Monday, Feb. 8

The Yakima Valley Peace Advocates Network

(YVPAN) will have its monthly meeting at the Unitarian

Universalist Church, 225 N. 2nd St. in Yakima, 6:30-8:00 p.m.

Enter from the alley in back of the church. YVPAN is the

group that plans local peace actions, such as military counter-recruitment and signing for peace at street corners. All who wish for peace and are willing to work for it are welcome to attend the meetings. Why not join us and help plan? To find out more

about YVPAN, as well as peace activities in the Northwest,

go to www.yvpan.net. At the same website, you can reach

links to national peace organizations, such as Veterans for Peace.

Also, you can now read The Jackrabbit News online.

Tuesday, Feb. 9

The U.S. Dept. of Energy (DOE) is holding public

hearings on the Draft Tank Closure and Waste Management

Environmental Impact Statement for the Hanford Site,

Richland, Wash. The document analyzes these three key areas:

(1) retrieval and management of waste from 177 underground storage tanks at Hanford and closure of the single-shell tanks;

(2) decommissioning of the Fast Flux Test Facility and its

auxiliary facilities; (3) ongoing and expanded solid waste

management operations on site, including the disposal of

Hanford’s wastes and limited volumes of waste from other

DOE sites. At the Columbia Gorge Hotel, 4000 Westcliff

Drive, Hood River, OR. 6:00 p.m. — Register to provide oral

comments, view materials, and speak informally with project

pensonnel. 7:00 p.m. — DOE presentation, followed by public

comment session. The comment period for both oral and

written comments ends on March 19, 2010.

Wednesday, Feb. 10

Same information as above, except that the hearing will

be held at the Doubletree Hotel Portland, 1000 NE Multnomah

St. in Portland. The time and program will be the same.

Sunday, Feb. 21

Signing for peace at the intersection of S. 16th Ave. &

Nob Hill Blvd. in Yakima, 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. You can bring your own sign or use one of ours. We need more participants to take the places of several of our elderly peace stalwarts who have literally given their all for peace and now can’t come due to health problems. They would feel honored and delighted if new recruits for peace action would step up to fill the ranks.

Jan. 2010

Sunday, Feb. 28

Signing at the corner of Nob Hill Blvd. & Fair Ave.

to protest the gun show taking place at the Sundome.

A loophole in the gun laws allows guns to be sold at gun shows without background checks. For more information on

this action, check the YVPAN website, www.yvpan.net.

Colombia — an Obama change (of mind)

(Based on information from Witness for Peace)

In April, 2008, Barack Obama said, "And I’ll also

oppose the Colombia Free Trade Agreement....because the

violence against unions in Colombia would make a mockery

of the very labor protections that we have insisted be

included in these kinds of agreements"

In January, 2010, President Obama said, "We have to seek new markets aggressively....[that is] why we will

strengthen our trade relations....with partners like South

Korea, Panama and Colombia."

In his State of the Union speech, Obama suggested that he would advance the stalled Colombia free trade

agreement. This was contrary to his campaign promises

of 2008. He should be reminded that most Americans are

opposed to so-called free trade agreements, along with

millions of Colombian farmers, Afro-Americans and union

people.

As with NAFTA, the proposed trade agreement with Colombia would facilitate agricultural dumping, driving

thousands of Colombian farmers out of work and worsening

the country’s displacement crisis. It would also drive up the

cost of medicines, jeopardize access to water, and subvert

democratically enacted laws to the interests of foreign

corporations.

To urge President Obama to honor his campaign

promise and reject the agreement, you can call the White House at (202) 456-1414.

Supreme Court bows to corporations

The Republican-dominated Supreme Court, in ruling that corporations can spend unlimited amounts of money on

political advertising, has struck a blow against democracy.

Corporations will essentially be able to buy seats in Congress,

and state legislatures. They will be able to saturate TV and radio with ads for their candidates — nearly all Republicans, of course.

Alaska senator wants to stifle EPA

Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has introduced a resolution to prevent the Environmental

Protection Agency from taking any action to regulate

carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The Supreme Court in 2007 gave the EPA the authority to regulate such

emissions. 35 Republicans and three Democrats have

signed on to Murkowski’s resolution so far.

The EPA has announced plans to use the Clean Air Act to reduce global warming emissions from the largest sources, such as vehicles and power plants. The Washington Postreported that industry lobbyists wrote part of Murkowski’s proposal. These lobbyists were high-level

officials in President Bush’s EPA. Now they are looking for a repeat performance of the good old days, where Bush presided over a massive assault on the environment at the behest of timber, oil, gas and coal interests.

Murkowski’s resolution is likely to come before the Senate in March. In the meantime, we can be calling our

Senators to urge them to oppose the measure. If all 41

Republican senators stick together and are joined by a few

more conservative Democrats, the measure could pass in the Senate. You can reach any member of Congress by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 1-202-224-3121 and asking to

be switched to his or her office.

Scientists say no mountaintop mining

A group of hydrologists, ecologists and engineers

in January issued a paper in the journal Science. The

scientists said that mining for coal by destroying mountaintops to get at the coal seams should stop immediately.

They cited the growing evidence of threats to human health and the environment, and they urged the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

to reject all new mountaintop mining permits.

The EPA has been issuing permits for some mining projects while rejecting others. The agency recently granted a permit for a large mountaintop removal mine in West

Virginia. West Virginia’s residents are not wealthy. Many

are dependent on the mines for jobs, so they have no choice

but to sacrifice their natural heritage to make a living.

In mountaintop mining, the tops of coal-bearing

mountains are blasted off. The debris falls into the valleys below, polluting the streams and destroying habitat.

The article in Science showed environmental

degradation at mining sites and downstream, "including

harmful consequences for both aquatic and terrestrial

ecosystems." The paper also found health problems in the

Appalachian region, where most of the mountaintop mining takes place. These problems include high death rates, lung cancer and kidney disease in coal-producing communities.

"The scientific evidence of severe environmental

and human impact from mountaintop mining is strong and irrefutable," said Margaret Palmer of the University of

Marland. She is the lead author of the paper.

U.S. won’t sign landmine treaty

The Obama administration has announced that it will not sign the international convention banning landmines. The Mine Ban Treaty bans the use, stockpiling, production or

transfer of antipersonnel mines. Millions of landmines were planted during 20th Century wars, and the grim harvest of thousands of dead or maimed bodies contines to this day.

As of Nov. 25, 2009, the only countries in the world that have refused to sign the treaty are the United States and

Somalia. Besides signing the treaty, 156 have ratified it. But

39 countries, including the U.S., China and Russia, have not.

The U.S. is the only country that has announced that it will

never join the international convention banning landmines.

A recent report by the international campaign to ban landmines found that landmines remain planted in more than

70 countries and that they killed over 1200 people and wounded nearly 4000 in 2008.

Steven Goose, Director of Human Rights Watch’s

arms division and a leader in the campaign to ban landmines,

was interviewed by Amy Goodman on Democracy Now! in Nov. of last year. She asked Goose to comment on Obama’s decision to follow Bush and not sign the treaty.

"We really see this as just an appalling decision, an

appalling decision that has been based on an apparently very flawed decision-making process," said Goose. "It is a decision completely lacking in vision. It’s lacking in compassion, and frankly, lacking in common sense."

"I think we just had a very hasty and cursory review

of U.S. policy," continued Goose. "Certainly, they did not

consult with key legislators on Capitol Hill. They did not

consult with major military allies. They did not consult with

outside experts, those who have been involved in this issue for decades, literally, and instead, it seems that they have simply

decided to allow the Pentagon to dictate terms."

Goose said that the world, including the U.S., is

pretty much in compliance with the treaty already. He said that the treaty has resulted in a huge drop in the use of landmines.

The U.S. military has not used landmines since the Gulf War in 1991. We have not exported any of these weapons since

1992, and we haven’t produced any since 1997. We haven’t used them in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, and the govern-

ments of both of those countries have joined the mine ban treaty and have banned any possession of them.

Any country that would use landmines these days

would be stigmatized by the rest of the world. The U.S. would

certainly not want to be in this position, so it is hard to see why

we should want to hang on to these weapons.

Another refusal

Another treaty that the U.S. and Somalia are alone in refusing to sign is the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which is UNICEF’s guiding document for the protection

of chidren throughout the world. UNICEF’s mission is to

advocate for the protection of children’s rights, to help meet their basic needs, and to expand their opportunities to reach

their full potential.

America’s push-button war

(Based on an article by Jane Mayer in the Oct. 26, 2009

New Yorker

plus news reports.)

The U.S. is heavily involved in using unmanned aircraft

to kill suspected Taliban and Al Qadea members in Afghanistan,

Pakistan and Waziristan. These remote-controlled planes, called

drones, have been used extensively in the region.

The use of drones has increased dramatically since

President Obama took office. During his first 9 1/2 months

months as president, Obama has authorized as many CIA drone

attacks as Bush did in his last three years in office. There is now such a big demand for Predator drones that their manufacturer,

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, can barely keep up

with the orders.

There are actually two drone programs — one run by the U.S. military and the other by the CIA. The military one

operates in Iraq and Afghanistan, targeting enemies of U.S. troops stationed there. The CIA program, which is much more secretive, is anti-terrorist, aimed at terrorist suspects around the world. The CIA controls the drones from its headquarters in

Langley, Virginia.

The CIA carries out its drone missions with two sets of operatives. One set has its drone "pilots" located near hidden

airfields in Afghanistan and Pakistan, handling takeoffs and

landings. Once a drone becomes airborne, control is switched to the CIA in Langley. There, the plane’s "pilot", who needn’t

have had conventional pilot training, is able to maneuver his craft, using a joystick similar to those in video games. He sits next to intelligence officers and watches a big TV screen that shows what the drone’s camera sees. It is then determined whether or not to lock on to a target and fire the plane’s missiles.

A former CIA officer, who viewed a Predator strike by means of a small monitor when he was stationed in Afghanistan, said, "You could see the little figures scurrying, and the

explosion going off, and when the smoke cleared, there was just rubble and charred stuff."

The drone attacks kill many people along with their

intended targets. A suspected terrorist isn’t standing out in a field alone, but is often surrounded by his family or villagers

who may have nothing to do with his activities.

While drones with their cameras make it easier to

recognize the targeted persons, they aren’t of much help in

choosing who should be targeted in the first place. The CIA

and the military rely on informants, who are notoriously

unreliable. They might finger their personal or tribal enemies to get rid of them, or they might be just be interested in the money

they can earn as an informant.

An example of how misinformation can lead to tragic

consequences is the air strike last September in Afghanistan,

which killed between 70 and 125 people, including many

civilians. They were bombed by an F-15E fighter plane whose

pilot believed he was killing Taliban insurgents. It turned out that they were villagers helping themselves to fuel from two mired oil trucks. The bombing created such a jumble of human body parts impossible to sort out, the village elders had to dole them out randomly to the family members of the victims.

Predator drones have proven to be more accurate than fighter jets, yet they too have gone astray in their killing

assignments. In 2008, the CIA set out to kill Baitullah Mehsud, the leader of the Taliban in Pakistan. It took 16 missile strikes and 14 monthes before he was finally killed by a Predator in Waziristan. Along the way, between 207 and 321 other people were killed.

Piecing together international and Pakistani news

accounts gives us some basic details of the hunt for Mehsud:

On June 14, 2008, a drone strike killed one unidentified person.

On Jan. 2, 2009, four more unidentified people were killed.

On Feb. 14, more than thirty people were killed. On April 1,

a drone attacked Mehsud’s deputy, but killed ten or twelve of his followers instead. And so it went, one miss after another,

until the CIA finally caught up with Mehsud lying on his father- in-law’s roof top in Waziristan. Two Hellfire missiles

from a Predator wiped him out, along with his father-in-law, his wife, his mother-in-law, a lieutenant and seven bodyguards.

On one of the attempts to get Mehsud, the CIA

targeted mourners at a prayer service who were remembering

those killed in a previous air strike. Possibly as many as 86

mourners were killed by missiles launched by the drones.

The News

, a Pakistani newspaper, reported that ten children and four elderly tribal leaders were among the dead. An

editorial in The News denounced the strike as sinking to the level of the terrorists.

The missile strikes have provided the Taliban with an

opportunity to rouse the Pakistani public against President

Zadari’s administration. In several cities, large protest rallies against the drones have been held. Militants are now

depicting their bombings in Pakistan as "revenge for the

drone attacks," and using the drone attacks to arouse hatred of the U.S. and to gain more recruits. Obviously, the drones are not the way to win the hearts and minds of the people.

Most Americans have remained indifferent to the moral implications of the drone strikes, perhaps because the CIA has maintained such a tight seal of secrecy. No CIA footage of the strikes have been shown on American TV.

It’s a case of "out of sight, out of mind." Americans have been insulated from the human toll.

Most Americans probably still recoil at the word

"assassination," which brings to mind close-up murders by

guns or knives, but assassination from the air has become

acceptable. Yet, there are voices speaking out against the idea of targeting one person for death, especially when it involves killing and wounding innocent people.

Philip Alston, an investigator for the U.N. Human Rights Council, said that unless the Obama administration

explains the legal basis for targeting individuals and the

measures it is taking to comply with international humanitarian

law, which prohibits arbitrary executions, "it will increasingly be perceived as carrying out indiscriminate killings in violation of international law."

There is a real danger that as the number of drones

increases, so will the number of chosen targets. Will their use

be limited to killing people in Afghanistan and Pakistan?

"These strikes are killing a lot of low-level militants,

which raises the question of whether they are going beyond the authorization to kill leaders," said Peter Bergen, co-author of a study by the New America Foundation.

The Obama administration has expanded the authorized list of drone targets to include drug lords in Afghanistan

suspected of giving money to help finance the Taliban.

President Karzai’s running mate, Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, and Karzai’s own brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, are

suspected of being drug lords. Should we bomb them too?

Where is the expansion going to stop? Are suspected

terrorists in Yemen next on the list? How about South

America? The U.S. military is moving more heavily into

Colombia. Will we be targeting the rebels and those drug

traffickers in competition with those in the Colombian

government? And will we be reaching across borders to zap

people in Venezuela? Once we set foot on that slippery slope,

it’s hard to say where we will end up.

(Editor’s note: On April 16 - 19, 2010, there will be

a regional conference, "Challenging Robotic Warfare and

Social Control." The conference will be held in Hood River,

Oregon. More about this in the next issue of the Jackrabbit.)

Warfare is not cheap

Tea Party people are wondering why the U.S. keeps sinking further and further into debt with no end in sight. Here are some clues that might help: In December, Congress passed and the President signed a budget bill that provides $636.3

billion for the military in fiscal 2010. This includes $128.3

billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In just a few days,

President Obama is expected to ask for a supplement of $33

billion to pay for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Since the Sept. 11 attack, we have spent $748 billion on the war in Iraq and $300 billion for the war in Afghanistan, acccording to the Congressional Research Service.

The War Resisters League has calculated that slightly more than half of our income taxes go to the U.S. military.

To see how the WRL arrived at their figures, go to their website atwww.warresisters.org and click on pie chart.

Quotes of the month

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft

from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are

cold and are not clothed.

................Dwight D. Eisenhower

We have grasped the mystery of the atom and

rejected the Sermon on the Mount. Ours is a world of

nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we do about peace — more about killing than we do about living.

............General Omar Bradley

About the Jackrabbit

The Jackrabbit News, now in its 31st year, is published by the Jackrabbit Alliance of Yakima. We are truly

independent, not affiliated with any political party or

commercial enterprise. We accept no advertising. We have nonprofit status, but we are not tax exempt.

The Jackrabbit runs on goodwill donations. We try to economize and use our funds wisely. Up until recently,

recyclables could be left in the name of the Jackrabbit

at Michelsen, 202 N. 2nd Ave. in Yakima, and the company

would periodically send us checks. Michelsen no longer sends checks to small organizations like the Jackrabbit, but some

recyclers send us the amount they are paid.

We wish it were possible to thank everyone personally

— the many loyal and generous readers, the dedicated

recyclers and the diligent mailing crew.

The Jackrabbit has a varied collection of materials we are happy to share — books, magazines, videos, CDs, DVDs, government reports, pamphlets, clippings files and much more.

Just ask and ye shall receive. These items deal with issues

covered in the Jackrabbit, such as energy, conservation,

nuclear weapons, nuclear power plants, politics, death

penalty, peace action, global warming, pollution, corruption

in government, world peace, international treaties, missile

defense, Iraq War, Afghanistan War, human rights, School

of the Americas, World Trade Organization, NAFTA,

CAFTA, torture of prisoners, religious fanaticism, North

Korea, Iran, Middle East, population explosion, oil industry,

depleted uranium, cluster bombs, landmines, Hanford

pollution and cleanup, universal health care, etc., etc.

Here are some titles of recently acquired DVDs:

Soldiers Speak Out

(soldiers tell what war is really like),

Sir! No Sir!

(how soldiers rebelled in the Vietnam War),

Before You Enlist

(what prospective military recruits should

know), War Made Easy (the media’s complicity in promoting

war), Rethink Afghanistan (what we’re getting into in

Afghanistan), Blood and Oil (how the quest for oil, especially

in the Middle East, has driven the foreign policy of every

U.S. president from FDR to the present)

We also have a series of four DVDs produced by

Robert Greenwald for the American Civil Liberties Union:

The Supreme Court, Religious Freedom, Youth Speak,

and

Gay & Lesbian Rights.

Some items are kept near the Ann Ingham Room at

the Unitarian Universalist Church in Yakima. Other materials

can be found at the home of Gene Rupel, 7200 Midvale Rd.

If you don’t live near Yakima, that’s O.K. We are happy to

mail the items to you, but just be sure you return them.

To contact The Jackrabbbit News: Address,

P.O. Box 772, Yakima, WA 98907. Phone/FAX,

509-965-6061. E-mail, geno1924@aol.com.

Yours for peace on a healthy Earth,