FundRager for Flux Factory

If you're in NYC, do this! I would if I were there. (Or, consider sending a check.)

9/11, 9 pm - late
RSVP for location at fluxfactory.org
password: LifeRaft
$15

Come play on a boat with the best arts collective in Long Island City. We're taking over a 140-foot, 3-story, now-legendary boat docked deep in industrial Bushwick with two dance floors, a band stage, decorations in collaboration with Rubulad, and tons of fun until sunrise. This is a FundRager for the construction of Flux Factory’s new space, complete with a gallery, artist-in-residency program, and communal production facilities.

DJ's: 2melo, Atom C., Cathy, Cobra Krames, Comrade, Eamon Harkin, Justin Carter, Geko Jones, Shred, Tinseltown, and Tubby Lamborghini

Bands: ALIENS!, Brandstifter Live from the Ironing Board, Les Heures, Manburger Surgical, Miwa Gemini, Nopresha, Panonian Wave, Radio Wonderland, SK Orchestra, Womb Sharks, White Limo, and Zebu

Performers: Cock Tales, The Committee for the Spacio-Coporeality of Encounter, Computer Spoken Intercourse, Dennis Kyros Magician, Gay KK, Lázaro Valiente, Neverforgettable Memories, Pearl Harbor: Our Weapon is Love, The Port-A-Potty Deluxe No Standing Anytime Service Station (PPDNSASS), and SURPRISE!!!

Uncategorizable: A Boat Invasion by La Collette, Campfire Stories, Color Me Crazy with Last Up Larry, Heather via teleconference, It's Only Temporary, The Kissing Kiosk, light installations by Julius Schmiedel, live screenprinting by Gabe + Jolie, Minor Treat Baked Goods, projections and potentially non-vegetarian popcorn by Annie Reichert, projections by Ted Lee, and tarot by Courtney Weber.

With special surprise guests!

UPDATES Re- What Would the CIA Torture Tapes Have Revealed?

(Original post here.)

UPDATE Dec. 19, 2007: The New York Times reports that White House lawyers Alberto R. Gonzales, David S. Addington (now V.P. Cheney's chief of staff), John B. Bellinger III (until 2005, the senior lawyer at the National Security Council), and Harriet E. Miers (who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel) all took part in discussions with the CIA about whether to destroy the tapes and that some officials contend there was “vigorous sentiment” at the White House to destroy the tapes, or at best that no White House lawyer advised against it.

UPDATE Dec. 22, 2007: According to The New York Times, both chairmen of the official U.S. 9/11 Commission, Lee H. Hamilton (D) and Thomas H. Kean (R), have stated that a memorandum based on a recent review of classified documents "had convinced them that the [CIA] had made a conscious decision to impede the Sept. 11 commission’s inquiry."

What Would the CIA Torture Tapes Have Revealed?

Many people accept the explanation that the tapes were destroyed because they show U.S. agents committing torture.

But, bad as that is, we already knew about it. Moreover, the Bush Administration survived the release of the Abu Ghraib photos at no greater cost than a few underlings’ careers and has managed to keep out of public view most of the other video known to be most damning (e.g., the video described by Pullitzer-winning Seymour Hersch as depicting U.S. soldiers sodomizing Iraqi boys).

As O. Ricardo Pimentel of The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel put it in his Dec. 12, 2007 blog post, "[t]hey've got stuff in the intelligence world to read license plates from satellites, yet they can't fuzz up faces on video? The agency says it did nothing illegal and says waterboarding was approved at the highest levels. OK, so what was the point in destroying the videos? One word: obstruction." I'm not sure what Pimental thinks was being obstructed, but some people believe the tapes had to be destroyed because they would have revealed the Bush Administration’s hand in something worse than mere torture.

Gerald Posner at HuffPo thinks the Administration may have feared the revelation of facts relating to 9/11 that were disclosed by the men being tortured; see also Robert Baer's piece at Time Magazine.

Others speculate further that the tapes would have revealed that the torture was actually intended to induce brain damage or insanity in the victims, in order to destroy their ability to give credible evidence; see, e.g., leveymg's blog entries dated Dec. 10, 2007 and later at Daily Kos.

Both Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri are believed to have played instrumental roles in the 9/11 attacks (see the official U.S. 9-11 Commission Report and BBC News). Both men (among thousands of others) have been in actual or constructive U.S. custody since 2002 (Wikipedia here and here), i.e., ca. five years.

The FBI quickly extracted from Zubaydah -- without the use of waterboarding -- the names of four foreign leaders who knew about the 9/11 attacks before the event, all of them nationals of our supposed "allies," Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. Within months, all four men named met sudden and untimely deaths (see Posner at HuffPo).

Waterboarding and other harsh methods were approved by the White House (ABC News and The Washington Post), although such methods are in violation of the Geneva Convention and probably U.S. law (see The Pittsburgh School of Law's Jurist and Wikipedia).

Waterboarding can reduce or cut off the supply of oxygen to the brain and result in permanent brain damage or death (Wikipedia). “[W]ithout adequate oxygen, . . . the cells of the brain can die within several minutes. This type of injury is often seen in near-drowning victims . . . . ” (Wikipedia). Both Zubaydah and al-Nashiri have been tortured by CIA agents using waterboarding as well as other methods.

"On September 15, 2004, Judge Hellerstein ordered the CIA and other government departments to ‘produce or identify’ all [records concerning the treatment of detainees apprehended after September 11, 2001 and held in U.S. custody abroad] by October 15, 2004. . . . a court order of this nature requires that the party preserve all information possessed that is responsive to the request", even if the party appeals the order (John W. Dean at FindLaw; see also the Associated Press). The CIA was also admonished by the 9-11 Committee and various advisors not to destroy the videotapes.

The CIA nonetheless destroyed the videotapes -- at the urging of someone "directly representing" President Bush (Newsweek).

Zubaydah is now said to be insane; sources are in dispute as to whether he was already insane when captured (see the June 23, 2006 post at Inside the Ring). Terror suspect Joseph Padilla is known to have been driven insane by torture (The Guardian).

The Cooperative Research History Commons is working on an excellent timeline here with much more detailed information on this subject.

Strike/Protest on September 11, 2007

Do you feel guilty about missing work or school?

Maybe it's time to rethink what it means to be responsible.

Take one day to strike from shopping, work, and school in order to stand up to an administration that's wrought more devastation than any other in our nation's history -- decimating our fundamental human rights, our financial well-being, and our children's future; lying us into a war that's killed thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousand of Iraqis; etc. etc. (article here).

The material below is a quick n' dirty reconstitution of a post at democraticunderground.com -- thanks to the inestimable AUTORANK.

GENERAL STRIKE on 9/11, 2007

“No School * No Work * No Shopping
Hit the Streets”

Michael Collins
Scoop Independent Media
Washington, D.C.

A general strike is proposed for the United States on September 11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The general strike movement has no clearly named leadership. It’s described as an Internet viral effort.

* * * * *

General strikes, more common in Europe, are events that shut down the normal operations of a city, state, or nation for a period of time. These strikes aim to force awareness and action on a single issue or broader set of concerns.

The 9/11/07 General Strike has a central location on the Internet, which is linked to and reproduced on a variety of other internet sites. The site states the rationale for the effort:

"The General Strike is a national call to action, from citizens to other citizens. It is not about a single issue. It is not an anti-war protest, a civil rights protest, an election fraud protest. It is not about torture, surveillance, corporate media, the 9/11 coverup, or the environment. This strike is about all these issues and more.

"We all have different concerns, but we all have the same concern: we are being lied to and this government does not represent us. Join other Americans in demanding truth, justice, and accountability.

"This is our country.
"And our world.
"We just have to stand up.

"A National Call to Action: Tuesday, September 11th, 2007
No school. No work. Buy nothing. Hit the streets [* * * * *]"

LOCK-DOWN USA -- NO Answers (to anything)
The strike targets key issues facing the American public, issues that have not been addressed in any meaningful way by any branch of government. These include enduring questions and inconsistencies about 911, the Iraq War; violations of civil rights; and election fraud. As the statement above indicates, one key means of the coverup is the corporate media.

* * * * *

Reflecting the disquiet of the American public, Bush popularity is in free fall. As low as 26% approval in recent polls, his decline has been steady and unending since the peak after the 9/11 attacks (with an odd spike on Election Day 2004).

The strike campaign argues that these and other issues rarely covered in any depth by nearly all of the corporate media leave only one move for citizens -- a general strike to protest the policies plus the lack of recognition and response.

Call to action: We just have to stand up.

Flyer from here (flyer number 5)

Standing up includes no work or school on September 11, 2007. It also includes “no shopping;” a suspension of all purchasing during the strike. One strike web site claims that this can have a substantial impact even with just a small percentage of the population participating.

The general strike calls for participants to “Hit the Streets.” Significant activity is expected to focus on New York and Washington, DC but, in the viral spirit, the venues of protest can’t be predicted.