Announcements & Letters, October 30, 2009

 Iraq Deaths Due to US Invasion: 1,339,771 (1.3 million human beings).

The number is shocking and sobering. It is at least 10 times greater than most estimates cited in the US media, yet it is based on a scientific study of violent Iraqi deaths caused by the U.S.-led invasion of March 2003.

Remind visitors to your site of the awful human costs of continued war by posting the Iraqi Death Estimator on your website. You can use the code in the box below.

Embed:

Sign the petition telling Congress that about a million Iraqis have likely been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003. Help us expose to Congress the true costs of war.

A study, published in prestigious medical journal The Lancet, estimated that over 600,000 Iraqis had been killed as a result of the invasion as of July 2006. Iraqis have continued to be killed since then. The death counter provides a rough daily update of this number based on a rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count. (See the complete explanation.)

The estimate that over a million Iraqis have died received independent confirmation from a prestigious British polling agency in September 2007. Opinion Research Business estimated that 1.2 million Iraqis have been killed violently since the US-led invasion.

This devastating human toll demands greater recognition. It eclipses the Rwandan genocide and our leaders are directly responsible. Little wonder they do not publicly cite it. You can use the simple HTML code above to post the counter to your website to help spread the word.

Add your name to the petition telling Congress that about a million Iraqis have likely been killed since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.

Help us continue this important work with a tax-deductible contribution.

See the list of some folks we know have posted the counter.

http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/iraq

Tony Blair, the Middle East and the EU Presidency

Letter published in Evening Standard,  21 October 2009

 Matthew D'Ancona joins a list of commentators who have rubbished the idea of Tony Blair as EU President. (Beware the Blair who seeks to rule all Europe).

 But he does not seem to think that Blair's failures as the special envoy to the Middle East rate a mention as an  example of why he is unfit for office.

In more than two years in the post, Blair has achieved little or nothing, while failing to stand up for the rights of the people he is supposed to be helping, the Palestinians. He has treated the role with contempt by spending most of his time lining his pockets with consultancies and other lucrative activities. 

All his proclamations about how this conflict is so important to resolve ring hollow.

Chris Doyle

Director of Council for Arab-British Understanding

CAABU office 0207 832 1321 -

doylec@caabu.org.

Following are videos from Under the Volcano workshop "From Gaza to Gustafsen: the Link Between the Intifada & Indigenous Sovereignty" http://volcano.resist.ca/UTV09-program.pdf.

This workshop was held on Aug. 9, 2009 in North Vancouver, and I participated in it alongside Gord Hill, an indigenous activist and Ilana Weaver (Invincible) a Jewish Israeli American activist and MC.

To access the videos go to the following website:

http://www.pasifik.ca/node/9035

Or click on:

Gord Hill - Colonization and Apartheid - Video

Hanna Kawas - Colonization and Aparthiede in Palestine - Video

Hanna Kawas conclusion and Llanna Weaver, an Israely anti-zionist from the U.S., who protests apartheid with Hip-hop chants

In Solidarity
Hanna Kawas