Posted on 09/05/2009 5:23:13 PM PDT by kristinn
Edited on 09/05/2009 7:13:37 PM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
"The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City," said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. "The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad."
Oakland, CA (September 13) - Hundreds of people gathered at Snow Park in Oakland tonight to mourn, provide support for each other, and speak out against violent United States policies at home and abroad, which they say are the underlying reasons for unprecedented terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington DC. Organizing against a growing climate of racism, nationalism and anti-Arab bigotry was a focus of the rally.
Organized by youth and people of color in Oakland and San Francisco, solidarity speakers included supporters of Palestine, people returning from the WCAR in South Africa, police brutality activists, anarchists and socialists, anti-gentrification activists and other people representing dozens of cultures and ethnicities. International solidarity was the theme as community and activist groups stood together against the threat of more US violence. Michael Franti of Spearhead also spoke, saying that "we need to be in a war against war."
In addition to an open mic, people at the rally talked with friends and strangers, cried, and began coming to terms with the events of the last three days. Many people who attended have family members still missing on the east coast. And many others have been the target of increased racism and discrimination during times of crisis in the United States, like the Oklahoma City bombing or Gulf War.
A recurring theme of the speakers was the brutal violence committed by or supported by the United States government on a daily basis. "The bombs the government drops in Iraq are the bombs that blew up in New York City," said Van Jones, director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, who also warned against forthcoming violence by the Bush Administration. "The US cannot bomb its way out of this one. Safety at home requires justice abroad."
In a diverse international community shocked by recent world events, deep feelings about the United States government were expressed. A young Puerto Rican person said that "the belly of the beast had something back to eat." A young Filipino human rights activist said that "when we found out what kind of place got hit, we were kind of glad to see the Pentagon burning. But we also know that thousands of Puerto Ricans, Haitians and other workers were in those buildings." An African-American man who works on gentrification issues in West Oakland said that "we're always seeing Americans drop bombs on people. We watch the Vietnamese get bombed, Iraqis get bombed, Palestinians get bombed, now it has come home to roost." Japanese-Americans spoke about internment camps and the nuclear holocaust brought on by US militarism.
SNIP
From a report at Indybay.org Sept. 13, 2001.
We were also enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq at the time of the 9/11 attacks.
That this whole BS crew in a Nutshell...
I would suppose this was in reference to the Gulf War (1991). One of my friends (whose husband is in the USAF) and I were on IM the day of, or the day after the attacks on 9/11, and all she could really say was, “It’s all that ******** Saddam’s fault”. I didn’t understand it at the time, but years later with JVeritas’ translations of Saddam’s memos it proved what she said that day — that Saddam had a hand in financing these operations and other terrorist operations.
What’s interesting is apparently this group of folks must have been hearing the same accusations (regarding Saddam) for them to have brought up Iraq the day after.
IMHO, Bush the Elder, should have kept going and taken out Saddam then and there. But then, this is the opinion of a person who wasn’t there, and frankly didn’t know very much about what was happening or why, except all my friends who went straight to boot camp after HS, and my co-worker’s brother were “over there” (we graduated in June of 1990).
Courtesy ping to JVeritas since I mentioned his name. :) See his site if you haven’t been there before:
Translating the Iraq Documents - http://iraqdocs.blogspot.com
Yes and Obama shares their values!!!!!! Why doesn`t Obama do the right thing and just go to Alah
With money.
Thanks for the ping.
Thanks for the ping!
Great find, kristinn.
ping
Kristinn you already know this but this thread is linked today on Big Government here:
http://biggovernment.com/taylorking/2011/03/25/racist-van-jones-rally-cheered-911-attacks/
Thanks for writing for the Big site!
Thanks! I’m getting ready to post the article to FR.
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