121Contact

May 27 2012 Dept. of Homeland Security Forced to Release List of Keywords Used to Monitor Social Networking Sites

Forbes reports: Dept. of Homeland Security Forced to Release List of Keywords Used to Monitor Social Networking Sites

And 121Contact comments: Make no mistake, the DHSS word list is an attack on our domestic security. Whether or not it is a practice drill, this exercise by law enforcement is a toxic  intrusion and a threat to our security. This Homeland Security response marks an epidemic of paranoia that pervades the DHS, FEMA, USCG, CBP, USSS, NOC, ICE, CIA, DEA, SBI, FBI, ATF, CIS, FAMS, TSA, FAA, and the UN.

Are we to be taken hostage  by this breach of our constitution? We think the police would be focused on organized crime, gangs, looting, shootings, riots, and national security, not on the recovery  of certain words and phrases. We cannot recall an outbreak, or plague, of government intrusion in the name of emergency response that equals this plume of infection of our ‘free’ space.  

What’s next in this assassination of freedom? Is the agent/air marshall sitting next to me reporting me for saying, “This word screening makes for an explosive political standoff.”?

[The full list is on the Forbes site.]

Feb 28 2012 Mad Men: The Falling Man and 9/11

So this reporter asks me, under the guise of "I do not want to start a controversy where none exists," how I, one who lost someone on 9/11,  feel about the poster.

The first time I saw one of these posters it made me sick to my stomach..a little.

There was a day, that day, a crisp morning, when I stood beneath the towers taking photos on 9/11. I stopped when I realized I had just captured the image of a woman in a white dress, twisting down, down...I own that image in a way I detest. This was all before we knew that my nephew, Supreme Court Officer Mitch Wallace, was at the site; moments before the South Tower collapsed upon him and so many others.

I also, less frequently now, get nauseous when a low flying jet passes overhead. Living under a Brooklyn flyway lets me deal with this quite often.

If an advertising campaign (which I am now, I guess, a part of) evokes images of a horrid day, then so be it. I cannot stop the jets from flying low. I cannot stop images that remind me of 9/11 from being created.

I refuse to spend my entire existance looking through the lens of 9/11. There is more to me than grief and anger. I can only do my little bit to make for more peaceful tomorrows.

 

Feb 22 2012 Condolences and Prayers: Does Homs Remind You of Fallujah?

RIP Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. We publicize the names of brave journalists killed in Syria. Let's not forget the many, many innocent civilians being murdered in the midst of the violence.

We remember when we were told that Fallujah had been evacuated before the shelling. We remember the students who arrived in Baghdad to tell the tales of the many who were left behind, unable to leave. Sure, the rich, those with transportation, those who fled on foot did escape the bombs. But what of the families too poor, too traumatized, too paralyzed to leave?

Hundreds for sure, perhaps thousands, died in Fallujah. The death toll in Homs is already over 400 [France News International], and the killing hasn't stopped.

Can you tell which is Homs; which is Fallujah?

 

Innocent civilians, as always, are paying the highest price in this latest violence in Syria. Does it matter who does the killing? The Syrian government? American troops? Violent resistors of tyranny? It's all the same to the daughter who loses her dad or the mother who loses her precious son.

We offer our condolences and prayers to the families of the lost innocents.

Feb 14 2012 Syria: The shame and the blame

It's Valentine's Day. This wonderfully commercialized holiday is RED. Red covers everything: boxes of chocolate and jewelry, Hallmark cards, and bouquets of roses.

The streets of Syria are red, too, but there are no flowers. Over 7,000 have died so far and there is no end in site. Indiscriminate bombing of Homs and other civilian centers intensifies; fighting dances around the edges of Damascus; arms and fighters flow in and the rich and/or lucky flow out.

The blame of it: It depends upon which media you read. It depends upon which pundit you revere. It depends upon which house you were born into.

We already hear the echoes of Iraqi voices in such statements as, "Yes, it was bad before, but I could go to the store and not fear for my life," and "Sure, we hated him, but it is NATO we really hate now."

I don't have any answers. Syria is internally split and the opposition is also internally split. They have no leader and the various anti-government forces are creating their own militias. Rumors of Al Qaeda, Iranian influence are increasing. The old "Syria-to-Iraq" path of arms and fighters has evidently been reversed.

The shame of it all is bigger than Syria. It is the shame of a human race that thinks it cannot resist the tyrannies of power that are so willing to use violence to keep themselves on top. Truth be told, the peace activist (just the activists, mind you, not the vast majority of peace-loving people) outnumber the leaders and operators of The Machine by at least a million to one.

The Machine depends upon our cooperation. Our taxes pay for the bombs. Our bodies are the soldiers. Our munitions manufacturers (and those that work for the military industrial complex; not just the owners) are critical to the oppression of freedom loving peoples.

The peace activists, if working together, could, in the manner of Gandhi and King, refuse to participate in large enough numbers so that we could halt The Machine.

The shame of it: We are as splintered as the militias of Iraq were; as the militias of Syria are; as [insert clever metaphor here]...

Happy Valentine's Day.

November 11, 2011 Baghdad, Iraq: The good, the bad, the treacherous.

Baghdad, Iraq: The good, the bad, the treacherous.
November 11, 2011 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

In the midst of the good news from Iraq about the emerging civil society organizations and their good non-violent works for peaceful transition to a more democratic society we find ourselves dismayed at the rising violence.

Baghdad is once again a city of fear in which parents, reporting to us, are afraid to let their children go out to play, shopping is becoming scary, and just going to work, if you are lucky enough to have a job, is an event filled with dread. The lack of central electricity is still an issue and generators (one for your house, one for the neighborhood) are still the mainstay.

Journalists are once again under fire, and freedom of the press is no longer guaranteed. Assassinations and attacks  of reporters have increased lately, and press offices are also being attacked by 'them'. The 'them'... Some say these are government backed forces who seek out media critical of the regime, or media trying to publish honest accounts of the situation on the ground. It is a sad, and dangerous, state of affairs.

On the good side of the ledger:

Mercy Corps is expanding its Baghdad offices and continuing its work of building schools and medical clinics, teaching women to read and empowering people with disabilities.

The final declaration of the Iraqi Civil Society Solidarity Initiative (ICSSI) third conference is now available, offering a window of hope for all who wish for progress in Iraq. Looking at the list of over 100 Iraqi representatives of emerging and growing NGOs yields insight into the current momentum.

All in all we remain hopeful, but it is obvious that the road ahead is treacherous for the good people who still believe that Iraq can find non-violent paths to more peaceful tomorrows.

Please write your representatives to try and alter the distribution of funds slated for Iraq. As it stands now: the non DoD allocations increase the 2012 moneys destined for Iraq's military (about US$ 2 Billion), and decrease the allocations for civil society measures. Foreign Assistance.gov reports that support for Human Rights, Health, Education and Human services have dropped to $300 million each. Allocations for the environment and Humanitarian Assistance have been cut to zero.

 

Today in Iraq:

Baghdad:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing one Iranian and wounding four others in Baghdad's northwestern Kadhimiya district, a police source said.

#2: Gunmen on a motorcycle opened fire at an Iraqi army checkpoint, killing one soldier and wounding another in Baghdad's northern Adhamiya district, late on Saturday, police and hospital sources said.

#3: "Two policemen have been injured in an attack by a group of unknown gunmen, who used silencer-fixed guns in their attack on a police patrol in west Iraq's Jami'a district on Monday" the Security Source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency, adding that the attackers have escaped to an unknown destination.

#4: In another incident, "an explosive charge, planted on the roadside blew off close to western Baghdad's Baya'a Garage, wounding 3 civilians and causing severe damage to a number of vehicles, parked in the garage."

#5: Four Iraqi civilians have been injured in an explosive charge blast east of Baghdad on Monday, a security source reported. "An explosive charge, planted on the roadside in one of a main road, leading to east Baghdad's al-Sadr city, has blown up early on Monday, wounding 4 civilians and causing damage to a number of vehicles, parked close to the venue of the blast," the security source told Aswat al-Iraq news agency.

#6: Three terrorists, wearing explosive belts, have been killed while driving a booby-trapped car in west Baghdad on Monday, according to the Baghdad Operations Command (BOC). "Three terrorists, wearing explosive belts and driving a booby-trapped car close to a checkpoint in west Baghdad's al-Jami'a district, have been killed close to a checkpoint," the BOC statement was announced on the semi-official al-Iraqiya TV Satellite Channel on Monday.

Taji:
#1: Two roadside bombs went off near the car of an Electricity Ministry employee, killing him and wounding seven others, including four policemen, in Taji, 20 km (12 miles) north of Baghdad, police and hospital sources said. The second bomb went off when police rushed to the scene.

Tikrit:
#1: A roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi army patrol, killing one officer and wounding a soldier north of Tikrit, 150 km (95 miles) north of Baghdad, a source at the police operations centre in Salahuddin province said.

Samarra:
#1: A cop was killed by unknown gunmen in Samarra city, security sources said here today. The source told Aswat al-Iraq that "unknown gunmen with pistols equipped with silencers attacked a group of cops west of Samarra that led to the killing one member of the patrol before fleeing to unknown destination.

Mosul:
#1: A soldier was killed when a mortar shell landed at an Iraqi army checkpoint in northern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, a local police source said.

#2: A bomb attached to a car exploded, wounding a prison guard officer, in eastern Mosul, a local police source said.

#3: Gunmen in a car shot dead a teenager in western Mosul, a local police source said.

Al Anbar Prv:
#1: Gunmen using silenced weapons shot dead a police lieutenant colonel near his house in central Falluja, 50 km (32 miles) west of Baghdad, late on Saturday, a local police source said.

Nov 1 2011 Ground Zero: A Monument to Violence?

Ground Zero: A Monument to Violence?
Nov 1, 2011 by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

It is with great anger and sadness that I write this piece about the monument ‘they’ are planning to site at Ground Zero.  It will carry the Green Beret motto and depict a lone U.S. commando on horseback in the Afghan mountains; a monument to violence at the very spot at which so many victims of violence were murdered. 

My anger is directed both at the group of cowardly members of Wall Street banking firms (they ask to remain anonymous) who have privately financed this monument to violence,  and to the bureaucrats  that are allowing this to go forward. Where was the public hearing?  Where was the sensitivity? 

In a particularly callous statement one of the private backers was quoted by CNN as saying, “We wanted to do [this]…because every day since 9/11, we've had to look at that hole in the ground." A statement seemingly cold to the fact that for so many Ground Zero is much more than a ‘hole in the ground.’ 

My sadness stems from the lack of compassion inherent in this proposal. We have just witnessed 10 years of useless loss and devastation as a result of our invasion and occupation of Iraq and the ongoing operations in Afghanistan. The American lives lost are countable, as are the wounded soldiers who gave so much for so little. The ‘collateral damage’ (as the military likes to refer to innocent civilians killed or wounded in or as a result of war) was enormous. Millions of displaced persons, hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths, and countless wounded and traumatized victims follow in the wake of the wars. 

And this speaks nothing of the tax dollars that went from the American people into the pockets of those who profit handsomely from military actions. Don’t forget: the US10 billion dollars a month we spent (for ten years) in Iraq, did not just vanish into the air. And now we are spending that much on both Iraq and Afghanistan.   

My hope is that we can stop the statue from ever sitting at Ground Zero, and let our government, and those heartless bankers know we need monuments to peaceful solutions, not to violent profit taking.

Oct 31, 2011 Baghdad Days: The House is Falling

Baghdad Days: The House is Falling October 31, 2011
by Bruce Wallace, 121Contact

Noor, kaif halich? We are fine. Alhamdulilah. We are fine.

Yes, I know it is 4AM here but I just could not sleep. Oh sister, the house is falling. I am living in endless panic. I cannot go on. No. Everything is all right. But I am filled with worries. There is no sleep for me. I need to talk to someone. I need to talk to someone who is far away. I can call you because you are far away and I know I will not wake you. I know you will help me.

Do you know yesterday Ahmed amd his friend came home all shaking. When the car dropped them off at the checkpoint,  when they came from school, he said, the soldiers who are surrounding the neighborhood they looked at the kids, Ahmed and his friend,  in that funny way. One of them said, “I would love to take you home with me.” My son was in tears. Frightened. He and his friend are only 12 years. My son doesn’t know of homosexual things, but he knew something is wrong. He said, “He looked at me in the funny evil way. I was frightened.”  I was in shock. How can I send them again to the school? I don’t know whom should I worry about…my daughter, or to take care of my son. They are innocent of such details of rape or sex or such things. So I sat with him and forced myself to talk with him about these details instead of his studies. I have to frighten him to make him watch out. This is a big responsibility. It is not easy. This is happening here. Can you imagine?  In our neighborhood. Can you imagine? We are surrounded now, like years ago. The checkpoints are in each place.

You ask me to take him from school and to school? To walk with him? Sister, I have 3 children. Shall I cut myself in three and take care of each child? Hammed? He is working each day, Alhamdulilah.

Hammed? Yes. He is still going to work every day. And what of his coming and going? He insists to go to work, of course. But they are killing again. Each Sunni in our neighborhood is in fear again. They are killing again; the teachers, the intellectuals, especially the professional with a job…Now we are becoming like Mosul; like Baghdad of 2006. Hammed says, “Keep the children at home.” How can I deny them school? This is impossible. They will go crazy if I lock them in the house.

Did you hear of the bombs in Amariyah? Adhamiyah? Here in Fadhil? You think this is coincidence? We are the target. They will come for us, and we don’t know when. We are living with this fear. It is of every moment. Maybe I don’t think about it at every moment. But it is there. And I will think about it again. I know.

And I tell you I am tired. I am torn…of worrying about the boy, the girl, the work, the money. And when they go out the burden is like a mountain on my chest. And when they come home I feel it is lifted. I am tired of the fear and it is taking my sleep, and I have no energy to do anything; to shop; to take the children to school; to clean the house…what for?

Hammed tells me I have to be strong. For the children.  I am strong. But, sister, I am tired.

Oh, sister, I call you. Do you hear me? Can you help me?

[the connection is cut]

 

 

 

 

 

Oct 25 2011 Phyllis Bennis Speaks, Brooklyn for Peace Listens, will you?

It was a stunning display of Phyllis Bennis'  intimate knowledge of Middle East machinations, aspirations, and failed American efforts to get it right. A darn good performance, considering that she'd already spoken at two events earlier in the day. 

I felt at home in the  audience, organized by Brooklyn for Peace, as a grey-haired, over 60, liberal activist. I suspect there were more than a couple of old-line socialists in the crowd...a few lefty, commie, pinko keepers of the flame. About 50 of us sat in front room of the Brooklyn Society for Ethical Culture, across from Prospect Park. 

She focused mainly on how past US Middle East policy (create stability by support for dictators, control the oil and water, unflinching support for Israel) is now empty since 'the people' have thrown the dictators out, or are in the process of doing so. She did not describe a detailed US policy going forward, but concentrated instead on the importance of US civil society keeping the pressure on politicians to steer away from the 'problem, therefore use force'  mentality.

She did, however prescribe a broad conceptualization of future policy that would help guide the world to more peaceful tomorrows: end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and stop the military support of Israel which come to some US$3 billion/year. She called for US civil society to demand, and US government to admit,  the discourse has changed. We must move from the militaristic, simplistic "support the dictators at all cost" mode of thinking. It just doesn't work.

Some point that caught my attention:

• Although Obama takes credit for pulling the troops ouf of Iraq the American civil society movement had more to do with it, and the Iraqi people are the most responsible. Maliki found almost no internal support for keeping troops there, although he would dearly love the occupation, and it's tacit support for his regime, to stay... "after all, Gaddafi was our guy."

• Obama's "we stand with the fruit sellers" is a painful distortion, given that we supported/continue to support so many dictators in the Middle East; those same powers that led to the self-immolation of a fruit seller in his misery of oppression.

• Even if we remove all Department of Defense troops from Iraq by the end of the year, as the SOFA demands, the State Department has already signed contracts that will put 5-10,000 mercenaries on the ground, not under DoD control. Many contracts are right now being moved from Dod to the State Department to avoid counting the troops uner the SOFA agreement.

• Afghanistan is now holding about a quarter of a million occupation forces: 100 thousand US military, 100,000 US mercenaries, and the rest from NATO countries.

One of my favorite moments was her acknowledgement (I love people who validate my own ideas) that U.S. media, in fact most Western media outlets ignore the facts of peace movements in the Middle East. Palestinians have been peacefully active for at least 10 years. Their Palestine Spring had no positive media attention. The first intifada was, in fact, a peace movement. There are many Budrus-like activities that take place in Palestine each and every day.

[Iraq has a fast-growing civil society that embraces non-violence. All the Arab and non-Arab nations of the Middle East have withing them non-violent movements that are pressuring their governments to transform into more democratic regimes, even Saudi Arabia! b]

Now what? The moral equations have failed to move the American public to pressure the US government to alter policy. Dead children, collateral damage, the destruction of Iraq, ... none of this has led to widespread moral outrage. What is moving people today? It's the economy.

Civil society in America must hammer home the relationship between the costs of war and the failure of the US economy to recover quickly. The US$10 billion/month that feeds the war machine could go a long way to helping create jobs, increase technical education, decrease class-size (by hiring more teachers), and repair our failing infrastructure (creating more jobs in the process). The list is longer, but the aim is clear. Make the economic facts known.

In the Q/A session that followed her talk she was asked if she was worried about the Islamists taking over the Egyptian government. Her response was a succinct, "I am not afraid of the Islamists. I am concerned that the people of Egypt  get what they want." We may not like their chosen path, but if it is democratically chosen then let us support it, deal with it, and move forward.

Bennis closed by saying, "US civil society has to speak up, and keep speaking. I know it is frustrating...but the discourse must change. You can't give up. Let them know, "We are not going away."

 

 

 

Sept 11, 2011

9/11 is not about how many died. It is about _each_ one who died. There is true mourning within the media spectacle of 9/11 and we must remember without comparing,  the mourning in Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine, Israel...so many places, so many lives...how long will it take to learn? But we will evolve, and we will know more peaceful tomorrows. Inshallah.

Aug 20 2011 Oh my aching Baghdad, Iftar, and memories

The end of another day of fasting. Unwinding into the night with an evening of ritual: Mahgrib, Iftar, talk, and Isha.  Even later came TaraweeH, but that is another story. Several families, really parts of families, gathered together in a small apartment in Brooklyn.

The meal was lavish. Each of the many dishes delicious, and plates overflowed, as did the talk. Each dish lifted its own plumes of spice-laden air, thick with memories of Ramadans past, places past, lives past. 

"This feels like home," said a young woman, here alone, her family still in Baghdad. She lifted her face and said softly,  "The gathering; the crowded table; the many dishes; the talk, arguing, children playing and teasing...like home."

Lina, the hostess, reached a hand to touch a hand and said, "Please. We are your family now. We are all one family here."

The table overflows and there aren't enough chairs so some are sitting on hassocks and the youngest, Luma, is on the sofa. She doesn't mind because from there she can watch an ElectricFactory show ("Please Arwa, use the earpiece.") while she eats, eavesdrops, and learns English at the same time.

After dinner the teenagers head for the bedroom, the women for the kitchen, and the men chat of everyday things: the long  commutes to work, the business of making a living, studying...then AHmed told of his recently failed venture and how he had to sell the grocery store, and how that gave him the money to start another business and how this new work was so fulfilling.

"This work is the work I did in Baghdad. Air condition. Big." His hands draw large machines in the air and he continues, " Large for companies, for stores. The same. I love it. I can do it here. The store I sold in Manhattan, they are now a customer. In Baghdad we had three stores of... appliances. Air condition, refrigerator..."

He pauses here, eyes moving to the floor, hands drooping in his lap.

"Then one day my man of business...er...my partner of the business assassinated. They come into the store, some men, and they just shoot him. No. No rob. Just to kill him. He has wife and three daughters. "

He pauses again, staring into space. His breath seems to stop and his face has loses all emotion, and he continues, flatly, "Then, after this, they kill my brother-in -law. He has two children. Two sons. No reason. Too much."

Murmurs of recognition and words of condolence are offered, and accepted. A few more stories come forth of life in Baghdad in 2005, 2006 (when most of those here at the table left Iraq). The usual coda of questions without answers follows ("Who does these things? Who are these people?" Why?) and then, with a joke or two, there is first an attempt and then success at moving the mood. We return to the present and become concious of the laughter from the kitchen. Luma has not budged from the sofa. She gives no indication of having heard any of the conversation around her but notices immediately when the older women enter the room.

The women return with kaHwah and kleicha and qataiyef. They bring withthem a real joy and appreciation for what we have. The evening returns to a bright night with friends, with family, and with Ramadan's spirit of calm reverence for all that is given.