Links of the Day: Links of the Day 3/13/2008 New Keith Olbermann and Ron Paul Video's

Keith Olbermann Spanks Hillary and Ferraro

Keith Olbermann Special Comment 3/12/2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CFeshMSPAo

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Ron Paul *OUR EMPIRE IS COMING DOWN!*

Incredible House floor speech by Ron Paul.

For some reason with video stopped loading for me twice. I finally had to open a new window and paste the address into the page before it finally loaded.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PoxlzPGIPt4

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Ron Paul - Grand March on Washington!

Looks like the march will happen on June 21, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AnSIZWuMIys&feature=related

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Those of you who have been reading my links of the day know I been saying

the 4^th Estate is dead.

Appalling Spread of False Information Requires Stronger Media Accountability

By Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet. Posted March 12, 2008.

The mass media has become one of the most important obstacles to social and economic progress in the 21st century.

"A free press is supposed to function as our democracy's immune system against . . . gross errors of fact and understanding," wrote Al Gore in his book, The Assault on Reason. But it doesn't - as Gore explains -- and that is what makes the mass media one of the most important obstacles to social and economic progress in the 21st century.

How the media treats repeated falsehoods is a key issue. For example, when the New York Times reports on the allegation -- spread by his enemies -- that presidential candidate Barack Obama is a Muslim, there is a sentence that follows immediately: "In fact, he is a Christian. . ."

The media didn't do this kind of "immune system" work when it reported on the run-up to the Iraq war. As a result, more than 70 percent of Americans were convinced that Saddam Hussein was involved in the massacre of September 11. More than 4,000 Americans and over one million Iraqis have been killed in the violence that perhaps could have been averted with better journalism.

A 2008 study by the Center for Public Integrity, "The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War," documents 935 false statements by President Bush and seven top officials of his administration. The report notes that "much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

Filmmaker Michael Moore told CNN's Wolf Blitzer, "We're in the 5th year of this war because you, and CNN… didn't do your jobs back then and now here we are in this mess."

The mass media fails us on many issues other than war and peace. Most Americans under 50 think they are never going to see their Social Security benefits. In fact, the probability that they won't get their Social Security benefits is about the same as the chance that there won't be a U.S. government when they retire - pretty close to zero. The media could correct this widespread false belief by merely inserting a few undisputed facts about Social Security when reporting false statements from politicians and interest groups. For example: "Social Security is more financially sound than it has been throughout most of its 71-year history"; or "Social Security's projected shortfall over the next 75 years is less (as a percent of national income) than what was fixed in each of the following decades: 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s."

Millions of Americans are now "under water" on their homes -- that is, they owe more on their mortgages than their homes are worth. The rate of mortgage delinquencies and foreclosures is breaking records, and has much further to go. Many of these personal financial tragedies could have been avoided had the media reported on the obvious risks of buying a house while a record bubble in house prices was ballooning. Instead, the number one media source on the housing market was David Lereah, then chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, and author of the book Why the Real Estate Boom Will Not Bust and How You Can Profit From It. Reporting on the stock market bubble of the late 90s was even worse.

Of course the media is not monolithic, and the TV media -- the main object of Gore's criticism -- tends to be worse than the print media. And some reporters break with current trends. In 2006 the New York Times used the Center for Economic and Policy Research (where I am Co-Director) as its most cited source on the housing market, and therefore was able to see the housing bubble before it broke. But it is surprising how uniform the major media is on many issues, given that there are competing news organizations. A herd mentality often prevails: journalists know that they will almost never get in trouble for reporting something that is wrong when everyone else is also saying it; but they do take a risk when they report something different, even if it is true.

Here in Washington, when one raises the issue of media responsibility, a common response - from policy analysts, political operatives, and journalists - is that the problem is with the American people, that they are just stupid. Interestingly, however, when one strays a bit from their own area of expertise or concentration, it appears that these professionals also believe a number of falsehoods on important issues -- apparently from having heard these things repeated in the media.

Of course the best counterweight to the media's transgressions is an informed and active citizenry. Part of the reason that the media treats Barack Obama more fairly than it treats Social Security is that Obama has millions of active supporters who would raise hell if the media were to engage in serious abuses of him or his candidacy.

Over the long run, we will need to subject the privately owned mass media to more competition. This will come increasingly from the Internet, but real competition will also require an expanded and better quality public media sector. But until this competition gets a lot bigger, it will be up to the citizenry to hold our highly concentrated media accountable as best we can.

http://www.alternet.org/mediaculture/79465/

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We lost 3 more soldiers in Iraq bringing 12 dead in just 3 days.

The peace agreement with al Sadr is working just great.

This is what happens when you deal with the devil and pay the enemy not attack you, oh and give the enemy weapons too.

3 soldiers killed in Iraq rocket attack

By Ryan Lenz - The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 12, 2008 22:02:23 EDT

BAGHDAD — Three soldiers were killed in a rocket attack in southern Iraq on Wednesday, bringing to 12 the number of Americans who have been killed in Iraq over the past three days.

With the overall U.S. military death toll in Iraq nearing 4,000, the latest killings mark a significant rise in deadly attacks against Americans.

At least 3,987 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an AP count. The figure includes eight military civilians.

Navy Lt. Patrick Evans, a military spokesman, told The Associated Press that three soldiers were killed Wednesday in a rocket attack on Combat Outpost Adder near Nasiriyah, about 200 miles southeast of Baghdad. Two other soldiers were wounded.

The attack came a day after an American soldier died when a roadside bomb hit his patrol near Diwaniyah, 80 miles south of Baghdad.

Eight soldiers were killed in a pair of bomb attacks on Monday, the heaviest single day of U.S. casualties since September.

Three of those soldiers died in a roadside bombing in Diyala, a violent province where al-Qaida in Iraq has been active.

The five others were killed while on foot patrol in central Baghdad. A suicide bomber approached them and detonated his explosives vest. The Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant group, issued a statement Wednesday claiming responsibility for the soldiers’ deaths. Three Americans and an Iraqi interpreter were wounded.

In the United States, a poll showed Wednesday that fewer people know how many U.S. troops have died in the war.

Only 28 percent correctly said that about 4,000 Americans have died, according to a survey by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

That’s down from last August, when 54 percent gave the accurate casualty figure, which was about 3,500 dead at the time. In previous Pew surveys dating to 2004, about half have correctly given the rough figure for the approximate number of deaths at the time.

In the new poll, roughly a third said about 3,000 U.S. troops have died while about one in 10 said 2,000 deaths. About a quarter put the figure close to 5,000.

Exit polls of voters in presidential primaries and many national surveys have shown the economy has displaced the war in recent weeks as the public’s choice as the nation’s top problem.

Iraq was the most avidly followed news story for most of the first half of 2007, but it has not been the most closely watched story in any week since mid-October, according to a Pew survey of people’s interest in the news. The portion of news stories on the war has dropped in recent months as well, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a nonpartisan group that evaluates news coverage.

The Pew poll was conducted from Feb. 28-March 2 and involved telephone interviews with 1,003 adults. The margin of sampling error was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_casualties_031208/

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Heads up Mom’s and Dad’s their coming to a High School or Mall near you.

And there paying the recruiters an extra 2,000 bonus. They will LIE, and promise anything to get your kid, male or female to sign up.

I know they lied to my kid.

1,000 involuntarily recalled for recruiting

By Michelle Tan - Staff writer
Posted : Wednesday Mar 12, 2008

For the second time in less than seven months, the Army is ordering more than 1,000 soldiers back to recruiting duty.

The move, called an “involuntary [temporary duty] recruiting surge,” was announced March 12 with the goal of boosting the Army’s recruiting force.

Human Resources Command has identified the more than 1,000 soldiers, who will have to report for recruiting duty by May 1. The call-up will last no more than 89 days.

“The [15-month deployment] rotation policy has had a significant impact on our available population of qualified soldiers to perform recruiting duty,” according to an Army message. “This requires innovative methods to maintain our recruiting force at 100 percent and meet the Army’s recruiting objectives.”

The active Army’s recruiting goal for fiscal 2008 is 80,000 people. The component has hit every monthly goal so far this fiscal year, which began Oct. 1, but senior Army leaders regularly caution that recruiting remains a tough mission.

The Army is authorized 7,085 recruiters for the active component and 1,899 for the Army Reserve, said Douglas Smith, spokesman for Recruiting Command. As of Feb. 29, the active Army had 6,184 recruiters and the Reserve had 1,748.

The last time recruiters were called back to duty was in August when 1,106 former recruiters were ordered back.

The former recruiters identified this time around will be informed by their chains of command and they will receive a message through Army Knowledge Online.

These soldiers will be assigned as temporary former recruiters, and the Army will pay for all TDY expenses. The soldiers also are eligible for the Army’s $2,000 Referral Bonus Program.

This means they are authorized a $2,000 bonus for every applicant who successfully processes into the Army and completes initial entry training.

Personnel officials recommend that soldiers register for the referral program before they begin their recruiting assignments.

Soldiers can register with a common access card at www.2k.army.mil.

Once they report for duty, the soldiers will fall under the command and control of their recruiter battalion commander, but Uniform Code of Military Justice authority will remain with their assigned unit.

Affected soldiers will return to their original units after the 89-day assignment.

Applications for a report date later than May 1 or an exemption from this duty will be processed on a case-by-case basis.

Examples of exemptions include pending separation, extreme family situation, deployment before February 2009, high-risk pregnancy or surgery involving the soldier or family member, current special duty positions such as in a Warrior Transition Unit, soldiers serving as casualty assistance officers, and soldiers in their 90-day post-deployment reintegration period.

For a list of soldiers affected by this duty, instructions on travel and temporary duty and a list of points of contact, go to https://www.hrc.army.mil/site/active/enlist/enlist.htm and click on “Special Recruiter Initiative.” Soldiers who are unable to reach their recruiting battalion should call the Recruiting Command G-3 at (502) 626-0459.

DISCUSS: Recruiting before vs. now

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/army_recruiting_callup_031208w/

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Soldier’s wife sues weapons manufacturer

The Associated Press
Posted : Wednesday Mar 12, 2008 19:08:50 EDT

HILO, Hawaii — The family of a soldier killed when a mortar round exploded during a training exercise is suing the manufacturer of the weapon.

Staff Sgt. Oscar Rodriguez’s wife, Stephanie, claims in the suit that the shell manufactured by Martin Marietta Aluminum Sales Inc. that exploded and led to her husband’s death two years ago was defective. She says it failed to meet company and industry standards, and was not properly inspected.

The suit, filed in Hilo Circuit Court, names Commonwealth Aluminum Sales Corporation, formerly known as Martin Marietta.

A call to the company seeking comment was not immediately returned

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/03/ap_soldier_lawsuit_031108/

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BRAVO to Al Jazeera and reporter Tony Birtley.

I felt like I was there.

THIS IS A MUST READ!

The lost tribe of Laos

Al Jazeera's correspondent Tony Birtley travelled in secret to the jungles of northern Laos in search of the last fighters of the CIA's "secret army", a remnant from the days of the Vietnam War. This is his account of his journey.

The dead of night - a rendezvous on a dirt road on the fringe of a dense jungle.

I couldn't see the faces of my guides, but I could see their guns and I could feel the apprehension as they ushered me into the undergrowth and the start of what would turn out to be an unforgettable journey.

There were six of them, all ethnic Hmong; a rugged, tough people used to harsh conditions. But a people, I was soon to discover, living in fear.

We hurried into the forest - not easy in the dark - down a steep slope, across a narrow bamboo bridge over a fast-flowing river, and then upwards.

When we talked it was in a whisper; when we walked we tried not to create noise. And we tried to avoid the danger, which they told me was all around.

The danger comes from the Laos army. They are everywhere, the guides told me and ambushes are common.

In the dark, with the occasional use of a torch, we weaved our way through the undergrowth.

The darkness creates fear and apprehension but it is also strangely comforting: if you cannot see the soldiers, then it is equally hard for them to see you.

The first five hours was straight up, no deviations, and no track. Sometimes clambering for something to hold and pull myself up, other times it was all I could do to stop from falling backwards.

No such exhaustion for the Hmong; this kind of hike was normal in this hilly highland terrain of northern Laos.

Five hours and numerous stops later we reached the peak of the hill and a chance to sleep for a few hours.

We walked for another two hours beneath the dense jungle canopy, then stopped for food.

The "food" was a plant root similar to a yam, tasting like dried potato and something I came to dread in the coming days.

Continued

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C8E9CF33-39DA-4A9A-A199-93BA8A17FE04.htm

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Kabul suicide blast claims lives

UPDATED ON:
THURSDAY, MARCH 13, 2008
8:01 MECCA TIME, 5:01 GMT

A suicide attack aimed at foreign soldiers near the airport in Kabul has killed at least six Afghan civilians and wounded 20 more, according to officials. General Salim Ahsas, the Afghan capital's police chief, said Thursday's blast did not kill or injure multinational forces who were travelling on the road to Kabul's international airport.

Six Afghan civilians were killed and up to 20 others were wounded in the blast, Munir Mangal, the deputy interior minister, said.

The attacker was driving a white Toyota Corolla, he said, a favourite among suicide car bombers.

The blast took place during morning rush hour on one of Kabul's busiest roads. The force of the blast damaged about 10 cars, General Ali Shah Paktiawal, head of the police criminal investigation branch, said. The wounded were taken to different hospitals in the city, he said.

US convoy targeted

Al Jazeera's correspondent Bernard Smith, speaking from the site of the blast, said the bomber appeared to have targeted a US military convoy. One of the vehicles was totally destroyed but its passengers somehow survived the blast though not without injuries, he said. Later, Lieutenant-Colonel David Johnson, a spokesman for US forces, said none of the four American soldiers travelling in a two-vehicle convoy were badly wounded. Several other vehicles were damaged in the explosion. The Kabul assault came a day after attacks on two Nato convoys elsewhere that killed five civilians and wounded four foreign soldiers.

Canadians targeted

In one incident, a suicide car bomber struck a convoy of Canadian troops in the southern city of Kandahar, killing a passer-by and wounding a soldier. The Taleban claimed responsibility for the attack. In the other, in neighbouring Zabul province, a roadside bomb exploded close to a vehicle carrying Romanian troops, wounding three of them.

The ongoing violence provides a bloody backdrop for a move by the UN Security Council to appoint a special envoy to Afghanistan. The official will be asked to improve co-ordination between Nato forces and the Kabul government. A briefing from the under-secretary general for peacekeeping said on Wednesday that the world community "sometimes has not been sufficiently united" in it's strategy for Afghanistan.

Jean-Marie Guehenno said: "The UN bears a share of the responsibility for the insufficient co-ordination for the international community. "We are working to correct that."

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/BE5B9A8E-1DDF-4753-AB61-C2BC32E7F7A9.htm

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Black Flag Week in Pakistan is going to be a bloody week.

More than 50 held over Lahore suicide attacks

* Chassis of vehicle used in the FIA attack leads police to Faisalabad arrests
* Remains of attackers found
* All FIA record safe

LAHORE: Police on Wednesday arrested more than 50 suspects in province-wide raids over Tuesday’s suicide attacks in Lahore, and were investigating whether Al Qaeda was behind the attacks.

Police sources said the suspects, most of them from banned militant organisations, were held from Lahore, Faisalabad, Okara, Dera Ghazi Khan and Bahawalpur. A senior police official said law-enforcement agencies had recovered the chassis (number 3L3849728) of the vehicle used in the attack on the FIA regional headquarters.

The vehicle was registered by one Chaudhry Imtiaz Kamboh from Faialabad. Three suspects that he identified were held in raids in Kot Lakhpat and Nishtar Colony. A suspect identified as Hafiz from Bahawalpur had been using the vehicle. He led the police to more suspects, the official said.

Law-enforcement agencies held Bund Road resident Qari Rehmatullah Taunsvi and four “guests from Dera Ghazi Khan” from his house, Rehmatullah’s wife told a private television channel. Police also held a Sipah-e-Sahaba office-bearer and his friend Maulana Muneer Ahmed from Jahania. Senior police and government officials attended a special funeral ceremony for 12 employees of the Federal Investigation Agency who died in the attack on the FIA regional headquarters.

Remains: Deputy Inspector General (Investigations) Tasadaq Hussain said police had collected the remains of the two attackers. Part of the head and a leg of the FIA building attacker were found from the roof of a nearby building, he said. He said the attacks had targeted the US-trained Special Investigations Group (SIG) that had been working on the third floor of the building. Plastic explosive C4 was used in the attacks, he added.

FIA DG Tariq Pervez said the Model Town attack was aimed at the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) that worked under the Home Department and not the FIA. The SIG in the FIA building was a separate organisation that collected evidence from crime scenes and helped the police in forensic analyses. He said it was not investigating any cases of terrorism or interrogating any suspects.

Record: Pervez said the FIA record was safe because most of it was on the fifth and sixth floors and backed up in computers in Islamabad. shafiq sharif/agencies/aaj kal report

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\13\story_13-3-2008_pg1_1

‘More bombers still in Lahore’

LAHORE: Four to six men prepared to carry out suicide attacks are still present in Lahore, according to a Geo News report broadcast on Wednesday. It said that security forces were considering a number of options and security measures to foil possible attacks. Quoting unidentified sources, the channel said the Punjab Home Department had forewarned Tuesday’s suicide attacks and had asked for enhanced security measures. The Home Department had told security officials that suicide bombers had entered various cities of Pakistan, and had shared intelligence regarding possible suicide attacks in Lahore and other cities of Punjab, the channel reported. daily times monitor

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\13\story_13-3-2008_pg1_3

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I tried to watch this hearing yesterday but I just couldn't. But what I did see was Code Pink sitting behine Condi with their hands painted Blood Red again.

‘US in contact with Pakistan on Waziristan issue’

Thursday, March 13, 2008

WASHINGTON: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that the US was in contact with Pakistan regarding violent extremism in North Waziristan.

She said Pakistan understands that something beyond agreements needs to be done in North Waziristan, adding that a previous agreement had failed.

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee on the State, Foreign Relations and Related Programmes for the FY 2009 budget, she said the US was working with both Afghanistan and Pakistan to muster tribal support to address the problem. Rice also told US lawmakers that Israel’s plans to build hundreds of new homes in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank did not help the peace process. Afp

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008\03\13\story_13-3-2008_pg1_5

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And I thought Bush was a Monster.

I’m for fighting corruption but this is insane.

Off with their hands: Putin's new corruption solution

1 day ago

MOSCOW (AFP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday came up with a novel -- and old -- solution to corrupt officials, news agencies reported: chop off their hands.

"It would be good to cut off the hand, as they used to in the Middle Ages," Putin was quoted as saying by ITAR-TASS and other national news agencies during a meeting with parliamentary leaders.

The radical idea followed a complaint at the meeting by Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov that "just to build 100 apartments you have to run around for 24 hours looking for permits and greasing hands."

Putin, who says corruption is Russia's most serious problem, answered, "all you'd have to do is start and that hand would immediately stop reaching for bribes."

According to the Russian prosecutor's office, bribes amount to 240 billion dollars (156 billion euros) a year in Russia.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i7mE9B0gx4xgYrhN5oNe0u0IjEGw

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VIEW: Meeting Medvedev

Andrew Wilson

We also need to understand the mechanics of Russian succession politics. In the Russian context, “liberal” does not mean little more than opposing the siloviki. It means being in a different clan, at a different part of the feeding trough

In 2001, George W Bush claimed that he had looked into Vladimir Putin’s eyes and found a soulmate for the West. Putin then proceeded to restore authoritarian rule in Russia. Today, Western leaders may well be about to repeat the same mistake with Dmitry Medvedev.

Sunday’s election was a coronation rather than a competition. Medvedev’s only opponents were has-beens from the 1990’s like Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who long ago converted himself from proto-fascist into a Kremlin loyalist, and Andrey Bogdanov, an ersatz “democrat” permitted to run by the Kremlin in order to dupe the West into thinking that a real contest was taking place.

It is therefore surprising that Medvedev should be hailed by so many in the West as a “liberal.” Is this just because we have been manoeuvred into fearing someone worse, a sabre-rattling silovik (past or present member of the security services), like former Defence Minister Sergey Ivanov? Or does Medvedev represent a genuine opportunity to unfreeze the current mini-Cold War between Russia and the West?

Medvedev is indeed personable. Putin’s background was in the KGB, while Medvedev is a lawyer who has attacked Russia’s “legal nihilism” and denounced the fashionable concept of “sovereign democracy.” Medvedev is familiar to the business world after seven years as Chairman of the Board of Gazprom. He can talk the talk at Davos. He wears nice suits. He does not look like an archetypal post-Soviet bureaucrat or KGB agent. He is a big fan of 1970’s rockers Deep Purple.

But we need to understand the system that made Medvedev before rushing to embrace a new face that may turn out to be only a cosmetic improvement.

Russia’s problem is not that it is an imperfect democracy, but that its governance is corrupted by so-called “political technology.” This involves more than just stuffing the ballot box. Political technology means secretly sponsoring fake politicians like Bogdanov, setting up fake NGO’s and “patriotic” youth movements like Nashi (Ours) to prevent a Russian version of Ukraine’s Orange Revolution, and mobilising voters against a carefully scripted “enemy.”

In 1996, the enemy was the Communists; in 1999-2000, the Chechens; in 2003-04, the “oligarchs.” Now it is us — the supposedly hostile West and the threat posed by “colour revolutions” to Russia’s hard-won stability.

Medvedev himself may find some or all of this distasteful, but Russia now has an entire industry of political manipulation that is hardly likely to disappear overnight.

We also need to understand the mechanics of Russian succession politics. In the Russian context, “liberal” does not mean little more than opposing the siloviki. It means being in a different clan, at a different part of the feeding trough. The uncertainties of the succession have created a covert war for property and influence between a handful of different clans, but the system cannot afford an outright winner.

In recent months, the most powerful clan, led by Deputy Head of Kremlin Administration Igor Sechin, whose company, Rosneft, received the biggest chunk of Yukos in 2004, has threatened to engulf the others. Another company, Russneft, worth an estimated $8-9 billion, seems to be heading its way, after its owner, Mikhail Gutseriyev, was evicted by the same recipe of legal threats and tax liens that was used against Yukos, and after the mysterious death of his son in a car crash. There are rumours that Sechin’s clan has designs on Russia’s Stabilisation Fund, which soaring energy prices have pumped up to over $140 billion.

In other words, rebalancing the system, not any sudden desire to reverse the increasingly illiberal course Russia has taken since 2003, was the key reason for choosing Medvedev. Putin’s ambition to stay in power as prime minister is also rooted in this rebalancing act. He needs to stay on as Medvedev’s “minder” to keep any one clan from dominating the others.

So there should be no race to be Medvedev’s new best friend, and no staring into his eyes and speculating about his soul. Instead, we should concentrate on what Medvedev does, not on what he says, because there can be no real transition in Russia unless and until he begins to define the system rather than being defined by it. — DT-PS

Andrew Wilson is a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations

http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2008%5C03%5C13%5Cstory_13-3-2008_pg3_5

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TODAY

Iran Working Group Hearing: Assessing the Human Rights Situation of Iran’s Ethnic and Religious Groups

Iran is home to a wide array of ethnic and religious groups that have faced systematic human rights abuses at the hands of the government. Basic cultural rights have been denied, and members of these groups have been wrongly imprisoned, tortured, and executed. The current regime’s oppression has affected all Iranians adversely, regardless of ethnicity or religion, but Iran’s minorities are often doubly victimized. Please join the Iran Working Group for a hearing to assess the treatment of these vulnerable groups.

DATE: Thursday, March 13, 2008

TIME: 2-3 p.m.

LOCATION: Rayburn House Office Building, Room 2220

Confirmed witnesses include:

Fakhteh Zamani, Director, Association for the Defence of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners

Sharif Behruz, US Representative of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan

Kit Bigelow, Director of External Affairs, National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the US

Dr. Ali Al-Taie, Professor of Sociology and Dean, Shaw University, Author, The Arabs of Khuzestan (al-Ahwaz), Iran: A Socio-Political History

Dr. M. Hosseinbor, Attorney at Law, Entwistle & Cappucci LLP, Author, Iran and Its Nationalities

http://www.kurdmedia.com/article.aspx?id=14649

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Poem: Song of Kurdish Children in Amed (Diyarbekir)

KurdishMedia.com - By Dr Kamal Mirawdeli10/03/2008

Let me sing, let me sing

Grey wolves, let me sing!

My heart is full of songs

Like a cloud full of rain

Let me rain, let me sing

Grey wolves, let me sing!

Let me sing, let me sing

Dinosaurs let me sing

My soul is full of songs

Like a bursting stream

Let me flood, let me sing

Dinosaurs, let me sing

Let me sing of love and liberty

My name, my identity,

My homeland, my mountain,

The daffodils in my garden,

My mother, my new-born sister,

My rabbit, my little dog

And my guerrilla dad

Let me sing, let me sing

Grey wolves let me sing

Here they come, here they come

Grey wolves full of hatred

They martyr my father

And kill my baby-brother

Let me sing, let me sing

Grey wolves, let me sing

I do sing, I do sing

Grey wolves, I do sing.

http://www.kurdmedia.com/article.aspx?id=14645

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