Flyby News
"News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era"
Sitcha Human Rights * geronimo * Iraq Civil War
07 April 2005
"Our military action in Iraq
is more a catalyst for terrorists than a cure."
-- General Wesley Clark
April 6, 2005
1) Richard Sitcha + 9/11 + Oil vs Justice and Human Rights = ?
2) geronimo ji Jaga: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother"
3) General Clark to House Armed Services on Iraq- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil War
Editor's Notes:I cannot overuse such a clear argument as contained in the above quote by General Wesley Clark; the Pope would have agreed. However, item 1 begins this issue on the case of one individual struggling for life at the bottom of the US prison-deportation chain game. Where once Richard Sitcha was granted political asylum in the US, (even a social security card & working permit), suddenly, with no crime involved, his rights were taken away, and he remains in prison with the threat of being returned to a Country where he had been tortured. Item 2 is a message from geronimo ji Jaga for a memorial service for Johnnie Cochran. The insight and story from ji Jaga is well worth reading and researching, as well as the information at the end of this item on the case of Leonard Peltier. Item 3 takes us back to General Wesley Clark's opening statement to the US House Armed Services Committee on the miserable failure of the US attack on Iraq -- for overall US security, and in its relationship with other nations around the world.
The state has, in order to control us, introduced division into our thinking,
so that we come to distrust others and look to the state for protection!
But the roots of our individualism remind us that what we are
is inseparable from the source from which all others derive;
that coercive practices that threaten our neighbor also threaten us.
-Butler Shaffer
1) Richard Sitcha + 9/11 + Oil vs Justice and Human Rights = ?HUMAN RIGHTS ALERT
On Friday March 31, 2005, Judge Ponsor granted the U.S. Attorney's motion to dismiss Richard Sitcha's Habeas Corpus Petition, leaving him with a thirty day window to appeal this decision. Also, the US Attorney's office has filed a motion to remove Richard Sitcha's stay of deportation that was granted by Judge Ponsor. Richard's current lawyer, John McKenna, cannot represent him at the appellate level. So, currently, Richard Sitcha is not represented by legal counsel (in a strange land), and his life and well being would be in danger by being returned to Cameroon.
Pasted below is a link to the text of Judge Ponsor's decision on Richard's case:
http://pacer.mad.uscourts.gov/dc/cgi-bin/recentops.pl?filename=ponsor/pdf/sitcha.pdfRichard Sitcha has been moved. Here is his new address:
Sitcha, Richard
Unit BS1, Room 101
Plymouth Correctional Facility
26 Long Pond Road
Plymouth, MA 02360
Please contact Richard Sitcha directly if you can help, and you can also contact Andrew Cohen by email < acohen@wesleyan.edu > --
FreeRichard.comThe following is more details on the background behind this important human rights case.
Richard Sitcha
by Carl Doerner
Richard Sitcha is a poster-man for the thousands of men and women incarcerated in the aftermath of 9/11. This is his story. A native of Cameroon in Western Africa, he studied and was a practicing bailiff when he came into conflict with his government. Young people (later termed the Bepanda Nine) had disappeared and their families came to him for assistance. He learned that the captives had been taken to a naval base near Douala. At the base he learned the youths had been executed. As a result of Sitcha's further attentions to the needs of the families of the victims, he says, he was arrested and tortured (beating the bottoms of his feet with a machete). The same political connections that allowed him to gather information helped him to flee Cameroon before being further charged. By all accounts, Cameroon is less than a "free" society and was, at the time, under martial law. He is 42, married, and has two children. His wife is in France and his two boys remain in Cameroon. A devout Catholic, he became an active member of St. Ann's Church of the Immaculate Conception, Hartford, where he was a resourceful, well-regarded member of the community. Arriving in the US April 27, 2001, Sitcha followed the law in applying for political refuge. He was granted asylum on January 16, 2003. He also received a social security card and work permit, and he was employed. Then, Immigration and Naturalization Services asked to reopen his case and, at a September 18, 2003,hearing, the judge said contacts had been made in Cameroon, where his story could not be verified, revoked the previously granted asylum status and, without his having committed or been charged with any crime, he was jailed. He was lodged at Osborn, Connecticut's maximum security facility, which is surrounded by hundreds of acres of jails built on what was once a Shaker farm. At Osborn he was assaulted and so badly beaten by a cell mate that he had to be hospitalized and was put on suicide watch.
Article Truncated, for the complete article, see
in pdf format:
http://traprockpeace.org/doerner_sitcha.pdfor html:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:uiFuEidOsAwJ:traprockpeace.org/doerner_sitcha.pdf+sitcha,+richard,+doerner&hl=en&ie=UTF-8- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For other resources on Richard, see:
http://traprockpeace.org/richard_sitcha.html&
FreeRichard.com
2) geronimo ji Jaga: "Johnnie was a beautiful brother""..It's not easy to try and put into words one's feelings at a time like this. So many words and pictures come to mind that it is very hard to put them in order and transcribe them. What i can say is this: Johnnie was a beautiful brother, who even after becoming well versed in the ugly reality of Cointelpro, always remained a calming influence for me, encouraging forgiveness for all those puppets that were being exploited by the system. Despite the sick, sadistic practices of the government and its stooges, as documented in their own records, Johnnie continued to believe in the goodness of everyday people, who were being used as he used to say, "For they know not what they do." Johnnie would want us all to keep forgiveness in our hearts, but to remain vigilant of these rats, who are now going to come out of the woodwork and claim friendships with Johnnie and sing his praises just to promote themselves and their egos. Johnnie never bought into the ego trip, and was always willing to give his time and energy to represent the most under represented in society. He was a man with a heart as big as Yogi Pinell's.
Johnnie and i connected long before he began defending members of the Black Panther Party against police repression in Los Angeles. We both came out of the Mississippi Delta and the great tradition of struggle by Africans in the south to liberate ourselves from oppression. We were born into this glorious history of resistance to the slavocracy, from the Bras Coupee Uprising and many other insurrections, to the Afrikan Blood Brotherhood and the Garvey Legionnaires in the 1920s to the Deacons for Defense during the civil rights movement. Johnnie and i were comrades in struggle, sometimes employing different methods but fighting for similar goals, the freedom and self-determination of Afrikan people in particular and all oppressed people in general. The tradition of struggle continued in Los Angeles where Johnnie "Chief" Cochran Sr. was one of the first men in Los Angeles to support the Free Breakfast for Children's program of the Black Panther Party at the Second Baptist Church with Rev. Kilgore. Soon after, his son, Johnnie Cochran Jr. began defending the members of the Black Panther Party in court against the racist police and other agencies who set out to destroy our movement as part of the federal government's illegal Cointelpro pogrom. People were surprised, but not us, that Johnnie was willing to come to the fore of our struggle for Reparations. In 1975, while i was imprisoned on san quentin's death row, he and i began to dialogue via mail about the legal predicates regarding the money owed the descendants of African slaves. Johnnie was impressed with the arguments being made under international law, and the legitimacy of our right to reparations as was being taught by the great legal minds of Imari Obadele and Chokwe Lumumba. His commitment to our struggle and his eager willingness to begin to engage in the struggle for reparations for Mama Afrika, who was raped first by colonialism and slavery, makes me suspicious of the suddenness and speed in which this healthy, picture perfect man, was taken from us by this strange illness. Johnnie also recognized that there were many other political prisoners in the United States such as Sundiata Acoli, Leonard Peltier, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Mutulu Shakur, Marilyn Buck, and too many others to list here. Johnnie was just as supportive of them as well. He would agree that we needed to go beyond domestic law, which is inherently racist, and use international law to escape the many racist trappings of domestic law that have been instituted since the early days of the slavocracy.
We had spoken about him joining me in Afrika to work on some of the issues facing our people here, and he had told me it was his next quest. He was anxious to address the problems of orphans, HIV/Aids, poverty, genocidal sorties, and patterns of economic exploitation that have continued since the days of colonialism. Johnnie wanted to come and pay homage at the Altar of Mt. Kilimanjaro, but he also wanted to meet two of our greatest heroes, Pete and Charlotte O'Neal. Johnnie was amazed at contradictions surrounding Pete's case, and the fact that he ,Assata, Don Con and Cetewayo had to remain in political exile clearly and only because of the FBI's war against the Black Liberation Movement.
Many of Johnnie's detractors like to claim he played the race card in the OJ trial by exposing the misconduct, racism and ineptitude of the Los Angeles police. But those critics fail to accept the truth that Johnnie knew all to well; the Cointelpro card. This dirty, pernicious, secret, illegal war, that victimized even Johnnie when the police pulled him out of his car and had him prostrate on the ground in front of his children. His past experiences on my case and many others having shown him how deliberately and shamelessly the police would manufacture evidence, lie on the stand, and generally use all sorts of nefarious tactics to get a conviction. Johnnie stood up and refused to blindly accept the testimony of police or other government agents. Unfortunately too many people still refuse to acknowledge the corruption and injustice that is rampant within the so-called justice system in America. But Johnnie knew it, and fought against it at every opportunity.
But Johnnie is home now. Another great son of Afrika has returned to the Ancestors. He has been a great son. A father, a brother, a friend and a comrade. We can all feel a little more secure knowing that while our brother is no longer able to look after us individually in the courtroom, he now watches over us collectively alongside Bunchy, Red, Toure and all the other Freedom Fighters who have gone before him. Johnnie fought not only for justice, but also for peace. And he has finally found his. I could talk all day about my beautiful brother, but I know he didn't wake me up for that this morning. I can hear him calling me now, telling me to get up, get out, and continue to "Fight the Good Fight!"'
Pamberi ne Chimurenga!
(Ever Onward to Liberation)
geronimo ji Jaga
Tanzania, East Afrika
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
The full text was posted by jsmooth995 (April 1, 2005):
www.hiphopmusic.com/archives/000927.htmlFor a book on geronimo: Last Man Standing :
The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt
by JACK OLSEN
www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385493681/ref%3Dase%5Fhiphopmusicco-20/002-1207354-2550434Please Note:
Leonard Peltier's prison sentence has recently surpassed geronimo ji Jaga's long 27-year unjust prison stay. Isn't it time for Leonard Peltier to breathe the air of freedom?
Learn more at the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee website:
LeonardPeltier.org
3) General Clark to House Armed Services on Iraq- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil War
- - Opening Statement of General Wesley Clark
House Armed Services Committee Hearing
April 6, 2005
[EXCERPT]
.. After a Congressional Resolution and an aborted U.N. inspection effort, the U.S. invaded Iraq. We did not use the U.N. process effectively to enhance our legitimacy or build our coalition. The Administration did not heed the warnings of General Shinseki and others who warned of the force strength necessary to win the war and win the peace. In short, the Administration did not give our military adequate planning or sufficient resources to handle the post-conflict situation in Iraq. These errors were compounded by weak strategic decisions, including dissolving the Iraqi army and outlawing Baathist participation in new governmental structures. The prisoner abuse at Abu Ghraib has provided our enemies with a propaganda bonanza resulting in a recruiting windfall in Iraq and throughout the Arab world.
More fundamentally, with its armed occupation of Iraq, the Administration lost focus, and was substantially distracted from worldwide efforts against Al Qaeda. Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network are still at large, terrorist incidents have continued to take innocent life, and U.S. military actions in Iraq have provided a magnet for recruiting and training large numbers of extremist youth in continuing warfare. If Iraq is today the center of the war against terrorism, as some in the Administration have contended, it is not because the terrorists were there originally, but because they have been recruited there to the fight against us. Our military action in Iraq is more a catalyst for terrorists than a cure. Whatever results may ultimately come from removing Saddam Hussein from power, ending the terrorist threat against the United States of America is not likely to be one of them.
To read General Clark's complete statement and more, visit:
SecuringAmerica.com= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
- - Violence in Iraq could slide towards Civil WarPolitical Instability in Iraq Causes Some to Form Militias
by Tom Lasseter
Published on Wednesday, April 6, 2005 by Knight Ridder
BAGHDAD, IRAQ --
The rumors spread quickly last month around the central Baghdad neighborhood of Sab'ah Nisan that Salem Khudair's nephew had insulted the name of Imam Hussein, one of the most important historical figures in the Shiite branch of Islam. It fell to Khudair, the eldest son of a family from the Sunni branch, to meet with local Shiites and explain that his 26-year-old nephew had said no such thing.
A day later Khudair's family received a note insulting them as Sunni Muslims, calling them sons of whores. On March 27, Khudair was kidnapped.
What came next has become typical for Iraq as sectarian tension and violence rise. Khudair's family formed an armed group of more than 20 relatives and neighbors who demanded Khudair's release and vowed to kill those responsible. "If something happened to my brother, no Shiite would be safe," Khudair's brother, Sameer, said at the time, convinced that Shiite militia members were behind the kidnapping.
Khudair's body was found on Saturday, dumped in the street. He'd been shot in the face, and there was evidence of torture. At the family home later that day, Sameer Khudair said there would be no funeral celebration until his brother's death was avenged. Young men stood on the rooftop with AK-47s, and others stuffed their guns into bags.
The political instability in Iraq and the ethnic divides behind it are pushing Iraqis toward gang-like violence that many worry could start a slide toward civil war..
[EXCERPT]
..There is talk, he said, of starting a militia.
A special correspondent who cannot be named for security reasons contributed to this report from Fallujah.For the original published article link, see
www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/11318266.htm###
also posted:
www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0406-10.htm
Flyby News Support
To support actions and campaigns, please consider sending a check
of any amount made payable to Flyby News. {For donations of $10
or more ~ we will send you a flybynews.com art decal }
Flyby News
P.O. Box 1999
Wendell Depot, MA 01380 USA
Thanks for reading and supporting independent news.
The views expressed herein are the writers' own and not necessarily those of Flyby News.
A "Fair Use Policy" that describes Flyby News' use of copyrighted material is posted at flybynews.com.
Your feedback for story suggestions and networking Flyby News are welcomed and appreciated.
You can write to the publisher/editor Jonathan Mark via email: info@flybynews.com
Flyby News is educational and nonviolent in focus, and has supported critical campaigns
for a healthy environment, human rights, justice, peace, and nonviolence,
since the launching of NASA's Cassini space probe in 1997.=====News Fit to Transmit in the Post Cassini Flyby Era====> = = = = = = www.FlybyNews.com = = = = =