***Pardon Private Bradley Manning Stand-Out-Central Square, Cambridge, Wednesdays, 5:00 PM -Update –April 12, 2013

Let’s Redouble Our Efforts To Free Private Bradley Manning-President Obama Pardon Bradley Manning -Make Every Town Square In America (And The World) A Bradley Manning Square From Boston To Berkeley to Berlin-Join Us In Central Square, Cambridge, Ma. For A Stand-Out For Bradley- Wednesdays From 5:00-6:00 PM
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Plan to come to Fort Meade outside of Washington, D.C. on June 1^st for an international day of solidarity with Bradley before his scheduled June 3^rd trial.If you can’t make it to Fort Meade plan a solidarity event locally in support of this brave whistle-blower.
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Stop The Media Blackout of The Bradley Manning Trial

Despite the unprecedented and historic nature of Army whistleblower Bradley Manning’s trial, journalists have thus far been banned from recording the proceedings. Because Americans more commonly get their news through television than from any other media source, this presents a major barrier to the American public staying informed on a trial that will profoundly affect the future of our country.

It’s outrageous that the American public is being denied the right to view the trial of U.S. vs. Bradley Manning. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel was appointed by President Obama to ensure civilian oversight of the U.S. military.

Go To the Bradley Manning Support Network http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and sign the petition to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel demanding that he ensure journalists can record Bradley Manning’s court martial proceedings! When you sign the petition the network e-mail system will send a message on your behalf to the office of Secretary of Defense.

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Beginning in September 2011, in order to publicize Private Manning’s case locally, there have been weekly stand-outs (as well as other more ad hoc and sporadic events) in various locations in the Greater Boston area starting in Somerville across from the Davis Square Redline MBTA stop on Friday afternoons and later on Wednesdays. Lately this stand-out has been held each week on Wednesdays from 5:00 to 6:00 PM at Central Square, Cambridge, Ma. (small park at the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street just outside the Redline MBTA stop, renamed Manning Square for the duration of the stand-out) in order to continue to broaden our outreach. Join us there in calling for Private Manning’s freedom. President Obama Pardon Private Manning Now!
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Those who have followed the heroic Wikileaks whistle-blower Private Bradley Manning’s case over the past year or so, since about April 2012 when the pre-trial hearings began in earnest, know that last November the defendant offered to plead guilty to a few lesser included charges in his indictment, basically taking legal and political responsibility for the leaks to WikiLeaks that had been the subject of some of the government’s allegations against him. Without getting into the arcane legal maneuvering on this issue the idea was to cut across the government’s pretty solid case against him being the leaker of information and to have the now scheduled for June trial be focused on the substantive question of whether his actions constituted “material aid to terrorism” and “aiding the enemy” which could subject Private Manning to life in prison. We noted then that we needed to stay with Bradley on this and make sure people know that what he admitted to was that he disclosed information about American military atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan and other diplomatic high crimes and misdemeanors and only that. We also noted that he was, and is, frankly, in trouble, big trouble, and needs our support more than ever. Especially in light of the following:

After enduring nearly three years of detention, at times under torturous conditions, on February 28, 2013 Bradley Manning confessed that he had provided WikiLeakswith a trove of military and diplomatic documents that exposed U.S. imperialist schemes and wartime atrocities. Private Manning’s guilty plea on ten of 22 counts against him could land him in prison for 20 years. A day after Bradley confessed, military prosecutors announced plans to try him on the remaining counts, including “aiding the enemy” and violating the Espionage Act. Trial is expected to begin in early June, now scheduled for June 3^rd.

In exposing the secrecy and lies with which the American government cover their depredations, Bradley Manning performed a great service to workers and oppressed around the world. All who oppose the imperialist barbarity and machinations revealed in the material he provided must join in demanding his immediate freedom. Also crucially important is the defense of Julian Assange against the vendetta by the U.S., Britain and their cohorts, who are attempting to railroad him to prison by one means or another for his role in running WikiLeaks.

In a 35-page statement he read to the military court after entering his plea (written summary available at the Bradley Manning Support Network and an audio transcript as well), Manning told of his journey from nearly being rejected in basic training to becoming an army intelligence analyst. In that capacity he came across mountains of evidence of U.S. duplicity and war crimes. The materials he provided to WikiLeaks included military logs documenting 120,000 civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan and a formal military policy of covering up torture, rape and murder. A quarter-million diplomatic cables address all manner of lethal operations within U.S. client states, from the “drug war” in Mexico to drone strikes in Yemen. He also released files containing assessments of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. These documents show that the government continued to hold many who, Manning stated, were believed or known to be innocent, as well as “low level foot soldiers that did not have useful intelligence.”

The Pentagon and the Obama Administration declared war against WikiLeaks following the release of a video, now entitled Collateral Murder and widely available, conveyed by Manning, of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter airstrike in Iraq that killed at least 12 people, including two Reuters journalists. American forces are then shown firing on a van that pulled up to help the victims. Manning said he was most alarmed by the“bloodlust they appeared to have.” He described how instead of calling for medical attention for a seriously wounded individual trying to crawl to safety, an aerial crew team member “asks for the wounded person to pick up a weapon so that he can have a reason to engage.”

By January 2010, Manning said, he“began to become depressed with the situation that we found ourselves increasingly mired in year after year” and decided to make public many of the documents he had backed up as part of his work as an analyst. Manning first offered the materials to the Washington Post and the New York Times. Not getting anywhere with these pillars of the press establishment, the latter apparently not considering war crimes of its government, as opposed to all manner of foreign state activities, news fit to print in February 2010 he made his first submission to WikiLeaks. He attached a note advising that “this is possibly one of the more significant documents of our time removing the fog of war and revealing the true nature of twenty-first century asymmetric warfare. Have a good day.”

The charge of “aiding the enemy”—i.e., Al Qaeda—is especially ominous. This used to mean things like military sabotage and handing over information on troop movements to a battlefield enemy. In Manning’s case, the prosecution claims that the very act of publicizing U.S. military and diplomatic activities, some of which took place years before, amounted to “indirect” communication with Al Qaeda. Manning told the court that he believed that public access to the information “could spark a domestic debate on the role of the military and our foreign policy in general.” He hoped that this “might cause society to reevaluate the need or even the desire to engage in counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations that ignore the complex dynamics of the people living in the affected environment every day.” But by the lights of the imperialists’ war on terror, any exposure of their depredations can be construed as support to the “terrorist”enemy, whoever that might be.

The Pentagon intends to call no fewer than 141 witnesses in its show trial, including four people to testify anonymously. One of them, designated as “John Doe,” is believed to be a Navy SEAL who participated in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden. “Doe” is alleged to have grabbed three disks from bin Laden’s Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound on which was stored four files’ worth of the WikiLeaks material provided by Manning.

Nor do charges under the Espionage Act have to have anything to do with actual spying. The law was one of an array of measures adopted to criminalize antiwar activity after U.S. imperialism’s entry into the First World War. It mandated imprisonment for any act deemed to interfere with the recruitment of troops. Among its first and most prominent victims was Socialist Party spokesman Eugene V. Debs, who was jailed for a June 1918 speech at a workers’ rally in Canton, Ohio, where he denounced the war as capitalist slaughter and paid tribute to the leaders of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. Dozens of Industrial Workers of the World organizers were also thrown into prison.

In the early 1970s, the Nixon government tried, unsuccessfully, to use this law to go after Daniel Ellsberg, whose release of the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times shed light on the history of U.S. imperialism’s losing war against the Vietnamese workers and peasants. Obama has happily picked up Nixon’s mantle. Manning’s prosecution will be the sixth time the Obama administration has used the Espionage Act against the source of an unauthorized leak of classified information—more than the combined total under all prior administrations since the law’s enactment in 1917.
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The Private Bradley Manning case is headed toward an early summer trial. The news on his case over the past several months has centered on the many pre-trial motion hearings including defense motions to dismiss for lack of speedy trial. Private Manning’s pre-trial confinement is now well over 1000 days. That dismissal motion was ruled on by Military Judge Lind. On February 26, 2013 she denied the defense’s motion for dismissal, the last serious chance for Bradley Manning to go free before the scheduled June trial. She ruled furthermore that the various delays by the government were inherent in the nature of this case and that the military authorities, except in one short instance, had been diligent in their efforts to move the proceedings along. For those of us with military experience this is a classic, if perverse, case of that old army slogan-“Hurry up, and wait.” This is definitely tough news for Private Manning although perhaps a good appeal point in some future civilian court review.

The defense had contended that the charges should be dismissed because the military by its own statutes (to speak nothing of that funny old constitutional right to a speedy trial guarantee that our plebeian forbears fought tooth and nail for against the bloody British and later made damn sure was included in the Amendments when the founding fathers“forgot” to include it in the main document) should have arraigned Private Manning within 120 days after his arrest. They hemmed and hawed for almost 600 days before deciding on the charges and a court martial. Nobody in the convening authority, as required by those same statutes, pushed the prosecution forward in a timely manner. In fact the court-martial convening authority, in the person of one Colonel Coffman, seemed to have seen his role as mere “yes man” to each of the government’s eight requests for delays without explanation. Apparently the Colonel saw his role as a mere clearing agent for whatever excuse the government gave, mainly endless addition time for clearing various classified documents a process that need not have held up the proceedings. The defense made timely objection to each governmental request to no avail.

Testimony from military authorities at pre-trial hearings in November 2012 about the reasons for the lack of action ranged from the lame to the absurd (mainly negative responses to knowledge about why some additional delays were necessary. One “reason” sticks out as a reason for excusable delay -some officer needed to get his son to a swimming meet and was thus “unavailable” for a couple of days. I didn’t make this up. I don’t have that sense of the absurd. Jesus, a man was rotting in Obama’s jails and they let him rot because of some damn swim meet). The prosecution, obviously, argued that the government has moved might and main to move the case along and had merely waited until all leaked materials had been determined before proceeding. The judge saw it the government’s way and ruled according as noted above.
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The defense had also pursued a motion for a dismissal of the major charges (espionage/ indirect material aid to terrorists) on the basis of the minimal effect of any leaks on national security issues as against Private Manning’s claim that such knowledge was important to the public square (freedom of information issues important for us as well in order to know about what the hell the government is doing either in front of us, or behind our backs). Last summer (2012) witnesses from an alphabet soup list of government agencies (CIA, FBI, NSA, Military Intelligence, etc., etc.) testified that while the information leaked shouldn’t have been leaked that the effect on national security was de minimus. The Secretary of Defense at the time, Leon Panetta, also made a public statement to that effect. The prosecution argued, successfully at the time, that the mere fact of the leak of classified information caused irreparable harm to national security issues and Private Manning’s intent, even if noble, was not at issue.

The recent thrust of the motion to dismiss has centered on the defense’s contention that Private Manning consciously and carefully screened any material in his possession to avoid any conflict with national security and that most of the released material had been over-classified (received higher security level than necessary). Much of the materials leaked, as per those parts published widely in the aftermath of the disclosures by the New York Times and other major outlets, concerned reports of atrocities in Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic interchanges that reflected poorly on that profession. The Obama government has argued again that the mere fact of leaking was all that mattered. That motion has also not been fully ruled on and is now the subject of prosecution counter- motions and has been a cause for further trial delay.
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A defense motion for dismissal based on serious allegations of torturous behavior by the military authorities extending far up the chain of command (a three-star Army general, not the normal concern of someone so far up the chain in the matter of discipline for enlisted personal) while Private Manning was first detained in Kuwait and later at the Quantico Marine brig for about a year ending in April 2011 has now been ruled on. In late November and early December Private Manning himself, as well as others including senior military mental health workers, took the stand to detail those abuses over several days. Most important to the defense was the testimony by qualified military mental health professionals citing the constant willful failure of those who held Private Manning in close confinement to listen to, or act, on their recommendations during those periods

Judge Lind, the military judge who has heard all the pre-trial arguments in the case thus far, has essentially ruled unfavorably on that motion to dismiss given the potential life sentence Private Manning faces. As she announced at an early January pre-trial hearing the military acted illegally in some of its actions. While every Bradley Manning supporter should be heartened by the fact that the military judge ruled that he was subject to illegal behavior by the military during his pre-trial confinement her remedy, a 112 days reduction in any future sentence, is a mere slap on the wrist to the military authorities. No dismissal or, alternatively, no appropriate reduction (the asked for ten to one ratio for all his first year or so of illegal close confinement which would take years off any potential sentence) given the seriousness of the illegal behavior as the defense tirelessly argued for. And the result is a heavy-handed deterrent to any future military whistleblowers, who already are under enormous pressures to remain silent as a matter of course while in uniform, and others who seek to put the hard facts of future American military atrocities before the public.
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An important statement in November 2012 was issued by three Nobel Peace Laureates (including Bishop Tutu from South Africa) calling on their fellow laureate, United States President Barack Obama, to free Private Manning from his jails. (Available on the Support Bradley Manning Network website.)
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On February 23, 2013, the 1000th day of Private Bradley Manning’s pre-trial confinement, an international day of solidarity was observed with over seventy stand-outs and other demonstration held in America and internationally. Bradley Manning and his courageous stand have not been forgotten. Go to the Bradley Manning Support Network for more details about the events of that day. Another international day of solidarity is scheduled for June 1, 2013 at Fort Meade, Maryland and elsewhere just before the scheduled start of his trial on June 3rd. Check the support network for updates on that event as well.
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6 Ways To Support Heroic Wikileaks Whistle-blower Private Bradley Manning

*Urgent: The government has announced, in the wake of Bradley Manning’s admission of his part in the Wikileaks expose in open court on February 28th, its intention to continue to prosecute him for the major charges of “aiding the enemy” (Espionage Act) and “material aid to terrorism.” Everyone should contact the presiding officer of the court –martial process, General Linnington, at 1-202-685-2807 and tell him to drop those charges. Once Maj. Gen. Linnington’s voicemail box is full – you can also leave a message at the DOD: (703) 571-3343 – press “5″ to leave a comment.*If this mailbox is also full, leave the Department of Defense a written message. Do it today.

*Urgent: The military authorities at Fort Meade, the site of Bradley Manning’s impending June 3^rd court-martial are attempting to limit media coverage of the trial.Go to the Bradley Manning Support Network http://www.bradleymanning.org/and sign the petition to Secretary of Defense Chuck Hageldemanding that he ensure journalists can record Bradley Manning’s court martial proceedings! When you sign the petition the network e-mail system will send a message on your behalf to the office of Secretary of Defense.

*Come to our stand-out in support of Private Bradley Manning in Central Square, Cambridge, Ma (corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Prospect Street near MBTA Redline station) every Wednesday between 5-6 PM. For other locations in Greater Boston, nationally, and internationally check the Bradley Manning Support Network -http://www.bradleymanning.org/ and for details of the current status of the case and future event updates as well. Also plan to come to Fort Meade outside of Washington, D.C. on June 1^st for an international day of solidarity with Bradley before his scheduled June 3^rd trial.If you can’t make it to Fort Meade plan a solidarity event locally in support of this brave whistle-blower.

*Contribute to the Bradley Manning Defense Fund- as the trial date approaches funds are urgently needed! The government has unlimited financial and personnel resources to prosecute Bradley. And the Obama government is fully using them. We have a fine defense civilian lawyer, David Coombs, many supporters throughout America and the world working hard for Bradley’s freedom, and the truth on our side. Still the hard reality of the American legal system, civilian or military, is that an adequate defense cost serious money. So help out with whatever you can spare. For link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/

*Sign the online petition at the Bradley Manning Support Network (for link go to http://www.bradleymanning.org/ )to the Secretary of the Army to free Bradley Manning-1000 plus days is enough! The Secretary of the Army stands in the direct chain of command up to the President and can release Private Manning from pre-trial confinement and drop the charges against him at his discretion. For basically any reason that he wishes to-let us say 1000 plus days is enough. Join the over 25,000 supporters in the United States and throughout the world clamoring for Bradley’s well-deserved freedom.

*Call (Comments”202-456-1111), write The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, e-mail-(http://www.whitehouse.gov’contact/submitquestions-and comments) the White House to demand President Obama pardon Bradley Manning- The presidential power to pardon is granted under Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution:

“The President…shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States, except in case of impeachment.”

In federal cases, and military cases are federal cases, the President of the United States can, under authority granted by the U.S. Constitution as stated above, pardon the guilty and the innocent, the convicted and those awaiting trial- former President Nixon and former Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, for example among others, received such pardons for their heinous crimes- Now that Bradley Manning has pleaded guilty to some lesser charges and is subject to further prison time (up to 20 years) this pardon campaign is more necessary than ever. Free Bradley Manning! Free the whistleblower!

Legendary Bobby Seale on the Soapbox (Podcast, May 5)

Bobby Now

Bobby Then

This week finds Cindy Sheehan in Asheville, NC

(speaking at a conference, taking a short break from the bike tour)

Cindy was able to catch up with one of the founders, and chairmen of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale.

Bobby is trying to get a movie made about his interesting (to say the least) life and comes on the Soapbox to talk about it, and his struggles.

For more information, please check out Brother Bobby's website:

Bobby Seale

America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime

Sunday, May 05, 2013

    America and Israel: Imperial Partners in Crime

by Stephen Lendman

Longstanding ties remain firm. Both nations are imperial partners. Naked aggression is official policy. Regime change in Syria is planned. Daily events head inexorably toward full-scale intervention.

The latest incident ups the stakes. On May 4, The New York Times headlined "Israel Bombs Syria as the US Weighs Its Own Options," saying:

An unnamed US official said "Israel bombed a target in Syria overnight Thursday. (Washington) consider(s its own) military options, including carrying out (its) own airstrikes."

According to Reuters, "(t)he attack took place on Friday after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's security cabinet approved it in a secret meeting on Thursday night…."

These type meetings often precede imminent action. They're held to approve them.

CNN's Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr said "(t)he United States believes Israel has conducted an airstrike into Syria, two US officials tell CNN."

"US and Western intelligence agencies are reviewing classified data showing Israel most likely conducted a strike in the Thursday-Friday time frame, according to both officials."

"This is the same time frame that the US collected additional data showing Israel was flying a high number of warplanes over Lebanon."

An unnamed Israeli military source said "(w)e will do whatever is necessary to stop the transfer of weapons from Syria to terrorist organizations. We have done it in the past and we will do it if necessary the future."

Pretexts are easy to create. Washington and Israel do so to justify crimes of war and against humanity.

According to the NYT, "(t)he target was not a Syrian chemical weapons facility…." The same unnamed US official said a building was struck.

Lebanon's Daily Star said "(e)ight Israeli warplanes violated Lebanon's airspace in a span of 14 hours, flying over large swarths of the country, Army officials announced Friday."

Israeli military aircraft do so almost daily. This time was different. Lebanese overflights were "unusually high." At 7PM local time, they began.

Two Israeli warplanes entered Lebanese airspace west of Sidon. They "conducted aerial maneuvers." They left four hours later.

"Ten minutes" before they departed, "another two warplanes entered entered" Lebanese airspace "west of Jounieh." More maneuvers followed. They returned to Israel after midnight.

"At 12:35 AM, another sortie of two warplanes entered Lebanese airspace" near Beirut. They also conducted maneuvers. They left before 3:15 AM.

"At 6 AM, two more warplanes" overflew overflew "all Lebanese regions." They left at 8:50 AM.

Overflying another nation's airspace without authorization violates international law. Israel does it regularly. Lebanon is violated virtually daily. Multiple daily overflights happen often. Usually it's for reconnaissance. Other times it's for targeted strikes or war.

An updated Reuters report headlined "Israel confirms Syria strike, says hit Hezbollah-bound missiles."

On Saturday, an unnamed Israeli official admitted the airstrike. Claiming it was to destroy "Hezbollah-bound missiles" doesn't wash. More on that below.

Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) headlined "Israel Air Force bombs Syrian chemical and other targets from Lebanon, Golan," saying:

Bombing occurred from "Lebanese air space and the Golan starting Friday and continuing until early Saturday…." According to US sources, "16 IAF warplanes took part."

"Some sources said the target attacked was a convoy transporting chemical arms (to) Hizbollah…." Israeli and US sources lack credibility.

DF said Washington gave Israel "a video demonstration" of its upgraded bunker buster bomb (Massive Ordnance Penetrator - MOB).

On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported it. It said the Pentagon did so "to combat Iran." At issue is targeting its "most heavily fortified and defended nuclear site." Fordow is well protected. It's deep underground.

"US officials see development of the weapon as critical to convincing Israel that the US has the ability to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear bomb if diplomacy fails, and also that Israel's military can't do that on its own."

On May 3, Michel Chossdovsky said:

"The MOP Massive Ordinance Penetrator is nicknamed the 'mother of all bombs.' Its use would inevitably trigger an out war against Iran with a scenario of military escalation."

In October 2009, "the Pentagon confirmed (its intention) to use the 'Mother of All Bombs' (MOAD) against Iran." Doing so would cause mass casualties. The upgraded version would cause many more.

MOABs "are WMDs in the true sense of the word. (Their) hidden objective (is) mass destruction and mass civilian casualties with a view to instilling fear and despair."

Perhaps Washington plans using it against Syria for the same purpose. Longstanding policy is destroying targeted nations. It's been that way since WW II.

Today's weapons are far more powerful than earlier ones. In short order, they're able to annihilate humanity entirely. It can happen whether or not planned.

Details of Israel's latest attack are sketchy. It wasn't the first lawless IDF action. For sure it won't be the last.

Last November, IDF tanks shelled cross border six times in one week. Anti-tank missiles and other munitions were used. In February, Israeli warplanes struck several Syrian targets. Reports alleged a weapons and munitions convoy heading for Lebanon was targeted.

Previous articles discussed what happened. They asked why Assad would send vitally needed weapons and munitions to Lebanon?

It makes no sense. He needs all he can get. If reports were accurate, evidence would have corroborated them. None was forthcoming.

At the time, DEBKAfile said Obama "green light(ed)" Israel to attack. Doing so revealed Israel's involvement in Washington's war.

So is NATO. Naked aggression is longstanding alliance policy. It very much reflects how Israel and America operate. Imperial priorities matter most. Rule of law principles are discarded.

War is a way of life. Both nations prioritize it. They're warrior states. Syria's being systematically ravaged. It may be entirely destroyed before conflict ends.

Israel's latest attack ups the stakes. It appears nakedly transparent. On the one hand, Israel's flexing its military muscle. On the other, it's daring Syria to respond.

Doing so would likely trigger Washington-led NATO full-scale intervention. Perhaps Israel would get involved. Anything can happen any time.

An unnamed Israeli Washington embassy spokesman declined commenting on Friday’s incident.

He said only that "Israel is determined to prevent the transfer of chemical weapons or other game-changing weaponry by the Syrian regime to terrorists, specially to Hezbollah in Lebanon."

These type statements don't wash. No evidence corroborates allegations about Syrian chemical weapons use or transfers.

Fabricated claims heighten tensions. Doing so heads things closer to all-out war. Libya 2.0 appears likely. Launching it could come any time.

Note:

Early Sunday morning, Israel bombed Syria for the second straight day. Powerful blasts shook Damascus. Massive fires followed.

Washington and Israel share joint responsibility. Hindsight may show that these attacks began full-scale intervention. It's too early to know for sure. A follow-up article will discuss more.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "Banker Occupation: Waging Financial War on Humanity."

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

Listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network.

It airs Fridays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour

http://www.dailycensored.com/america-and-israel-imperial-partners-in-crime/

Honduras: State-Sponsored Death Squad Terror

***Yah, Don’t Advertise Your Man

 

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Ruth Ryan and Robin Hunt were best friends from way back when. Way back went with a few intervals in between. They had gone through the George Washington Elementary School in San Francisco together, and then Robin had moved with her family down to San Jose when the computer boom hit in the early 80s and her father got into that bonanza early. Then the Hunts, as the computer industry spread northward, had moved back up to Frisco in Robin’s sophomore year of high school and the pair had reconnected at Galileo High. After graduation both young women went to UCLA together and were roommates all through college. And as fate would have it they both got jobs in San Jose in the flourishing computer industry there where they were still roommates sharing a condo rental together as the heart of their story unfolds.

Now that information above tells us a lot about how their fates have been intertwined but does not speak to things like boyfriends or not, how they related to each other or not, and where they both think they are heading or not. The first part of the question, and only the first part of the question, is what is of interest to us here. Ruth, a sassy brown- haired, brown-eyed, tallish, well-built woman goes for the intellectual-types and has run through a few men who have Berkeley or Stanford on their resumes. And as such intellectual types run she usually picks them about her height, thin and kind of well, if you ask Robin, nerdy, dwebs, whatever you call the misfits of this wicked old world. Robin, on the other hand tends to, uh, athletic types, well-built, with some brains but mainly a good bedmate. Right now Ruth is man-less having unceremoniously dumped a guy she met at a protest march who had some weird mother-fixation problems that he wanted her to solve. Please. Robin is now in a semi-serious (always semi-serious it seems to her) with Harry, a gym work-out nut who also happens to be a second level exec for a computer software firm. They met, well, they met in the gym, Mike Gold’s, over some training bicycle exhibit and they kind of hit it off (okay, semi-hit it off).                   

The reason this build-up is important is that  while Robin and Ruth have, as friends, close friends will, had many a tussle over one issue or another, you know who was supposed to clean this or what didn’t take out the rubbish that they have never had a fight over men. Different tastes. They both claimed that is part of why they remained friends for so long. So neither one when coupled up thought anything of, as friends will, talking about their issues with their respective love interest, including, of course, sex, and the various ways that issue got, or did get played out.    

So for the past few months Robin had been filling Ruth in on the details of her and Harry’s sex life. No big deal. Or one would have thought no big deal. It seems that Harry was not just some Adonis reflecting himself in some mirror but a rather generous and thoughtful lover. And has shown Robin few things that, well, made her blush when she told Ruth some of the details. And then things changed a little between the two best friends. Ruth would avoid being around when Harry came by the condo. She would be kind of secretive about her whereabouts when she didn’t come home some nights. She was also less talkative about stuff in general for a while. Not a big unexplained freeze but a little frost turn their relationship. Robin thought for sure it was one of her off-beat romances and Ruth was ashamed to bring the guy out into the open. Then things exploded on night. She had been sent by her company to a conference up in Seattle that finished up early and so she flew home early. You know the rest. When she got to the condo there were Harry and Ruth is a very compromising position, a position that Robin had told Ruth about in detail one night. Yah, so take old blues singer Sippy Wallace’s advice-please, under no circumstances, advertise your man. Enough said.  

Israel- U.S. Hands Off The Middle East!

Israeli airstrikes on Syria prompt threats, anger

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JOSEF FEDERMAN, AP
2 hours ago

In this image taken from video obtained from Shaam News Network, which has ...

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel rushed to beef up its rocket defenses on its northern border Sunday to shield against possible retaliation after carrying out two airstrikes in Syria over 48 hours — an unprecedented escalation of Israeli involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Syria and its patron Iran hinted at possible retribution, though the rhetoric in official statements appeared relatively muted.

Despite new concerns about a regional war, Israeli officials signaled they will keep trying to block what they see as an effort by Iran to send sophisticated weapons to Lebanon's Hezbollah militia ahead of a possible collapse of Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to intervene in the Syrian civil war to stop the transfer of what it calls "game-changing" weapons to Hezbollah, a Syrian-backed group that battled Israel to a stalemate during a monthlong war in 2006.

Since carrying out a lone airstrike in January that reportedly destroyed a shipment of anti-aircraft missiles headed to Hezbollah, Israel had largely stayed on the sidelines. That changed over the weekend with a pair of airstrikes, including an attack near a sprawling military complex close to the Syrian capital of Damascus early Sunday that set off a series of powerful explosions.

The Israeli government and military refused to comment. But a senior Israeli official said both airstrikes targeted shipments of Fateh-110 missiles bound for Hezbollah. The Iranian-made guided missiles can fly deep into Israel and deliver powerful half-ton bombs with pinpoint accuracy. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing a covert military operation.

Syria's government called the attacks a "flagrant violation of international law" that has made the Middle East "more dangerous." It also claimed the Israeli strikes proved the Jewish state's links to rebel groups trying to overthrow Assad's regime.

Syria's information minister, Omran al-Zoubi, reading a Cabinet statement after an emergency government meeting, said Syria has the right and duty "to defend its people by all available means."

Israeli defense officials believe Assad has little desire to open a new front with Israel when he is preoccupied with the survival of his regime. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011, and Israeli officials believe it is only a matter of time before Assad is toppled.

Still, Israel seemed to be taking the Syrian threats seriously. Israel's military deployed two batteries of its Iron Dome rocket defense system to the north of the country Sunday. It described the move as part of "ongoing situational assessments."

Israel says the Iron Dome shot down hundreds of incoming short-range rockets during eight days of fighting against Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip last November. Hezbollah fired some 4,000 rockets into Israel during the 2006 war, and Israel believes the group now possesses tens of thousands of rockets and missiles.

The Iron Dome deployment followed a surprise Israeli drill last week in which several thousand reservists simulated conflict in the north. In another possible sign of concern, Israel closed the airspace over northern Israel to civilian flights on Sunday and tightened security at embassies overseas, Israeli media reported. Israeli officials would not confirm either measure.

Reflecting fears of ordinary Israelis, the country's postal service, which helps distribute government-issue gas masks, said demand jumped to four times the normal level Sunday.

Israel's deputy defense minister, Danny Danon, would neither confirm nor deny the airstrikes. He said, however, that Israel "is guarding its interests and will continue to do so in the future."

"Israel cannot allow weapons, dangerous weapons, to get into the hands of terror organizations," he told Army Radio.

Israeli defense officials have identified several strategic weapons that they say cannot be allowed to reach Hezbollah. They include Syrian chemical weapons, the Iranian Fateh-110s, long-range Scud missiles, Yakhont missiles capable of attacking naval ships from the coast, and Russian SA-17 anti-aircraft missiles. Israel's airstrike in January destroyed a shipment of SA-17s meant for Hezbollah, according to U.S. officials.

Israeli officials said Sunday they believe that Iran is stepping up its efforts to smuggle weapons through Syria to Hezbollah because of concerns that Assad's days are numbered.

They said the Fateh-110s reached Syria last week. Friday's airstrike struck a site at the Damascus airport where the missiles were being stored, while the second series of airstrikes early Sunday targeted the remnants of the shipment, which had been moved to three nearby locations, the officials said.

None of the Iranian missiles are believed to have reached Lebanon, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a classified intelligence assessment.

The attacks pose a dilemma for the embattled Assad regime.

If it fails to respond, it looks weak and opens the door to more airstrikes. But any military retaliation against Israel would risk dragging the Jewish state and its powerful army into a broader conflict. With few exceptions, Israel and Syria have not engaged in direct fighting in roughly 40 years.

The airstrikes come as Washington considers how to respond to indications the Syrian regime may have used chemical weapons in its civil war. President Barack Obama has described the use of such weapons as a "red line," and the administration is weighing its options.

The White House declined for a second day to comment directly on Israel's air strikes in Syria, but said Obama believes Israel, as a sovereign nation, has the right to defend itself against threats from Hezbollah.

"The Israelis are justifiably concerned about the threat posed by Hezbollah obtaining advanced weapons systems, including some long-range missiles," said White House spokesman Josh Earnest. He said the U.S. was in "close coordination" with Israel but would not elaborate.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague also seemed to back Israel, telling Sky News that "all countries have to look after their own national security."

Iran condemned the airstrikes, and a senior official hinted at possible retribution from Hezbollah.

Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, assistant to the Iranian chief of staff, told Iran's state-run Arabic-language Al-Alam TV that Tehran "will not allow the enemy (Israel) to harm the security of the region." He added that "the resistance will retaliate to the Israeli aggression against Syria." ''Resistance" is a term used for Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas, another anti-Israel militant group supported by Iran.

Iran has provided both financial and military support to Hezbollah for decades and has used Syria as a conduit for both. If Assad were to fall, that pipeline could be cut, dealing a serious blow to Hezbollah's ability to confront Israel.

Israel appears to be taking a calculated risk that its strikes will not invite retaliation from Syria, Hezbollah or even Iran.

But Salman Shaikh of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar warned: "All this could lead us into a wider conflict."

———

Federman reported from Jerusalem. Associated Press writers Ian Deitch and Diaa Hadid in Jerusalem and Bassem Mroue and Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this story.

***The Corner Boy

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

He hardly recognized the old place, the old hometown neighborhood place, the Atlantic section of North Adamsville (why they called it Atlantic other than its proximity to the bay that would lead to the great Atlantic is anybody guess. The only thing he knew was that Grandma Riley of blessed memory always called it “one-horse” Atlantic and she was right, very right) the place where he grew up and came of age, for good or evil. The place where he, Frankie Murphy, had done his time as a stand-up corner boy back in the 1960s, a stand-up corner boy in front of the very Harry’s Variety Store site that he was standing directly in front at that moment. Except that it was no longer Harry’s but Kim’s Variety Store reflecting to his amazement the switch from heavily Irish Catholic with a few Italians thrown in to every variety of Asian, Chinese, Vietnamese, and he did not know what else. He did not expect after such a long time to see things exactly as they were and as he had dreamed but this contrast was startling.

Frankie had not been around the old neighborhood for about forty years mainly due to a little habit of his called armed robbery that he had picked up the knack for with those same corner boys who he hung around with when Kim’s was Harry’s. And so Frankie in due course had done his time, several times including the last stretch at Cedar Junction for two dimes (really eighteen years with a deuce taken off for good behavior) and he had done it hard that last time since he knew when he got out that there would be no more place for him in his chosen profession. And so he, after a few days spent at a flop rooming house and a couple of hard nights of drinking his favorite whiskey, decided to head back to the old homestead and see where it had all gone off the wheels and maybe too flash back to the glory days, the days when he stood tall as a corner boy.

Of course even if any of the old gang were still around, or maybe just old time neighbors they would not have recognized Frankie, now a little plump from sitting around prisons unlike the old days when he was tall, thin and agile enough to work his magic when the guys needed some ready dough and he stealthily got into many a back window and made a quick heist for pocket change. Moreover he had that telltale prison pallor that no sunshine can bring back, that pallor etched into the skin through a few thousand days and nights. And that telltale prison release garb, that too tight suit, those silly out of fashion childhood- like brown shoes, and that equally silly tie that was popular back in the day. So, no, nobody would recognize Frankie and that was just as well as he headed across the street to sit in the bleachers of the ball field that he remembered from childhood (although the old wooden planks that would give you splinters had been replaced by aluminum) and reflect back to the old corner boy days.

Harry’s even before he was a corner boy, maybe back to his very earliest remembrances was always a corner boy hang-out. Some say the tradition had gone back to the 1920s when Harry’s father, working out of that same locale, supplied the neighborhood, including thirsty cops, and maybe especially thirsty cops, with booze, real booze from Canada during Prohibition. Harry, Harry the son, continued that illegal tradition when his time came but supplying the neighborhood, including win hungry cops, and maybe especially win hungry cop, with a place to place their bets. Yah, Harry was the local bookie and so connected that cops in their shiny cruisers would park right in front of the store, ignore the corner boys, and go in to place their bets. And if anybody looked at the place, the inside anyway, one would know right off that whatever else was going on this did not have the look of a prosperous convenience store. Harry didn’t put up much of a front and didn’t need to, a few newspapers, mainly the Daily Racing Form , a couple of cans on the shelves, a couple of quarts of milk in the refrigerator, a chest stocked with all kinds of soda, max daddy pin ball machine in almost constant use, and his “book” on the corner for all the world to see. That’s what Frankie remembered anyway and he had been inside enough times to play that pin ball machine (Madame LaRue, a busty siren, calling you to play and, what, win her). What was more important was that Harry had no problem letting corner boys hang on the outside, and that was how Frankie came of age by hanging around Harry’s just like his older brothers, just like his uncles and maybe just like his grand-uncles.

Then Frankie, noticing that most of the old houses in the neighborhood still were standing (although many had been renovated, including his own growing up home, a triple-decker that had been converted into condos), started putting names to the houses, corner boy names, and what happened to them, as far as he knew. And any memory dance had to begin with “Red”Riley, the acknowledged king hell king of the corner boy night for many years (from his older brothers’ time and his own before he moved on to a Boston gang that specialized in armed robberies). Frankie had seen many tough men in his time, in and out of prison, but Red was among the toughest. He would never forget when he was fourteen or so, well before he caught the corner boy bug, or could even hang there except as a mascot of sorts when his older brothers were around, what Red did to one guy from another corner who for whatever reason passed Harry’s corner. This guy was big, tough, and looked like he could handle himself. Red just chain-whipped the hell out of him right on the street, right out on the street with people watching, walked away, and left the guy in a pool of blood for the ambulance to pick him up. Jesus. When the cops came later to question Red he stonewalled them, stonewalled them good, saying the guy must have been hit by a car, and everybody, every witness anyway, agreed with Red. Since the other guy wasn’t going to press charges, not if he wanted to live anyway, the cops never even took him to the station. Of course Red, from what Frankie had heard after he moved on, had run into some tough luck later on when he got too old to be a corner boy and he too had to move on. Seems he ran into some hot number, some blonde, some Lola, who twisted him around a little, or maybe a lot, it is hard to tell on dame stuff and he needed plenty of dough to keep her happy. So he went on something like a rampart down South where Frankie had heard she was from sticking up places as they moved around. One night Red hit a 7-11 store and there were cops nearby. A shootout ensued and Red went down in a hail of bullets, although not before to uniforms uttered their last as well. Frankie hoped she was worth it. Old Red Riley, RIP though.

Then there was Red’s lieutenant, his main corner boy pal whom he trusted to keep things in order when he was not around, when he was maybe getting a little something from one of his million honeys down at old Adamsville Beach. “Clips”McGee was his name, a good guy, a good guy to have handy when you needed brains to figure out a heist, or something. He got the name Clips from when he was a kid just starting out, maybe twelve, and he would clip stuff, you know, steal stuff from stores. Stuff like rings, records, small time stuff compared to later when he master-minded a really big deal, a huge heist , artwork, jewels the works when Red needed plenty of dough for some honey of his, or maybe it was for his sister, who needed to beat the rap on some solicitation charge and needed dough to doing the beating. He used to do a clip or too even later sometimes just to keep in practice. He said if he ever got caught which he didn’ he would just say “hey, it just stuck to me” and let it go at that. He never got caught though. Not for that kid’s stuff. What did Clips in was dope, when dope became the thing to do, to make money on, to get kicks from too if you could control it. That stuff never interested Frankie, he thought it was too risky, had to be handled too many times to make it worthwhile. But Clips had big dreams, dreams of forming his own operation not knowing that the thing had been fixed since, well, maybe eternity and so he found himself face down in some dusty Mexican town, Sonora maybe, with two slugs in his head, un-mourned. Clips RIP too.

Then there were the soldiers, although the corner, except for who was, or wasn’t, king was not organized along any particular lines. Those guys, including in his time Frankie, were what gave Red his status, his visible status as well as the guys he needed when he needed some heavy work done. “Crazy” Donahue was a drinker, from way back, had been in jail a number of times, nothing big but plenty of pick-ups on the streets. Red liked him, tolerated him, though because when he wasn’t drunk, which was on a job, he could crack open any door, safe, anything locked like clockwork. It was beautiful to watch. Poor Crazy though when over the edge one time though, wound up in Bridgewater for a while and then one day he went over to the Mystic River Bridge and crashed his car off it. Another guy, “Be-Bop” McNamara, Frankie’s closest friend at the time since he dated Be-Bop’s sister, Chrissie, until Frankie dropped out of high school and she gave him the air, was a great driver, could maneuver (and work on) any car around. So when they needed a car Be-Bop would work his magic. The last Frankie had heard was that Be-Bop was up in Shawshank, up in Maine, doing a nickel for some stolen car thing. Be-Bop made everybody laugh one time when he said, maybe knowing like the rest of them that the edges of the law were dicey places to live, that if he did time he would just grab the warden’s car and take off. That warden up in Shawshank better keep both eyes on his car at all times.

Then there were his older brothers, Peter and Kevin, who kind of overlapped his time as a corner boy (and also eased his way in as well). No question the three brothers (and two sisters) had had a tough upbringing , not so much that they were beaten, as they were beaten down, beaten down by the utter poverty of their existence in a crowded triple-decker, three to one room (and he got the short end), no room to breathe, the rent always a precarious thing when their father was out of work (not from not trying though), a car was usually an iffy thing, and some nights, some nights early on before they got “wise” to the world they went to bed hungry. Yes, they were hungry boy, hungry to get out from under, and not wind up like their father grabbing somebody else’s dregs. So when Peter (the oldest) approached Red it was like catnip. He brought Kevin along, and Frankie in his turn followed a couple of years after. The world owed them a living and they were going to get theirs. Well, they got theirs alright, Peter eventually “graduated” from the corner and went on like many others to try the drug trade. He too did not understand that the deal was fixed and so he fell, not dead, not right away, dead, although he had the ghost of death on him. He ODed on heroin, horse, H, after about twenty bouts in front of the police line-up. The cops would ask him if he was high and how he got that way. He answered that he was “walking with the king” and if they had a better offer they had better present it quick. They never did and so he fell off the rim of the world. Kevin, none too stable any way, always a little behind the eight ball wound up in Bridgewater too, wound up there and institutionalized most of his life, and he just kind of wilted away, wilted away slowly.

Oh sure there were woman around, woman who wanted to get their kicks from danger boys, who liked the idea that guys were ready to rumble over them, guys ready too to make sure they had some dough to keep them around. Mainly it was around Red that they came, the ones really seeking danger and Red would give the others his cast-offs. Once in a while Red would put the girls to work, pimp them off, when dough was tight but that was the exception because to a man there was that Irish Catholic Madonna thing hovering over them. What Red would do, and did plenty is use his girls (and the other corner boys including Frankie followed suit) was for the old rape dodge. Set some poor dope up with a lovely (and some of them were, one that he had the hots for, an Italian girl, Lena, was as much as he could handle then when he was just starting out) and then when they were in the clinches she would holler rape and that would bring one of the corner boys to her rescue. Then the dope had to stand a shake-down. There were variations on that one but that was the drift.

What of Frankie track record? Well he did time and plenty of it, since he usually got the short end of the stick when the deal went down, was the fall guy when things went bust. And being a stand-up guy he took the time, got taken care of and that was that. He had some good times, had been married three times (one time while he was in jail), had some serious dough from a few scores and did better than the others that he knew of since he wasn’t going to be found face down in some ditch. But what else was he to do. He was too hungry, not food hungry but you know hungry, to do otherwise.

And as he sat on that bleacher seat still thinking about the old days he thought well that was the way the cards were dealt and if he had to do it over he might have been smarter about a couple of things but that was the way the cards were dealt.

***Out In The 1950s Crime Noir Night- Hey Guys, Crime Doesn’t Pay- John Huston’s “The Asphalt Jungle” - A Film Review

DVD Review

The Asphalt Jungle, starring Sam Jaffe, Sterling Hayden, James Whitimore, (and a small, but striking, role by a very young Marilyn Monroe) directed by John Huston, M-G-M Pictures, 1950

No question I am a film noir, especially a crime film noir, aficionado. Recently I have been on a tear reviewing various crime noir efforts and drawing comparisons between the ones that “speak” to me and those that, perhaps, should have been left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy: films like Out Of the Past, Gilda, The Lady From Shang-hai, and The Big Sleep need no additional comment from me as their plot lines stand on their own merits. Others, because they have a fetching, or wicked, for that matter, femme fatale to muddy the waters also get a pass, or as in Gilda a double nod for the plot and for the femme fatale. (Be still my heart, at the thought of Rita Hayworth, ah, dancing and singing, okay lip synching, and looking, well, fetching while doing those difficult tasks.) I have even tried to salvage some noirefforts by touting their plot lines and others by their use of shadowy black and white cinematography to overcome plot problems. Like The Third Man(and, in that case, the edgy musical score, with more zither than you probably ever thought possible, as well). That brings us this film under review, 1950's The Asphalt Jungle, starring Sam Jaffe as the wizened, harden old con trying for one last chance at “easy street” with a big caper, and Sterling Hayden as, well, the “hooligan,” the “muscle”, the guy who has to clean up after, but also is looking for his own version of that easy street.

From the headline to this review you can tell that I have kind of telegraphed the problem here; crime doesn’t pay, okay. But that “wisdom” has not stopped a million "from hunger" guys (and not a few dames) from taking the quick plunge to easy street since way back, way back in pharaoh’s times probably. And it has not stopped Hollywood directors and producers from using that theme as the plot line for their cinematic efforts, some good, some bad, here very good. But in this film the beauty of the thing, despite the familiarity of the plot line and the predictable ending, is that the acting carries the day, especially by Jaffe and Hayden.

Doc (the role played by Sam Jaffe), old time con that he is, just released from stir for some previous big plan crime, had plenty of time on his hands up at the pen to work through his latest plan for easy street. A big plan involving knocking over a big jewelry store, having the merchandise “fenced,” and then off he goes to sun and senoritas, young senoritas by the way, the dirty old man, down in Mexico. Mexico before the drug cartels.

Such an effort need upfront cash, and some major backing, to procure the master safe cracker, the expert wheelman and, just in case things get rough, the hooligan,(here Bix, played by Sterling Hayden), the guy who takes all the pot-shots for short money and also to secure a conduit to fence this high roller stuff after the heist. And that is where things start to go awry.

See, one of reasons that crime doesn’t pay, pay in the long or short haul, is that not everybody is on the level. Sure the safe cracker, the wheel man, and the hooligan, the “proles” are on the level. Especially farm boy Bix turned loose in the ugly, asphalt jungle city just looking for a stake to get back home to Kentucky and out of the city soils. Problem is the up-front dough guys, one way or the other, are not on the level. One has no dough (although it was easy to see why that was so since he was, well let’s just call it “keeping time” with a young honey, played by Marilyn Monroe, and even I could see where keeping her "happy”, and gladly, would eat up a guy’s wallet), and the other will wilt under the slightest pressure, police pressure. A few slap arounds and he will sing like a bird, the rat. But who had time to check with the Better Business Bureau when you are in the rackets to check the “fence’s” references (and bank book). Needless to say that while the jewel heist is pulled off, although not without complications, deadly complications in the end, the rest of the story is one where everyone in the theater gets the very painful message already telegraphed above.

Director Huston, however, is aiming at more, as he mentions in the introduction to the film, he wants to investigate that thin line between the bad guys and the good guys, and the good guys are not always the cops and respectable folks. Doc, for instance, is cool customer, and although he makes a few serious mistakes of judgment in whom to, and who not to, trust he is a likeable crook. Bix, ditto, because he is a stand-up guy, gives one hundred per cent, for what he is paid to do, and does not leave his buddies in the lurch.

There is no real femme fatale here driving the male action forward to their oblivions but there is Doll, and Doll, Doll has got it bad for Bix, yah, real bad, and so the tensions between them help round out this film. Doll though never figured out the ABCs-that hanging around wrong gees, even stand-up wrong gees, was anything but heartbreak hotel. But sometimes that is the way dames are, thankfully.

Note: I have on previous occasions needed to act the scold in regard to certain actions of the characters in crime noir films. Here I have to take Brother Hayden to task for not learning that crime does not pay. Hayden played Johnny in the 1953 crime noir The Killing, also a caper involving big dough, big dough from a racetrack handle and another perfect plan gone awry. The Asphalt Jungle precedes The Killing, so Brother Hayden shouldn’t you have learned by 1953 that these perfect plans, cinematically at least, are bound to go awry. Smarten up.

***Out In The Corner Boy Night- Rock 'Em Daddy, Be My Be-Bop Daddy-But Watch Out-Belatedly For Elvis Presley

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

This is the way Betsy McGee, an old time, very old time Clintondale Elementary School flame (locally known as the Acre school, and everybody knew what you were talking about, everybody around Clintondale anyway), and now (1961, in case anybody reads this later) a fellow sophomore classmate at North Clintondale High, wanted the story told, the story of her ill-fated brother, twenty-two year old John “Black Jack” McGee so this is the way it will be told. Why she wanted me to tell the story is beyond me, except that she knows, knows even in her sorrows, that I hang around with corner boys, Harry’s Variety Store corner boys, although I am more like a“pet,” or a “gofer,” than a real corner boy. But that story has already been told, told seven ways to Sunday, so let’s get to Black Jack’s story.

John “Black Jack” McGee like a million guys who came out of the post-World War II Cold war night and came out of the no prospect projects, in his case the Clintondale Housing Project (the Acre, okay, and hell’s little acre at that to save a lot of fancy sociological talk stuff), looking for kicks. Kicks anyway he could get them to take the pain away, the pain of edge city living if he was asked, by the way, politely asked or you might get your head handed to you on a platter asked. Needless to say Black Jack was rough stuff, rough stuff even when he was nothing but another Acre teenage kid, with a chip, no, about seven chips, on his wide shoulders. Needless to say, as well, there was nothing that school could teach him and he dropped out the very day that he turned sixteen. As a sign of respect for what little North Clintondale High taught him he threw a rock through the headmaster’s window and then just stood there. The headmaster did not made peep one about it (he was probably hiding under his desk, he is that kind of guy) and Black Jack just walked away laughing. Yes, Black Jack was rough stuff, rough stuff all the way around. That story made him a legend all the way down to the Acre school, and so much so that every boy, every red-blooded boy, in her class made his pitch to get along with Betsy.

The problem with legends though is unless you keep pace other legends crowd you out, or somebody does some crazy prank and your legend gets lost in the shuffle. That’s the way the rules are, make of them what you will. And Black Jack, wide shouldered, tall, pretty muscular, long brown hair, and a couple of upper shoulder tattoos with two different girls’ names on them was very meticulous about his legend. So every once in a while you would hear a rumor about how Black Jack had “hit” this liquor store or that mom and pop variety store, small stuff when you think about it but enough to stir any red-blooded Acre elementary schoolboy’s already hungry imagination.

And then all of sudden, just after a nighttime armed gas station robbery that was never solved, Black Jack stepped up in society, well, corner boy society anyway. This part everyone who hung around Harry’s Variety knew about, or knew parts of the story. Black Jack had picked up a bike (motorcycle, for the squares), and not some suburban special Harley-Davidson chrome glitter thing either but a real bike, an Indian. The only better bike, the Vincent Black Lightning, nobody had ever seen around, only in motorcycle magazines. And as a result of having possession of the“boss” bike (or maybe reflecting who they thought committed that armed robbery) he was “asked” (if that is the proper word, rather than commissioned, elected, or ordained) to join the Acre Low-Riders.

And the Acre Low-Riders didn’t care if you were young or old, innocent or guilty, smart or dumb, or had about a million other qualities, good or bad, just stay out of their way when they came busting through town on their way to some hell-raising. The cops, the cops who loved to tell kids, young kids, to move along when it started to get dark or got surly when some old lady jaywalked caught the headmaster’s 'no peep' when the Low Riders showed their colors. Even “Red” Doyle who was the max daddy king corner boy at Harry’s Variety made a very big point that his boys, and he himself, wanted no part of the Low-Riders, good or bad. And Red was a guy who though nothing, nothing at all, of chain-whipping a guy mercilessly half to death just because he was from another corner. Yes, Black Jack had certainly stepped it up.

Here’s where the legend, or believing in the legend, or better working on the legend full-time part comes in. You can only notch up so many robberies, armed or otherwise, assaults, and other forms of hell-raising before your act turns stale, nobody, nobody except hungry imagination twelve-year old schoolboys, is paying attention. The magic is gone. And that is what happened with Black Jack. Of course, the Low-Riders were not the only outlaw motorcycle “club” around. And when there is more than one of anything, or maybe on some things just one, there is bound to be a "rumble" (a fight, for the squares) about it. Especially among guys, guys too smart for school, guys who have either graduated from, or are working on, their degrees from the school of hard knocks, the state pen. But enough of that blather because the real story was that the Groversville High-Riders were looking for one Black Jack McGee. And, of course, the Acre Low-Riders had Black Jack’s back.

Apparently, and Betsy was a little confused about this part because she did not know the “etiquette” of biker-dom, brother John had stepped into High-Rider territory, a definite no-no in the biker etiquette department without some kind of truce, or peace offering, or whatever. But see Black Jack was “trespassing” for a reason. He had seen this doll, this fox of a doll, this Lola heart-breaker, all blonde hair, soft curves, turned-up nose, and tight, short-sleeved cashmere sweater down at the Adamsville Beach one afternoon a while back and he made his bid for her. Now Black Jack was pretty good looking, okay, although nothing special from what anybody would tell you but this doll took to him, for some reason. What she did not tell him, and there is a big question still being asked around Harry’s about why not except that she was some hell-cat looking for her own strange kicks, was that she had a boyfriend, a Groversville guy doing time up the state pen. And what she also didn’t tell him was that the reason her boyfriend,“Sonny” Russo, was in stir was for attempted manslaughter and about to get out in August. And what she also did not tell him was that Sonny was a charter member of the High-Riders.

Forget dramatic tension, forget suspense, this situation, once Sonny found out, and he would, sooner or later, turned into “rumble city," all banners waving, all colors showing. And so it came to pass that on August 23, 1961, at eight o’clock in the evening the massed armies of Acre Low-Riders and Groverville High-Riders gathered for battle. And the rules of engagement for such transgressions, if there is such a thing, rules of engagement that is rather than just made up, was that Sonny and Black Jack were to fight it out in a circle, switchblades flashing, until one guy was cut too badly to continue, or gave up, or… So they went back and forth for a while Black Jack getting the worst of it with several cuts across his skin-tight white tee-shirt, a couple of rips in his blue jeans, bleeding but not enough to give up.

Meanwhile true-blue Lola is egging Sonny on, egging him on something fierce, like some devil-woman, to cut the love-bug John every which way. But then Black Jack drew a break. Sonny slipped and John cut him, cuts him bad near the neck. Sonny was nothing but bleeding, bleeding bad, real bad. Sonny called it quits. Everybody quickly got the hell out of the field of honor, double-quick, Sonny’s comrades helping him along. That is not the end of the story, by no means. Sonny didn't make it, and in the cop dust-up Lola, sweet Lola, told them that none other than lover-boy Black Jack did the deed. And now Black Jack is earning his hard knock credits up in stir, state stir, for manslaughter (reduced from murder two).

After thinking about this story again I can also see where, if I played my cards right, I could be sitting right beside maybe not-so-old-flame Betsy, helping her through her brother hard times, down at the old Adamsville beach some night talking about the pitfalls of corner boy life while we are listening to One Night of Sin by Elvis Presley on the old car radio. What do you think?