PDC MEETING - JUNE 11, 2008
"Election Fraud: The Subversion of Democracy"
A Public Forum--Will Your Vote Count in November?
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Kent VFW, 500 VFW Parkway, Kent
6:00 Potluck Dinner
7:00 Meeting Begins
Professor Bob Fitrakis and writer Richard Hayes Phillips will present their ground-breaking, investigative work on election fraud and discuss one of the fundamental principles of democracy--ensuring safe, secure, accurate vote counting. If the essential principle of "one person, one vote" is suspect due to inaccurate and unverifiable voting systems, the question looms: Will your vote be counted?
Bob Fitrakis is a Professor of Political Science at Columbus State Community College, as well as the Editor of The Free Press (freepress.org). He is an investigative journalist and the author of eleven books. He won the "Best Coverage of Politics in Ohio" award from the Ohio Society of Professional Journalists. Fitrakis rose to national prominence during the 2004 U.S. presidential election by calling the first public hearings on election irregularities in Ohio and by filing a challenge in the Ohio Supreme Court regarding Ohio's presidential election results.
Richard Hayes Phillips worked with Rolling Stone magazine on the landmark article by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., "Was the 2004 Election Stolen?" Phillip's long-awaited book, Witness to a Crime: A Citizen's Audit of an American Election, was published in April 2008. For details: http://www.witnesstoacrime.com/announcement.htm
NATIONAL ANTIWAR CONFERENCE
An open national antiwar conference to support the demands "Stop The War in Iraq! and Bring the Troops Home NOW!" will be held June 28-29, 2008 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 777 St. Clair Avenue NE, Cleveland, Ohio. The Conference is sponsored by the National Assembly to End the Iraq War and Occupation. The objective of the Conference is to give voice and visibility to the deeply held antiwar sentiment of this country's majority. Everyone is welcome. For further information: Phone 216-736-47094, Email: NatAssembly@aol.com, Website: www.natassembly.org.
The Rules of War
By Ted Voneida (Veteran, Peace Activist, Founding Chairman of Neurobiology, NEOUCOM)
Twenty-four residents of Haditha, Iraq, mostly unarmed women and children, were killed by six members of a U.S. Marine Squad in November 2005. The marines were court martialed; some were found guilty of voluntary, some of involuntary, manslaughter.
The basic question revolved around whether or not, during an intense firefight, they acted according to Rules of Engagement as defined in the Marine Corps Close Combat Manual, which allows troops to fire in self defense, but not to fire indiscriminately on unarmed civilians.
My point here is not to present an opinion about the Marines' guilt or innocence. My intent, rather, is to point out that while these Marines were court martialed for killing unarmed civilians, Blackwater mercenaries who killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad on Sept. 17, 2007, have yet to stand trial.
Blackwater's license to operate in Iraq was suspended on Sept. 18, but the U.S. State Department and CIA failed to recognize the suspension. On Sept. 24, the Iraqi Ministry of Interior announced it would file criminal charges against those involved in the shootings, but two days before L. Paul Bremer left Iraq, he signed "Order 17," giving all Americans associated with the Coalition Provisional Authority and American government immunity from Iraq law.
On Oct. 4, the U.S. House passed a bill that would make all private contractors working in Iraq subject to prosecution by U.S. courts. The Senate plans to work on similar legislation, but to date it has not been brought to a vote. Why is it that members of our armed forces are brought to trial for killing unarmed civilians, while members of the Blackwater mercenary forces are privatization still allowed to go scot-free after committing similar actions?
Does the privatizaiton of our armed forces, as advocated by Rumsfeld and supported by the Bush administration, carry with it the legal acceptance of indiscriminate civilian murders by mercenaries?
Or, carrying this argument one step further, will private mercenaries enjoy the same privileges when they are called upon to patrol our streets here at home, as they did following Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans? Do private armies stand above the law, as Hitler's Brownshirts did in Nazi Germany? Should private mercenaries be immune from Rules of Engagement which members of our Armed Forces are still rightfully required to respect?