Just Won't Learn To Live With This War!

by Update Tue Oct 11, 2005 10:37

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051011/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

by Ciaron - Pit Stop Ploughshares (personal capacity) Tue Oct 11, 2005 12:01 087 918 4552

The Pit Stop Ploughshares are now two weeks from trial (starting Oct 24th at the Four Courts), charged with two counts of criminal damage -$US2.5 million to a U.S. Navy War Plane & €100 to a hangar window at Shannon Airport.

Since we acted, nonviolently and directly, against the war on February 3rd. 2003 much has happened. Over 100,000 Iraqis have been slain, malnutrition amongst Iraqi chidren has doubled under U.S. occupation, 2,000 U.S. military (most who would have passed through Shannon) have been slain, over 11,000 have been evacuated with amputations, loss of sanity & other battle wounds. U.S. military who suicide on return to the U.S. (in Vietnam the suicide rate of Vets was higher than the 53,000 killed in the war) are rarely acknowledged as part of the cost of this war. The Ahern Government has militarised Shannon Airport making it the main pit stop for the invading U.S. military, a stop over for the Guatanemo Express and Ireland a likely target for those fighting back.

The immediate consequences of our 2003 act of
nonviolent disarmament of a U.S. Navy War plane were dramatic. In the prophetic tradition, what was covert was made overt - the militarisation of a civilian airport in a neutral country in the service of an illegal invasion, the Irish Army were deployed to
Shannon Airport to defend the U.S. military against
nonviolent Irish citizenry and 3 U.S. companies
transporting troops pulled out of Ireland.

The state struck back putting us in Limerick Prison, 2 Government Ministers lied about a Garda having been assaulted & hospitalised during our action (a lie rejected by a Garda press release on the same day it was told & from the stand by the Garda during our first trial in March 2005) we were initially denied bail, Aer Rianta tried to serve civil injunctions on us in our prison cells & during court appearances, on release on bail we were banned from County Clare and required to sign on at Garada stations daily.

Our disarmament act was marginalised by those who put themselves in positions of leadership of the large anti-war movement. As 100,000 gathered on February 15th. those who sought to control and exploit the popular expression against the war censored any mention of our action & ongoing imprisonment from the stage . As the war escalated in Iraq & expanded to Madrid, London, Bali & other Western tourist destinations - the poorly lead anti-war movement in Ireland shrunk & largely disappeared from public view.

We have maintained a weekly vigil against Irish
invlolvement in U.S. wars in Afghanistan & Iraq since 2002. To vigil is to remain awake & alert as society slumbersto danger and the mainstream media literally "covers" the war & Irish involvement from public view. All the powerful require at the imperial centres (US, Australia, Western Europe
etc) as they butcher the innocent for power & profit
are our silence & sedation. Ahern, Blair & Bush don't demand jingoistic enthusiasm for Irish involvement in this war they want us to learn to live with the war in a housebroken silence.

What has sustained us five over the last 2 1/2 years is our spirituality & the solidarity of others. What we need over the next two weeks is your solidarity as we head back to the Four Courts.

Make contact if you can help out Ph. 087 918 4552
ploughsharesireland@yahoo.ie

* Info Stall on Saturdays Bank opposite Trinity
College

* Mon 17th- Fri 21st Daily Anti-War Vigil GPO,
O'Connel St. 4pm-6pm

*Benefit Gig Thursday Oct 13th. (See Events section Indymedia) 8 pm Lower Deck, Portebello

*Help to promote/put up posters etc advetising events during the trial, offers of sleeping/floor space to international peace activists attending the trial, cooking energy for daily post-trial downtown
convergeance centre.

*Each morning of the trial (commencing Monday Oct 24th) there will be an anti-war vigil at The Spire from 8.30am & a peace walk to the Four Courts 9.15am

*Many thanx to all the activists & artists who have
brought us this far and to those who have hit the
ground running over the last couple of weeks.

by Hal Burton Wed Oct 12, 2005 15:25

“Halliburton has already raked in more than $10 billion from the Bush-Cheney Administration for work in Iraq, and they were awarded some of the first Katrina contracts," Lautenberg said in a statement. "It is unseemly for the Vice President to continue to benefit from this company at the same time his Administration funnels billions of dollars to it. The Vice President should sever his financial ties to Halliburton once and for all.”

....

Cheney continues to received a deferred salary from the company. According to financial disclosure forms, he was paid $205,298 in 2001; $162,392 in 2002; $178,437 in 2003; and $194,852 in 2004.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_stock_options_rose_3281_last_1011.html

The graph released by Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) charts the value of the Vice President's holdings in Halliburton in the past year.

by A friend Sat Oct 15, 2005 00:04

Hi guys!

I'll be coming (from France) to stay in Ireland for the duration of your trial after all. Macken J is due to return a verdict in the case of 'Dubsky v Ireland' (the Afghanistan war judicial review, started Sept 2002) in early November. "You've heard that one before" -- yep, me too -- I'll write a full update here once I'm sure it's for real this time.