Posted on 06/25/2002 12:02:04 PM PDT by Pyro7480
JULY 4 PROTEST IN PHILLY: STOP THE WAR--
| Posted on Tuesday, June 18 @ 05:15:59 CDT by Fatirah Free Mumia News ....AND FREE MUMIA! By Betsey Piette Philadelphia U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell is to receive Philadelphia's "Liberty Award" here on July 4. It is given annually to "an individual or organization...that has demonstrated leadership and vision in the pursuit of liberty of conscience; or freedom from oppression, ignorance, or deprivation." Plans are underway to protest the hypocrisy of bestowing that award on Colin Powell, because he is part of an administration that is hated as the world's most belligerent warmonger and is assaulting civil liberties at home. In addition to his current support for Israel's war against Palestine, Colin Powell has a long and bloody history in the service of U.S. imperialism. He was a Pentagon military advisor in Vietnam and later attempted to cover up reports of routine U.S. brutality against civilians, including the My Lai massacre. Powell's only criticism of the Vietnam War was: "Politicians should not have restrained the military high command." Powell served under Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H. Bush, helping to oversee U.S. military operations in Honduras, El Salvador, Nica ragua, Iran, Lebanon and the 1989 invasion of Panama. His mentors included such notorious rightwingers as Caspar Weinberger and Frank Carlucci. In 1987, Oliver North testified that Powell was his "original point of contact" in the shipment of missiles to Iran-- the infamous Iran-Contra scandal. As chair of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1989-93, Powell oversaw the murderous bombing of Iraq during Operation Desert Storm and was credited with engineering the slaughter of tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers who were retreating from Kuwait. The July 4 protest will gather at 10:00 a.m. at City Hall and march to the Liberty Bell. Because of Powell's presence, the rally will raise opposition to the Bush administration's policy of "endless wars," call for freedom for Palestine and no new war against Iraq. Since Powell boycotted the world anti-racism conference in Durban, South Africa, last August, protesters plan to bring the issues raised there to him. 'FREE MUMIA!' Demonstrators will also call for the release of Mumia Abu- Jamal. July 3 marks 20 years since the African American political prisoner was unjustly sentenced to death row. In a statement of support for the July 4 rally, Abu-Jamal wrote: "Where is liberty in a nation that is keeping 2 million men, women and juveniles inmates? In the prison- house of nations, there is plenty of law, but very little liberty. People are told about liberty, but they ain't shown it. They experience the repression of the system, the brutality of the cops, the legalized terrorism of the courts, and the blindness of corporate media. You can give out medals made of platinum, but liberty is still an illusion." The rally will raise the issues of political prisoners, racism and reparations for African Americans. It will point out that Philadelphia's historic Liberty Bell is due to be moved to a new building under construction over the site of slave-quarters kept by George Washington at this country's first "White House." The National Parks Service wants to whitewash and re-bury this history. But community activists are demanding the NPS build a monument to the memory of the eight slave ancestors whose remains were uncovered there. Ironically, its use as the symbol of the anti-slavery Abolitionist movement is what first brought the Liberty Bell to the world's attention. Rally organizers plan to give out their own awards-- Liberation Medals--to recognize groups or individuals representing genuine struggles for freedom and against oppression. Organizers plan to have someone dressed as abolitionist Frederick Douglass present the awards.. For information on the July 4th protest, telephone the International Concerned Family & Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal at (215) 476-5416. - END - |
He lost the debate, but he stood next to Bush as Arafat was sent to Coventry.
Don't even dignify him by referring to him by his assumed name!)
(Check the polls lately?)
The "hate" eminating from these mutants is more than obvious. Their darkworld colors are showing like crazy.
I've seen just about enough of the liberal hate mongers lately.
Stop the hateful liberals.
Support peace and love. Vote Republican. :-D
A black muslim would go unnoticed in dropping off a package, even when every LEO and postal worker in NJ was looking for a middle eastern type.
What I did not find so readily was any confirmation that he is no longer on death row. I wonder how long the Free Mumia scampaign would continue if he were ever released.
I found this editorial on FR from last December when Mumia was supposedly taken off death row:
December 18th’s decision by Yohn to throw out Abu-Jamal’s death sentence by divining what a jury might have thought is one of the most bizarre rulings to come from any bench in some time.
Cook is a murderer, plain and simple, yet they have to throw the term "African-American" in to the mix so that everyone will automatically assume that we are racist for enacting justice on the scumbag.
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