William Thomas first introduced fanny to brick on the White House sidewalk on June 3, 1981. His sign said, “Wanted: Wisdom and Honesty.”
He’s been there ever since, still squatting, still wanting.
A few months after he began, he was joined by Concepcion Picciotto, who has remained similarly steadfast.
War is not over, but the peace protesters have won. Sort of. The oasis of green across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House is theirs.
At some point a protest may become more than what it is about. It becomes a thing in itself. An institution. A monument.
Take Lafayette out of Lafayette Square—the monumental statuary likeness of the Frenchman, with Colonial braid, big boots and a sword—and hardly anyone would notice.
(Hint: He’s not the guy on the charger; that’s Jackson).
But get rid of the shelter made of a battered patio umbrella, a weathered plastic tarp and those faded anti-nuke signs erected by Thomas and Picciotto?
The People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI, also MEK, MKO) (Persian: سازمان مجاهدين خلق ايران sāzmān-e mojāhedin-e khalq-e irān) is a militant Islamic Socialist organization that advocates the overthrow of the Islamic Republic government of Iran.
Founded in 1965, the PMOI was originally devoted to armed struggle against the Shah of Iran, capitalism, and Western imperialism.[1] The group officially renounced violence in 2001[2] and today it is the main organization in the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an "umbrella coalition" parliament-in-exile that claims to be dedicated to a democratic, secular and coalition government in Iran. The group has had thousands of its members for many years in bases in Iraq, but "they were disarmed in the wake" of the 2003 US-led invasion and "are said to have adhered to a ceasefire."[3]
Considerable controversy surrounds the issues of whether the NCRI is merely a front group for the PMOI[4][5]; whether the NCRI is involved in terrorism, or if it is "a legitimate dissident organization fighting for democracy in Iran"[6] whose Western accusers are attempting to use as a bargaining chip in negotiation with its enemy the Islamic Republic of Iran.
The PMOI's armed wing is, or was, called the National Liberation Army of Iran (NLA). The Iranian government officially refers to the organization as the Monafeqin (literally, "Hypocrites"), maintaining that PMOI is not truly Islamic.[7]
United States, Canada, Iraq and Iran have designated the PMOI a terrorist organization.[8][9] On Monday January 26, 2009, EU Council of Ministers agreed to remove the PMOI from the EU terror list. The group said it was the outcome of a "seven-year-long legal and political battle".[10][11][12][13]
The PMOI and the NCRI claim to have provided the United States, intelligence on Iran's nuclear program in 2002, and 2008.[14][15]
I am not exactly sure what is more outrageous in this Washington Post article... I for one will have to say that for me, US troops - fighting the war on terror - being forced to act as servants to terrorists and former Saddam police contractors, kind of tops the list:
"BAGHDAD -- For three years, thousands of members of a militant group dedicated to overthrowing Iran's theocracy have lived in a sprawling compound north of Baghdad under the protection of the U.S. military.
American soldiers chauffeur top leaders of the group, known as the Mujaheddin-e Khalq, or MEK, to and from their compound, where they have hosted dozens of visitors in an energetic campaign to persuade the State Department to stop designating the group as a terrorist organization."
Let me just say a few things right here. The MEK have a DC lobby office while being on the State Department's terrorism list. Normally, that would be a red flag and especially so in a post-911 world. But some terrorists are better liked than others in our fabricated reality.
I have heard from them and they are not pleased that I call them a terrorist organization by the way. They encouraged me to learn more about them. I did and I continue to be of a rather old-fashioned opinion that when you commit acts of terror, that is what you are, a terrorist.
Here is an article I did on this fine group of individuals who are being driven around like royalty by our soldiers while they do double time fighting the supposed war on terror:
"The Pentagon is bypassing official US intelligence channels and turning to a dangerous and unruly cast of characters in order to create strife in Iran in preparation for any possible attack, former and current intelligence officials say.
One of the operational assets being used by the Defense Department is a right-wing terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), which is being "run" in two southern regional areas of Iran. They are Baluchistan, a Sunni stronghold, and Khuzestan, a Shia region where a series of recent attacks has left many dead and hundreds injured in the last three months.
One former counterintelligence official, who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the information, describes the Pentagon as pushing MEK shortly after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The drive to use the insurgent group was said to have been advanced by the Pentagon under the influence of the Vice President's office and opposed by the State Department, National Security Council and then-National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice."
So to make this more clear, no sooner do we land in Iraq, we are already protecting Saddam's domestic police force - a capacity in which the MEK served - as well as a terrorist group on our State Department's watch list. Why are we protecting them? Because they will be our new proxy-Contra like army of terrorists attacking Iran as part of the war on terror, err, the war OF terror.
Now, from another article I did on MEK later (which is the one that got their attention via DC offices):
"As previously reported by Raw Story, a terrorist organization known as Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK) is being used on the ground in Iran by the Pentegon, bypassing US intelligence channels. The report was subsequently covered by the Asia Times (Article).
Military and intelligence sources now say no Presidential finding exists on MEK ops. Without a presidential finding, the operation circumvents the oversight of the House and Senate Intelligence committees.
Congressional aides for the relevant oversight committees would not confirm or deny allegations that no Presidential finding had been done. One Democratic aide, however, wishing to remain anonymous for this article, did say that any use of the MEK would be illegal.
In addition, sources say that a March attack that killed 22 Iranian officials in the province of Sistan va Baluchistan was carried out by the MEK.
According to a report by Iran Focus filed Mar. 23, the twenty-two people killed in the ambush included high ranking officials, including the governor of Zahedan."
This is who our combat exhausted soldiers are driving around and to whom we have advanced bucket loads of cash so they can live in the lap of luxury.
Can you stand this much "support the troops" and "patriotism?"
Calling for the End of the Endless War and Occupation of Afghanistan and a Stop to the drone bombings in Pakistan. Speakers include, Erik Leaver of the Institute for Policy Studies , Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK , Malachy Kilbride and Pete Perry of The Washington Peace Center
Zionist supremacists bused into Washington DC for Netanyahu's visit:
Opposed by local peace activists:
Disturbing: listen to the audio. The arrogant, racist, supremacist, superstitious, and genocidal statements spouted by these people will make your skin crawl.
Peace and Justice community rises to the occasion, as well as the indefatigable Rabbi Weiss.
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click little pic for hi-rez
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Israeli government officials gave the final approval on Tuesday to a plan that will expand the 'Gilo' settlement, near Bethlehem, by 900 units. Gilo, like all Israeli settlements constructed on Palestinian land in the West Bank, is considered illegal under international law.
These are the still photos from the Declaration of Peace Protest described below. yellowcakewalk.net was proud to lend banners to this worthy protest action. Click midget images to see full-size pics
On hunger strike for 51 days in 1984. Advocate for Washington DC homeless, Mitch Snyder
Wikipedia:
Mitch Snyder (1946 – July 6, 1990) was an Americanadvocate for the homeless. He was the subject of a made-for-television 1986biopic, Samaritan: The Mitch Snyder Story, starring Martin Sheen.
In the 1980s Snyder, Fennelly, and other CCNV activists entered and occupied an abandoned federal building at 425 2nd Street N.W. (now Mitch Snyder Place) and housed hundreds overnight while demanding that the government renovate the building. Under intense pressure, the Reagan administration agreed to lease the Federal property to CCNV for $1 a year. Later the Federal government transferred the property to DC. It remains the largest shelter in Washington to this day. Snyder fasted twice to force the Reagan administration to renovate the building. The first fast ended on the eve of Reagan's second election when Reagan promised to execute necessary repairs. Reagan failed to follow through on this promise, and litigation ensued. An Oscar-nominated documentary, Promises to Keep, narrated by Martin Sheen, follows that story and tells why a second fast was conducted.
Largest homeless shelter in the world, the Community for Creative Non-Violence
The notion of American exceptionalism has worn itself transparent. We’re making the world a worse place, not a better one. Our counterproductive wars have nothing to do with national security. The al-Qaeda that attacked us with 19 guys on 9/11 who didn’t have the equivalent of a Chicago school system high school diploma is, for all practical purposes, dead and gone. Their work is finished. They suckered us into massive commitments of national blood and treasure into sinkholes that shouldn’t matter to the world’s sole superpower. www.antiwar.com
Our camera has been sucking up photons like the Pentagon sucks up your tax money! So we're a little behind schedule.
Half a dozen photo/audio entries on the way up soon, check back soon! Military Families Speak Out , Congo war protest, action-packed congressional hearings on the Gaza Massacre with Rep.Dennis Kucinich, Anti-Torture protest at Eric Holder's Dept o' Justice, Gaza solidarity, Maryland activists lobby state congresscritters to bring Maryland National Guard home from the colonial outposts, Sam Crook's bash at the Thunder Grill, End the Occupations, and a tribute to our late brother W.Thomas, who with Concepción spent 28 years in anti-war vigil in front of the White House. Dissent is alive and well in Washington DC. Throw away your TV set. Turn off your computer. Get active. Don't be a product of the moribund consumerist culture. BE the culture.
(Email me if you know who took this pic! Thx )
"So, how are you financing your demise today?" W.Thomas ( paraphrased )
On April 17, 1965, a small group of gay and lesbian picketers started a series of protests that gave birth to a new militancy in the gay rights movement. Following in the footsteps of other civil rights demonstrators, these men and women demanded an end to discrimination by the federal government, and the full rights of citizenship.
Photos courtesy Bob Witeck and Charles Combs, The Kameny Papers, www.kamenypapers.org
