by Mario A. Murillo, Colombia Journal, 15 October 2008

More than 12,000 indigenous activists and representatives of other popular and social sectors of southern Colombia have congregated in the “Territory of Peace and Coexistence” in La Maria Piendamó in Cauca and are confronting a massive presence of state security forces who have been ordered to dislodge them. The popular mobilization began on October 12, and was called to protest the militarization of their territories, the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement, and the failure of the government of President Alvaro Uribe to fulfill various accords with the indigenous communities relating to land, education and health. In initial clashes, more than 50 indigenous were injured and one killed.

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American Friends Service Committee: Warning of an Imminent Massacre Colombian’s Call for International Support!

Just a few weeks ago Colombia’s President Uribe was in the United States with a delegation of 80 people claiming the human rights situation in Colombia is better. Events of the last week show that the situation is worse.

Violent and repressive tactics are being used against thousands of Indigenous people who are participating in a national mobilization to bring attention to the humanitarian crisis they face.

In Cauca where the most severe violence is occurring 35 people were wounded on October 14, 2008 when the Colombian military and anti-riot police shot indiscriminately into a crowd of 12,000 who were blockading a road.

Our e-mail boxes are flooded with requests for action and support. You can help by urging the U.S. Department of State and congress to take action.

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Alternate Focus: Washington Post deputy foreign editor Peter Eisner discusses his book “The Italian Letter: How the Bush Administration Used a Fake Letter to Build the Case for War in Iraq”

By Paul Krugman, New York Times, 13 June 2005

Harry Truman tried to create a national health insurance system. Public opinion was initially on his side: Jill Quadagno’s book “One Nation, Uninsured” tells us that in 1945, 75 percent of Americans favored national health insurance. If Truman had succeeded, universal coverage for everyone, not just the elderly, would today be an accepted part of the social contract.

But Truman failed. Special interests, especially the American Medical Association and Southern politicians who feared that national insurance would lead to racially integrated hospitals, triumphed.

Sixty years later, the patchwork system that evolved in the absence of national health insurance is unraveling. The cost of health care is exploding, the number of uninsured is growing, and corporations that still provide employee coverage are groaning under the strain.

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Tom Hurndall, 21, was a young, compassionate man when he went to Gaza in 2003. Months later, while he was rescuing Palestinian children from gunfire, he was shot by an Israeli army sniper. On the eve of a Channel 4 film, his parents tell of their anger, loss, intense grief and political awakening as they sought to bring his killer to justice

Kate Kellaway, The Observer, 12 October 2008

This story begins with an ending. On 11 April 2003, Thomas Hurndall, a 21-year-old photojournalist, was shot in the head in Gaza by a sniper from the Israeli army.

Tom was a brilliant, intrepid young man, driven by an energetic morality, a wish to make a difference in the world. The shooting left him with unsurvivable brain damage, but he clung to life – against the odds – in a coma, for nine months.

While he lay dying in Tel Aviv and later in the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, north London, his parents, Anthony and Jocelyn Hurndall, took on a heroic struggle against the Israeli army. They were determined to seek truth and accountability at all costs. They had no idea how hard this was going to be.

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Omar Karmi, The National, 11 October 2008

NI’LIN, WEST BANK // Some scrambled up the hill and out of range, eyes tearing, noses running, skin smarting. Others braved the soldiers and broke across the dirt track marking the route of what will become Israel’s separation barrier and to the olive fields below. Three were detained and two needed treatment for tear gas inhalation.

The Israeli army may claim to have devised a plan to ensure the peace during the olive harvest in the occupied West Bank, but in Ni’lin, on Friday, it was business as usual as about 100 Palestinian, Israeli and international peace activists, attempting to help local villagers gain access to their olive orchards, were eventually dispersed by Israeli soldiers firing tear gas and sound bombs.

“We have no choice, we have to confront the Israeli army,” said Salah Hawaja, 40, the co-ordinator of the Popular Committee Against the Wall in Ni’lin. “It is only through such non-violent resistance, supported by internationals and Israelis, that we can defeat the occupation.”

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Mass olive-harvest in village Ni’I’lin – 10-10-08