***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night-“The Naked City”-A Film Review

 

The Naked City, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Howard Duff, Universal International, 1946

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 better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and 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 free pass. Some, such as the film under review from 1946, The Naked City, offer neither although the stark New York City cinematography and the voice-over narration place it firmly in the genre. This film is that old noir stand-by from the period, the police procedural with its never-ending cautionary tale about how “crime does not pay.”

A little plot summary is in order. Yes, New York City, well the New York City of the 1940s and 1950s had eight million stories, although maybe really just two, rich and poor, or maybe better getting richer or sliding down poorer, but that is the subject for another day. Of course telling eight million stories, other than as a few seconds relief slice-of-life scenes, would make me very sleepy, very sleepy indeed.

So the plot line reduces the sleepiness to a minimum by telling one story, or rather one murder story that wraps quite a few people in its tentacles, including one major city homicide squad. A squad led by perennial Irish actor Barry Fitzgerald as the foot-sore but worldly-wise detective in charge. The grift (profit motive) that drives the story line is stealing jewelry from those self-same getting richer New York City swells, including an inside society swell finger man. But things turn awry when one drop-dead beautiful model winds up being murdered (maybe I should not have used just that phrase to describe that unseen model, but I will let it stand) by her some of her thieving confederates.

The twists and turns, such as they are, revolve around a mystery man lover, suitor, whatever it was never really clear, except he was daffy over that drop-dead beautiful model, and finding him since he was the logical guy to have done, or to have ordered the murder, is the order of the day. In New Jack City and elsewhere that is hard to do, one and one half hours hard to do. But in the end Barry and his homicide squad cohorts get their man, a strangely agile bad man for noir who are usually portrayed as just straight thugs. And the city moves on to the next…murder, mayhem or whatever. Not exactly my cup of tea in noir but if I recall this film was the model for a television series of the same name in the late 1950s so somebody must have though well of it beyond the slice-of-New York life scenes interspersed in the story and the great black and white cinematography of the Big Apple just after the end of World War II.

 

 

 

 

 

Get Ready to March Together in the DORCHESTER DAY PARADE! This SUNDAY, June 2

Dorchester People for Peace will be marching again this year in the Dorchester Day Parade on June 2 along with our friends and allied organizations. Please join us!

Together, we bring our vision and our values to thousands of people along the four-mile route.

Our message will focus on ending the war in Afghanistan and opposing any new military intervention in Iran or Syria; reducing the military budget; and funding urgent needs at home in our neighborhoods and communities. Thousands of marchers and parade watchers will see our banners and get our anti-war flyers!

We’ll gather around Noon in Dorchester Lower Mills (Richmond St.) with the parade kick-off about 1pm.

We’ll have our after-Parade barbeque and celebration at Jeff Klein’s house, 123 Cushing Ave. from about 3:30pm. Bring a dish or something to drink if you can. Marchers can drop things off at Jeff’s house before the parade if they want – please call ahead – 617-288-4578.

WHERE: Lower Mills, Dorchester

Richmond Street between Dorchester Ave and Adams Street Look for the Dorchester People for Peace van You can’t drive or park anywhere near there on Dorchester Day, so travel early and travel by T (to Ashmont Station on the Red Line, Butler or Milton on the Mattapan trolley) …. Or park a ways away and walk. BRING: A sun hat, comfortable walking shoes (it’s four miles), water. You can bring a banner for your organization if you have the people to carry it. COOKOUT: After the parade at Jeff Klein’s, 123 Cushing Ave (near the end of the parade and near Savin Hill T station)
			Dorchester People for Peace works to end the wars; to build a multi-racial peace movement against violence and militarism at home and abroad; to oppose budget cuts, racism and political repression. 617-282-3783 * info@dotpeace.org

Veterans For Peace Stands With Bradley Manning!

Mass Rally at Ft. Meade, Maryland, Saturday, June 1

Court Martial Begins on Monday, June 3,

International Days of Action, June 1-8

Military veterans are turning out in force to show support for PFC Bradley Manning on the eve of his historic court martial, which begins on Monday, June 3, at Fort Meade, Maryland. The diminutive 25-year-old Manning, who has acknowledged giving classified Army documents to Wikileaks about U.S. conduct of the wars Iraq and Afghanistan, is facing the possibility of life in prison. In what many people see as “overkill,” the Army has charged him with “Aiding the Enemy,” the most serious of 22 charges.
Many members of Veterans For Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War will attend a large rally at Fort Meade this Saturday, June 1. Veterans will also participate in International Days of Action, June 1-8, in over 100 cities around the U.S. and worldwide, to demonstrate widespread support for PFC Manning.

What Manning released through Wikileaks was evidence of the routine killing of civilians by US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the routine cover-up of these war crimes. The Iraq War Logs and the Afghan War Diaries also revealed that military and civilian leaders were lying to the U.S. people when they presented rosy assessments of the progress of those wars.

“Bradley Manning is a hero who wanted to aid the public, not a traitor who wanted to aid the enemy” said Gerry Condon, a spokesperson for Veterans For Peace. “It is a shame that our nation did not pay more attention to the information he shared with us three years ago. Many lives could have been saved - hundreds of Afghani civilians and hundreds of U.S. soldiers.”

PFC Manning has been held in prison for over three years, much of it in solitary confinement and under other abusive treatment, as documented by the United Nationsl Special Rapporteur on Torture.

The Army's court martial of Manning, which begins on Monday, is expected to continue throughout the summer, with the prosecution presenting over 100 government witnesses, many of them in secret testimony. Veterans For Peace will participate in a daily vigil outside the front gate of Fort Meade.The Army's presecution of Bradley Manning coincides with the Obama Administration's crackdown on whistle-blowers and journalists alike. Over twice as many people are being prosecuted under the 1917 Espionage Act than in all previous administrations combined.

On Thursday, February 28, Bradley Manning made a profound and historic statement to a military court and to the world. Reading from prepared notes for over an hour, Bradley detailed how he released classified military and government documents to Wikileaks, and he explained why he did so.

“I believed if the public, particularly the American public, could see this it could spark a debate on the military and our foreign policy in general as it applied to Iraq and Afghanistan. It might cause society to reconsider the need to engage in counter terrorism while ignoring the human situation of the people we engaged with every day.... I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience.”

One of the most moving aspects of Manning’s testimony was his explanation as to why he released the so-called “Collateral Murder” video, which shows the gunning down in Baghdad of two Reuters journalists and bystanders by American soldiers in a US Apache helicopter. Manning described being deeply troubled by the video, especially the crew’s “lack of concern for human life” and lack of “concern for injured children at the scene.”

Veterans For Peace, an international organization with chapters in over 100 cities, demands that the US Army drop all charges against Bradley Manning and release him from prison immediately. We intend to stand with Bradley every step of the way. We will protest at Fort Meade, Maryland and in our hometowns, including at military recruiting stations. We will not stop until Bradley Manning is free.

For more information or interviews with Veterans For Peace, call Gerry Condon at 206-499-1220
or visit www.veteransforpeace.org and www.bradleymanning.org

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***The Real Scoop Behind “Brother, Can You Spare A Dime?”

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

“Hey, brother (or sister), can you spare a dime?,” followed by “Got an extra cigarette, pal (or gal)?” Yah, Billy Bailey, used-to-be brash corner boy William James Bailey, certainly had the panhandler lingo down, down pat, after only a few days on the bum. Worst though on the bum in his own home town, his ever-loving’ roots, Boston. On the bum this time, this time a real fall and not just some short money, pick up some spare change, free campsite, Volkswagen bus pick-up sharing stews, brews and dope hitchhike road looking for the great blue-pink American West night with some honey, some Angelica honey, bum like a few years back.

In those days he practically made a religion, yah a religion out of living “free,” living out of the knapsack, living under a bridge, or some railroad jungle camp, no sweat, if need be. But those “golden days” dried up a few years back and now in 1976 he was facing a real skid row choice. How it happened he will get to along the way but first let’s set the parameters of what 1976 panhandling, to put an eloquent name on it for “bumming”, shiftless bumming , looked like and how to survive in the new age of everybody me-ing themselves, even with people who were not on the bum. Christ, lord the times were hard, hard times in old Babylon, no question.

See, a guy, a guy who called himself“Shorty” McGee for obviously physical reasons but who knows what his real name was, maybe he didn’t remember either after all the rum-dum sterno heat years and the endless backsides of skid row haunts, that he had hitched up with for a minute, an overnight minute at the Salvation Harbor Lights Center over in the South End kind of hipped him to the obvious tricks of the new down-at the-heels road. Like putting the two requests together deal when you were panhandling, the request for dough and then for a cigarette or coffee or something, anything to keep you moving, hustling. See, Shorty said it was all a matter of psychology, of working the crowd, the downtown crowd, the bustling Park Street Station crowd, and the Copley Square sunning themselves crowd just right to get you out of their sights and back to whatever sweet thing they were doing. So you endlessly put the two requests together, time after time after time, and always. And what happened was that when they turned you down for the dough, or maybe took you literally and pieced you off with just a dime, Christ a dime that wouldn’t even buy a cup of joe, they could feel good about themselves, if they smoked, smoked cigarettes anyway, by passing you a butt. Billy thought, nice, this Shorty really does have it worked out just about right. Of course dimes and drags were not going to get him out from under, not this time.

Well, rather than leaving the reader out in the dark, Billy Bailey this fair 1976 spring was not just on the bum, but on the lam as well, keeping his head very far down just in case there were some guys who were looking for him, or worst, the cops, in case some irate victim of one of his scams took a notion to “fry his ass.” Of course he was counting on them, those victims, being mainly friends and acquaintances, of not putting “the heat” on him since he had already promised through the grapevine that he would make restitution. But we are getting a little ahead of the story, let’s step back.

The early 1970s were not kind to“free spirits” the previous name for what on this day were “free-loaders” and Billy, well, got behind in his expenses, and his bills, his ever expanding bills. But see the transition from free “s” to free “l” caught him off-guard, moreover he was just then in the throes of a fit of “the world owes me a living,” a serious fit. Why? Well see, he as a pauper son of the desperate working poor, “felt” that since he missed out on the golden age benefits of his youth that he was to make up the difference by putting the “touch” on the richer (not really rich but richer than he knew of, no question) friends that he had acquired through his doing this and that, mainly high-end drug connections.

The long and short it was that he would “borrow” money off Friend A under some scam pretext of putting it to good use (yes, his good use, including several long airplane fight trips to California and other points west-no more hitchhike roads for this moving up the food chain lad) and then borrow dough off Friend B to cover some of his debt to Friend A. Something like an unconscious classic Ponzi scheme, as it turned out. And then when he got to Friend X or somewhere around there things got way too complicated and he started “kiting” checks, and on and on as far deep into his white collar crime mind as he could think. That could only go on a for a short while and he calculated that "short while" almost to the day when he would have to go “underground” and that day had sprung up a couple of weeks before.

So it took no accountant or smart-ass attorney to know that dimes and drags were not going to get him back on his feet. Nor many of the schemes that Shorty had outlined over at Harbor Lights as ways to grab quick cash were. These were chicken feed for his needs, even his immediate needs, although some of the scams would fill the bill for a rum-dum or life-long skid row bum. But here is the secret, the deep secret that Billy Bailey held in his heart, after a few nights on bus station benches, cold spring night park benches, a night bout under the Andersen Bridge over by old haunt Harvard Square, and a few nights that he would rather not discuss just in case, he finally figured out, figured out kicking and screaming, that the world did not owe him a living and that if he wanted to survive past thirty he had better get the stardust and grit out of his eyes. But just this minute, just this underground spring 1976 minute, he needed to work the Commons. “Hey, brother, hey sister, can you spare a dime?” “Pal, have you got an extra cigarette?”

Postscript: Not all wisdom ends happily, and not all good intentions grow to fruition. Yes, Billy paid off his debts to his friends, mostly. However, Billy Bailey was killed, left face down in some dusty back road, while “muling” some product in a drug war shoot-out in Juarez, Mexico in late 1979. That was the official Federales report anyway. Other sources said that Billy tried to skim a little something off the top, maybe a couple of kilos of cocaine, while he was doing that muling and took a couple of facedown slugs for his efforts-RIP Billy Bailey.

***Out In The 1940s Crime Noir Night, Kind Of-Undercurrent

DVD Review

Undercurrent, starring Katherine Hepburn, Robert Taylor, Robert Mitchum, directed by Vincent Minnelli, 1947

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 better left on the cutting room floor. The classics are easy and 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. Some, such as the film under review from 1946, Undercurrent, frankly baffles me. A pyscho-drama, no question, a famous director, no question, but also a very non-femme fatale in Kate Hepburn, and a very non-tough guy (street or detective) role for classic 1940s tough guy and a good guy to have at your back, Robert Mitchum.

A little plot look will help explain my bafflement. Robert Taylor, a ruthless, driven high-tech capitalist who made big dough during World War II is also a little mad, well, a lot mad. However he is able to cover that little problem up while courting, well not beautiful, but let’s call her handsome, Kate Hepburn. Seems he needs a trophy wife and Kate fills the bill. And that is where the problems begin because Brother Taylor has a brother whom he is insanely jealous of for the usual Freudian, or pseudo-Freudian, reasons, that drive the plot lines of these pycho-dramas. Kate, however, loves the big lug Taylor until he starts going over the edge about his brother (and some other things like a little murder of an employee that goes a long way to allowing him to be that ruthless high-tech capitalist). Of course, as in all such dramas old Robert will get his comeuppance, have no fear.

But where is the noir in this noir? No femme fatale, no tough guy throwing his weight around or tilting at windmills to right the world’s wrongs, no problem that requires quick thinking to right those wrongs. Well when you go on a tear on a subject as I am on crime noir not everything will come up Out Of The Past or The Big Sleep. Not this one anyway.

***A Remembrance On Memorial Day- The Road Less Traveled

From The Pen Of Frank Jackman

Staff Sergeant John Prescott in the adjacent room, “Johnny P.” to his pals gathered around a small table drinking sodas and coffee, was a quiet, unassuming guy, a guy with just that barebones patriotism that animated many working- class kids to “do their duty” and join up when America was in danger, no questions asked. Not quite “my country, right or wrong” but pretty close when all was said and done. And that call came as the early 1960s, a time of high school fun and frolic and for ace football star Johnny P, fun and frolic with one fetching Chrissie O’Shea and their flaming romance that was the talk of the Class of 1964 at old North Adamsville High, turned to mid-1960s and that clarion drumbeat the country was in danger in some place called red-infested Vietnam. Johnny, and not just Johnny, answered the call. And here, gathered around a small table, in early May 1968 his old corner boys from in front of Salducci’s Pizza Parlor “up the downs,” as they called the small stores and shops that made up the area, were chatting away like mad.

Suddenly, Frank Riley, fabled Frankie, the king of the be-bop Salducci’s night in those fresher days, that early 1960s time when the world was young and everything seemed possible, yelled to no one in particular but they all knew what he meant, “Remember that night after graduation when Tonio threw us that party at the pizza parlor.” And all the other five gathered at the table became silence with their own memories of that night. See, Tonio was the king hell owner and zen master pizza maker at Salducci’s and a guy who treated Frankie (and therefore most of Frankie’s friends) like a son. So Tonio put out a big deal party right on the premises, closed to all but Frankie, his friends and hangers-on (and girls of course). Tonio, at least this is what he said at the time, appreciated that Frankie brought so much business his way what with his corner boys, their corner boys, and the, ah, girls that gathered round them and who endlessly fed the juke box that he had to show his appreciation in such a way. And everybody had a great time that night, with the closed door wine, Tonio-provided wine, flowing like crazy and nobody, no authorities or parents the wiser for it.

Part of that great time, the part the guys around the 1968 table were remembering just then, the part of that great gun-ho 1964 time occurred late that night when, plenty of wine under their belts, Frankie and the corner boys, talked “heroic” talk. Talked about their military service obligations that was coming up right on them. And this was no abstract talk, not this night, for not only was this a party put on by Tonio to show his gratitude but a kind of going away party for ace football player and part-time corner boy (the other part, the more and more part, with one fetching Chrissie O’Shea), Johnny Prescott, who had decided to sign up right after graduation and would be getting ready to leave for “boot camp” at Fort Dix, New Jersey in a few weeks. So everybody was piling on the bravery talk to Johnny about “killing commies” somewhere, maybe Vietnam, maybe Germany, hell, maybe Russia or China. And Johnny, not any rum-brave kind Johnny, not any blah blah-ing about bravery, football or war, Johnny just kind of sat there and let the noise go by him. His thoughts then were of Chrissie and doing everything he could to get back to her in one piece.

Of course heaping up pile after pile on the bravery formula was one Frankie Riley, ever the politician as well as the king of the corner boy night, who had so just happened to have landed, through a very curious connection with the Kennedy clan, a coveted slot in a National Guard unit. So, Frankie, ever Frankie, could be formally brave that night in the knowledge that he would be far away from any real fighting. His rejoinder was that his unit “might” be called up. The others kidded him about it, about his “week-end warrior” status, but just a little because after all he would be serving one way or another. Also kind of silent that night was Fritz Taylor just then on the unannounced verge ready to “do his duty” after having had a heavy-duty fight with his mother about his future, or lack of a future, and her “hadn’t he better go in the service and learn a trade” talk.

Most vociferous that night was Timmy Kiley. Yes, Timmy, the younger brother of the legendary North Adamsville and later State U. football player “Thunder Tommy” Kiley. He was ready to catch every red under every bed and do what, when and where to any he caught. Timmy later joined the Navy to “see the world” and saw much of some dreary scow in some dry-dock down in Charleston, South Carolina. Even Peter Paul Markin, Frankie’s right-hand man, self-described scribe, and publicly kind of the pacifist of the group, who usually got mercilessly “fag-baited” for his pale peace comments was up in arms about the need to keep the “free world” free as the tom-toms of war in Southeast Asia were seeping through and getting down to the places where the cannon fodder, ah, kids who would do the actual fighting lived. Places exactly like North Adamsville. But that was just the way he talked, kind of a studied hysterical two-thousand facts diatribe then. Markin, student deferred, at that 1968 table had just gotten notice from his friendly neighbors at the North Adamsville Draft Board that upon graduation he was to be drafted. And he was ready, kicking and screaming about some graduate school project that the world really needed to know about, to go. That was the way it was in the neighborhood. Go or be out of step, be different, be a red or pink maybe. Frank Ricco, the so-called token Eye-talian, of the Irish-laden Salducci’s corner boy night (and a kid that Tonio actually hated, some kind of Mafioso, omerta thing with his father) also displayed super-human brave talk that 1964 night but he, at least, was credited , not so many months later, with not only going in the Marines but of seeing some heavy-duty action in jungle-infested Kontum, and some other exotic and mainly unpronounceable places farther south in the water-logged rice paddles of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam.

Quiet, quieter than Johnny Prescott when he was thinking of Chrissie in the old corner boy night, or Fritz, then sullenly furious at his mother or at his hard-scrabble fate, or both, was Johnny Callahan. Johnny no stranger to corner boy controversy, no stranger to patriotic sentiments, at least publicly to keep in step with his boys, secretly hated war, the idea of that war in Vietnam coming up and was seriously hung up on the Catholic “just war” theory that had been around since at least Saint Augustine, maybe earlier. See Johnny had a grandmother (and also a mother, but less so) who was an ardent Catholic Worker reader and adherent to their social philosophy. You know, Dorothy Day and that crowd of rebel Catholics wanting to go back to the old, old days, the Roman persecution days, of the social gospel and the like.

And grandmother had the “just war”theory down pat. She had been the greatest knitter of socks for “the boys”during World War II that the world may have ever known. But on Vietnam she was strictly “no-go, no-go, no way” and she was drilling that in Johnny’s head every chance she got (which was a lot since Johnny, having, well let’s call it“friction” with his mother, the usual teenage angst friction, sought refuge over at grandma’s). Now grandma was pressing Johnny to apply for conscientious objector status (CO) but Johnny knew that as a Catholic, a lapsing Catholic but still a Catholic, the formal “just war”theory of that church would not qualify him for CO status. He wanted to, expected to, just refuse induction. So that rounded out that party that night. Hell, maybe in retrospect it wasn’t such a great party, although blame the times not Tonio for that.

Just then, as each member at the table thought his thoughts, started by Frankie’s remembrance someone from the other room called out, “pall-bearers, get ready.”

Postscript: Staff Sergeant John Phillip Prescott made the national news that 1968 year, that 1968 year of Tet, made the Life magazine photo montage of those killed in service in Vietnam on any given week. Johnny P.’s week was heavy with casualties so there were many photos, many looks of mainly working-class enlisted youth that kind of blurred together despite the efforts to recognize each individually. And, of course, Johnny P.’s name is now etched in black marble down in Washington, D.C. John Patrick Callahan served his two year “tour of duty” as federal prisoner 122204, at the Federal Correctional Institution, Allentown, Pennsylvania. The road less traveled, indeed.

While there is a lower class, I am in it; while there is a criminal element, I am of it; while there is a soul in prison, I am not free. - Eugene Debs TAKE ACTION NOW! Sign The Petition! Please take a moment to join Pete Seeger, Desmond Tutu, Dick Gregory and thousands of others. Get ten of your friends to sign the petition for compassionate release today. It is devastating, totally unbelievable. Is this in a democracy, the only superpower? I am sad. I will sign. Praying God’s blessing on your efforts. - Desmond Tutu Lynne Stewart should be outa jail. - Pete Seeger Write Lynne today, and visit lynnestewart.org Lynne Stewart 53504-054 CARSWELL FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTER P.O. BOX 27137 Fort Worth TX, 76127 To Donate please send your gift to: Lynne Stewart Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 (for gifts that need to be tax deductible call or email ralph.poynter@yahoo.com 917-853-9759) Emergency Alert: Lynne Stewart In Grave Danger Just last week the warden of Carswell FCI agreed to forward the compassionate release petition to the DOJ. The time to increase the heat is now. Dear Friends and Supporters: One month ago I made a request for compassionate release which was honored by the warden at Carswell Federal Medical Center. Today the papers are still on a desk in Washington, D.C. even though the terminal cancer that I have contracted requires expeditious action. Although I requested immediate action by the Bureau of Prisons, I find it necessary to again request immediate action from you, my friends, comrades and supporters to call the three numbers listed below on Thursday, May 30 and request action on my behalf. This could result in my being able to access medical treatment at Sloan Kettering so that I can face the rest of my life with dignity surrounded by those I love and who love me. Please do this. Yours truly Lynne Stewart FMS CARSWELL-53504-054 & Ralph Poynter Lynne Stewart Defense Organization Attorney General Eric Holder - 1 202 514 2001 White House President Obama – 1 202 456 1414 B.O.P. – Director Charles Samuels – 1 202 307 3198 ext 3 TAKE ACTION NOW! Sign The Petition! Lynne Stewart Must Be Free! Lynne Stewart and her husband Ralph Poynter. Compassion demands that Lynne Stewart be released immediately from prison so she and her family can fight for her life. Lynne Stewart, is political prisoner and a renowned human rights lawyer who is currently serving a ten year sentence at FMC Carswell TX. Please go to lynnestewart.org get active and sign the petition for compassionate release. Lynne Stewart Defense Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 917-853-9759, ralph.poynter@yahoo.com Over 12,000 and counting sign the petition! Please add your voice! If you have already signed the petition, please write a letter. They have the power to release Lynne now and must be encouraged to do so. Please write to: Mr. Charles E. Samuels, Jr., Director Federal Bureau of Prisons 320 First Street, NW Washington, DC 20534 Re: Lynne Irene Stewart, #53504-054 Compassionate Release District Judge John G. Koelte United States Courthouse 500 Pearl St. New York, NY 10007-1312 Re: Lynne Irene Stewart, #53504-054 Compassionate Release Lynne Stewart Defense Organization 1070 Dean St. Brooklyn NY 11216 917-853-9759, ralph.poynter@yahoo.com www.lynnestewart.org

The World Can't Wait Stop the Crimes of Your Government Donate | Local Chapters | Store | Previous Newsletters

Last Thursday in The New York times. Donate towards publishing the Close Guantanamo Now statement in alternative & international media. Alfred, The most significant trial ever of a whistleblower against U.S. wars will start Monday in a military court at Ft. Meade, MD. Bradley Manning came to the world's attention three years ago, when, as an Army Private in intelligence, he was jailed by the military in Kuwait, and, for almost a year, held in solitary confinement at Quantico VA at the Marine base. Worldwide protest erupted against his cruel imprisonment, before charges, and he was subsequently moved to Ft. Leavenworth, KS. In 2012, the government charged him with very serious crimes, which could possibly carry a death sentence. Last February, Bradley accepted responsibility for sharing some information with Wikileaks. (LEAKED AUDIO) Collateral Murder is the military's own video of 12 Iraqis being shot and killed from a US helicopter circling above. No one has been charged in connection with these killings. However, Pfc. Bradley Manning is going on trial because of it — he is accused of leaking this incriminating video to Wikileaks. World Can't Wait is distributing copies of this harrowing video so that many more people in the US see what is being done in their names. Click here to request a copy. Revolution newspaper, in High Stakes in the Cruel and Unjust Trial of Bradley Manning explains that, “the basis of the charges against Manning is the accusation that he leaked almost 500,000 classified government documents, which were then published by the website WikiLeaks. Many of these documents and files revealed war crimes committed by the U.S. government and its military in Iraq and elsewhere. The documents Manning is charged with leaking include the Collateral Murder video, Afghanistan War Logs, Iraq War Logs, U.S. State Embassy cables, and Guantánamo files. All of them contain damning evidence of U.S. atrocities, cover-ups, and deceit.” Everyone who cares about humanity, and opposes the unjust, immoral and illegitimate U.S. wars since 9/11, owes a debt to Bradley for sharing information on the crimes associated with those occupations. Daniel Ellsberg writes: “During the Vietnam War I worked in the Pentagon under Robert McNamara. In Vietnam, my background as a Marine officer allowed me to walk with the troops in combat and see the war up close. What I found was a costly, immoral war that could not be allowed to continue. “My decision to reveal the top secret Pentagon Papers to the American public was an act of conscience. These documents showed that we were in a destructive, wrongful war, and that we had entered that war under false pretenses. My hope was that, armed with this truth, the American people could act to end that war.” Continue reading, and hear his call for support of Bradley Manning... Join events worldwide to support Bradley Manning, and especially at Ft. Meade Saturday June 1 Click here for bus tickets from various east coast cities to Ft. Meade Obama Promise Represents No “fresh start” for Guantanamo prisoners by Curt Wechsler, Editor, FireJohnYoo.org Much has been made recently of the President’s moral angst over dereliction of leadership in restoring the fundamental right to due process, and his attribution of blame for the barbaric experiment of indefinite detention displayed at America’s premiere torture camp: “…history will cast a harsh judgment on this aspect of our fight against terrorism and those of us who fail to end it. Imagine a future -- 10 years from now or 20 years from now -- when the United States of America is still holding people who have been charged with no crime on a piece of land that is not part of our country. Look at the current situation, where we are force-feeding detainees who are being held on a hunger strike… Is this who we are? Is that something our Founders foresaw? Is that the America we want to leave our children?” But what consequence, if any, does Obama’s self-indulgent exploration of personal accountability hold for the future of the men suffering the ultimate price of imperial subterfuge, the torture of force-feeding employed to postpone the public relations nightmare of prison death? The answer to the President’s question “Is this who we are?” is a resounding NO. The broad range of individuals signing World Can’t Wait’s call to Close Guantanamo NOW confirms the presence of a large mass of people who refuse to accept the crimes being committed in their names. 1665 days since voters first delegated responsibility for Guantanamo to Barack Obama 113 days of prisoner hunger strike 6 days since Barack Obama said again that he wants to Close Guantanamo 4 prisoners have died under his administration of that shameful experiment in illegal detention. Of the 166 remaining, 157 have never been charged with any crime. 86 men have been cleared but denied release. The Close Guantanamo NOW statement is more relevant than ever. Be part of sending that message. Sign it and donate towards publishing it very soon in alternative and international media. Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait Click to tweet or share on Facebook:

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