We started out with a briefing by the Network of Sustainable Development (Red de Desarrollo Sostenible) a 15-year-old organization devoted to the exchange of information about sustainable development. It has now become a center for exchanging information about the coup. Using blogspot, facebook, twitter, myspace, flickr and youtube, the Network’s network is abuzz with hour-by-hour accounts of political developments. Their communication system has become a critical way for Hondurans to get information, since the coup leaders have muzzled the press.

The Network has a history of being objective and staying above politics, but the staff is outraged by the coup. “This was just over the top,” said National Coordinator Raquel Isaura, who is being targeted by the right for some anti-coup internet messages posted under her name. “A military coup in this day and age must be condemned by all sectors of civil society.”

Like many Hondurans, Network Director Candalario Reyes Garcia is deeply worried about the future. “In the 80s we were terrorized by the death squads called Batallion 316. These same death squad leaders are still in the military today and if they take control of this country, we’re in for some truly dark days ahead.”

Demonstrations against the coup have been taking place all over the country, but they are not reported in the news and protesters are beaten and tear-gassed by the military. Some movement leaders have been arrested, others are in hiding. The military has also prevented demonstrators from converging on the capital, Tegucigalpa. We met Juan Amilcar Colindres, a professor at the National University of Agriculture in Catacamas. The day after the June 28 coup, he helped organize 8 busloads of people—students, professors, community members—to go protest in front of the Presidential Palace. They were stopped enroute by the military, who insisted that they turn back and ended up shooting at the bus tires to disable the vehicles. “When the soldiers started shooting, people ran into the woods, terrified. The military destroyed 13 tires and we had to pay over $1,500 to repair the buses. Worst of all, we were never able to reach the capital to demand the return of President Zelaya. The same thing has happened to groups all over the country.”

When I asked Colindres why his group supported Zelaya, he said that for the first time in decades, the government of President Zelaya increased the budget for public universities and increased scholarships for the students. “We have a lot of poor students who were helped by this government. We don’t want the elite to take back the government and use it, as they have in the past, to enrich themselves and impoverish the people.”

Our last visit of the day, which went on for hours, was a fascinating gathering with members of the indigenous community, Lencas and Garifanos. This group was lucky to have made it to the capital, where they are camping out in a school auditorium. Entire families, from babies to grandmas, participate in roving protests every day. They keep moving so the military doesn’t know where they will be from one day to the next.

One by one, these very humble and poor people told us about their situation, their beliefs, their fears and their dreams. Valentina Dominquez, a primary school teacher, said, “Our people are suffering from poverty, and President Zelaya tried to help. He raised the minimum wage and in the schools, he made sure that all the children were given snacks. He made school registration free and increased programs to help the 20% of Hondurans who don’t know how to read or write. That’s why we made our way to Tegucigalpa to defend his government and overturn the coup. But we are repressed by the military and have no one to defend us but God,” she cried. “That’s why we need help from the outside community.”

Teresa Reyes, with the organization of black Hondurans called OFRANEH, said this new regime was terrorizing the people. “On the day of the coup, they cut the electricity, blacked out the news, and told us not to leave our houses. We were scared, we are scared, and we’re exhausted—some of us have been walking for days to get here. But even so, we were determined to keep protesting.”

Salvador Zuniga, one of the heads of the Civil Council of Popular and Indigenous Organizations of Honduras (COPINH), talked about the extreme poverty and illiteracy in Honduras, and the desire of poor communities to participate in determining how the nation’s resources are used and distributed. Honduras is notorious for a small group of families controlling most of the resources, from the media to the mines. “With the vote that was supposed to take place on Sunday, President Zelaya simply wanted to ask the people if they liked the idea of rewriting the Constitution, of setting up a new legal framework for determining how decisions get made. The powerful elite in this country was terrified that this process would result in a new economic model at the service of the people, as we have been seeing in other countries of Latin America. That’s why they organized the coup, to maintain their stranglehold on the economy.”

Melicio Intibuca, an elderly farmer, was terrified that Honduras would revert to the past days of military dictators.  “If Zelaya doesn’t return, the repression will get worse. These people don’t respect the life of the President, so do you think they’ll respect the life of us poor people? Already our people have been killed, wounded and are in hiding. That’s why we’re appealing to you, in the international community. The United States should cut off all aid to this government and demand the return of Zelaya. Please, don’t let us return to those dark days of death squads and violence.”

Medea Benjamin is cofounder of Global Exchange and CODEPINK. ]]> http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2009/07/hondurans-call-out-for-help-from-the-international-community/feed/ http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2009/07/gaza-daily-digest/ http://codepink4peace.org/blog/2009/07/gaza-daily-digest/#comments Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:00:34 +0000 NancyK http://codepink4peace.org/blog/?p=1072 If you would like to add your name to the mailing list to receive 3-5 posts per week, send a note to Nancy K at codepinknyc@gmail.com.

Gaza Digest 97, 7/2/09

News Clips: Israel will not impose a complete halt on settlement construction on occupied Palestinian land as demanded by the United States, a senior official said Thursday; The twenty-one international human rights activists who were aboard the Free Gaza Movement boat and were detained by Israel on Tuesday will be deported; the Israeli government has approved the construction of 50 new homes in a West Bank settlement and announced plans to expropriate more Palestinian land; The Israeli High Court of Justice on Wednesday ordered the Israel Defense Forces to press stronger charges than “improper conduct” against a commanding officer over the shooting of a bound and blindfolded Palestinian detainee in the West Bank; Thousands of people this week signed a petition in support of the Israeli president of the World Medical Association, following a campaign to impeach him from the world ethical body for alleged complicity in torturing Palestinians.

1. From the Associated Press, Amnesty International released a report yesterday on human rights abuses during the Gaza offensive, accusing both Israel and Hamas of war crimes.

“Israel, Hamas Both Guilty of War Crimes–Amnesty,” Associated Press via Times Online, 7/2/09

Excerpt: Israeli and Palestinian troops both committed war crimes in the recent war in Gaza, Amnesty International has claimed in the first in-depth human rights report on the war.

Hundreds of Palestinian civilians were killed by high precision artillery, while others were shot at close range, the report said. It also described rocket fire attacks by Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers against Israeli towns as war crimes.

The organisation called on Israel publicly to pledge not to use artillery, white phosphorus and other imprecise weapons in densely populated areas, and urged Hamas to stop its rocket attacks on Israeli civilians.

Amnesty, which first accused Israel of war crimes shortly after the fighting ended on January 18, said “disturbing questions” remain about why high-precision weapons like tank shells and air-delivered bombs and missiles “killed so many children and other civilians.”

The group also deplored Israel’s use of less precise artillery shells and highly incendiary white phosphorous in densely populated areas. It accused Israeli forces of using Palestinians as “human shields” and frequently blocking civilians from receiving medical care and humanitarian aid.

The pattern of Israeli attacks and the high number of civilian casualties “showed elements of reckless conduct, disregard for civilian lives and property and a consistent failure to distinguish between military targets and civilians and civilian objects,” Amnesty charged.

2. A report from The Electronic Intifada describes an increase in the use and misuse of the narcotic painkiller Tramadol in Gaza.

“Drug Addiction on the Rise in Besieged Gaza,” Erin Cunningham, The Electronic Intifada, 7/1/09

Excerpt: Looking to escape years of war, searing poverty and an unrelenting economic blockade, medical officials in the Gaza Strip say residents have developed a serious addiction to the narcotic painkiller Tramadol.

The embattled enclave’s borders have been hermetically sealed by both Israel and Egypt for two years, and an Israeli military assault last winter killed some 1,500 Gazans.

Gaza has the world’s highest unemployment rate — at 45 percent, according to the United Nations — and 75 percent of its inhabitants feel unsafe or insecure, a recent UN survey found.

Rumors of Tramadol’s mood-enhancing properties, and its easy availability over the counter have consequently turned thousands of desperate Gazans to the comfort of the tiny pills over the past two years.

Used medically to treat moderate to severe pain, Tramadol is a synthetic opioid related to morphine — and more distantly to the highly addictive heroin.

While altering a user’s perception of pain, its side effects include mild euphoria, sexual stamina and general feelings of relaxation. It also alleviates symptoms of anxiety and depression.

“People in Gaza are in a constant state of panic,” says Dr. Abdel Aziz Mousa Thabet, clinical psychiatrist and senior researcher at the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme (GCMHP). “Their trauma is ongoing — with war and the siege — they need to feel like they have control of their lives.”

But the opiate-like painkiller, also marketed globally under the brand name Tramal, brings both physical and mental dependence, according to health officials, and can be extremely dangerous if used recreationally in high doses or without medical supervision.

Neither the Hamas-run government nor local health non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have official figures of just how many Gaza residents take the drug, but say its use is perilously widespread.

3. From Common Dreams, the letter The Yes Men sent to the Jerusalem International Film Festival withdrawing their film.

“For Once, the Yes Men Say No,” Andy Bichelbaum & Mike Bonnano, Common Dreams, 7/1/09

Excerpt: We regret to say that we have taken the hard decision to withdraw our film, “The Yes Men Fix the World,” from the Jerusalem Film Festival in solidarity with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (http://www.bdsmovement.net/).

This decision does not come easily, as we realize that the festival opposes the policies of the State of Israel, and we have no wish to punish progressives who deplore the state-sponsored violence committed in their name.

This decision does not come easily, as we feel a strong affinity with many people in Israel, sharing with them our Jewish roots, as well as the trauma of the Holocaust, in which both our grandfathers died. Andy lived in Jerusalem for a year long ago, can still get by in Hebrew, and counts several friends there. And Mike has always wanted to connect with the roots of his culture.

But despite all our feelings, we cannot abandon our mission as activists. In the 1980s, there was a call from the people of South Africa to artists and others to boycott that regime, and it helped end apartheid there. Today, there is a clear call for a boycott from Palestinian civil society. Obeying it is our only hope, as filmmakers and activists, of helping put pressure on the Israeli government to comply with international law.

It is painful to do this. But it is even more painful to hear Israeli policies described as “fascist” - not just from the ill-informed and the clueless, not just from the usual anti-semitic morons, but from well-informed Jewish activists within Israel. They know what they’re talking about, and it’s painful to think that they could be right.

As we’re sure you know and deplore, the Israeli government has recently authorized the construction of new units in an illegal West Bank outpost - one that is illegal even according to Israeli law. On Monday, nine Palestinians were injured as Israeli authorities demolished their East Jerusalem home. Tuesday, the Israeli navy stopped a ship from delivering medicine, toys, and other humanitarian relief to Gaza, and detained over twenty foreign peace activists, including a Nobel Peace laureate. Meanwhile, a UN commission was in Gaza investigating much worse abuses committed early this year.

Whatever words are applied to such actions, our film mustn’t help lend an aura of normalcy to a state that makes these decisions. For us, that’s the bottom line.

4. Interesting interview with Naomi Klein from Haaretz in which she talks more about the BDS Movement, her participation in it, and, later in the article, about the Durban II Conference on racism.

“Naomi Klein: Oppose the State, Not the People,” Yotam Feldman, Haaretz, 7/1/09

Excerpt: Klein, who supports an economic and cultural boycott of Israel as pressure to end the occupation in the territories, thought long and hard about publishing her book in Hebrew, as well as visiting Israel. She finally decided to issue the book with Andalus Publishing, which specializes in Arabic literature, and to contribute her royalties to the press. Klein and Andalus publisher Yael Lerer carefully planned Klein’s itinerary in Israel to avoid the impression that she supports institutions connected to the State of Israel and the Israeli economy.

“It certainly would have been a lot easier not to have come to Israel, and I wouldn’t have come had the Palestinian Boycott National Committee asked me not to,” said Klein in an interview before her arrival, at her Toronto home. “But I went to them with a proposal for the way I wanted to visit Israel and they were very open to it. It is important to me not to boycott Israelis but rather to boycott the normalization of Israel and the conflict.”

So why did you decide to come nevertheless?

“First of all, I deal in communications. It’s my profession and my passion and I naturally rebel against any kind of cutting off of channels of dialogue. I think that one of the most powerful tools of those who oppose the boycott is the argument that it is a boycott of Israelis. It’s true that some academics won’t agree to accept an article by an Israeli for publication in a journal. There aren’t many of them, and they make stupid decisions. This is not what the boycott committee has called for. The decision isn’t to boycott Israel but rather to oppose official relationships with Israeli institutions.”

***

Gaza Digest 96, 6/30/09

News Clips: Hamas official says captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was lost track of during major bombings of Gaza, and they are not sure he is alive; Activists with the Free Gaza Movement, among them former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, sailing to Gaza with humanitarian aid said they had been intercepted by an Israeli gunboat on Tuesday and their navigating instruments jammed, but the Israeli military said it was just monitoring the aid ship while it was in international waters; Palestinian officials involved in Hamas-Fateh reconciliation talks hosted and mediated by Egypt reported that a progress was reached on the political prisoners file and other important files, and that finalizing the points of agreement would be conducted Tuesday; Twenty-nine civilians, including eight children, were killed in several missile strikes by Israeli drones in Gaza in December and January, according to a report released on Tuesday by Human Rights Watch.

1. Beautiful and inspiring letter from Israeli human rights activist Ezra Nawi from the Nation. If you haven’t already, please go to http://www.supportezra.net/ and sign the Jewish Voice for Peace letter for Ezra and make a donation to his cause.

“Israel’s Man of Conscience,” Ezra Nawi, The Nation, 6/29/09

Excerpt: I will be sentenced on the first of July after being found guilty of assaulting two police officers in 2007 while struggling against the demolition of a Palestinian house in Um El Hir, located in the southern part of the West Bank.

Of course the policemen who accused me of assaulting them are lying. Indeed, lying has become common within the Israeli police force, military and among the Jewish settlers.

After close to 140,000 letters were sent to Israeli officials in support of my activities in the occupied West Bank, the Ministry of Justice responded that I “provoke local residents.”

This response reflects the culture of deceit that has taken over all official discourse relating to the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

After all, was I the one who poisoned and destroyed Palestinian water wells?

Was I the one who beat young Palestinian children?

Did I hit the elderly?

Did I poison the Palestinian residents’ sheep?

Did I demolish homes and destroy tractors?

Did I block roads and restrict movement?

Was I the one who prevented people from connecting their homes to running water and electricity?

Did I forbid Palestinians from building homes?

Over the past eight years, I have seen with my own two eyes hundreds of abuses such as these and exposed them to the public–therefore I am considered a provocateur. I can only say that I am proud to be a provoker.

2. Art Young on ZNET starts with a description of AIPAC’s response to the BDS (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions) Movement, and then proceeds with an excellent overview of the movement and its various components around the world.

“Pro-Israel Lobby Alarmed by Growth of Boycott, Divestment Movement,” Art Young, ZNET, 6/29/09

Excerpt: The movement to call Israel to account for its crimes against the Palestinian people is growing, it is “invading the mainstream discourse, becoming part of the constant and unrelenting drumbeat against Israel.” It could eventually threaten the existence of the Jewish state by undermining the support it receives from its strongest backer, the U. S. government.
That was the message of alarm delivered by the Executive Director of the American Israel American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Howard Kohr, to the AIPAC Policy Conference on May 3.

**

AIPAC’s call to arms is a grudging recognition of these initial successes of the movement and, above all, of its potential. It is evident that supporters of the Jewish-only Israeli state - be they official lobbyists, powerful government figures, or others - intend to redouble their efforts to smear the BDS movement as anti-Semitic and to suppress public debate of Israel’s crimes. Supporters of the rights of Palestinians are responding by uniting with others to defend the right to free speech on these issues and by reaching out to win new support for the boycott-Israel campaign.

3. Gazans are living in despair and poverty, according to a Red Cross Report released on Monday and reported in Haaretz.

“Red Cross: Israel trapping 1.5m Gazans in despair,” Haaretz Service, 6/29/09

Excerpt: The Red Cross released a damning report Monday on the effects of the Israel-led blockade on the Gaza Strip, describing the 2-year-old measure as having trapped the coastal territory’s 1.5 million residents “in despair.”

The international humanitarian organization lamented the fact that the blockade, imposed after Hamas seized control of Gaza two years ago, was impeding reconstruction efforts after Israel’s offensive in the Strip at the beginning of the year.

“Gaza neighborhoods particularly hard hit by the Israeli strikes will continue to look like the epicenter of a massive earthquake unless vast quantities of cement, steel and other building materials are allowed into the territory for reconstruction,” the report said.

According to the Red Cross, Gaza’s poverty is directly linked to the blockade that is “strangling” the local economy.

4. From the annals of daily humiliation and arbitrary meanness, a report from Amira Hass in Haaretz on a privately run checkpoint not allowing Palestinian day workers to bring their lunches with them to work.

“Privately run checkpoint stops Palestinians with ‘too much food’,” Amira Hass, Haaretz, 6/29/09

Excerpt: A West Bank checkpoint managed by a private security company is not allowing Palestinians to pass through with large water bottles and some food items, Haaretz has learned.

MachsomWatch discovered the policy, which Palestinian workers confirmed to Haaretz.

The Defense Ministry stated in response that non-commercial quantities of food were not being limited. It made no reference to the issue of water.

The checkpoint, Sha’ar Efraim, is south of Tul Karm, and is managed for the Defense Ministry by the private security company Modi’in Ezrahi. The company stops Palestinian workers from passing through the checkpoint with the following items: Large bottles of frozen water, large bottles of soft drinks, home-cooked food, coffee, tea and the spice zaatar. The security company also dictates the quantity of items allowed: Five pitas, one container of hummus and canned tuna, one small bottle or can of beverage, one or two slices of cheese, a few spoonfuls of sugar, and 5 to 10 olives. Workers are also not allowed to carry cooking utensils and work tools.

MachsomWatch told Haaretz that Sunday, a 32-year-old construction worker from Tul Karm, who is employed in Hadera, was not allowed to carry his lunch bag through the checkpoint. The bag contained six pitas, 2 cans of cream cheese, one kilogram of sugar in a plastic bag, and a salad, also in a plastic bag.

The typical Palestinian laborer in Israel has a 12-hour workday, including travel time and checkpoint delays. Many leave home as early as 2 A.M. in order to wait in line at the checkpoint; tardiness to work often results in immediate dismissal. Workers return home around 5 P.M. The wait at the checkpoint can take one to two hours in each direction, if not longer.

The food quantities allowed by Modi’in Ezrahi do not meet the daily dietary needs of the workers, and they prefer not to buy food at the considerably more expensive Israeli stores.

HIs story mirrors that of many New Yorkers in some ways. Gopal watched the Twin Towers collapse as he ran from his apartment building located directly across the street.  His building was destroyed and lost three close friends in the attacks. After witnessing and being affected by the devastation first hand, Gopal became intensely interested in the Global War on Terror (GWOT). So much so that he moved to Afghanistan to work as a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor and soon the Wall Street Journal.  He’s become somewhat of an expert on the GWOT, hence his link to BNF.

Gopal spoke on a variety of issues that are facing Afghanistan and why we need to rethink and change our outlook on the conflict. First, to understand what “Taliban” means.

• The Afghan Taliban and the Pakistani Taliban often get intertwined but they are completely different groups fighting for completely different reasons. The Pakistani Taliban is fighting the state of Pakistan. The Afghan Taliban is fighting the United States. Pakistan is fighting against the Pakistani Taliban but is funding and aiding the Afghan Taliban.
  

• Groups from many different ethnic backgrounds make up the Afghanistan insurgency; the Taliban is only one of those groups but the most prominent. Taliban are Pashtuns, an ethnic group that makes up 40 percent of the country and mainly resides in South and East Afghanistan, where most fighting takes place.

Agha-Soltan, Ebadi, a 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and contributor to CODEPINK’s 2005 book, “Stop The Next War Now,” and Effat Hashemi, the wife of former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who was among the first to call for public protests, represent the incredible strength of Iranian women and their hunger for justice. Demanding reform, regime change, more social freedoms and a fair election, women have sometimes outnumbered men at the demonstrations, and they’ve also fought back police and militia.

For more information, please contact Jean Stevens, CODEPINK national media coordinator, or Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, at 310-621-5635.

International law forbids the recruitment of those under the age of 15, while the 1989 UN Child Convention defines a minor as under 18.

Into that gap fall a million advertisements delivered by mass media. Plus several thousand pencils, posters and textbook covers provided “free” of charge at school. Now add a high pressure salesman who has a teen’s cell number — because he bought her the phone.

A Marine recruiter in California was arrested in May on charges he used a 14 year-old girl to entice teenage male recruits.

Citizens in that state took it upon themselves last winter to impose controls at the municipal level. The towns of Arcata and Eureka passed ordinances limiting the ability of military recruiters to contact residents under age 18. But in December the U.S. Justice Deptarment took the towns to court, claiming illegal interference in the fed’s ability to hook kids into helping keep the world safe for democracy. No ruling as yet.

Citizens with elected school boards could impose similar controls, if they got riled up. “You will find that establishing trust and credibility with students, even seventh- and eighth-graders, can positively impact your high school and post-secondary school recruiting effort,” says the handbook for Army recruiters.

School board directors who argue that a weeks long Army National Guard program delivered during the school day by Guardsmen in combat fatigues is “not recruiting” obviously haven’t read the manual. They just love the “free” program, which was actually paid for twice: once as part of the $2+ billion annual military recruiting budget, and again as part of the school day, half funded by local property taxes, with a price tag of around $40,000. That’s the cost in a small rural school district in Maine i.e. one with a strong poverty draft pulling kids in already.

“I wonder what branch I’ll get sucked into.” That’s a younger brother talking.

From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. “Stand, don’t run,” Nazanine told me as the baton-wielding police charged up handsome Vali Asr avenue on the day after the fraudulent election. She stood.

…

A friend told me he no longer recognizes his wife. She’d been of the reluctantly acquiescent school. Now, “She’s a revolutionary.” I followed as she led us up onto the roof. The “death to the dictator” that surged from her into the night was of rare ferocity.

…

Women marched in 1979, too. But when the revolution was won, women were pushed out. Their subjugation became a pillar of the Islamic state. One woman told me that she had been 20 when she fought to oust the shah. “It’s simple,” she said. “We wanted freedom then, and we don’t have it now.”

We have watched in awe of the strength, courage, and bravery of the women in Iran who have taken to the streets, despite the threats of violence, to stand up for freedom, equality, and justice.   If you haven’t already, please sign our letter to Nobel Peace Prize winner, human rights lawyer, and Iranian Shirin Ebadi.  You can also add a message of inspiration and solidarity to our sisters in Iran.

“This is an outrageous violation of international law against us,” said Cynthia McKinney, a former U.S. Congresswoman and presidential candidate. “Our boat was not in Israeli waters, and we were on a human rights mission to the Gaza Strip. President Obama just told Israel to let in humanitarian and reconstruction supplies, and that’s exactly what we tried to do. We’re asking the international community to demand our release so we can resume our journey.”

CODEPINK has coordinated five delegations into Gaza in the past two months, bringing nearly 200 activists from around the world to witness the destruction caused by the two-year border blockade of Gaza and Israel’s 22-day military attack in December and January that killed over 1,440 Palestinians and wounded over 5,000.

McKinney and the other “Free Gaza” activists were carrying aid to Gaza, viewing it as a symbol of hope and that they could open a sea route for Palestinians that would allow them to transport materials into Gaza so they could rebuild schools, hospitals and homes.

“Our mission is a gesture to the people of Gaza that we stand by them and that they are not alone,” said fellow passenger Mairead Maguire, winner of a Noble Peace Prize for her work in Northern Ireland.

U.S. Army Reserve (retired) and former U.S. diplomat Ann Wright said that the Israeli Navy’s actions are in violation of international law as the boat was in international waters and was not jeopardizing the security of Israel.

“The abduction of the passengers and crew from the vessel is an outrage and I call on the Obama administration to make a formal protest to the Israeli government concerning the abduction of U.S. citizens, including a former U.S. Presidential candidate,” Wright said. “The Obama administration should withhold the $3 billion the U.S. gives Israel each year.”

For more information, please call Ann Wright, U.S. Army Reserve (retired) and former U.S. diplomat, 808-741-1141 or Medea Benjamin, CODEPINK co-founder, 415-235-6517.

While it may seem like a step forward toward ending the six-year occupation of Iraq, the Pentagon is doing what it can to dodge or play down these SOFA stipulations. In recent weeks, it has been re-classifying bases and troops, hiring “corporate security” mercenaries, and preventing Iraq from having jurisdiction over those actions. It’ll get away with it too, as Congress never ratified the SOFA, and because many are justifying further occupation under the banner of keeping Iraq secure.

Leading up to the June 30th deadline, the Pentagon has been playing shell games with bases and with soldiers. City limits have been modified to exempt bases from the agreement and soldiers who have moved out of cities are now encircling them. As Erik Leaver points out in his article “A Withdrawal in Name Only,” three thousand troops stationed at the FOB Falcon, located within Baghdad, will not be moving, because Iraqi and American military officials simply decided it wasn’t within the city limits. And thousands of troops in bases sleeping outside the cities will continue to serve in “support” and “advisory” roles in the day.

And while troops may be moving out of the cities, they are not moving out of the country just yet. The military has been expanding and building new bases in rural areas to accommodate the movement of soldiers, and Congress just passed a bill that includes more funding for military construction in Iraq. In reality, only 30,000 troops have left Iraq since September last year and 134,000 troops still remain.

But the 132,000 military contractors in Iraq are the real loophole. How do they fit into the withdrawal plan? How many of them will stay past June 30th? Or past 2011? Military contractors have been used extensively in the War in Iraq to evade legal accountability and hide the true cost – and body count – of the war. In fact, mercenaries may be on the rise and will spark additional violence in the country.

Arab-American journalist Dahr Jamail points out the violence in Iraq has largely been quelled because the U.S. has paid Iraqi resistance fighters to keep the peace, and the increase in violent resistance in May and June is due to many fighters losing their paychecks from the US government. In his blog, MidEast Dispatches, Jamail writes:

“Attacks against U.S. forces are once again on the rise in places like Baghdad and Fallujah, where the Iraqi resistance was fiercest before so many of them joined the Sahwa (Sons of Iraq, also referred to as Awakening Councils) and began taking payments from the U.S. military in exchange for halting attacks against the occupiers and agreeing to join the fight against al-Qaeda in Iraq. Daily we are watching Sahwa members leave their security posts.”

He further explains that many Iraqis are rejoining the resistance in protest of losing their paychecks and increasing government attacks, and thus, have stopped targeting al-Qaeda.

Instead of continuing to pay these resistance fighters, the U.S. plans to replace some soldiers and Marines in Iraq with mercenaries — private U.S. contractors and corporations. This new occupying force will continue to alienate Iraqis and delay any real Iraqi independence.

But despite working all the loopholes, the U.S. never officially committed to playing by the rules of an Iraq withdrawal, anyway. In 2007 and 2009, members of Congress including then-Senator Hillary Clinton believed the SOFA should have been ratified by Senate to be legitimate. During the 2008 presidential campaign, Clinton urged Obama to sign on to her legislation that would have required Bush to bring the SOFA to Senate first. Obama, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, never agreed to do so. But once Clinton dropped her opposition to Obama’s unanimous selection as the Democratic presidential nominee, and was rewarded by being chosen as Secretary of State, she put her SOFA principle aside and now supports an agreement that only one country – Iraq – has ratified. The U.S. Senate’s role in ratifying bilateral agreements has been nullified, a development that should worry all who have been concerned about a “unitary executive” and an increasingly weakened Congress.

Even in Iraq, withdrawal plans have been undermined. The Iraqi parliament planned to ratify the SOFA under a national referendum this month. But recently the Iraqi cabinet decided to reschedule to align with the national parliamentary elections in January 2010. The SOFA is widely unpopular and seen as legitimizing the US occupation until 2011. If it goes to a vote, it will likely be defeated. So Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and other Iraqi leaders have colluded with both the Bush and Obama administrations to subvert the will of the Iraqi people.

If by July 31 however the Iraq SOFA is not referendum-ratified or a 12-month cancellation notice issued, it will expire. If it expires, the U.S. will be in Iraq without legal authorization and U.S. forces may be subject to lock down until the matter is resolved. Under these conditions, U.S. troops will no longer have the bilateral protections – effectively left in a legal and political limbo.

Ultimately, the Pentagon must stop playing chess games to slow down a real withdrawal. And our leaders in the White House and Congress – who just passed another $70 billion for the war – must take real leadership to end this war, including withdrawing all our troops, ending the use of military contractors, stop funding any permanent bases in Iraq, and allowing the Iraqi people the space to reclaim their country.

According to the Status Of Forces Agreement (SOFA) between the U.S. and Iraq, all U.S. troops must be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by today, June 30. It also gives the Iraqi government jurisdiction to give permission to U.S. troops for military operations and bans the U.S. from staging attacks on other countries from Iraq. Thus, today, some Iraqis are celebrating the end of U.S. soldiers in their streets and the open destruction of their homes, schools and infrastructure.

But the U.S. occupation of Iraq is far from over. A massive number of troops — more than 130,000 — remain in Iraq in addition to more than 130,000 military contractors. Obama also plans to keep 50,000 military personnel there past 2011. The strategy now is to encircle cities including Baghdad (and those particularly to the north) with bases, home to troops who will work inside the cities by day in various roles. Some are given the mandate to train and assist Iraqi forces, however, their numbers and continued presence will fuel further resistance and violence, continuing to destabilize the region. The Pentagon is dodging the SOFA principles, and Obama is still far from fulfilling his promise.

We look forward to the day when we can truly celebrate — alongside the Iraqi people — an end to the U.S. occupation and the fulfillment of our responsibility to help Iraqis rebuild the country we have so destroyed.

For more information, please contact Jean Stevens, national CODEPINK media coordinator, at 508-769-2138 or Jodie Evans, CODEPINK co-founder, at 310-621-5635.

Returning a few months later, however, we found the country devastated. Bustling markets were empty, the streets were those of a ghost town. Electricity was rare if at all and gas lines were miles long. U.S. soldiers in Humvees sped down the streets with an embarrassing arrogance. Jerry Bremer had just arrived and had issued 100 edicts that infuriated every Iraqi. The story on the street was that it only took Saddam a month to get the country back in shape after the Gulf War, thus, impatience and anger toward the U.S. were growing. Over and over, we heard from Iraqis, “We had one Saddam and now we have hundreds.”

We were in Iraq to see how to support women in the transition, going to meeting after meeting of how they were going to be included. Zainab Salbi from the non-profit peace group Women for Women International (W4WI) was in many of those meetings with us, including a reception that Bremer threw inside the Coalition Provisional Authority, now the Green Zone. Her father was Saddam’s pilot and her mother had sent her to the U.S. to marry out of concern for her safety. I talked to Zainab a few days ago to learn about her most recent trip to Iraq.

“In six years they have destroyed Iraq,” her eyes teared as she began to tell me what she found. She used the image of a pen trying to balance on the tip of her finger to describe Iraq now: balancing but very unstable. Since she was there last it is a bit safer. Women who had been in exile and hiding for four years were starting to reemerge. But more than 70 percent of the women are not sending their daughters to school. I asked her about the women from the Bremer reception, 20 women have been killed and most others are gone.

When I asked about Baghdad, she asked which one. “There are two distinct Baghdads, the red one and the green one,” she said. “And they do not relate. On the red side, they call the Americans the ‘friendly other side’.

The Embassy/Green Zone is another city within a city, now one-fourth of Baghdad, she explained. It was built for 5,000 employees and already people are having to double up, it has burst past 5,000. Most of those who live there are not Iraqi but Ugandan, Peruvian, Burmese, etc. They cannot leave the Green Zone, so they have no idea about what is outside the walls. She overheard a conversation about a car bomb while she was inside and learned three soldiers were killed. She wondered why do the United States sends people to Iraq to get double pay and hazardous benefits when they are not even going outside the walls.

U.S. soldiers were still a part of Baghdad while she was there. People are still living without electricity but it has gotten a bit better, something like two hours on and three hours off, she said, this change has helped to engender the window of calm she experienced. It was still spring and she felt like the flowers of Iraq was beginning to bloom again. There was more hope because less violence, but the country still is very fragile.

There is nothing made in Iraq for sale. Not even those fantastic cucumbers we loved so much on our drives through the country. Bremer had created a five-percent flat tax for imports in one of his edicts, so Iraqi can’t produce anything. It will always cheaper to bring it products from the from outside. No other country would ever allow such a thing. The Bremer policies were made to destroy Iraq from the inside out.

I asked Zainab about her grandfather’s house, a beautiful home on the Tigres River where she had held her first classes for W4WI there six years ago. She has since closed W4WI because it became too dangerous, in the meantime it had become a torture den then a brothel. This turned the conversation to trafficking, which she said is horrendous. Most of the girls in prison are between the ages of 12 to 18. They were kidnapped, taken to Syria or surrounds, trafficked and when they get sick or too old brought home to the authorities because they didn’t have the right papers and put in jail. Midwives also told her of a huge increase in abortions from the prostitution.

Just six years ago, only the old and very religious were covered, women were employed everywhere and Baghdad University was bustling with young women. Now it is bleak. Zainab was able to go uncovered but it is still mandatory for the Iraqi women. Most businesses she visited had no women working, not to say they did not try, but they’re just fired within days. Some older women were able to keep their jobs but young women have no way in. She said the university was very sad with much less women. Women, young women have been sent back to the dark ages.

She too can’t find the way to affect the gridlock of people believing it is over. The U.S. has not taken responsibility to restore the country it destroyed. Iraqis need us to hold those responsible who have done this to them and to leave them to rebuild from the shambles. She left our conversation with this: “It basically looks like we do own it and have created our own kind of hell out of it.”

Jodie Evans is the co-founder of CODEPINK Women for Peace and environmental, peace and justice activist for more than 30 years.