Malu 'Aina

Hoodwinked?

“Don’t be hoodwinked by Obama’s claim that the Iraq war is ending.  We still have 50,000 troops there, tens of thousands of contractors and the biggest Embassy in the world. While we watch President Obama try to put a positive spin on a disastrous war we should have never started, let us redouble our efforts to bring ALL our troops home–from Iraq and Afghanistan.”
Ann Wright  –Hawaii resident, U.S. Army colonel (retired), official of the U.S. State Department (retired)

“No American should be allowed to forget that the nation of Iraq, the society of Iraq, have been destroyed, ruined, a failed state. The Americans, beginning 1991, bombed for 12 years, with one excuse or another; then invaded, then occupied, overthrew the government, killed wantonly, tortured … the people of that unhappy land have lost everything — their homes, their schools, their electricity, their clean water, their environment, their neighborhoods, their mosques, their archaeology, their jobs, their careers, their professionals, their state-run enterprises, their physical health, their mental health, their health care, their welfare state, their women’s rights, their religious tolerance, their safety, their security, their children, their parents, their past, their present, their future, their lives … More than half the population either dead, wounded, traumatized, in prison, internally displaced, or in foreign exile … The air, soil, water, blood and genes drenched with depleted uranium … the most awful birth defects … unexploded cluster bombs lie in wait for children to pick them up … an army of young Islamic men went to Iraq to fight the American invaders; they left the country more militant, hardened by war, to spread across the Middle East, Europe and Central Asia … a river of blood runs alongside the Euphrates and Tigris … through a country that may never be put back together again.”
William Blum, author www.killinghope.org
see article http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26280.htm

Beware of Army DU Safety Claims!

The Army is stonewalling community involvement in seeking the truth about DU radiation contamination at Pohakuloa.  The Army has repeatedly made unreliable safety claims based on questionable assumptions, scientific methodology, and no peer reviewed studies.
The bottom line is this:  the Army does not want to risk having to shut down Pohakuloa if it is determined that the presence of DU and other military toxins pose a threat to the health and safety of the troops who train there and resident and visitors of Hawaii Island. While the Army says that health and safety is the primary concern, in truth it is continuing the military mission that trumps all.

Malu Aina calls for an end to all live-fire and activities at PTA that create dust. Comprehensive, independent monitoring and clean up, to protect health and safety should be done at military expense.  The entire process needs to be transparent and have the confidence of the community, which to date is sorely lacking.  The military made similar safety claims to troops and residents in the early days of atmospheric atomic bomb testing, they said much the same thing about agent orange exposure during and after the war in Vietnam, Gulf War syndrome, etc. etc.. all to be proven eventually wrong, and in some cases deliberately misleading or lying to the troops and the public.

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1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org
Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Sept. 3, 2010 – 468th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

HAWAI’I:

50TH OR FAKE STATE?

Aug. 21st marks the 51st anniversary of Hawai’i allegedly becoming the 50th State of the U.S.  The long history of misinformation goes like this:  in 1898 Hawai’i was annexed to the U.S. thus making Hawai’i a territory.  In 1959 Hawai’i, after first becoming a territory of the U.S., then became a state.

That history is a fraud.  International law says annexation to be legal must be by mutual agreement.   Annexation of Hawai’i was not mutual and therefore not legal.  In truth, Hawai’i has been under U.S. occupation since 1898.

There are those that say Hawai’i statehood was voted by a 9 to 1 majority.  The fact is the 1959 statehood vote was built on more than 6 decades of illegal U.S. occupation, misinformation, and a vast in migration of a U.S. settler population.  If the so-called annexation of Hawai’i was illegal in 1898, it doesn’t matter if the vote was 99-1 for statehood in 1959.  Stolen property is still stolen property.  Dr. Keanu Sai writes, “The challenge for …the fields of political science, history, and law is to distinguish between the rule of law and the politics of power.  In the history of Hawai’i, the might of the U.S. does not make it right.”  Nor does time erase the wrong.

Just because a vast majority of U.S.citizens initially supported the illegal U.S. wars and occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq, it didn’t make the illegal wars and occupations any less illegal.  Actually similar impulses lead to the occupation of Hawai’i, Afghanistan and Iraq.  In Hawai’i’s case the business interest was sugar .  In Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s oil and pipelines.  Expanding empire and military global positioning are also contributing factors to the ongoing occupations.

If we want genuine peace, we need to work for justice.  Justice and peace in Hawai’i means supporting….

Hawai’i Independence from U.S. Occupation!

As further symptoms of U.S. military occupation, within the next two weeks there are scoping meetings about Marine and Navy expanded operations and an Army closed door meeting about depleted uranium radiation contamination in Hawai’i.  For details see www.malu-aina.org

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (Aug. 20, 2010 – 466th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Don’t forget to mark your calendars: Colonel (Ret.) Ann Wright to speak Monday, Aug. 16th 7PM in Hilo at Ka Huina Gallery, at the corner of Mamo & Keawe Sts.  The theme of her talk is “Eyewitness to History –Israel’s attack on the Gaza Flotilla.”  Please help pass the word!  Mahalo.  Free Admission.
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Support Alleged Whistleblower Bradley Manning

(Graphic & Photo of Bradley Manning)

On July 6, 2010, Private Bradley Manning, a 22 year old intelligence analyst with the United States Army in Baghdad, was charged with disclosing this video (see http://collateralmurder.com/). The whistleblower behind the Vietnam era’s Pentagon Papers, Daniel Ellsberg, has called Mr. Manning a hero. ”I admire the courage of Bradley Manning for sacrificing himself to make the public aware of the futility of the war…” says Ellsberg. Manning is currently imprisoned in the brig at Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia.

Manning faces 52 years in prison for exposing war crimes.

James M. Branum, an attorney that works with Oklahoma Center for Conscience (OCC) on military law cases, calls the Pentagon’s treatment of Manning “extreme” and designed to set up the case “as an example of the punishment waiting for others who would consider exposing violations of military regs and international law.” “We are saying that exposing war crimes is not a crime,” he said.  Writing a letter to Bradley is one step in attempting to break his isolation.  Mail to: Inmate Bradley Manning: TFCF, APO AE 09366; USA

We need whistleblowers who will expose the full truth about illegal depleted uranium (DU) radiation used by the military in Hawai’i.

Stop The Wars!   Bring the Troops Home Now!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties.
4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.

Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action

P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760. Phone (808) 966-7622.

Email ja@interpac.net http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (August 13, 2010 – 465th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

Remembering Hiroshima & Nagasaki!

1945 to 2010:

At 65, it is past time to

Retire Nuclear Weapons!

(photo of Hiroshima mother & child attached)

At 8:15 AM, August 6, 1945, a U.S. B-29 bomber named “Enola Gay” after the pilot’s mother, dropped a uranium atomic bomb over the city of Hiroshima, Japan, and in the blink of an eye vaporized thousands of civilians — women, men and children.  Overall 140,000 people were killed in Hiroshima.
At 11:02 AM on August 9th, the U.S. dropped a plutonium atomic bomb on the city of Nagasaki, killing another 60,000 – 80,000 civilians.  Many thousands more continue to suffer and die from psychological trauma and illnesses caused by prolonged effects of radiation exposure.
This must never be allowed to happen again!

Yet, the threatened use of nuclear weapons remains at the heart of U.S. “national security” policy.  Despite hopes for a dramatic change of course, the new Nuclear Posture Review reveals no substantial changes in U.S. nuclear force structure, retaining all three legs of the strategic triad — heavy bombers, intercontinental ballistic missiles and strategic submarines, and declaring: “These nuclear forces will continue to play an essential role in deterring potential adversaries an reassuring allies and partners around the world.

Please Forgive us!

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc.
5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (August 6, 2010 – 464th week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office

2010 marks the 65 anniversary of these tragic bombings.

Time: 3:30-5PM

Date: Friday, August 6, 2010

Place:  Downtown Hilo Post Office

On August 6, 1945 the United States dropped an uranium atomic bomb, nicked named “Little Boy” on the city of Hiroshima, Japan.  Three days later, on August 9th, a plutonium atomic bomb, called “Fat Man” was dropped on the city of Nagasaki.  Over 200,000 Japanese civilians– men, women, and children, died as a result of these bombings.   Historians now say Japan had already made overtures to surrender, and these bombings did not end the war but were meant as a cold war statement to the Soviet Union that the U.S. would be the major global power following WWII.

Come and join in a commemoration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and to renew our commitment to global nuclear disarmament and No More War!  War Never Again!

We live in a time of ongoing U.S. illegal, immoral, and unwinnable wars in the middle east.  There is mounting evidence that U.S. depleted uranium radiation weapons used in Iraq and Afghanistan are causing increases in cancer, genetic damage and infant mortality.   A July 2, 2010 press release issued by British Dr. Chris Busby, on a recently completed epidemiological study, was entitled “Genetic damage and health in Fallujah Iraq worse than Hiroshima.” Even U.S. troops are being affected.  In addition to the destruction caused by the U.S. in Iraq and Afghanistan, there are increasing threats of a military attack (including the possible use of nuclear weapons) against Iran and North Korea.  Such attacks must not be allowed to happen and the current wars must be stopped.  War is not a way to end war.  Peace and justice must become both the means used and the end sought in international relations.

While the Obama administration has submitted the START arms control treaty to the Senate for ratification, it also plans to spend $80 billion to sustain and modernize the U.S. nuclear weapons complex. The U.S. routinely test fires nuclear missiles from Vandenberg Air Force base in California,  over Hawaii into  the Marshall Islands in the western Pacific.  Two launches were conducted in June and another is planned for September.  There is widespread radiation contamination from the nuclear weapon production system, including plutonium and depleted uranium radiation contamination in Hawaii from weapons testing and training.  Instead of building more weapons of mass destruction, we need to abolish them. And we need to clean up the mess from the weapons already built.

Join the global call to Abolish Nuclear Weapons!

Hiroshima & Nagasaki –Never Again!

Join the Hilo Commemoration on August 6th

1. Mourn all victims of violence. 2. Reject war as a solution. 3. Defend civil liberties. 4. Oppose all discrimination, anti-Islamic, anti-Semitic, etc. 5. Seek peace through justice in Hawai`i and around the world.
Contact: Malu `Aina Center for Non-violent Education & Action P.O. Box AB Kurtistown, Hawai`i 96760.
Phone (808) 966-7622.  Email ja@interpac.net   http://www.malu-aina.org

Hilo Peace Vigil leaflet (July 30, 2010 – 463rd week) – Friday 3:30-5PM downtown Post Office