San Francisco Bay View » Don Debar http://sfbayview.com Black liberation news and views en-US hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.1 Is Pacifica one foot in the grave? http://sfbayview.com/2013/03/is-pacifica-one-foot-in-the-grave/ http://sfbayview.com/2013/03/is-pacifica-one-foot-in-the-grave/#comments Sat, 23 Mar 2013 00:49:59 +0000 http://sfbayview.com/?p=37067 An interview wit’ former WBAI programmer Don Debar

by The People’s Minister of Information JR

'On the air' sign
All five Pacifica stations are still on the air, but for how long?
Don Debar is a longtime programmer at WBAI, the Pacifica radio station in New York City. A number of strange things have been going on in the Pacifica Foundation for years that are currently bringing the foundation to the brink of extinction because of mismanagement, lawsuits, and other factors too numerous to list that people associated with the network nationwide, like myself, could tell you about.

The Pacifica radio network, founded along with KPFA in Berkeley in 1949 by Lew Hill, a formerly imprisoned anti-war activist, grew to comprise five stations nationwide, adding KPFK in Los Angeles, WBAI in New York, KPFT in Houston and WPFW in Washington, D.C. Together they reach a potential audience of 45 million people. Pacifica invented public radio; since the beginning, Pacifica stations have been sponsored by listeners, with no corporate sponsorship or underwriting and thus no censorship.

But the network faces many dire issues that its listeners need to know and that WBAI programmer Don Debar can knowledgeably talk about. Check out what Pacifica has not been telling its listener supporters …

M.O.I. JR: What is the history of WBAI? How did you get started with WBAI? When?

KPFA transmitter 59,000 watts, 304' tall, on 1500' Grizzley Peak in Berkeley Hills
The strong signals of Pacifica’s five stations have a potential audience of 45 million people. This is KPFA’s 59,000 watt transmitter.
Don Debar: WBAI was gifted by philanthropist Louis Schweitzer in 1960 to Pacifica, which has operated it ever since. I began listening in the late 1960s, in my late teens. I’ve been a regular listener since the Watergate hearings were aired in 1973.

As I became active in various struggles in my community, I began to have contact with a number of producers at BAI, particularly Errol Maitland, Sharan Harper and Bernard White. This grew into a relationship, beginning in about 2002, where I became a regular contributor to the morning program Wakeup Call, producing a weekly segment covering the communities in the region north of NYC, as well as coverage of various special events, such as the 2004 Republican National Convention in New York.

Ultimately, by 2007, I became the morning news headlines editor for Wakeup Call, traveled the country in 2008 covering the presidential campaign of Cynthia McKinney and the Democratic and Republican national conventions, and began to produce regular special events coverage for Wakeup Call.

M.O.I. JR: What is the history behind WBAI’s financial troubles with Pacifica?

Don Debar: The basis of the financial problems that have faced WBAI was the 15-year lease that Pacifica, under then executive director Pat Scott (who tried to make Pacifica more mainstream – ed.) signed with Larry Silverstein in 1997 that ultimately led to annual rent of more than $375,000 a year for their studio and offices at 120 Wall St.

KPFK tower
KPFK tower
This was done against the advice and express wishes of the staff at WBAI, but it was forced down their throat by Pacifica’s management. The cost of this space exceeded the cost of all other real estate for the other four stations combined. The result was that WBAI went from being the largest net funder of Pacifica to its greatest cash-flow liability.

M.O.I. JR: How did Hurricane Sandy affect WBAI? How did it affect the network as a whole?

Don Debar: Although WBAI suffered service and studio access interruption as a result of Sandy, the role of this in the station’s much larger set of problems has been greatly exaggerated by management. For example, WBAI did not have to suddenly move last year as a consequence of Sandy. Rather, the term of the lease ended Dec. 31, 2012, Pacifica was many months in arrears – and this was a chronic problem for the entire time since the current management took over – and the landlord decided to kick them out.

The date of the lease’s end was known since it was first entered into in 1997; it was specified in the lease. The eviction crisis was a result of management failing to make provisions for new space until they were being evicted. Had Nia Bediako not made arrangements with CUNY (City University of New York) for the temporary space currently housing the station, WBAI would have been homeless. Again, this had nothing to do with Sandy and everything to do with gross mismanagement.

WBAI tower on Empire State Building by Doc Searles
WBAI tower atop the Empire State Building – Photo: Doc Searles
The irony here is the fact that the purge of Tony Riddle and Bernard White from WBAI by the current management in 2009 was based on a false claim that WBAI’s management had failed to pay the rent and brought the station within three days of eviction. In fact, it was Pacifica which had caused the problem when it refused to either fund the solution or attempt to renegotiate the lease.

The notorious “three-day notice” that was waved around by Grace Aaron, Steve Brown and Mitchel Cohen is not notice of a pending eviction but, rather, that the rent is in arrears and unless arrangements are made in the three-day period to correct it, an eviction proceeding – which lasts several months in New York City – might be commenced.

M.O.I. JR: What is going on with Pacifica’s 501(c)(3) status? Is it illegal for Pacifica to be collecting funds for programming?

Don Debar: Pacifica’s corporate charter is based in California. It came to light earlier this year that Pacifica’s management had failed to file the required documents with the California authorities and, as a consequence, its corporate charter was suspended. As of March 19, 2013, the date of the most recent data posted at the California Secretary of State’s website, it remains suspended. Under California law, the corporation is no longer authorized to conduct business, appear in court to prosecute or defend litigation, or perform any other operations other than prepare and file the required documents for reinstatement.

Update: Pacifica is back on active status with the California Secretary of State as of March 22.

According to the IRS, when a 501(c)(3) entity has its charter suspended or revoked, its status as a 501(c)(3) entity is also suspended. In order to reinstate its status with IRS, the corporation has to be revived under the appropriate state process, and evidence of this, along with an official statement from the state authorities detailing the term of the suspension, must be filed with an application for reinstatement of 501(c)(3) status.

KPFT tower
KPFT tower
Although it is unclear how IRS will treat funds collected during the suspension – that is, whether IRS will impose a tax and penalties on donors who contributed during the period of the suspension – it is clear that each representation made during the suspension that donations were tax deductible was false. In other words, each time someone went on the air and said that “your contribution will be tax deductible,” they were making a false statement, since these funds solicited and/or collected during the suspension were only prospectively deductible, dependent upon the filing of corrective documents with the state and IRS and their acceptance for reinstatement.

Again, this has yet to be accomplished as of March 19, 2013, and it is unclear how IRS will treat this.

M.O.I. JR: Why is Pacifica in court in New York?

Don Debar: Aside from being evicted from their offices and studios at 120 Wall St. earlier this year, WBAI is in the process of being evicted from the transmission tower on the Empire State Building. Here, too, there has been a chronic arrearage in rent, and the landlord decided they’d had enough and began eviction proceedings.

Without the tower, WBAI is off the air and at grave danger of losing its license to broadcast. Mimi Rosenberg, a Legal Aid attorney who produced the program Building Bridges, secured legal counsel – at no cost – to attempt to resolve the matter, after management had brought the station within days of eviction. The matter is pending.

M.O.I. JR: With what is happening with Pacifica as a whole, as well as the issues with WBAI, WPFW and KPFA, where do you see Pacifica in 10 years?

WPFW tower
WPFW tower
Don Debar: As detailed above, Pacifica as a whole is suffering from gross mismanagement. The decimation of progressive programming at WBAI, firing of Black management around the network beginning with the takeover of WBAI in 2009, and operation of the foundation by interim managers with no experience in managing an enterprise of this size, nature has brought it to a state where its once flagship, 50,000 watt station in NYC is homeless and at risk of being off the air in the next month. In addition, Pacifica has lost its corporate charter and 501(c)(3) status and is at risk of perhaps millions in tax liability to donors who believed they were giving to a valid 501(c)(3) entity.

In fact, Pacifica even lost its name. While its charter was suspended, another corporation was formed in California using the name Pacifica Foundation Inc., resulting in Pacifica having to change its name to Pacifica Foundation Radio in order to proceed with its attempt to revive the corporation. Without good management, I do not think Pacifica will exist by the end of the year.

M.O.I. JR: How could people keep up with info dealing with Pacifica?

Don Debar: We are beginning to open a discussion on internet radio station Community Progressive Radio, which airs at www.CPRmetro.org, and invite producers and others interested in saving Pacifica to participate. Thus far, there are several former Pacifica producers who have regular programs on CPRmetro, including myself and Bernard White, the purged program director from WBAI, as well as several current Pacifica producers.

Since management has been keeping all of these problems secret until they reach the stage of crisis, we will have to inform ourselves and each other if Pacifica is to survive their mismanagement.

The People’s Minister of Information JR is associate editor of the Bay View, author of “Block Reportin’” and filmmaker of “Operation Small Axe” and “Block Reportin’ 101,” available, along with many more interviews, at www.blockreportradio.com. He also hosts two weekly shows on KPFA 94.1 FM and kpfa.org: The Morning Mix every Wednesday, 8-9 a.m., and The Block Report every other Friday night-Saturday morning, midnight-2 a.m. He can be reached at blockreportradio@gmail.com.

 

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Bring JR back to KPFA now! http://sfbayview.com/2013/03/bring-jr-back-to-kpfa-now/ http://sfbayview.com/2013/03/bring-jr-back-to-kpfa-now/#comments Thu, 21 Mar 2013 03:31:18 +0000 http://sfbayview.com/?p=37014 Join KPFA’s Black and other broadcasters of color and unpaid staff for a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m., in Laney College Student Center Room 401, fourth floor, 900 Fallon St., Oakland

Introduction by SF Bay View publisher Willie Ratcliff

For the third week in a row, one of the largest audiences for any show on KPFA was disappointed not to hear the People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey and his Block Report on the air Wednesday at 8 a.m. Instead we heard an announcement by interim general manager Andrew Phillips that JR has been suspended. Getting punished for doing “too well” happens to Black folks much too often.

Black Media Appreciation Night Willie Ratcliff, JR Valrey smiles Yoshi's 112612 by TaSin Sabir, web
The great success of Black Media Appreciation Night at Yoshi’s is reflected at the end of the show in the happy faces of Bay View publisher Dr. Willie Ratcliff and associate editor JR Valrey, who organized it. Listen to KPFA’s broadcast of the unforgettable event at http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/88711. – Photo: TaSin Sabir
It’s an echo of Reconstruction, that brief period 150 years ago following the Emancipation Proclamation when, within three years of winning the vote, Blacks had won 15 percent of all elected offices in the South. With Black progress measured in one step forward and two steps back, however, the payback for such audacity continues to this day.

Like the intrusion of Blacks into the hallowed halls of Congress, the intrusion of JR, a young Black man from the hood, into KPFA’s prime drive time has been met with resentment, yet his show has been a success by any measure. JR, a volunteer, unpaid host at KPFA whose show costs the station nothing, has raised $50,000 for the station’s paid staff during his short stint as a drive time host.

KPFA is worth fighting for. Its 59,000 watts reach millions in Northern and Central California, yet its audience – except for JR’s show and others that speak boldly for the voiceless – is shrinking. With hosts who draw thousands of new listeners, as JR does, KPFA can free the minds of the masses to resolve the conflicts that are killing us and our world.

Getting punished for doing “too well” happens to Black folks much too often.

In my six years on the KPFA Local Station Board, I heard countless complaints of racism. Racism, practiced with impunity by some of the paid staff, has lost KPFA many excellent broadcasters of color. Like theirs, JR’s complaints have been ignored, while the complaints filed against JR by the Communications Workers of America, the union representing KPFA’s mostly white paid staff, are the excuse for his suspension.

Yet JR refuses to leave, and the rest of KPFA’s Black and other broadcasters of color – and many more – are rallying around him. Please join them by:

  1. signing the two petitions that are circulating,
    • one below (add your signature by emailing editor@sfbayview.com) and
    • another online at Change.org – click HERE – and
  2. attending the Town Hall Meeting, where everyone can speak out, on Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m., at Laney College, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, in Student Center Room 401 (details below).

Petition to end the suspension of JR Valrey from KPFA

We are requesting that KPFA management rescind its decision to suspend JR Valrey from the Morning Mix. Management’s decision to suspend Mr. Valrey without providing a fair hearing is a violation of his fundamental due process rights.

Free Wheelin' Franklin, Sinista Z, G1 of Rebel Diaz, JR, Rod Starz, Deanna, Holly Works at KPFA Oscar Grant special 0608
While JR Valrey is accused of creating a hostile work environment – apparently by being a Black man – at KPFA, what he really does there is to bring people together. Here he is with Free Wheelin’ Franklin Sterling, Sinista Z, G1 and Rod Starz of Rebel Diaz, Deanna and Holly Works at KPFA recording a special on Oscar Grant, on June 8, 2010. JR broke the story of Oscar’s police murder on KPFA.
Mr. Valrey has made several complaints to KPFA management about abusive conduct by some KPFA paid station staff members. None of the people he has complained about have been suspended.

On Feb. 28, 2013, Mr. Valrey was suspended from the Morning Mix show for allegedly “creating a hostile working environment.” Suspending him without due process is inconsistent with Pacifica’s mission and contrary to past practices. Additionally, several other staff members have made comments on the air dealing with internal politics that often were not exactly “fair and balanced” and upset other staff, but they did not get suspended.

The suspension of 60 days for Mr. Valrey pending an investigation is punishment without determination of guilt. Mr. Valrey is not accused of any criminal act or violence at the station. Therefore, the suspension of Mr. Valrey in the absence of a complete investigation of the allegations against him, and a fair due process hearing, is an unfair punishment and, thus, a violation of his rights as an unpaid staff member at KPFA, according to the UPSO (UnPaid Staff Organization) bylaws.

We are requesting that Mr. Valrey be reinstated back on the Morning Mix. Additionally, we ask that this and any other disputes between Mr. Valrey and any other staff at KPFA be resolved with proper investigation and due process prior to any punishment.

Signers (add your signature by emailing editor@sfbayview.com):

Willie Ratcliff, publisher, SF Bay View, and former member, KPFA Local Station Board
Mary Ratcliff, editor, SF Bay View
Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Congresswoman and 2008 Green Party presidential candidate
Gerald Smith, labor activist and former member, KPFA Local Station Board (petition author)
Davey D, host, Hard Knock Radio, KPFA
Walter Turner, host, Africa Today, KPFA
Greg Bridges, host, Transitions on Traditions, KPFA, KCSM, Reflections in Rhythm
Jared Ball, WPFW host, IMixWhatILike.org
Tim Killings, Laney Black Student Union (author of the online petition)
Rebel Diaz, Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, The Bronx
Don DeBar, CPRmetro.org, Community Progressive Radio
Gerald Perreira, Black Consciousness Movement Guyana (BCMG) and African Revolutionary Movement (ARM)
Taiwo Kujichagulia-Seitu, Lyric Dance and Vocal Ensemble
Thandisizwe Chimurenga, KPFK host
Kevin Epps, filmmaker, deYoung Fine Arts Museum artist fellow
Donald E. Lacy, LoveLife Foundation, KPOO host
Anita Woodley, actor, Princess Dragon Productions, LLC
James D. Calhoun, ElevenFour Productions
Maya Garcia, aka Ms. B, Gemstone and Block Report Radio crew
Stan Woods, former member, KPFA Local Station Board and KPFA Program Council
Oriana Ides, ARISE High School
Anita Lopez, KPFA supporter and listener
Jessica Gelay, KPFA listener and supporter, Berkeley native
Jacob Crawford, WeCopwatch.org
Anushka Baltes
Asatah J, former KPFA listener and educator
Malcolm Chu, community organizer, Springfield, Mass.
Lyla Bugara, KPFA listener and organizer
Tracie D. Moreland
Virginia Browning
Jodi Tsapis, youth and community worker, San Francisco
Coriander Melious, Special Education teacher, Oakland Technical High School FADA Campus
J.B. Gerald and J. Maas, Gerald and Maas, Ottawa
Henry Peters, former KPFA broadcaster, Michigan
Mara Rivera, KPFA listener supporter
Khari Toure, listener and spoken word artist
Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Clenched Fist Productions
Moises Galvan, listener supporter
K Moon Howe, KPFA supporter and listener
Mary Berg, long time KPFA broadcaster, supporter and advocate
Kiana Davis, KPFA listener
Kevin Weston, principle at KwestOn Media
Malaika H Kambon, photojournalist and former programmer at KPFA
Steve Martinot, college professor
Charles Brown, IBEW
Jack Heyman, ILWU
Richard Phelps, attorney, mediator, former member and chair, KPFA Local Station Board
Lisa ‘Tiny’ Gray-Garcia, Poor News Network, KPFA broadcaster
Tony Robles, Poor News Network, KPFA broadcaster
Elbert ‘Big Man’ Howard, former editor of The Black Panther newspaper, founding member of PACH (Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline), jazz host and board member of KWTF 88.1FM
Carole Hyams Howard, nurse, founding member of PACH (Police Accountability Clinic and Helpline), board member of KWTF 88.1FM
San Francisco Green Party
Rich Stone, SF Green Party County Council, SF Labor Council APWU Delegate
John-Marc Chandonia, SF Green Party County Council
Rev. Sandra Decker, SF Green Party
Ann Garrison, KPFA Evening News reporter, WBAI AfrobeatRadio producer
Adam Hudson, independent journalist, writer and photographer
DM Moore, dedicated listener and supporter of JR Valrey’s journalism and radio program
Bill Carpenter, videographer, retired adjunct instructor at City College of SF
Galen Kusic, editor, River News-Herald and Isleton Journal, Rio Vista, Calif.
Leo Stegman, writer
Peter Byrne, independent journalist
Terrell Baker
Russell Albans, better known as Eesuu, the artist
Mikela McFly of Block Report Radio, former KPFA listener
Rashida Petrovich
Mona Hall
George Pope
Claude Gatebuke
Susan Rahman, KPFA listener
Mona Hall
Martin Luther McCoy, actor, singer, producer, activist
Kiki Poe
George Cammarota, Bay Area activist
Evan Coller
Randy Gould
Mike Leonard, United Educators of San Francisco, Local 61, KPFA listener and supporter
Duane Deterville, artist, writer, MA in Visual and Critical Studies, CCA, www.duanedeterville.com, columnist for SF MOMA Blog Open Space
Nedar Bey, GreenLeaf Solar Solutions
Judy Walenta, Sebastopol
Dean Drumheller
Gavin Tolentino
Ivan Viray Santos, teacher at James Logan High School in Ethnic Studies – Filipino Heritage Studies, Asian American Studies
Todd Armstrong
Kambale Musavuli
Lesley Tiyesha Phillips
Petr Dann
Mishwa Lee
Ivan Olsen, Gonzales, Calif. – I listen to KPFA on-line
Sandra Morey, Oakland CA 94602
OurLegacee.com
Sho’mane Evans, Office Manager at Meiklejohn Civil Liberties Institute in Berkeley and long time KPFA listener

My thoughts on JR’s suspension by KPFA

by Steve Martinot

JR Valrey was suspended from his Wednesday 8-9 a.m. show on KPFA for having made public statements on the radio about what was going on in the station. He made these statements on Feb. 8. There was no gag rule he was violating.

He raised two issues at that time. The first was that Sasha Lilley, a host of KPFA’s Against the Grain, was being given an award by the station during Black History Month. Lilley is white. JR criticized the station management for having chosen that time to give a white person an award. It could have been done any other time of the year, and a Black person could have been recognized by the station during that month.

The other issue he raised was what had happened to him at the hands of Michael Yoshida some time in December. He was in the studio, recording an interview by long distance phone, with someone in the Congo, speaking about what was going on in the Congo, which has become a very dire situation. He was putting together this show because he felt that KPFA News was not sufficiently covering the Congo situation, and he wanted to make up the deficit.

During the course of these interviews, his use of the studio went beyond the time period for which he had reserved it. Michael Yoshida came in, informed him that he was in the studio illegitimately, broke the phone connection of the interview, and erased the tapes that JR had made.

JR did not put Yoshida in the hospital at that moment. I have nothing but awe for his self-restraint.

The unpaid staff is the majority of the workers in that station. Those who are in the union bargaining unit – paid staff – refuse to include them. I think that would satisfy anyone’s definition of elitism.

JR complained to Andrew Phillips, the station’s interim general manager. Andrew did nothing about it. JR waited two months, reminded Andrew that there was a problem several times, and finally said what he had to say about it on the radio. Yoshida was not suspended for having destroyed JR’s work. But JR is suspended for what he has to say about what Yoshida did.

The union is calling for JR to be suspended permanently. Yoshida is part of the union bargaining unit, and JR is not because he is unpaid staff. The unpaid staff is the majority of the workers in that station. Those who are in the union bargaining unit – paid staff – refuse to include them. I think that would satisfy anyone’s definition of elitism.

In supporting Yoshida in his attack on JR – to destroy a person’s work is to attack him – and in attacking JR in turn by calling for his separation from the station, the union and its membership, to the extent they agree with the union, demonstrate their elitism in practice.

Why is this an example of white supremacy? Because the union claims that what JR was saying in his broadcast about the harassment he has been receiving at the station, which he claims is on a racial basis – he gives statistics – is itself a racist attack on the station.

Now, racism is a system and structure of oppression. It is not possible for Black people to systematically and structurally oppress white people in this society, let alone an institution. Racism, which occurs in the U.S. as an element of a system of white domination of people of color, is thus an expression of white supremacy. (If anyone needs more elaborate discussion and reasoning on this, please see me and we can go over it.)

One of the privileges and prerogatives of white supremacy in its force of domination is its self-entitlement to accuse and convict its victims of what it does to them. The supremacism of whiteness also entitles whites in their own eyes to proclaim themselves innocent of such things as domination, and see any objection to the way they treat other people as arrogance and aggression.

One of the privileges and prerogatives of white supremacy in its force of domination is its self-entitlement to accuse and convict its victims of what it does to them.

And for white supremacists, if that resistance, which it sees as arrogance and aggressiveness, is racial in character because in resistance to racial oppression, then that resistance is what constitutes racism for it. Rebellion against racial oppression is seen as aggression, against which white supremacy decriminalizes its continued attacks as self-defense. For the union to claim that what JR said on the radio is racist is testimony to the union assuming just that kind of entitlement for itself, a way of silencing the anger of the oppressed.

JR is a militant Black voice that is being suppressed. As a militant Black voice, he played an important role in the station.

Steve Martinot, who teaches at the Center for Interdisciplinary Programs at San Francisco State University, is the author of “The Rule of Racialization: Class, Identity, Governance.” He has edited two previous books and translated “Racism” by Albert Memmi. He can be reached at martinot4@gmail.com.

Regarding Minister of Information JR Valrey’s suspension from KPFA

by Galen Kusic

The recent suspension of JR Valrey from KPFA has sparked great interest in the surrounding region as to why his show is currently off the air. I am writing a piece on free speech and freedom of the press, and this ties into it.

Block Report Radio provides an outlet for truth, innovation, honesty and community like few radio shows ever have. This groundbreaking style of radio is one that should be studied and emulated for the current generation and those in the future.

Block Report Radio provides an outlet for truth, innovation, honesty and community like few radio shows ever have. This groundbreaking style of radio is one that should be studied and emulated for the current generation and those in the future.

To strike one of the purest forms of free speech from the airwaves is daunting. Why? What is the explanation?

As an advocate for free speech, freedom of the press and the obligation that public radio has to its listeners, I request Block Report Radio be put back on the air.

Galen Kusic, editor at the River News-Herald and Isleton Journal, based in Rio Vista, Calif., can be reached at glin83@yahoo.com.

More notable comments

JR does valuable work representing a very underserved and underrepresented segment of our society. Bring him back to the Morning Mix and the KPFA airwaves. – Greg Bridges, KPFA, KCSM

As a Green, anti-war vet and Labor Council delegate and activist, I proudly submit my name to your petition in order to reinstate JR to the KPFA and the morning Block Report show. – In solidarity, Rich Stone, SF Green Party County Council, SF Labor Council APWU Delegate

Here is my signature supporting the petition to reinstate JR. He discusses issues concerning African Americans that mainstream media do not. – Kiana Davis, KPFA Listener

I strongly support KPFA and most all of the programs. I listen to David D and to Minister of Information JR. I consider it vital to the KPFA audience for JR’s program to be back on the air as soon as possible. I love the programs and most of all love all the voices and FREE speech radio with no stupidity from mainstream media propaganda. Long live KPFA and long live JR and the Block Report. – Moises Galvan

We are requesting that KPFA management rescind its decision to suspend JR Valrey from the Morning Mix. Management’s decision to suspend Mr. Valrey without providing a fair hearing is a violation of his fundamental due process rights. – Eli Jacobs-Fantauzzi, Clenched Fist Productions

Please add my name to the list. JR is one of the ONLY reasons I listen to KPFA. – Coriander Melious, Special Education Teacher, Oakland Technical High School F.A.D.A. Campus

Please add my name to the petition to bring JR back to KPFA. This is an unjust horror that flies in the face of what’s right and KPFA’s supposed principles. – Lyla Bugara, KPFA listener and organizer with ColorOfChange.org

Please bring my cousin back. There are a lot of people who listen for him. – Terrell Baker

I’d say hell yes bring JR back. KPFA is supposed to report community news? Who else can do this but people who know the community from the inside. I think that this is its highest mission. Reminds me of the squeezing out of Nora Barrows Friedman. She too got out there to report whats being done to the Palestinians only to be shunted impolitely off of Flashpoints. Those so-called union as a chastening rod types do their best to drive community reporters off the air and run up attorneys’ fees which they fully expect KPFA contributors to pay for. – George Pope, San Mateo, Calif., and Kokrobite, Ghana

Bring JR back to KPFA. This is an unjust horror that flies in the face of what’s right and KPFA’s supposed principles.

Please add my name to the KPFA petition in support of JR Valrey. I love his radio program and the content needs to be heard! – Jodi Tsapis, Youth and Community Worker in San Francisco

There should be clear language on what can or cannot be said on the air about in-station issues, then punishment should be dealt out equally to all who violate these rules – not just JR. That would not be fair. Why are you choosing to punish one person for shedding light on our issues and still others go unpunished for their defiance of the rules and continue to broadcast like nothing ever happened? Don’t let the decision to suspend JR stand and allow him to broadcast. – Franklin Sterling, KPFA Local Station Board staff representative

I camped out at KPFA during the lockout and support JR Valreys return to the airwaves immediately. – Leo Stegman

I am an avid supporter of KPFA. Ive donated over the past several years, Ive donated time to Womens Magazine and encouraged all of my friends and family to also support the work you do. JR Valrey has been a much needed voice for a demographic that is typically overlooked by mainstream media. KPFA is considered “the people’s station” and you have a responsibility to the community to represent ALL of us. I ask you, respectfully, to bring JR Valrey back to the air and give our community their voice back. – Peace, Kiki Poe

I won’t donate to KPFA if JR’s suspension isn’t lifted.  Evan Coller

I have been involved in the struggle against white supremacy and white skin privilege now for more that 45 years. What is going on at KPFA with regards to JR is most certainly a fine example of what I have been fighting against all of my adult life. While the actions of KPFA are not surprising by any means, they are still disgusting. I stand in solidarity with JR and his many fine supporters.  Randy Gould, Scission (blog), Kansas City, Missouri

The Morning Mix and Hard Knock Radio are two of the most important programs on KPFA, in my opinion. I listen to both almost daily on my commute to and from work on Muni. I have reached out to my union leadership encouraging them to expand the capacities of our media production to be more diverse, inclusive and dynamic. I took this action due in large part to the insight and inspiration gained from these broadcasts over the years. JR is one of the journalists whose experience and perspective is needed both on the airwaves and as a model for real local independent media. Thank you to Mr. and Mrs. Ratcliff and the SF Bay View for offering this petition and information regarding the on-going suspension. Members are certainly not learning anything from Pacifica regarding the situation. In solidarity.  Mike Leonard, United Educators of San Francisco, Local 61, KPFA listener and supporter

[This comment refers to an infomercial run as a substitute for JR’s show on April 17.] KPFA is becoming KQED. Bill Gates Foundation has its own time slot talking about robots. This is a bizarre disgrace. PLEASE get rid of the current general manager! KPFA is disappearing. Every pledge drive is full of reasons to not ask for money during the pledge drive but bring the listener important current events instead. STOP the current general manager from making decisions. Get someone new, responsible, and intelligent and respectful enough to respond to listener call-ins. Where is KPFA?  Dean Drumheller

Please add my name to the petititon in support of JR Valrey. I have written to Andrew Phillips that I will not contribute to KPFA until JR is reinstated. I have seen KPFA and Pacifica through a lot of changes but this is totally unacceptable. Especially when the paid on air staff is dominated by white men.  Judy Walenta, Sebastopol

JR’s news, information and perspective must be kept on air!  Gavin Tolentino

As a financial supporter of KPFA, I join the community in demanding that JR be taken off suspension and brought back into the studio.  Ivan Viray Santos, teacher at James Logan High School in Ethnic Studies  Filipino Heritage Studies, Asian American Studies

I have been a listener and supporter of JR and the Block Report since its inception. What is going on? Why has he been suspended?

I am very unhappy that KPFA is playing double standards, when one paid producer gets away with the F bomb on air (potentially a huge fine) with no suspension or reprimand even. Yet when JR, an unpaid volunteer, rightly criticizes KPFAs obvious racial bias he gets a suspension.

It is extremely hard for me to continue supporting KPFA after all the racial animosity the station has shown toward Africans at the station. I stopped donating my hard earned money after KPFA abused another long time Black volunteer, Nadra Foster. Most of my friends and family feel the same way I do about KPFA’s shift towards a mainstream format and we do not like it at all. If KPFA would re-institute the Third World and Women’s departments, more people would listen and more donations would come through. I am a woman and an African, so KPFA has taken away the two departments that best represent me.

KPFA needs to bring back programming for women and third world listeners as well. KPFA, bring JR and the Block Report back immediately. All power to the people! – Lesley Tiyesha Phillips

Stop the gentr-ifica gentrification of community radio and return JR to the airwaves. National and local gentr-ifica policies of removing critical Black voices from the airwaves is a growing epidemic. Yet gentr-ifica seems to have no problem piggy-backing on the Black liberation struggle for its own purposes. A true revolutionary movement will not be led by a white-entitled, liberal non-profit mentality! Viva Davey D and JR! – Petr Dann, petrdann@gmail.com

I am a long time supporter of KPFA and was very pleased when JR Valreys program started airing on Wednesday morning on KPFA. I find JR to be an astute and focused interviewer. Each program was timely, informative and unique among progressive talk radio. He helped me to understand in greater depth my privilege as a Euro-American and ways to be an ally by staying informed and active regarding issues of racism in our community and nation.

It is unconscionable that he was suspended without reason and without a democratic process. The issues of who are paid programmers and who are volunteers at KPFA needs to be aired in the open as well. Until JR is returned to KPFA and afforded the right to continue his show, I am suspending my monthly contribution.

Please be advised that I will be requesting of my bank that no further funds be withdrawn by KPFA. – Mishwa Lee, San Francisco

Please add my name to the petition at the BayView. I miss his show on KPFA. I always found it informative and well produced. The guests were folks we don’t usually get to hear from and JR is a terrific interviewer. I didn’t always agree with his point of view, but it always was presented clearly and gave me food for thought. I don’t like the process of disappearing reporters and programs without any listener input. By the way, JR raised a bunch of money for the station and that was important.
Sandra Morey, Oakland CA 94602

KPFA’s Black and other broadcasters of color and unpaid staff host Town Hall Meeting at Laney College

Join KPFA’s Black and other broadcasters of color and unpaid staff for a Town Hall Meeting on Thursday, April 11, 6 p.m., in Laney College Student Center Room 401, fourth floor, 900 Fallon St., Oakland, to talk about:

  1. The arbitrary suspension of Black broadcaster JR Valrey from the Morning Mix, without due process, as well as the consistently racist treatment of other broadcasters and staff of color in the recent past, including Nadra Foster, Carrie Core, Miguel Gavilan Molina and more. Come tell your story!
  2. Rally to Save Hard Knock Radio Flashpoints and Full Circle at KPFA JR speaking 111110 by Lisa Dettmer, web
    Anita Johnson of KPFA’s Hard Knock Radio (holding the bullhorn) and JR organized a very well attended and exceptionally harmonious rally outside KPFA on Nov. 10, 2010, to save Hard Knock and Flashpoints, two of KPFA’s most revolutionary shows, when the entrenched paid staff, sometimes referred to as the White Citizens Council, tried to shut them down. – Photo: Lisa Dettmer
    KPFA/Pacifica’s use of a two-tier system to deal with the paid and unpaid staff. At KPFA, 80 percent of the broadcasters are unpaid; the 20 percent who are paid use up all of the resources, although all broadcasters must raise funds. The unpaid staff have NO say in decisions about the budget, hiring, office allocation etc.
  3. No Program Council at KPFA. The Program Council used to be a group of one third listeners, one third broadcasters and one third management that evaluated shows and recommended changes to the programming grid. In ‘08-’09, former Program Director Sasha Lilley, a host of Against the Grain radio show, abolished the Program Council, effectively ridding KPFA of listeners’ and broadcasters’ participation in programming decisions.
  4. No grievance process. KPFA lacks a process to address grievances from the unpaid staff in a timely manner.
  5. Pacifica and KPFA management’s selective enforcement of the rules. Unpaid staff are penalized, while paid staff, for the same infractions, are not even addressed, let alone punished.
  6. The pseudo-union CWA (Communications Workers of America), which represents only the 20 percent of the staff that are paid, and not all paid staff support it. It effectively controls the station and runs it into the ground, for the benefit of the entrenched paid staff.

The Town Hall will feature Gerald Smith, formerly of the KPFA Local Station Board, Frank Sterling of the current Local Station Board, Tracy Rosenberg of the Pacifica Natonal Board and the “suspended” People’s Minister of Information JR Valrey of Block Report Radio. Bring your stories, suggestions and support.

For more info, call the SF Bay View newspaper at (415) 671-0789.

 

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Cynthia McKinney’s truth dispatches from Libya: Days 1-3 http://sfbayview.com/2011/06/cynthia-mckinney%e2%80%99s-truth-dispatches-from-libya-days-1-3/ http://sfbayview.com/2011/06/cynthia-mckinney%e2%80%99s-truth-dispatches-from-libya-days-1-3/#comments Mon, 06 Jun 2011 06:49:02 +0000 http://sfbayview.com/?p=20303 by Wayne Madsen

On Libyan-Tunisian border, it’s back to the future with refugees

Djerba, Tunisia, June 3-4, 2011 – During the last air sanctions against Libya, imposed by the United Nations in 1992 over alleged Libyan involvement in the bombings of PanAm 103 and UTA 772, many Libyans traveling to and from Tripoli were forced to fly through Tunisia, traveling overland to and from the Tunisian border to their homes in Libya. With European Union sanctions now imposed on Libya, the old travel regime is back in force.

Writing for the Guardian of London, Tom Kington reported from Rome on May 25 in a story illustrated with this photo: “More than 1,000 migrants who fled fighting in Libya have been left without shelter in the Tunisian desert after locals burned and looted a refugee camp near the border, witnesses have claimed. At least five people were wounded when Tunisian soldiers opened fire on migrants fleeing Tuesday's attack on the U.N.-managed Choucha camp.” Mostly Black African refugees, who fled Libya after U.S.- and NATO-supported rebels committed war crimes against them merely because of the color of their skin, live a sprawling refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the Libyan border. America's first African-American president supports a rebel movement that practices genocide against Black Africans, mostly guest workers who received salaries in Libya they could never earn in their native countries in sub-Sahara and Sahel Africa. – Photo: Anis Mill, Reuters
However, there is a new dimension to the air embargo on Libya. Attracted to the Libyan-Tunisian border by refugees, most African guest workers from sub-Sahara and pan-Sahel African nations, fleeing the fighting in their country, scores of international aid workers now occupy the tourist hotels of Djerba, the once popular Tunisian resort that has fallen on hard times after tour operators canceled excursions following the Tunisian revolution earlier this year.

Today, prior to crossing into Libya, this reporter is witnessing representatives of the “misery industry,” young international aid workers with groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, EU and International Organization for Migration lounging around the tourist hotels mingling with German and French pensioners eager to take advantage of the special travel packages being offered by a depressed Tunisian tourist industry.

Not only is war good for the weapons industry, but refugee crises brought about by Western-implemented wars fatten the wallets of NGOs anxious to cash in on the human misery created by Pentagon and NATO overt and covert military operations. Meanwhile, here in Djerba, near the Libyan frontier, it’s poolside and cold Heinekens for the NGO community here to “save” the Libyan refugees.

Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media

Tripoli, Libya, June 4-5, 2011 – Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO air strikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.

The DIGNITY Delegation witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main highway from Tunisia to Tripoli. – Photo: Wayne Madsen
The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiryah not only adorns flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles, and even from outside of top floor windows in medium size and small towns alike along the main highway.

There are some telltale signs of previous fighting in the western part of the country – bullet holes in the walls of some buildings and even some more extensive structural damage – but there are no signs that the rebels, backed by the United States, NATO and the European Union, have any substantial support in western Libya.

The one major sign of the Libyan civil war lies not in western Libya but across the Tunisian border where several refugee tent cities have been set up to accommodate thousands of refugees, most of them Black African guest workers from sub-Sahara and Sahel nations who were set upon by rebels who said the workers were “mercenaries” brought to Libya by Qaddafi to fight on his behalf.

In fact, there is a strong anti-Black racialist element within the Libyan rebel movement that used the mercenary meme to justify heinous war crimes by rebel units against Blacks from other African nations, as well as native Libyan Blacks.

While many of the refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the Libyan frontier are sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one is funded by the United Arab Emirates, one of the nations participating in President Obama’s “coalition of the willing” that is waging a war on behalf of the Libyan rebels. From our hotel on the Mediterranean coast, we expect to see and hear the attacks conducted against military and some civilian targets a further few miles inland in downtown Tripoli.

The EU and NATO sanctions on Libya are being severely felt by Libya’s civilians. Petrol stations are rationing gasoline and long lines of cars sit waiting for gasoline to be delivered to the pumps.

The NATO, EU and U.S. policy of “collective punishment” of western Libya’s civilian population is being compared to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, many Libyans believe that Obama’s crippling sanctions on western Libya were crafted by Israel’s lobby in Washington, which pressured the Obama administration into adopting them.

NATO has conducted nightly air strikes against western Libya, including downtown Tripoli, since March 19. The attacks begin around 12 midnight local time and at the time of this report we are expecting another NATO bombing of Tripoli in a little less than an hour.

NATO war crimes in Libya exposed

Tripoli, Libya, June 5-6, 2011 – In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.

Col. Qaddafi's wife's handbag and some of her clothing were blown several hundred feet from the bedroom of her home when it was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane on April 30. – Photo: Wayne Madsen
The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Seif al Arab Qaddafi, on April 30, was an attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Qaddafi’s grandchildren.

The only reason Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet.

The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.

The Pentagon insists that the Qaddafi residence was a military command center. Perhaps the Pentagon mistook the above equipment for what the Pentagon brass trains on every day. – Photo: Wayne Madsen
NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi’s wife.

The neighbors’ homes were also badly damaged in the U.S. air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Qaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d’Ivoire.

The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Qaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target.

However, considering that Qaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three executive orders signed by three past presidents – Ford, Carter, and Reagan – in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi was being carried out, the President of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington’s illuminati and Hollywood’s glitterati at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington.

This is the garment Col. Qaddafi was wearing in the living room before he left for the backyard children’s petting zoo, where he was tending to the animals when the U.S.-NATO air strike hit the house. – Photo: Wayne Madsen
Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s order to kill Sadaam Hussein at the outset of the U.S. war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and U.S. law.

Putting into context what occurred at Mrs. Qaddafi’s home and the aftermath, let one say that there is an unprovoked and surprise enemy missile attack on a secondary U.S. presidential residence, say Camp David. The world’s major media then claims that the attack was justified because the U.S. president was committing unsubstantiated war crimes, all reported from sketchy sources. A group of independent journalists and human rights activists drive to Camp David and are welcomed by a plainclothes member of the Secret Service’s Presidential Protective Division.

The Secret Service official then proceeds to show the delegation one of the bombed out bedrooms of the main residence and points out that one of the pulverized bedrooms is where the president’s daughter was killed in the attack. The delegation is then shown the First Lady’s singed handbag thrown several hundred feet away in the explosion.

This gazelle is one of the fortunate but still traumatized survivors of the children's petting zoo. – Photo: Wayne Madsen
Although the president was taking a walk away from the main residence, the delegation is shown a windbreaker bearing the presidential seal lying on the couch of the destroyed living room. A room said to contain military command and control systems is then found by the delegation to have a destroyed pool table and a shattered pinball machine.

The attacking nation claims that the Camp David compound was a security threat. But the American people rally to support their president and his family after the attack.

Now, you can begin to understand how the people of Libya feel after the U.S. attack on Mrs. Qaddafi’s house that killed her and her husband’s son and three grandchildren, along with a family friend.

The DIGNITY Delegation of independent journalists from across the United States is on a truth-telling, fact-finding mission to Libya. Headed by former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the delegation will be joined by former Sen. Mike Gravel and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. For more information, contact Don DeBar at dondebar@optonline.net.

Cynthia McKinney and her delegation visit victims of U.S.-NATO war at a hospital in Tripoli.

 

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McKinney leads DIGNITY Delegation of independent journalists to Libya on fact-finding mission http://sfbayview.com/2011/06/mckinney-leads-dignity-delegation-of-independent-journalists-to-libya-on-fact-finding-mission/ http://sfbayview.com/2011/06/mckinney-leads-dignity-delegation-of-independent-journalists-to-libya-on-fact-finding-mission/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:40:54 +0000 http://sfbayview.com/?p=20222 by Don DeBar

Cynthia McKinney led another delegation to Tripoli earlier this year for the Jan. 15-17 Pan-African Conference. Bay View Associate Editor JR Valrey, known as Minister of Information JR, Hajj Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X, and former Bay View writer Ra’Shida accompanied her. They met with Africans from all over the continent and across the Diaspora, including Samia Nkrumah, daughter of the great pan-Africanist Kwame Nkrumah and member of parliament in Ghana, Roland Lumumba, son of the heroic Congolese President Patrice Lumumba, and many traditional African kings and chiefs. Here, Haitian activist Da’Vid and international peace activist McKinney lead a panel at the mid-January conference. – Photo: Minister of Information JR
Today, independent journalists from across the United States departed on a truth-telling, fact-finding mission to Libya. This coincides with what was supposed to have been a debate in Congress on U.S. involvement in the war against Libya, but the debate got sidelined due to the fact that the legislation requiring a pullout by the U.S. could actually have passed. Both Democratic and Republican leadership are responsible for pulling the bill at the last minute.

Al Jazeera film footage (below) shows that Western soldiers have their “boots on the ground” in Libya, overstepping authority granted by the United Nations Security Council for action in Libya. Every day that President Obama contributes to the military action against Libya, he tests the United States Congress and defies the United States Constitution and the War Powers Act which limit presidential acts of war, subject to authorization by the U.S. Congress.

Incredibly, in what yet may prove to be another act beyond the mandate of the United Nations Security Council resolution, NATO extended its operations in Libya for another 90 days.

Because the public has become increasingly unable to rely on embedded media to tell the American people the “whole truth and nothing but the truth,” the DIGNITY Delegation will shed rare light on NATO’s actions inside that country.

According to some estimates, the American people and the global community were lied to 935 times by administration officials and the media in the lead-up to the Iraq War. As Aeschylus said, “In war, truth is the first casualty.” The DIGNITY Delegation is expected to make daily reports while on the ground of the ongoing NATO actions in the country.

For more information, contact Don DeBar dondebar@optonline.net.


This video shows NATO “boots on the ground” in Libya, which is prohibited by the U.N. resolution that permitted the invasion.

Editor’s note: In a new poll, the public seems to back the Kucinich resolution that was postponed today for fear it would pass. When asked by CNN pollsters who should have final authority for deciding whether the U.S. should continue its use of military force in Libya — Congress or President Obama — 55 percent of respondents answered Congress.

 

 

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Cynthia McKinney on President Obama and Libya, Japan and 9/11 truth http://sfbayview.com/2011/04/cynthia-mckinney-on-president-obama-and-libya-japan-and-911-truth/ http://sfbayview.com/2011/04/cynthia-mckinney-on-president-obama-and-libya-japan-and-911-truth/#comments Sat, 02 Apr 2011 05:44:41 +0000 http://sfbayview.com/?p=19043 by Cynthia McKinney

This brief statement, made March 31 at a press conference at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., between the White House and the Capitol, expands on McKinney’s main story below, under the headline, “Why Obama attacked Libya,” written March 26 and originally posted here March 27:

Not all Libyan rebels favored an invasion, as this Feb. 28 photo shows. One rebel explained, “We have seen what they did in Iraq. They are worse than Qaddafi.” – Photo: Al Jazeera
I am pleased to stand with my colleagues today who are outraged at Nobel Peace Laureate President Obama’s decision to wage war on Africa in Libya. At the outset, let me state that Libya is home to tens of thousands of foreign students and guest workers. The students come from Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia. The messages I have received from concerned Africans state that these young, innocent people, inaccurately labeled by the U.S. press as “Black mercenaries,” have been trapped in hostile territory and are hated by the U.S.-allied Al Qaeda insurgents. The press forgot that Libya is in Africa and that Libyans are Black!

I would also like to acknowledge the outrage of the Women’s International Democratic Federation of Brazil that repudiates the invasion of Libya. They point specifically to the depressed state of women in pre-Qaddafi Libya and how women now have positions that had once been denied to them. They note in their communiqué that the National Front for the Salvation of Libya has been financed by the CIA since 1981 and that its headquarters is in Washington, D.C.

In fact, I have received messages and phone calls from people literally all over the world who are outraged at this action. And because the media cannot be relied upon to tell the truth, I repeat the call that I received directly from Libya yesterday for international observers to go to Libya to tell the world the truth. I would go.

I received a call directly from Libya yesterday for international observers to go to Libya to tell the world the truth. I would go.

Sadly, President Obama’s justification for war provides answers that don’t answer, explanations that don’t explain, and conclusions that don’t conclude. Reports continue to emerge of the U.S. ties to the so-called rebel leaders: the latest being that Khalifa Hifter, latest leader of the rebel army, spent much of the past 20 years in Langley, Virginia. He didn’t even move to Baltimore to disguise the relationship! Moreover, Gen. Wesley Clarke told us that Libya was on the U.S. hit list 10 years ago!

This is nothing new. This operation smells very much like so many other Africa operations fueled by U.S.-supported individuals who become a rebel force able to threaten an inconvenient leader who stands up to the U.S. This particular play has been repeated in Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast and Angola and Mozambique before them. We are not blind; we recognize this play. And the use of depleted uranium will cause health effects for generations to come.

Pentagon Secretary Gates said, “Libya is not part of our vital interest.” Then why are we there? Herein lies the conundrum. President Obama has authorized secret support for the rebels in Libya, just like Miami’s Cuban community has received for decades.

Sadly, our president has chosen to spend $600 million per week in addition to other war costs at a time when the Black community is melting. As of the most recent Economic Policy Institute study, average Black family wealth was $2,000 while that of Whites was $94,600. President Obama has done nothing to address the disparities that have existed in this country since slavery. Clearly, our president should focus on home and improving the lot of the people of this country before launching another war.

Finally, I must say something about the ugly hate language that is emanating more and more from Black political voices. Any politician seeking votes by exacerbating divisions in our country does not deserve our votes. I’m speaking specifically about the unfortunate remarks of Herman Cain, who should know better.

I stand with those who support the right of self-determination of the Libyan people, including their right to resolve differences without interference from outsiders.

Why Obama attacked Libya

In 2005 in the basement of the United States Capitol at a meeting convened by Congressman John Conyers on the subject of the “Downing Street Memo,” Ray McGovern uttered the following truth: He testified that “the United States went to war in Iraq for oil, Israel and military bases craved by administration neocons” so that “the United States and Israel could dominate that part of the world.” McGovern went on to testify truthfully that “Israel is not allowed to be brought up in polite conversation. The last time I did this, the previous director of Central Intelligence called me anti-Semitic.”

Haitian activist Da’vid and former Congresswoman and 2008 presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney were panelists at a mid-January pan-African conference in Tripoli. – Photo: Minister of Information JR
The routine condemnations of McGovern could be heard from all of the sources inside the U.S. political structure that has at its base finance from pro-Israel sources, including from Dr. Howard Dean, who was chair of the Democratic National Committee at the time. This finance nexus has been thoroughly identified by Dr. James Petras, for those who want to do further reading.

Condemnations, however, do not disprove McGovern’s statement but point, instead, to the political untouchability of the topic. However, if one wants to truly understand the formulation of U.S. foreign and military policies, one must carefully consider McGovern’s testimony.

On Dec. 7, 1988, Mikhail Gorbachev described the need for a “universal human consensus” and he called that a new world order. And on Sept. 11, 1990, President George Herbert Walker Bush characterized the crisis that led to his intervention in the Persian Gulf in Operation Desert Storm as an opportunity to move toward “a new world order.” Every president since Bush, including President Obama, has expressed some fealty in one way or another to the idea of a “New World Order” which represents the ultimate goal of internationalizing rule by a few oligarchs and the dissolution, by every means available, of dissent.

On March 19, 2011, exactly eight years after George W. Bush launched “Operation Iraqi Freedom,” President Obama savagely bombed Libya.

One can begin to gain an understanding of exactly who these oligarchs are by investigating the financial winners in the oligarchization of the U.S. economy, in much the same way that the Russian oligarchs were created and eventually identified.

Israel was an important beneficiary of these economic operations and Israel has been an important beneficiary of certain U.S. military operations, exactly as McGovern testified.

The clear losers in this process are the people struggling globally for truth, justice, human rights and peace. And there are clear and identifiable winners – if one dares to look.

Understanding who the winners are is necessary if one is to be able to decipher what they do and why. Therefore, it is necessary to understand that a new type of language has been adopted where war is peace, freedom is slavery, lies are truth, and ignorance is strength: We already know this as Orwell Speak. Our job is to pierce the intentional propagandistic obfuscations and expose the truth for those less aware of the modus operandi of the crafters of this new international order.

Vehicles belonging to forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi explode after an air strike by coalition forces along a road between Benghazi and Ajdabiyah March 20, 2011. – Photo: Goran Tomasevic, Reuters
Nowhere should McGovern’s testimony be weighed more than in the context of the U.S.-led “Global War on Terror,” the more recent “revolutions” of North Africa and West Asia, and more specifically for this paper, events unfolding in Libya.

Initially, the U.S. effort against Qaddafi’s administration in Libya was termed a “humanitarian intervention” to protect the people. But when since Sept. 11, 1990, have U.S. troops been mobilized to innocently rescue civilians in danger? In reality, the U.S. military has been selectively called into action to cause civilian pain, suffering, destruction and death since Sept. 11, 1990, and to further unstated objectives.

The U.S. military was not called into action after its ally, Paul Kagame, oversaw the murder of two democratically elected presidents when their plane was shot from the air by a U.S. missile left over from Operation Desert Storm that found its way to Uganda and from Uganda into Kagame’s possession. The murder of the two sitting presidents by way of shooting down their plane was an act of terror.

In the human conflagration that followed, the tragedy that has become known as the Rwandan Genocide, 100,000 innocent civilians were murdered every day for the next 100 days while neither the Clinton administration, National Security Council Advisor Susan Rice, nor United Nations Ambassador Madeleine Albright did anything to provide humanitarian intervention because regime change was the accepted policy and if it meant the deaths of 1 million Africans, then so be it.

French aircraft carrier Charles De Gaulle heads to Libya March 20 with 20 planes, an attack submarine, several frigates and a refueling ship. – Photo: ECPAD
The Clinton administration women who justified this non-intervention later had an opportunity to stop the carnage in Sierra Leone, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast since 2000, and Sudan, yet they did nothing because what was happening in those areas, despite the tremendous human toll, was consistent with unstated U.S. policy.

Today, the Obama administration is responsible for its own war crimes, torture, crimes against humanity and crimes against the peace and defends in U.S. courts those from the Bush administration who bear responsibility for having approved or justified them in the past. Yet this administration will not even agree to investigate the violation of Mumia Abu Jamal’s civil rights in his first trial rife with racial innuendo, judicial misconduct and a lack of evidence. Or in the case of Troy Davis, where seven of nine witnesses recanted their testimonies and cited prosecutorial misconduct. But it did go to court to defend military commissions and insulted Native Americans in the process!

In addition, what the United States is responsible for in Afghanistan and Pakistan just since President Obama came to office is unthinkable and is despicable. And U.S. taxpayers continue to foot the financial and moral bill for the continued subjugation of Palestine, especially the people of Gaza, who are still being bombarded by Israeli warplanes, all made possible by every one of us who pays taxes. And let us not forget this administration’s efforts to quash the Goldstone Report (the United Nations Report on Israel’s Operation Cast Lead against Gaza) and criticism of Israel after nine Turkish citizens attempting to take humanitarian supplies to Gaza were brazenly murdered by Israeli forces attacking the humanitarian aid ship, Mavi Marmara.

Aviation Electrician’s Mate 2nd Class Joseph Fremen calibrates the forward looking infrared (FLIR) system of a MH-60S Sea Hawk helicopter March 19 on the flight deck of amphibious assault ship USS Kearsarge supporting Operation Odyssey Dawn, the name given the U.S.-NATO invasion of Libya. – Photo: U.S. Navy
But, amazingly, when the Obama administration puts the U.S. war machine in action in a new front in Africa and characterizes it as a “humanitarian intervention,” the peace community seemingly accepts the obfuscation and forgets the facts.

But the peace community knows full well that the Obama administration is continuing the longterm U.S. policies of dismemberment, Balkanization, carefully crafted chaos, and death and destruction to achieve its unstated objectives. Every possibility of dissent is being obliterated – for a reason. The FBI raids in Minnesota, Wisconsin and elsewhere targeting activists who support peace and the human rights of Palestinians is no accident. Politically-motivated prosecutions of politically active Palestinians came first, from Sami Al-Arian and his brother-in-law to the Holy Land Five.

These raids, combined with the administration’s unstated military objectives, undergird the economic transformation to which this administration is fully committed. That is why the average taxpayer pays more taxes than General Electric or Bank of America but shouldn’t expect any kind of bailout from this administration.

Now, let’s explore Libya with respect to McGovern’s remark. Oil: Well, Libya’s got lots of it: the most on the African continent. Israel: Preparing Israel to make “a clean break” from the past and establish a new relationship with the U.S. based on “maturity” by “securing the realm,” as written by the Project for a New American Century Study Group on “A New Israeli Strategy Toward 2000” with Richard Perle as its leader.

This should be seen as the operative strategy defining events in the region: “Israel – proud, wealthy, solid and strong” can “shape its strategic environment.” France can be seen as an additional proxy for Israel in this action. France, which announced that it was taking the lead in the anti-Qaddafi operation, is led by Nicholas Sarkozy, whom the French media, Le Figaro newspaper, identified after his election as a Mossad asset.

Ninety-nine percent of the population of Libya is Muslim. As long as Muslims are fighting each other, they won’t have time to focus on Israel or Palestine. And as for logistics, AFRICOM, the United States military’s Africa Command, was not created for nothing: It was created to deepen the U.S. military presence and control over a continent rich in land, water and strategic minerals – former preserve of U.S. allies, it is now facing aggressive penetration by China. Situated on the Mediterranean littoral, with oil money and a revolutionary leader, I need not say much more about Libya and logistics useful for neocon objectives.

AFRICOM, the United States military’s Africa Command, was not created for nothing: It was created to deepen the U.S. military presence and control over a continent rich in land, water and strategic minerals.

The reason Muammar Qaddafi is a target is because he has been a thorn in the side of anti-revolutionary forces since he took power in Libya, overthrowing the king and nationalizing the oil industry so that the people could benefit from their oil resources.

Libya’s revolution brought free health care and education to the people and subsidized housing. In fact, students in Libya can study there or abroad and the government gives them a monthly stipend while they are in school and they pay no tuition. If a Libyan needs a surgery that must be done overseas, then the government will pay for that surgery.

That is more than the soldiers of the United States military can say. While Libyans enjoy subsidized housing, members of the U.S. military risk foreclosure while they serve their country abroad.

Money from oil is directly deposited into the accounts of every Libyan based on oil income. As one Libyan told me recently, the idea is that if people have what they need, then they don’t have to deny rights to or harm others and the revolution believes that it is the responsibility of the government to provide the basic needs of its citizens.

Now, as for democracy, a country that has never practiced it is a poor trumpet for it. From genocide of indigenous Americans to enslavement of stolen Africans to disfranchisement of women, ours has been a less than perfect union. Now, it has turned the administration of its elections over to private voting machine companies and the finance of those elections to individuals and organizations that can mobilize vast sums of money; thus the United States is not in the best position to dictate the terms of another country’s democracy.

But Libyans govern themselves by The Green Book, a form of direct democracy based on the African constitution concept that the people are the first and final source of all power. Clearly, the U.S. move is counter-revolution.

A Royal Air Force refueling plane takes off March 19 from its base in England to support the invasion of Libya. – Photo: RAF
In addition, I remember watching the proceedings of the House of Commons on television about 10 years ago and I was shocked by what I was hearing: a member of Parliament saying that the evidence in the Lockerbie bombing case was actually planted by the U.S. CIA! So, I searched for the article and there it was. A member of Parliament had done his own investigation and discovered to his satisfaction that “the [timing] device was a CIA plant.” Kind of like the investigation I did myself to conclude that the Bush administration was not telling us the truth about Sept. 11.

There is so much more on this to write. But I will leave that for another article. Let me just add this: Earl Hilliard was kicked out of Congress in 2002 by the pro-Israel lobby because he was getting close to Libya and would learn some of the secrets that have not yet been revealed. What business was it of Israel and their U.S. supporters that an African American member of Congress was reaching out to an African leader who has always been supportive of Black liberation in the United States?

Muammar Qaddafi’s daughter was murdered by U.S. bombs targeting him. I have visited the compound. Unfortunately, it has since been revealed by Victor Ostrovsky, a Mossad defector living in Canada, that the bombing took place as a result of faked intelligence and that Qaddafi was set up by Israel in Operation Trojan, which wanted him targeted.

According to Ostrovsky, Ronald Reagan was tricked into bombing Libya by means of a “radio transmitter smuggled into Tripoli by the Mossad, which broadcast messages designed to fool the United States into thinking Libya was about to launch a massive terror attack on the West. On the basis of this bogus evidence, the U.S. bombed Libya, killing Gaddafi’s daughter.” I have met with former members of MI-5 who were tasked with assassinating Qaddafi and refused.

At any rate, I must put this on the record, too. Muammar Qaddafi has long been a friend to African people. Pan-Africanists have travelled to and from Libya since the beginning of Qaddafi’s role as Libya’s leader, including Black Panther Party, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, All-African People’s Revolutionary Party and Nation of Islam members. I once defended Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan in the House International Relations Committee when the late Tom Lantos – on behalf of Israel – challenged the Nation’s relationship with Libya and wanted to dash Qaddafi’s desire to give the Nation several billion dollars to help Black people.

Unfortunately, in an effort of goodwill, Mr. Qaddafi on at least one occasion, was also prepared to assist those who presented themselves as servants of the people but in fact were not: the Blackstone Rangers in Chicago.

More importantly, hundreds of unnamed Black Americans have made the sojourn to Libya – all striving for the unification of Africans in Africa and the Diaspora. Black people who would have not otherwise ever connected with one another have been able to do so for more than 40 years because of the educational and cultural conferences that Qaddafi has sponsored. The only requirement for participation was that they be willing to commit to work towards the ongoing development of Africa – all of Africa and wherever Africans are. Mr. Qaddafi to this day continues to assist Black political organizations in an effort to keep people of African descent able to exercise their right of self-determination.

Meanwhile, on the continent, Africans not ready to kowtow to France, the United States or other former colonial powers maintain their independence thanks to Qaddafi, the former head of the African Union. Qaddafi was named African Leader of the Year in 2009. Qaddafi provided the African National Congress and Nelson Mandela the wherewithal to defeat apartheid in South Africa. In short, if you want to stop Black people, then one key move is to stop Col. Qaddafi.

Thousands of Libyans packed into Qaddafi's heavily fortified Tripoli compound on Saturday, March 26, to form a human shield against possible air strikes by allied forces. – Photo: Zohra Bensemra, Reuters
Finally, I have led two delegations to Tripoli. Among those I took with me are KPFK’s Dedon Kamathi, Black Agenda Report’s Glen Ford, WBAIX.com’s Don Debar, WayneMadsenReport.com’s Wayne Madsen, National Hip Hop Political Caucus’s Troy Nkrumah, Block Report Radio’s Minister of Information JR Valrey, Bob Fitrakis of FreePress.org, Keith Harmon Snow of allthingspass.com, and Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of Malcolm X. Chicago’s Pat Hill traveled with me twice and is in regular contact with people on the ground in Libya. You have heard them giving their impressions of what they saw and what they know on radio, television and the internet.

The information I have included in this article is public information. Therefore, I am amazed that activist “leaders” who ought to know better accept special interest propaganda as the truth and then knowingly or unwittingly become tools of the disinformation artists. Responsible news outlets will search for those who know.

I ask the readers of this article to trust no one who is merely a talking head, search for those who have experience and a track record for telling not a part of the truth, but the whole truth, and then finally do your own research and learn more about your government. And maybe, finally, then candidates who don’t deserve our votes won’t get them.

In conclusion, the United States, France and Britain together have killed hundreds of thousands of civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and their collective wars elsewhere without any punishment or any action from the U.N. Their action in Libya is illegal and Libya should launch a legal action in the International Court of Justice to obtain an injunction against this military action and I know just the right team of unbought international lawyers to do it. The claim that military actions against Libya protect civilians is a mockery and Presidents Obama and Sarkozy and Prime Minister Cameron should be called on it.

Interestingly, the National Front for the Salvation of Libya held its most recent meeting in the United States in July 2007. However, Libyans should be able to solve their own problems without foreign interference. Venezuela President Hugo Chavez has put forward a mediation proposal which I have endorsed.

In addition, the Hugo Chavez International Foundation for Peace, Friendship and Solidarity released a communiqué stating that the “Arab League endorsements of Al-Qaeda terrorism in Libya [the U.S./NATO minus Germany and Turkey, plus the United Arab Emirates allies] is a racially-motivated hatred since the obnoxious slave trade centuries back.” The communiqué continues that opening contacts with terrorists amounts to nothing less than promoting international terrorism and characterizes the Arab League move as both anti-African and anti-Black. The Hugo Chavez Foundation communiqué concludes: Long live Muammar Al-Qathafi! Long live the African Union! Long live Pan-Africanism! Solidarity with Blacks everywhere!

Qaddafi channels Mordecai Vanunu on Kennedy assassination

Libya rebels: Qaddafi could be right about al-Qaeda

http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=626272

Libya crisis: Gaddafi’s ‘letters’ to Obama

BBC, March 19, 2011 – “To our son, his excellency, Mr Baracka Hussein Obama: I have said to you before that even if Libya and the United States of America enter into a war, God forbid, you will always remain a son. Your picture will not be changed. I want you to remain in the same image. I have all the people of Libya with me, and I’m prepared to die and we have all the men, children and women with me. Nothing more. Al Qaeda is an armed organization, passing through Algeria, Mauritania and Mali. What would you do if you found them controlling American cities with the power of weapons? What would you do, so I can follow your example.”

April Gallop tells her story

New York, March 23, 2011, PRNewswire-USNewswire – A December 2010 poll conducted by the prestigious Emnid Institute and reported in the German magazine “Welt der Wunder” revealed that 89.5 percent of German respondents do not believe the official story of 9/11.

The issue is heating up in America as well, and will soon be heard in court.

Top Secret Military Specialist April Gallop saw disturbing things up close that have not been reported in the media.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, she was ordered by her supervisor to go directly to work at the Pentagon, before dropping off her 10-week-old son Elisha at day care.

Amazingly, the infant was given immediate security clearance upon arrival.

The instant Gallop turned on her computer an enormous explosion blew her out of her chair, knocking her momentarily unconscious.

Escaping through the hole reportedly made by Flight 77, she saw no signs of an aircraft – no seats, luggage, metal or human remains. Her watch (and other clocks nearby) had stopped at 9:30-9:31 a.m., seven minutes before the Pentagon was allegedly struck at 9:38 a.m.

The 9/11 Commission reported that “by no later than 9:18 a.m., FAA centers in Indianapolis, Cleveland and Washington were aware that Flight 77 was missing and that two aircraft had struck the World Trade Center.”

Why then were there no anti-aircraft defenses, Gallop asks, or alarm warnings inside the Pentagon?

Gallop was briefed by officials not to tell her story in public; she also received an email from a Fox News reporter who had been told by the Pentagon not to interview her.

Gallop now believes that officials within the Bush administration conspired to destroy the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center and WTC 7 – the third building brought down at 5:20 p.m. that day – with pre-placed explosives detonated after the planes hit.

On April 5, 2011, at 11 a.m., at the Federal Courthouse at 141 Church St. in New Haven, Connecticut, the case of Gallop v. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers will be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit.

Gallop’s case relies on virtually all forms of evidence admissible in court but,` significantly, on published scientific evidence that residues of these explosives were found in the rubble after the attacks. In its totality, the proffered case establishes that the government hypothesis – that the buildings collapsed due to fire in combination with the airplane impacts – is scientifically untenable.

In addition, Ms. Gallop will, through photographic and other physical evidence, as well as the testimony of a multitude of military and civilian survivors, demonstrate the impossibility of her having lived through the attack on the Pentagon if it had taken place as the government and the defendants claim.

German Federal Judge Deiter Dieseroth stated in December 2009:

“No independent court has applied legal procedures to review the available evidence on who was responsible for the attacks.”

Also, “it is not acceptable for a constitutional state … to declare war, bomb a foreign country, and place it under military occupation” without first identifying suspects.

Dieseroth also said the U.S. “was under burden of proof” that Osama bin Laden was responsible for the attacks, yet the FBI admits it has no evidence presentable in court to back this up.

The stakes in this case are epic, including the possibility of an overwhelming transformation of the world’s understanding of history, not to mention American citizens’ relationship with their government.

Media contact: William Veale, centerfor911justice@gmail.com, 292929@msn.com, (510) 845-5675, (925) 212-3678

Source: Center for 9/11 Justice

Copyright 2010 PR Newswire. All Rights Reserved

French man in Japan pleads for help

KPFA Guns & Butter: Nuclear Apocalypse in Japan

Interview with Keith Harmon Snow, http://www.consciousbeingalliance.com/

What you didn’t know about the war

For news from, by and about Cynthia McKinney, former Georgia congresswoman and Green Party presidential candidate, check these websites: http://dignity.ning.com/, http://www.enduswars.org, http://www.livestream.com/dignity, http://www.twitter.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/dignityaction, http://www.myspace.com/runcynthiarun, http://www.twitter.com/cynthiamckinney, http://www.facebook.com/CynthiaMcKinney and http://www.youtube.com/runcynthiarun.


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