over our collective message: “Say NO To The CIA Recruiting on
> our Campuses!”
>
> According to the International Red Cross, the CIA frequently used
> techniques against prisoners held in secret overseas detention centers or
> “black sites” that “constituted torture” in violation of the Geneva
> Conventions.  Prisoners received cruel and degrading treatment, including
> beatings, sleep deprivation, extreme temperatures, strip searches,
> starvation, scare tactics utilizing canines, and waterboarding.  Some
> detainees then faced “rendition,” the transferring of prisoners and
> outsourcing of torture to other countries where the CIA operates, especially
> those known for committing human rights violations, such as Egypt, Jordan,
> and Syria.  Many of these prisoners become “ghosts,” detainees whom
> officials refuse to give information about the location or status of to
> either family members or lawyers on the grounds that their incarceration is
> needed for long-term interrogation.
>
> Such barbaric deeds are a gross violation of international and U.S.
> constitutional law and are crimes against humanity on par with the U.S.-run
> concentration camps of Japanese American citizens during World War II and
> the “gulags” of Soviet Russia.  Among the prisoners are possibly hundreds of
> innocent people, whose only crime is to be Arab, Muslim, and a person of
> color.  Moreover, such tactics by no means keep “America safe” but rather
> alienate local populations by its heavy-handed nature, and provides a window
> of opportunity for terrorist-group recruitment.
>
> CIA Director Leon Panetta reiterated the Obama administration’s commitment
> to continue several Bush administration policies in the so-called war on
> terror. Panetta told reporters the US will continue controversial CIA drone
> attacks in Pakistan that have killed hundreds of civilians. He also said
> that while CIA interrogators will have to abide by the Army Field Manual,
> President Obama can still approve harsher techniques using wartime powers
> and that the "CIA retains the authority to detain individuals on a
> short-term basis."
>
> Activists and students should stand up to the CIA whenever they attempt to
> recruit on college campuses or in your community.  With even a small number,
> you can shut down their recruitment meetings and score an important victory
> for peace and justice.  As Campus Antiwar Network member Eric Heim
> explained, “I was pretty shocked when I found out that we managed to cancel
> the meeting.  To finally have a visible victory was a huge morale boost. The
> CIA needs to be opposed when and wherever it appears because it is nothing
> but an agent of empire that destroys democracy and helps establish US
> hegemony across the globe through force and brutality.”
> --
> *******************************************************
> ISO Resources:
> socialismconference.org
> internationalsocialist.org
> haymarketbooks.org
> socialistworker.org
> isreview.org
>
> ISO Champaign Meetings
> Mondays, Greg 319 at UIUC, 6pm
> All are welcome
>
> Socialist Worker & Haymarket Books Tabling
> Tuesdays, Main Quad at UIUC, 2-4pm
> (during inclement weather, we will be inside the Student Union)
>
> Socialist Happy Hour!
> An evening of informal political discussion
> Fridays at 8:00pm: All are welcome
> Blind Pig (120 N. Walnut St.)
> ********************************************************
>
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