Beltway Area Indymedia

The United States Social forum opened on Wed, June 27 with a march of thousands through downtown Atlanta-protesting issues very familiar to DC activists such as a proposal to PRIVATIZE Atlanta's only public hospital.
I heard it said that Atlanta is following DC own the path of structural adjustment-about 7 years behind.

A wide variety of people were represented at the kickoff march-and the first two speakers before the arch left were two members-one an 85 year old elder- of the Cherokee Nation, on whose land Atlanta sits.

Hello there. It's good to see a potential alternative Indymedia collective in the DC area. That said, please be aware that there is actually is more to starting an Indymedia collective than installing the Dada script and slapping the Indymedia logo on your site.

To learn about the process of joining the global Indymedia network, please visit:
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/NewIMCForm

Please apply soon. (It's a free and simple process.) Alternatively, if you decide not to, please consider removing the Indymedia logo and claimed affiliation.

Sami al Haj is an Al Jazeera journalist, originally from the Sudan, who has been detained by the U.S. at Guantánamo for over five years without trial. He was seized whilst working as a cameraman on assignment reporting on the war in Afghanistan.

Born in Khartoum on February 15, 1969, Sami has a wife and a 6 year old son Mohammed, who was only one when Sami left on assignment. Sami’s wife only found out where he was from the Red Cross 18 months after he had been seized, and had feared him dead.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_cindy_sh_070528__22good_riddance...
from: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/5/28/12530/1525

"Good Riddance Attention Whore"
by Cindy Sheehan
Mon May 28, 2007 at 09:57:01 AM PDT

A U.S. armada including two aircraft carriers moved into the Persian Gulf Wednesday, amid increasing threats from the U.S. and increasing defiance from Iran this week. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also this week stated that Iran has stepped up uranium enrichment in the face of U.N. Security Council sanctions and calls for a halt to Iran’s nuclear program. The large U.S. naval force includes amphibious assault vessels with over 2,000 U.S. Marines.

NOTE: the practices described here also apply to women who dare to opine in public and private emails, even in allegedly progressive circles...
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.womensenews.org/
May 24, 2006
COMMENTARY
Female Pundits Could Use Help With Hate Mail
By Heidi Schnakenberg - WeNews commentator
As a young woman, I stepped out into the treacherous
waters of opinion journalism, and was amazed by the lack of civil
discourse and the intensity of personal attacks that I received via
e-mail, letters to the editor and on Web postings.

Israel convicts nuclear whistleblower again

JERUSALEM (AFP) Apr 30, 2007

http://www.spacewar.com/2006/070430105409.twm6uqfr.html

An Israeli court on Monday convicted nuclear whistleblower Mordechai
Vanunu, who once served 18 years in jail, of violating a ban on leaving
Israel and contacting foreign journalists.

The Jerusalem Magistrates Court found him guilty of violating the bans
imposed on him, by having contacts with foreign journalists and trying to
leave Jerusalem to visit Bethlehem, a justice ministry spokesman said.

An independent Afghan human rights commission report released today shows that U.S. Marines committed indiscriminate killings in the Nangahar province of Afghanistan on the morning of March 4, 2007. A platoon of Elite Special Operations Marines shot at occupied cars and bystanders that “reports uniformly indicate … were exclusively civilian in nature and that no kind of provocative or threatening behavior on their part preceded the attacks.” The Afghans were killed in several locations along a 16-kilometer stretch of road.

With Turkey threatening an invasion of northern Iraq to attack Kurds and rebel forces stationed there, the Iraqi Parliament warned that any such military action would be "repulsed". Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, Speaker of the Iraq Parliament, said any Turkish "hand" interfereing "in our internal affairs will be cut, if not today then tomorrow." The warnings echoed statements from the Iraqi Kurdistan assembly, which called Turkey's threats of invasion a "dangerous escalation" and a "threat to the Iraqi people."

The government of Turkey has launched a major military operation against the Kurdish Workers Party, known as the PKK, in southeast Turkey, and the Turkish military officially requested permission from the government to cross the border into northern Iraq. Turkish General Yasar Buyukanit stated, "An operation into Iraq is necessary."