Antiwar.com Blog

National Call-In Day on Cluster Bombs

Monday the Friends Committee on National Legislation is organizing a national call-in day encouraging people to call their senators (1-800-590-6313) and asking them to co-sponsor S. 416, the Cluster Munitions Civilian Protection Act of 2009, a bill sponsored by Sen. Feinstein (CA) and already co-sponsored by 23 other senators.

Though it’s unfortunately still somewhat short of a total ban, S. 416 would seriously curb American use of cluster bombs, particularly where they would imperil civilians. The United States is one of only a handful of nations which didn’t sign the Oslo ban on cluster bombs late last year, and has heavily used them, quite infamously, in recent wars.

On Monday, Scott Horton will also be interviewing the national coordinator of the US Campaign to Ban Landmines & Cluster Bombs Lora Lumpe on Antiwar Radio.

FCNL has a list of which senators are already on board with the measure and which ones still need to be called. With the Obama Administration yet to take a public stance on cluster bombs, this bill may be a serious chance to alter America’s policy on the matter.

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Antiwar Articles – in German

Klaus Madersbacher has set up a really great German language website called Antikrieg.com with German language translations of some of the best English language antiwar articles available – including many from Antiwar.com.

So if you know some German speakers looking for a good source for antiwar articles, this is great place to keep in mind.

Washington Post Shills for Terrorists

Not all terrorists are equally damndable, apparently.

The Washington Post has an article today on the Iraqi government’s plan to shut down the camp of the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK. This is a violent Marxist organization that was designated by the State Department as terrorists in 1997 because of their long record of killing civilians (they also killed some Americans). But the Post characterizes MEK as merely an “Iranian opposition group.”

The Bush administration -especially Dick Cheney – loved and protected the MEK because the MEK ginned up information to justify threatening to attack Iran. The Post notes that “U.S. officials credit the MEK with providing information about Iran’s nuclear program.”

The Post neglects to mention that MEK’s allegations turned out to be crap and were debunked by a National Intelligence Estimate in late 2007.

MEK sanctified U.S. aggression, and thus they were the good guys. The Washington Post’s Middle East reporting continues its hallowed tradition of rising above the facts… [[This riff is also posted here

Only Terrorists Fear Surveillance

The London Police department is launching a new ad campaign to keep people frightened and submissive.

The campaign includes a bizarre poster which encourages people to view as a terrorist suspect anyone who looks closely at government surveillance cameras.

Here is the link the ad. sheet_road_cctv [[I could not figure out how to get this to open up on this page of the blog — If anyone has any suggestions, I’d be obliged..]
h/t boingboing

The Broad Appeal of Antiwar.com

Yesterday, on the anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, there was an interesting selection of media coverage of Antiwar.com.

The long-established left-wing San Francisco newsweekly, the Bay Guardian, ran a nice piece about Antiwar.com on their Website (they will follow this with a longer piece in print next week).

The conservative magazine, The New American, ran part 1 of a lengthy interview with Antiwar.com founder Eric Garris. Today part 2 ran.

And, a bit more mainstream, the San Jose Mercury News featured an op-ed on the Iraq War anniversary by Antiwar.com executive editor Alexia Gilmore.

What do you expect from a site with contributors from Pat Buchanan to Daniel Ellsberg?