Monthly Archive for May, 2010

IRAQ-BORN AMERICAN PHYSICIAN JAILED FOR CHARITY GIVEN TO PEOPLE OF IRAQ IN VIOLATION OF U.S. EMBARGO

U.S. and U.K.-inspired UN sanctions initiated against Iraq in 1991 were the most severe in human history, and resulted in the premature deaths of well over a million Iraqi people. Dr. Rafil Dhafir of Syracuse, New York, founded the charity Help the Needy in direct response to this humanitarian catastrophe. For 13 years he worked openly to help publicize the plight of the Iraqi people and to raise funds to help them. According to the government, Dr. Dhafir donated $1.4 million of his own money over the years. However, in the aftermath of 9/11, the U.S. government targeted for prosecution many prominent Muslims across the country, particularly those associated with Muslim charity. Arrested on February 26, 2003, Dr. Dhafir was held without bail for 31 months and then sentenced to 22 years in prison.

James Richard Sauder, who served time in prison following a series of prayerful protests in the early 1980s at missile silos in Arkansas and Missouri and Navy bases in Virginia and Georgia, was arrested again April 15, 2010, inside a nuclear missile silo near Parshall, North Dakota.  He has been jailed since his arrest and faces a federal court bench trial for criminal trespass, probably in late summer.

by Tom Keough – May 4, 2010

by Ed Hedemann

NEW YORK — May 3, 2010. To bring a stronger cry against the threats from nuclear weapons at this time of the UN Special Session on Disarmament there was a protest inside of the main lobby of Grand Central Station during Monday’s rush hour.

The action was organized by the War Resisters League and their friends from the Catholic Peace Fellowship, The Catholic Worker and others. Protesters carried death heads with the names of the deadly nuclear weapons states, the US, Russia, China, the UK, France, Pakistan, India, Israel, and North Korea.

Several dozen people held a moving picket line from 8 to 10 a.m. At 9 another group of activists displayed banners from the balcony. One set of banners said “Nuclear Weapons = Terrorism.” Another set said “Less Talk, Disarm.” Police quickly grabbed the banners and took them away,
arresting five activists.