Civil rights leaders moved by King memorial groundbreaking

Civil rights leaders moved by King memorial groundbreaking

Washington — A scant half-mile from where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and urged a divided nation to complete the work of the great emancipator, ground was broken Monday for a monument to King's place in American history.

From across the political spectrum, dignitaries gathered to mark the moment and reflect on King's legacy. They included former President Bill Clinton, who signed legislation to create the monument, and President Bush, who declared, "An assassin's bullet cannot shatter the dream. It continues to inspire millions around the world."

But among the most visibly moved among the thousands at the site on the National Mall was one who shared the podium with King when his "I Have a Dream" speech gave momentum to the movement for new civil rights laws.

U.S. Rep. John Lewis, a leader of the 1963 March on Washington that culminated in King's speech, broke down in tears as he held a groundbreaking shovel.

"It's unreal. It's so fitting and appropriate," the Atlanta Democrat said of the ceremony. "Out of all the people that spoke that day, I'm the only one who is still around."

Also on hand were several of King's children, who this year laid to rest their mother, Coretta Scott King, near their father's tomb at the King Center in Atlanta.

"My mother reminded us on so many occasions that my father just wanted to be a great pastor," the Rev. Bernice A. King, the civil rights leaders' daughter. "Little did he know he would be a great pastor to the world."

Former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young and the Rev. Jesse Jackson, both former King deputies, and other leaders of the civil rights movement listened as Bush spoke of the importance of the monument's location, flanked by the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial.

"It will unite a man who declared the promise of America and the man who defended the promise of America with the man who redeemed the promise of America," Bush said.

Also attending the ceremony were luminaries such as Oprah Winfrey, poet Maya Angelou, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, Rep. Harold Ford Jr. of Tennessee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and fashion mogul Tommy Hilfiger — a major donor to the project.

"I am who I am because of Dr. King and his hope for this country," Winfrey, the billionaire talk-show queen, said as she arrived at the ceremony.

Fifty students from across the country who won an essay contest, including 18-year-old Natasha Lawson of Augusta State University, also took part in the event.

"He's done so much [for America]," Lawson said. "He would really appreciate this."

The 4-acre monument has been in the works for more than a decade. In 1996, Clinton signed legislation proposing creation of the monument, and in 1999, it won a coveted place on the Mall.

In 2003, concerns about plans for a host of new memorials led Congress to declare the Mall a completed work of civic art, and lawmakers imposed a moratorium on new construction. But the effort for the King memorial overcame the objections, and in 2005, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Project Foundation launched a drive that has so far raised at least $65.5 million.

One more obstacle remains to the construction of the monument: raising the remainder of the estimated $100 million cost, a project Hilfiger and hip-hop entrepreneur Russell Simmons are helping to lead.

Harry Johnson, president of the foundation, said he hopes construction will be completed by spring 2008.

The entrance to the memorial will include a central sculpture called "The Mountain of Despair." Recalling King's call in his 1963 speech to "hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope," it is split to signify the racially and socially divided American that inspired King's nonviolent efforts.

Obama, who has said he is considering a presidential run in 2008, imagined bringing his two young children to the memorial when it is completed and passing through the mountain.

"He never did live to see the promised land from that mountaintop," Obama said. "But he pointed the way for us."

Niches around the monument grounds will honor others who, like King, gave their lives to the cause of equality.

"This is not a one-man movement," said Young as those gathered around him gripped shovels. "As we turn the dirt on this ground, let us go back to our communities and turn the dirt."

The Associated Press contributed comments from Sen. Barack Obama.

Pakistan Link Seen in Afghan Suicide Attacks - New York Times

Pakistan Link Seen in Afghan Suicide Attacks - New York Times

Pakistan has been looming in the background since BEFORE 9/11.
Why their role has not been further investigated...may have something to do with the pre-9/11 wining and dining of Pakistani ISI.

Pakistan Link Seen in Afghan Suicide Attacks

Allauddin Khan/Associated Press

A suicide bomber hit a NATO convoy in October in southern Afghanistan. Recent attacks aimed at civilians.

By CARLOTTA GALL

Published: November 14, 2006

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Nov. 13 — Afghan and NATO security forces have recently rounded up several men like Hafiz Daoud Shah, a 21-year-old unemployed Afghan refugee who says he drove across the border to Afghanistan in September in a taxi with three other would-be suicide bombers.

The Reach of War

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Akhtar Soomro for The New York Times

Ahmed Shah, right, father of an Afghan who returned to Kabul as a suicide bomber, at his home in Karachi, Pakistan, with another son, Nadir.

Every case, Afghan security officials say, is similar to that of Mr. Shah, who repeated his story in a rare jailhouse interview with a reporter in Kabul, the Afghan capital. The trail of organizing, financing and recruiting the bombers who have carried out a rising number of suicide attacks in Afghanistan traces back to Pakistan, they say.

“Every single bomber or I.E.D. in one way or another is linked to Pakistan,” a senior Afghan intelligence official said, referring to improvised explosive devices like roadside bombs. “Their reasons are to keep Afghanistan destabilized, to make us fail, and to keep us fragmented.” He would speak on the subject only if not identified.

A senior United States military official based in Afghanistan agreed for the most part. “The strong belief is that recruiting, training and provision of technical equipment for I.E.D.’s in the main takes place outside Afghanistan,” he said. By I.E.D.’s he meant suicide bombers as well. He, too, did not want his name used because he knew his remarks were likely to offend Pakistani leaders.

The charge is in fact one of the most contentious that Afghan and American officials have leveled at the Pakistani leadership, which frequently denies the infiltration problem and insists that the roots of the Taliban insurgency lie in Afghanistan.

The dispute continues to divide Afghan and Pakistani leaders, even as the Bush administration tries to push them toward greater cooperation in fighting the Taliban, whose ranks have swelled to as many as 10,000 fighters this year.

A year ago, roadside bombs and suicide attacks were rare occurrences in Afghanistan. But they have grown more frequent and more deadly. There have been more than 90 suicide attacks in Afghanistan this year. In September and October, nearly 100 people were killed in such attacks.

Afghan security forces say that in the same period, they captured 17 suspected bombers, two of them would-be suicide bombers; NATO forces say they caught 10 people planning suicide bomb attacks in recent weeks.

Last week, for the first time, a Pakistani intelligence official acknowledged that suicide bombers were being trained in Bajaur, a small Pathan tribal area along the border. In a briefing given only on condition of anonymity, the official cited the training as one reason for an airstrike this month on a religious school there that killed more than 80 people.

The arrests of Mr. Shah and others like him, Afghan and NATO officials say, show that groups intent on carrying out attacks in Afghanistan continue to operate easily inside Pakistan.

Mr. Shah said he was one of four would-be suicide bombers who arrived in Kabul from Pakistan on Sept. 30. One of them killed 12 people and wounded 40 at the pedestrian entrance to the Interior Ministry the same day.

The attack was the first suicide bomb aimed not at foreign troops but at Afghans, and it terrified Kabul residents. The dead included a woman and her child.

By Mr. Shah’s account, it could have been far worse. Mr. Shah said he and his cohort had planned to blow themselves up in four separate attacks in the capital. That they failed was due partly to luck and partly to vigilance by Afghan and NATO security forces. But their plot represented a clear escalation in the bombers’ ambitions in Afghanistan.

Wearing a black prayer cap and long beard, Mr. Shah recounted his own involvement in the presence of two Afghan intelligence officers at a jail run by the National Directorate of Security. The Afghan intelligence officers offered up Mr. Shah because, unlike others in custody facing similar charges, his investigation was over. He is now awaiting trial.

Mr. Shah showed no signs of fear or discomfort in front of his guards. But after two weeks in detention, he complained of tiredness and headaches from a longstanding but unspecified mental ailment, something his father confirmed in a separate interview at the family home in Karachi, the southern Pakistani port city.

At first Mr. Shah, who was educated through the sixth grade, denied that he intended to be a suicide bomber, but said he had gone to Afghanistan only to fight a jihad, or holy war. “I was just thinking of fighting a jihad against the infidels,” he said. “I was hearing there was fighting in Afghanistan and seeing it in the newspapers.”

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War Crimes Suit Filed Against Rumsfeld in Germany

War Crimes Suit Filed Against Rumsfeld in Germany

BRAVO!

By Joshua Daniel Hershfield 11/14/06

An international grouping of lawyers has filed a 220-page lawsuit, calling on German prosecutors to investigate Donald Rumsfeld for sanctioning torture. The complaint asks Germany's federal prosecutor Monika Harms to open an investigation and criminal prosecution that will examine the responsibility of high ranking US officials in the authorization of war crimes in the context of the so-called "War on Terror."

As Secretary of Defense, Rumsfeld has presided over these crimes and many more: Torture at Abu Ghraib

The suit is being brought on behalf of 11 detainees from Abu Ghraib and 1 detainee from Guantanamo Bay. The detainees, under the control of the US military, suffered electric shock, severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation, and sexual abuse.

German law allows the pursuit of war crimes cases regardless of where in the world they occur.

Torture Suit Star Witness, Former. Abu Ghraib Head Janis Karpinski Points to Signed Rumsfeld Memo Listing Harsh Interrogation Techniques read or listen

The Center for Constitutional Rights: Please join our effort! The letter appears below, first in German and then in English. The German Prosecutor has discretion to decide whether to initiate an investigation. It is critical that he hear from you so he knows that people around the world support this effort.

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A Trucker’s View from the Road

Kim, long distance trucker and mom, writes about Marine returned form Fallujah, working at a Denny’s in Rollo MO:

In Fallujah, it was like in the Bible,” he began slowly. “When they marked the houses with lamb’s blood, and the Angel of Death flew over and killed the firstborn sons in all the houses that weren’t marked. They marked the houses…and the ones that weren’t marked, they had us go in and open fire and…” He stopped speaking and only made gestures.

“The kids?” asked my co-driver.

“Yes.”

The waiter’s words came a little faster now. “If people knew what was really happening over there, they’d rise up and say, ‘bring our kids home NOW!’ If people knew, they wouldn’t stand for it.”

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Also in the Center for Constitutional Rights:

If Donald Rumsfeld is going to be held accountable for authorizing torture and other human rights abuses, we need your help .

Today, CCR filed a criminal complaint in Germany under their universal jurisdiction law charging Rumsfeld, Gonzales and other high-ranking officials in the Bush administration with war crimes . The complaint was filed on behalf of 11 former detainees who were victims of severe beatings, sleep and food deprivation, hooding and sexual abuse in Abu Ghraib, and one detainee at Guantnamo Bay subjected to torture and abuse there under Rumsfelds specific authorization.

By clicking on the link here, you can send a letter to the German Prosecutor and show your support for justice for torture victims and accountability for perpetrators.

WHY RUMSFELD?
CCR has reviewed new evidence and documentation that lays the responsibility for U.S. torture program directly at Rumsfelds feet. Rumsfeld himself authorized severe special interrogation techniques and other abusive, unlawful treatment of detainees. Rumsfelds resignation last week means that he can no longer claim immunity from international prosecution as a sitting government official.

WHY GERMANY?
Germany appears to be the court of last resort for a war crimes prosecution of Rumsfeld because the United States has tried to close the door to accountability. For example, the United States has failed to take any action to investigate high-level involvement in the torture program; Congress passed the Military Commissions Act last month, which tries to shield American officials from being prosecuted for war crimes here; and the United States has refused to join the International Criminal Court and has barred the Iraq from prosecuting U.S. officials in that country.

On the other hand, as a signatory to the treaty establishing the International Criminal Court, German law recognizes the principle of universal jurisdiction: that grave breaches of international law like the U.S. torture program authorized by Rumsfeld, must be investigated and, where called for, prosecuted no matter where the crime was committed or the nationality of those involved. CCR has filed this complaint in Germany because we represent torture victims who have yet to see justice, the truth has yet to be investigated and the United States is evading accountability.

Together we can make a difference. Stand with our plaintiffs who include Nobel Peace Prize winners and the former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture and tell the German Prosecutor that you support opening an investigation. With your support, we can show the world community that Americans think torture is immoral and illegal, and that its perpetrators -- wherever they are found -- must be held accountable. Act now.


Sincerely,

Vincent Warren
Executive Director

For more information, please visit our website at www.ccr-ny.org .