Daily Report
Haudenosaunee land struggle crosses US-Canada border
Our occasional contributor Michael I. Niman writes for his June 15 "Getting a Grip" column in ArtVoice, the alternative weekly in Buffalo, NY:
Anti-Casino or Anti-Indian?
Those of us in Western New York who oppose war need to start paying attention to our own backyard. where community activists and developers are fanning the flames in the US and Canada's ceaselessly rekindling war against the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Six Nations) Confederacy. Flareups are now occurring throughout Haudenosaunee territory. In the north, armed Ontario government forces are engaged in a standoff with residents and supporters of the Six Nations Grand River Reserve on contested land where a local developer is attempting to build a subdivision in the municipality of Caledonia. The three-month-old standoff is moving toward a violent climax as Ontario officials, responding to complaints from non-native residents, are threatening force to remove native protestors.
New Hawaiian national monument: Bush's strategic sacrifice
Bush's declaration of a national monument in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands is being hailed by world environmentalists, and certainly impresses by its sheer size—1,400 miles long and 100 miles wide. "To put this area in context, this national monument is more than 100 times larger than Yosemite Park," Bush said. "It's larger than 46 of our 50 states, and more than seven times larger than all our national marine sanctuaries combined. This is a big deal."
WHY WE FIGHT
From the New York Daily News, June 21:
Schoolgirl killed by SUV
A 5-year-old Brooklyn girl running to catch her school bus was rammed and killed by an SUV yesterday after darting out from behind two parked cars, police said.
Iraq: Yanks get fragged
The US, it seems, barely has control of its own proxy forces in Iraq. From AP, June 22:
Two California soldiers shot to death in Iraq were murdered by Iraqi civil-defense officers patrolling with them, military investigators have found.
Algeria: guerilla resurgence
Islamist guerillas are stepping up attacks in Algeria, apparently led by the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat (GSPC), which has rejected an amnesty offered by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to try to end more than a decade of violence. On June 11, two soldiers and a communal guard were seriously injured in a bomb blast in the region of Skikda, some 700 kilometers east of Algiers. The next day, the GSPC posted a video on an Islamist site showing the slitting of the throat of a prison guard. On June 13, a soldier was killed and three wounded by two bombs in Skikda and Sidi Bel Abbes, 400 kilometers west of Algiers. Over the next three days 10 people were killed by guerillas within 100 kilometers of Algiers.
NYC: Bay Ridge Intifada?
The New York Sun (June 12) positively relishes in such reports, even as the federal judiciary contributes to the Muslim immigrant fears that fuel such a backlash. On May 27, days before these vandal attacks, the New York Times reported (online at World Wide Religious News) how revelations of police spies infiltrating Brooklyn's Muslim communities are leading to increased tensions.
Police have charged a 12-year-old boy with a Memorial Day graffiti attack in which the acronym for the Palestinian Liberation Organization was written on the homes of some Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, residents who were displaying American flags.
Taliban escalates offensive; NATO to expand Afghan force
US troops carrying out an offensive against resurgent Taliban guerillas fought off an attack on their mountaintop camp in Helmand province's remote Baghran Valley today. Later, US warplanes were called in to bomb a Taliban hideout. An A-10 Warthog bomber strafed the position before a B-1 bomber dropped a 2,000 pound bomb. Local residents said an elderly couple was killed in the air raid.
Northern Iraq oil waste dumping threatens Tigris River
The worst environmental practices of the Saddam dictatorship (themselves a result of sanctions) are being revived under US occupation in Iraq's oil industry. Thank goodness this report by James Glanz made the front page of the New York Times yesterday (online at Kurdish Aspect). But will it make any difference? In its inimitably annoying way, the Times buried some of the most salient facts deep in the story, or left them out completely. We have added emphasis and annotation.
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