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Week of December 05 2005

Out of Iraq National Call-In Day
United for Peace & Justice, along with Win Without War is calling for a National Call-In Day to Congress on Tuesday, December 6. On that day Congress will reconvene and the idea is to flood every single Congressional office with phone calls, faxes and email messages urging an immediate end to the war! See the UFPJ web site for more information. See the web sites for the Senate and the House for contact details for your representatives.

Please also sign the petition on the Move On web site for a plan to get out of Iraq in 2006 and call on Congress to honor the Iraqi Government's call for U.S. withdrawal on the Working for Change web site.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi is now endorsing Murtha's Iraq Exit Plan and this is the new map of the United States. As you can see, this is the time to put as much pressure on Washington as possible.

Yet Another Memo: Al Jazeera in the Sights
A new Downing Street memo has emerged which contains minutes of a meeting between Bush and Blair on April 16, 2004, in which Bush allegedly proposed bombing the Al Jazeera network. Read articles by Jeremy Scahill on The Nation: The War on Al Jazeera and Beyond That Memo: Bush Wanted al Jazeera Gone. The British government has issued a gag order under the Official Secrets Act forbidding the press in the U.K. from publishing the contents of the memo. MP Boris Johnson has vowed to publish the memo if someone were to pass it his way. Blairwatch also has a way for you to sign up to publish the memo on your site or blog. Hundreds have already signed up.

See also the blog set up by Al Jazeera staff: dontbomb.blogspot.com and send a message of support.

The Three Ps: Pentagon, Propaganda and the Press
As our taxes are spent on million dollar contracts to train journalists and promote independent media in Iraq, the U.S. military is instead secretly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish stories written by American troops. Read articles on the Los Angeles Times and New York Times. See the Billmon blog for a closer look at the propaganda machine behind these articles: The Lincoln Group.

Meanwhile, Rolling Stone published an article about another PR firm, The Rendon Group, and their role in the lead up to the war: The Man Who Sold the War.

Target Practice on Innocent Iraqi Civilians
A chilling video posted on an unofficial site by an employee of Aegis Defense Services shows the view from the back of a vehicle traveling the streets of Baghdad while a passenger randomly shoots at innocent civilians. Aegis has been awarded Pentagon contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars and is also charged with coordinating private security forces in Iraq, a workforce the size of a military division. Read an in depth article on CorpWatch and see the video on Crooks and Liars or download from the CorpWatch site [Windows Media Player, 5Mb].

Secret Prisons and CIA Flights in Europe
Flight logs for European airports reveal more than 300 CIA flights, leading many to suspect they were transporting terrorist suspects to secret prisons in Europe, as reported by the Washington Post earlier this month. Read an article by Agence France Presse on the flights as well as two articles on the Guardian regarding Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice's trip to Europe.

Democracy Now also has two interviews on the practice of Extraordinary Rendition: Michael Ratner of the Center for Constitutional Rights and British MP Andrew Tyrie, chair of the All Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition.

Deceptive Practices & Voter Intimidation Prevention
Senator Barack Obama has introduced a bill, The Deceptive Practices and Voter Intimidation Prevention Act of 2005 (S. 1975) calling for fines up to $100,000 and/or one year imprisonment for deceptive practices related to elections. Read the text of the bill and contact your Senators urging them to cosponsor this bill.

See also a sample letter by Susan H. Pitcairn in answer to requests for financial support from the Democratic Party until they publicly challenge the issue of election fraud at every level.

Upcoming Peace Events
This Saturday, December 10, in London will be the International Peace Conference with delegates from the U.K., the U.S. and Iraq. Over 1000 are expected to attend with speakers ranging from George Galloway to Cindy Sheehan. The event is organized by the Stop the War Coalition.

And a number of groups in the US are organizing a National Day of Town Hall Forums on Ending the War. The idea is to encourage members of Congress to meet with their constituents and discuss an exit strategy. See the After Downing Street web site for more information including talking points and sample letters to invite Congress members. Encourage your friends in the U.S. to organize or attend meetings.

If you know of additional news items that should be listed, send them via email.

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