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

[Ricky Baldwin]

Absolutely!  Great!  Congratulations!  And thanks!

Are you guys writing this up for the Public i?  the IMC website?  sending a quick article to Democracy Now or Free Speech Radio News?  Z magazine, In These Times and others would also likely run something short - longer if you present as an example of the larger opposition to the CIA, etc. - if you sent it, my bet.

One of you should definitely write a crowing letter to the evil NG, Pantagraph, etc., explaining the necessity of this.  WILL would probably run a "public square" comment.  

It's really cool - make the most of it!

 Ricky


"Speak your mind even if your voice shakes." - Maggie Kuhn




________________________________
From: C. G. Estabrook <galliher at illinois.edu>
To: martin smith <send2smith at yahoo.com>
Cc: ivaw_midwest at googlegroups.com; "peace-request at lists.chambana.net" <peace-request at lists.chambana.net>; peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net; STOP <stop at iresist.org>; coalition <coalition at iresist.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 11:03:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] VICTORY: CIA recruitment SHUT DOWN!

Congratulations.  Well done.

It would be worthwhile to use this event to publicize your quite appropriate objections, on campus and elsewhere.

Anyone who wants to know why events like this are necessary should read Tim Weiner's recent book, 'Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA," precisely because it's not by any sort of leftist but by a long-time NY Times reporter, thoroughly tamed to the requirement of establishment media.  It makes the story he has to tell all the more damning.  --CGE

martin smith 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.”

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