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There Are Criminals, and Then There Are CRIMINALS
By Cindy Sheehan
03/11/06 "ICH" -- -- As I lie here in bed recuperating from the
injuries that I received from a federal agent and the NYPD in front
of the US Mission to the UN (USUN) the other day, I have had time to
reflect on the experience, the state of our union and its descent
into a fascist state.
When the four of us. Missy Beattie, Rev. Patricia Ackerman, Medea
Benjamin, and I, were arrested the other day, I was singled out for
federal police brutality. The other three ladies were picked up,
noth gingerly, though, and I was dragged across the pavement and
treated very, very roughly—having both arms wrenched out from
beneath me. I looked to my doctor as if I had been beaten. My
daughter, Janey, asked if I had been resisting arrest, I told her if
one considers going into a fetal position and saying, "Please don't
hurt me anymore!" resisting, then I guess I was.
Why was I targeted for the abuse? Is it revenge for my work at
exposing the lies of BushCo, of which John Bolton is a leading
co-criminal? Or is it to discourage other activists from taking the
same path I have taken: demanding an end to the illegal and immoral
occupation of Iraq, and demanding that our freedoms be returned to
us? I wish the Senate had the courage to stand up to the fascists in
our government—or are the 90 who voted "Yea" to extend the Patriot
Act also co-slitherers into fascism?
Neocon John Bolton has had a long and checkered career of lying and
doing dirty work for the regime. In 1994 he harassed and terrified
whistle-blower Melody Townsel who worked for US AID. She urged the
Senate Foreign Relation Committee not to approve Bolton's nomination
and she wrote in a letter to them: "John Bolton put me through hell
- and he did everything he could to intimidate, malign and threaten
not just me, but anybody unwilling to go along with his version of
events. His behavior back in 1994 wasn't just unforgivable, it was
pathological." Not only has John Bolton not been punished for this
incident and other involving harassment and abuse, he was rewarded
with a recess appointment to the UN when George Bush, again,
circumvented our political processes.
L. Paul Bremer slunk, under the cover of darkness, out of Iraq two
months after my son, Casey, was killed there with $8.8 BILLION
missing from the Coalition Provisional Authority. Has L. Paul been
held accountable for the missing money? No, as a matter of fact, he
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and is a highly paid
speaker on the rubber chickenhawk Republican circuit.
Such war profiteers as Halliburton are raping the American tax payer
of billions of dollars as a matter of company policy. A Halliburton
whistle blower accused the company of charging us $45.00 per case of
soda and ten thousand dollars a night to stay in Kuwait's finest
hotels. They charge immoral prices to feed our soldiers who often
complain of rotten food. Our young people even have to pay to have
their laundry done by these outrageous over-chargers. Have they been
punished or monetarily penalized for these crimes? No, as a matter
of fact, Halliburton gets awarded more no-bid contracts in America
and around the world.
A book could be written about the felonies of the Bush Crime Family
and their mafia-style buddies, but I am running out of space. George
Bush has committed crimes against humanity and high crimes and
misdemeanors in his tenure as (P)resident of the White House. Has he
been held accountable for any of this? No, he spends his nights and
days comfortable and content in the fact that he is a lame duck,
already rich, and knowing that Congress is spineless and he won't be
impeached for his transgressions that have caused the deaths of so
many thousands of people worldwide.
When we were in the cockroach and feces-decorated jail system in NYC
the other night, we met some other women who felt they had to resort
to crime to try to survive in BushWorld. We met intelligent young
women who felt their last resort was to resort to victimless crimes.
Now for their petty thefts, they will have to spend months in
institutions where they are stripped of any human dignity or
comfort. All of the women we met knew they broke the law and were
resigned to their punishment but where is the justice in our system
where all people are supposedly equal?
However, we four white, middle-class women were the lucky ones. We
only had to spend one night in jail and we knew our lawyers would be
there in the morning to spring us. When we were heading for court,
we walked by our sisters in the holding cell and our hearts sank,
because we know what it is like to spend even one night in jail. Our
souls also connected with our sisters and brothers all over the
world who are imprisoned in far worse conditions by the policies of
BushCo and are being inhumanely tortured by these same medieval and
draconian policies.
Even if John Bolton, L. Paul Bremer, George Bush, Halliburton execs,
etc. ad nauseum are ever punished, we all know the conditions won't
be (but should be) as harsh as those of the other people who live in
subhuman conditions because of them. These people operate on the
standard of having all the money and all the power and they don't
care for anyone who they victimize on their way to obtaining their
obscene and ill-gotten gains.
One of our so-called crimes in front of USUN was "Obstructing
Governmental Administration." I say "Hell, yes! Anyone with a
conscience or any moral courage should be doing everything in
his/her power to obstruct the administration of the Bush government.
Only massive, peaceful, non-violent resistance to his calamitous
policies will be able to stem the dreadful tide!
That is why we need to stand up to the neo-fascists and take our
humanity back.
While we are still able. I will stand up to them again and again, I
just hope next time that they drag me by my good arm!
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