Story Archives 2011

San Francisco Chronicle columnist C.W. Nevius won the San Francisco Weekly's "BEST OF SAN FRANCISCO" issue.  That amazes me.  It makes me scratch my head more than I already do.

Nevius is notorious ("neviustorius"?) for being a professional hater of houseless and other poor people.  He hates non-profits that help them, even non-profits POOR Magazine includes in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex, Poverty Pimpologists preying on the poor more than actually helping them.  He really hates how many of them operate in the Tenderloin neighborhood.

I'm not sure if Nevius won because there weren't many votes for anyone else, or if too many San Franciscans don't know enough journalistic folks.  I mean, we've got El Tecolote, the S.F. Bay Guardian, the S.F. Bayview, the San Francisco Bay Times, the San Francisco Bay Area Reporter, POOR Magazine, the Street Sheet and however many other news reporting entities there are on the wwweb.  Are they all undercooked liver and onions?

I'd ask for a recount, or a re-vote, but there aren't any hanging chads to get anyone's goat overcooked and, well, there have been other BEST OF SAN FRANCISCO and (S.F. BAY GUARDIAN) BEST OF THE BAY reader votes that have blown my tiny little mind out of my ears for less good reason than this one.

C.W. Nevius?  Seriously?  You like a guy with all the depth of Amerikkkan Idol?  Ewwwww.

Recently Willie Brown (California ex-Speaker of the House and Da ex-Mayor of San Francisco prior to Gavin the Gruesome Newsom) wrote an op-ed piece for the San Francisco Chronicle.  He said Arnold Schwarzenegger is "human, just like the rest of us".  Schwarzenegger hid the fact that he'd made a baby with his housekeeper 10 years ago.

It's okay if a Republican movie-star-turned-politician becomes a secret SuperBabyDaddy, it isn't okay if you're a single mother (or father) on Welfare.  Schwarzenegger sure didn't think so, he put single mamaz and their children in the California budget crosshairs many times.

How often does a very visible (Republican) public figure pratfall to Earth at warp speed and gets a pass from those who should know better?  Too often.

It's always a good time to get a grip and change the channel.  Stop attacking and blaming poor people, and poor mamaz.  Stop defending The Gropenator and others like him.

People with disabilities have faced police brutality and profiling but to this point there have been very little cultural work on this critical issue.  Since I was a kid my father had me on protest lines dealing with police brutality and other issues.  In the 90's I got very heavy into this issue, wrote articles, poetry, organized forums and attending hearings with other community activists like Idriss Staneley Foundation, ISArC, Poor Magazine, Cop Watch and others.  I've always wanted to help put out a CD or book on the issue of police brutality against people with disabilities.  I started this process to do some cultural work on this issue with others like Poor Magazine and Mesha with ISArC, but didn't finish it.

Now it is time and Krip-Hop Nation has teamed up with UK Hustle & LA's 5th Battalion to put out a Hip-Hop CD by artists with disabilities rapping and speaking about stories of police brutality/profiling against us as people with disabilities.  Artists will come from all over the US & UK in a diverse pool with their own tracks.  The CD will be compile and produce by Krip-Hop Nation and 5th Battalion and promote by all artists and UK Hustle.

We are looking at late Summer or early Fall to release the CD project with cover by DJ Quad.  We have 12 different artists at this time but things might change or stay the same.  For more information drop us an email kriphopproject@yahoo.com.  Finally this project after almost ten plus years will be done soon.  Thanks to 5th Battalion, UK Huslte, all the artists and ISArC, Cop Watch and Poor Magazine for the support.  To all the families who DISABLED love ones were abuse and killed by police, you kept this dream alive!  MUCH LOVE.

Snails

By RWS

We’re two working

Men going at our

Own pace

He’s just a

Janitor

We’re both born

In this city and work

At an apartment complex

Housing the affluent

He mops and sweeps the

Marble floors while I greet

Residents who inquire about the

Status of their dry cleaning

Sometimes they complain

That the water is too hot

In the spa

(Burns their

toes)

I’m just a

Desk clerk

I refer those issues

To the appropriate

Departments

The janitor and I are

Required to raise the

American flag in the morning

The flag is tightly

Wrapped into a triangle

That pokes my side as I

Carry it

The janitor walks

Ahead of me

He fastens the flag

Into place and raises it

By pulling a rope

The flag slithers

Up the pole

We look to the ground

Where snails have sprouted

All around like moles

Others would kick or

step on them but

He picks each one

Raises them to the

Kiss of weeping leaves

The snails look

At us and laugh

We head back

To the apartment complex

at a snail's

pace

just a janitor

just a desk clerk

© 2011 RWS

1) Krip-Hop Nation KHN – Lets go back to NY where you started in Hip-Hop give us your story of that time.

Deacon:  Basically I moved to New York City in 2001 and started a recording studio with a childhood friend, called The Padded Room on 38^th & 8^th ave in the heart of Manhattan where I was making beats for other groups, ghost-writing for other artists, and developing and recording my own material.

2) KHN: So in your bio it said you were planning to come to Cali, why?

Deacon:  Well, we had 3 deals on the table in NYC with Rawkus, Tommy Boy, and Universal; that all fell through.  So we decided we needed a change of pace and since I really loved the underground music scene that I experienced while visiting Los Angeles, I really wanted Kaya to share it with me.  We also had a few independent labels in LA that were interested in us, so the plan was to relocate. 

 3) KHN: Then your car accident happened. Take us back to that time.

Deacon:  Well, it wasn’t a car accident.  I can’t discuss the specifics of the incident because of a pending lawsuit.   But, at the time of the accident we had stopped in Cleveland to spend time with my sick Grandfather and to spend quality time with my mother before making the big move to LA.  The accident kept us in Cleveland.  For the past 4 years we’ve been recovering physically and mentally and pouring all those mixed emotions into our music.

4) KHN: Krip-Hop Nation haven’t run across the husband/wife Hip-Hop group until Kounterclockwise tell us how you two met and that name.

Deacon:  We met in NYC in 2001 right before 9/11 happened at a venue in the East Village.  We clicked instantly and when I found out she played bass, I asked her if she wanted to form a group together.  We came up with the name Kounterclockwise, which simply means going against the grain and going in the opposite direction of the mainstream. 

5) KHN: Love the way you mix Rock, Hip-Hop and I hear everything from Jazz to Punk. Am I right? Please explain and who have inspired you musically?

 Deacon:  You are definitely right.  We are both inspired by a wide variety of artists and love pretty much ALL genres of music.  We love everything including: Nine Inch Nails, A Tribe Called Quest, Maximum The Hormone, Joy Division, Kool Keith from the Ultra Magnetic MC’s, Skinny Puppy, Thelonious Monk, Dethklok, Radiohead, Aphex Twin, The Ramones, Dangermouse, Stereolab, Nirvana, Sun Ra, Bjork, De La Soul and the whole Native Tongue, Johnny Cash, KRS-One, Beethoven, The Cure, High Powered Mutants, Marilyn Manson, The Sex Pistols, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Dead Can Dance, Tricky, Led Zeppelin, Jim Morrison, Tenacious D, MF Doom, Beck, The Dissociatives, The Cocteau Twins, Duran Duran… We can really go on and on literally for pages of bands that we love and listen to daily for inspiration.  It’s so hard to narrow down to just a few.  

5) KHN: Your new CD is coming out give us a highlight of themes of the tracks.

Deacon:  The album is called “Daylight Savings Time.”  It starts out with a song called ‘December 20^th, 2012’ and ends with one called ‘December 21^st, 2012.  The theme of the album basically is about humanity in the face of the Mayan Calendars prediction of the end of the world as we know it being on that day.  Humanity is living like scavengers trying desperately to hoard and get as much as they can before it’s all over.  Each song takes you through different human emotions and actions; desperation, fear, excess, drug abuse, loss, sex & love, ambition, desire, betrayal, confusion, anger, revenge, reflection, redemption, self-destruction, and finally total destruction. 

6) KHN: This is for Kaya Carine Gabriel, being a woman, musician and partner of Deacon have you seen discrimination in the Hip-Hop scene against u and your partner

Kaya:  Most certainly although I choose not to dwell on it.  For example,  Deacon & I split the production down the middle and I’m fully involved in the production and recording of each song, yet often times people assume that I’m just a back-up singer or they think my husband is the whole band and I’m not even in the group at all.  (Though I must say when it comes to lyrical songwriting genius – Deacon Burns is definitely the MC!!!)  We also get discrimination from major record labels that want to be able to fit us into a category and since they can’t figure out how to box us in,  they may say our music is un-marketable in any mainstream manner.   I have also noticed that many venues are still not wheelchair accessible, limiting the places we can perform. 

7) KHN: In your view what is missing in Hip-Hop?

Deacon:  Originality and the freedom to experiment and be yourself!

Kaya:  Major labels are still pigeon holding young talent causing them to try to fit the molds and be just like every other mainstream Hip-Hop group.  It’s frustrating to constantly hear statements like, we love what you’re doing but can you make it sound more like this person or that group. We insist on being ourselves!

8) KHN: Do you think the music scene is ready for you two being a couple dealing with disability and sexism of the bling bling of Hip-Hop?

Deacon:  I think people are more then ready after being force fed years of the same bubble gum Hip-Hop.  People are thirsting for something that will truly speak to them.  The reality is that most people are dealing with real life issues including disabilities, disease, addiction, sexism, poverty, etc…  I think they want to hear music that they can relate to.  We’re not all living lavishly and can afford to live in mansions, sipping champagne, riding in Maseradis, making it rain $ on strippers, while rocking platinum chains encrusted with diamonds.

Kaya:  (lol) And we are going to give it to them our way whether they are ready or not!

9) KHN: In your point of view what is the advantage of being an independent verse a sign artist and visa-versa where do u see yourself in the future?

Deacon:  The advantage of being independent is complete freedom to be ourselves and express our music our way without being told what is a single, what is not a single, and that we need more radio-friendly hits before we can release our album.  And we avoid making forced music made under the pressure of un-inspiring deadlines and major-label demands.  The only advantage of being signed that I can see is having the marketing, promotion, and distribution teams helping to put you out there.  But with The Internet, we really have the power to reach people worldwide by putting in the work, marketing, and distributing ourselves.    In the future?  Well, personally I want to form an army of disabled/paralyzed artists worldwide called ‘The Autobots’ and start our own musical and creative revolution.  I see myself sort of as an Optimus Prime telling them it’s time to Transform & Roll Out.  We will be seen everywhere shocking the world with just how Able and Powerful we still ARE!!!

10) KHN: What is your advice for couples that are artists and want to collaborate?

Deacon:  To completely focus on each other by cutting out the people that bring you drama.  Create your vision and work, work, work, until it becomes real.

11) KHN: When your CD comes out are you planning a tour?

Deacon:  Yes! We do plan on touring.  We want to hit both coasts.  It’s going to be quite a challenge and require careful planning because of the wheelchair situation, but we are going to make it happen.

12) KHN:  How can people get your CD & contact you?

Deacon:  “Daylight Savings Time” – the album will be available for absolutely FREE download as soon as it drops and the links will be posted at:

http://www.reverbnation.com/kounterclockwise

http://www.myspace.com/kounterclockwise

http://www.youtube.com/kounterclockwise

http://www.twitter.com/kountrclockwise

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/KOUNTERCLOCKWISE/192787617408

 You can contact us via email at: kounterclockwise@gmail.com

Our own website is Coming Soon:

 http://www.kounterclockwise.com

13) KHN: Any last words:

Kaya&Deacon:  We want to thank Leroy Moore and Krip-Hop Nation.  “Daylight Savings Time” will be out soon.  Feel free to contact us at any of the links above and we will make sure you’ll be among the first to hear the album.  And to all people living with disabilities, don’t let anybody tell you what you can’t do or stand in your way! 

Kaya Carine Gabriel explains: We wanted to represent and inspire people with disabilities in some way. While we were brainstorming ideas for the video, we came up with the idea to have several people who use wheelchairs join us. We reached out to the Dancing Wheels School and to several friends we knew in similar situations and asked them to join us for a day of fun to shoot the video. It turned out to be such an amazing day. We all got together to share in the creativity and we were blown away by how amazing the dancers were. We definitely plan to do more projects like this in the future.

Deacon Burns: (Answered my question: can you add your feeling of seeing people in music videos playing like they are in wheelchair users?)"It disgusts me! People that can walk acting like it's cool to be in a wheelchair are not cute to me. It reminds me of the rich kids in the suburbs that think it's cool to live in the ghetto, when everybody in the ghetto is trying to get out of it."

What Good is a Security Job?

What good is a

security job when

an unarmed guard is

getting such little pay

to risk their life

To protect a rich

man's plantation

with their life

And they can treat

you any way they

like and get away

with it while you're

there

On the plantation

with them working

for then guarding

their place of business

and them too

(c) 2011 Byron Gafford

June 4, 2011

I thought as an Afro American parent I made the right decision in putting my son in private school. I believed the public school system would damage my son. I see the struggles of substandard education, discrimination and harassment Afro American children go through. The problems don’t only affect our boys but our girls too. My son was very outgoing and smart and loved to learn. I decided to enroll him in St. John's Catholic school in San Francisco—I was advised St. John's is one of the top Catholic schools in San Francisco. I was happy when my son was accepted.

I believed St. John's Catholic school would challenge my son mentally; however I had a rude awakening. All of a sudden normal childhood behavior became ADHD, or as we know it behavioral problems. I remember my son's kindergarten teacher telling me, “I’m receiving my Ph.D in psychology, and I thought your son may need medication as he is a black boy, but now I don’t think so.” I was shocked. AS I had conversations with other Afro American parents, and apparently the kindergarten teacher told them the same thing. Every time I went to pick up my son from kindergarten it was always, "your son did this, your son did that." The kindergarten teacher accused my son of robbery and threatening another kid with physical harm. I had enough, just to find out later the other kid was lying about my son.

The interesting part of it is I thought the problem was only focused on my son. Yet as I started interviewing more Afro American and Hispanic parents, the majority said they were having the same problems with St. John's, that the teachers were all Caucasian and had no connection with the children of color.

Still I kept my son in St. John's until the first grade. "Wow," I thought, "a new start.” Boy was I wrong. Apparently my son carried a reputation from kindergarten that passed onto the first grade. I couldn’t believe now his first grade teacher wasn’t trying to educate him, but a matter fact he was always in detention and was ignored by his teacher. My child was now labeled AS a problem child with behavior and learning problems. I was in a desperate battle with my son’s principal and teachers.

I decided to investigate; I couldn’t believe what my eyes were seeing. I saw my son's first grade teacher yelling at him, the teacher strongly disciplining him; I watched as my son asked for help while the teacher walked away from him; I watched how the teacher took her time with the Caucasian children, but the children of color were constantly ignored, and were put into a smaller groups for behavioral problems. More and more I observed the teacher totally not educating children of color, but accusing the children of color of being substandard. The teachers at St. John's forced children of color to fear learning and being kicked out of school, yet St. John's teachers and principal poisoned parents to believe our children are below reading and math levels.

I realized at that point I had a battle on my hands; the interesting part is the harder I advocated for my son, the more the principal and the teacher treated him poorly. More and more the teacher accused my son of being a thief, disrupting the class, fighting, not doing his work in class. The principal's statement was, “Well you know he had this same problem in kindergarten." I couldn’t believe it. Most Afro American parents either left their children in St. John's or transferred them to a better school. Afro American parents said we just want our kids to pass to the 2nd grade, and all the harassment will be over.

Well I transferred my son to another school; I thought the behavioral problem label would disappear. The principal emailed me and threatened to slander my name to my son’s new school. Here’s a section of the email sent from the principal: "I will inform the new school where Mark Anthony is attending of your balance." Meaning they were going to tell the new school my financial info.

I chose to stop paying St. John's due to the harassment and discrimination of my child, yet the damage is done and the principal of St. John's contacted my son’s new school and told the principal, ‘’he has a behavior problem, and the parents are intimidating." I was shocked again. I wondered why am I going through this battle just for my child to receive the proper education.

Due to St. John's failing my son, I home school him part time. Please parents of color fight for your children; the educational system is set up to fail them.

Americans With Disabilities Act rules for Service Animals changed in March 2011 at the Federal level.  Only dogs or horses count as service animals-- for people with PHYSICAL disabilities.  This doesn't affect San Francisco (yet) because the city and county benefits from California state rules. 

How long until the Feds challenge the CA law?  Bill Clinton had a service dog!  Being the President is both the cushiest and gnarliest job imaginable.  Times change...

I'm on this because I saw the driver of the last MUNI #49 bus (of the night several months ago) to my 'hood (Van Ness Avenue and Eddy Street) refuse to allow a young woman with a service dog to ride his bus--he wanted to see papers stating the dog was really a service animal.  Another MUNI driver told me the other guy was wrong because nobody has to "show papers".

After that experience I had a conversation with one of the desk clerks at my SRO hotel, a very politically conservative guy, who told me about the change in the law.  He loved it.  The San Francisco Examiner recently wrote about the change.  They quoted someone who uses Seeing Eye dogs who also liked the change, because it makes life "simpler" for many people.  The Examiner, being a very kkkonservative paper, liked it too.

Why is this important (other than for the fact that quite a few people having trouble coping with fast-paced harder-than-ever-edged life in any big city you care to name--not just San Francisco--deal with their challenges far better with an animal that both depends on them for food, shelter, etc {plus giving up some mostly unconditional love})?  Ever see a houseless man or woman with a dog, a cat, or a bird?  Know any housed poor people with a pet?

Those animals are companions, sharing the challenges of houseless or poorlife.  Guards of property and psychological well-being, they are incredibly important.  Many people who aren't poor deal with animals better than other humans too, so the injustice bleeds over quite a bit of territory here.

There is a hugely profitable Animal Industrial Complex (not just the Agricultural Industrial Complex, which raises a lot of our meat-flesh food in conditions none of would want to live in) devoted to breeding, raising, feeding, pampering, selling and doing other things for and to animals considered pets.  Murdering the ones that become surplus, unwanted, is just as big an industry, or side-effect.  Disposable animals, disposable material goods, disposable people.

Service Animals must be kicking the Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex in the balls pretty hard, or they just don't wanna give up any itty bitty potential profit to be squeezed out of any nook and cranny of the world.  Or both.  No profit to be made when cats, dogs, and birds heal souls better than psych drugs do.

At my SRO hotel, there's a guy who lives at the other end of my floor who was pretty much a lost soul when he moved in.  He said a few things to me that might have set off a bar brawl-style fight if I hadn't been instantly aware that he is/was one of those people we use euphemisms for to dance around the "lack of a full happy meal or a deck of cards" when we want to be semi-polite about talking about mental illness.

Soon after that he got what I call an "ankle-biter" dog.  A very small dog.  He said he was holding onto it for a friend, but I have a different opinion about that.  He slowly changed into someone who can talk to other people without making them want to be somewhere else.  We were just talking about a "Homer Simpson Lookalike Contest" (I said I'd look it up on-line, which hasn't happened yet...) in the line for our Wednesday afternoon SRO-tenants food pantry.

I know what I know.  I have all the proof I need that some folks in the Federal Government have lost what's left of their tiny little minds; they need a dog themselves, at least, so they can chill out and stop making life difficult for the rest of us.

On Libyan-Tunisian border, it’s back to the future with refugees

Djerba, Tunisia, June 3-4, 2011 – During the last air sanctions against Libya, imposed by the United Nations in 1992 over alleged Libyan involvement in the bombings of PanAm 103 and UTA 772, many Libyans traveling to and from Tripoli were forced to fly through Tunisia, traveling overland to and from the Tunisian border to their homes in Libya. With European Union sanctions now imposed on Libya, the old travel regime is back in force.

However, there is a new dimension to the air embargo on Libya. Attracted to the Libyan-Tunisian border by refugees, most African guest workers from sub-Sahara and pan-Sahel African nations, fleeing the fighting in their country, scores of international aid workers now occupy the tourist hotels of Djerba, the once popular Tunisian resort that has fallen on hard times after tour operators canceled excursions following the Tunisian revolution earlier this year.

Today, prior to crossing into Libya, this reporter is witnessing representatives of the “misery industry,” young international aid workers with groups like the International Committee of the Red Cross, EU and International Organization for Migration lounging around the tourist hotels mingling with German and French pensioners eager to take advantage of the special travel packages being offered by a depressed Tunisian tourist industry.

Not only is war good for the weapons industry, but refugee crises brought about by Western-implemented wars fatten the wallets of NGOs anxious to cash in on the human misery created by Pentagon and NATO overt and covert military operations. Meanwhile, here in Djerba, near the Libyan frontier, it’s poolside and cold Heinekens for the NGO community here to “save” the Libyan refugees.

Western Libya portrait is not what is being painted by the Western media

Tripoli, Libya, June 4-5, 2011 – Western media reports continue to indicate that Libyan rebels trying to oust Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi from power, backed by daily NATO air strikes, are gaining ground in western Libya. During a six-hour drive from the Tunisian border to Tripoli, the Libyan capital, this reporter saw no signs of Libyan rebel successes in western Libya. In fact, I witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main Tunisia-Tripoli highway in a town about one and a half hours west of Tripoli.

The DIGNITY Delegation witnessed a spontaneous pro-Qaddafi demonstration on the main highway from Tunisia to Tripoli. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

The green flag of the Libyan Arab Jamahiryah not only adorns flag poles in towns from Tripoli to the Tunisian border, but a number of private residences are flying the green flag from their rooftops, on flag poles, and even from outside of top floor windows in medium size and small towns alike along the main highway.

There are some telltale signs of previous fighting in the western part of the country – bullet holes in the walls of some buildings and even some more extensive structural damage – but there are no signs that the rebels, backed by the United States, NATO and the European Union, have any substantial support in western Libya.

The one major sign of the Libyan civil war lies not in western Libya but across the Tunisian border where several refugee tent cities have been set up to accommodate thousands of refugees, most of them Black African guest workers from sub-Sahara and Sahel nations who were set upon by rebels who said the workers were “mercenaries” brought to Libya by Qaddafi to fight on his behalf.

In fact, there is a strong anti-Black racialist element within the Libyan rebel movement that used the mercenary meme to justify heinous war crimes by rebel units against Blacks from other African nations, as well as native Libyan Blacks.

While many of the refugee camps on the Tunisian side of the Libyan frontier are sponsored by the International Committee of the Red Cross, one is funded by the United Arab Emirates, one of the nations participating in President Obama’s “coalition of the willing” that is waging a war on behalf of the Libyan rebels. From our hotel on the Mediterranean coast, we expect to see and hear the attacks conducted against military and some civilian targets a further few miles inland in downtown Tripoli.

The EU and NATO sanctions on Libya are being severely felt by Libya’s civilians. Petrol stations are rationing gasoline and long lines of cars sit waiting for gasoline to be delivered to the pumps.

The NATO, EU and U.S. policy of “collective punishment” of western Libya’s civilian population is being compared to Israel’s collective punishment of the Palestinians of Gaza and the West Bank. In fact, many Libyans believe that Obama’s crippling sanctions on western Libya were crafted by Israel’s lobby in Washington, which pressured the Obama administration into adopting them.

NATO has conducted nightly air strikes against western Libya, including downtown Tripoli, since March 19. The attacks begin around 12 midnight local time and at the time of this report we are expecting another NATO bombing of Tripoli in a little less than an hour.

NATO war crimes in Libya exposed

Tripoli, Libya, June 5-6, 2011 – In the current NATO war on Libya, the citizens of European and North American NATO countries are being treated to the largest propaganda blitz by their governments in cahoots with corporate media outlets since the U.S.-led invasions and occupation of Iraq. The situation on the ground in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, could not more different from what is being portrayed by Western news networks and newspapers.

Col. Qaddafi's wife's handbag and some of her clothing were blown several hundred feet from the bedroom of her home when it was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane on April 30. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

The NATO missile attack that killed Muammar Qaddafi’s son, Seif al Arab Qaddafi, on April 30, was an attempt to kill Muammar Qaddafi himself. This editor visited the devastated home where Seif was killed, along with his friend and three of Muammar Qaddafi’s grandchildren.

The only reason Muammar Qaddafi survived the blast was that he was away from the main residence tending to some animals, including two gazelles, kept in a small petting zoo maintained for his grandchildren. Muammar Qaddafi escaped the fate of his son and grandchildren by only about 500 feet.

The residence was hit by bunker buster bombs fired from a U.S. warplane. One of the warheads did not detonate and was later removed from what remained of a bedroom in the home. Libyan authorities do not have the technical capabilities to determine if the warhead contained depleted uranium.

The Pentagon insists that the Qaddafi residence was a military command center. Perhaps the Pentagon mistook the above equipment for what the Pentagon brass trains on every day. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

NATO and the Pentagon claimed the residence was a military compound, yet there is no evidence that any military assets were located in the residence that was flanked by the homes of a Libyan doctor and businessmen. The Qaddafi residence actually is owned by Qaddafi’s wife.

The neighbors’ homes were also badly damaged in the U.S. air attack and are uninhabitable. Only a few hundred yards away from the Qaddafi compound sits the embassy of Cote d’Ivoire.

The presence of a foosball table and swing set in the yard of the Qaddafi compound belies the charge by the Pentagon that the home was a military target.

However, considering that Qaddafi was present in the compound during the attack, it is clear that President Obama violated international law and three executive orders signed by three past presidents – Ford, Carter, and Reagan – in trying to assassinate the Libyan head of state. In fact, while Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi was being carried out, the President of the United States was preparing to yuck it up with Washington’s illuminati and Hollywood’s glitterati at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington.

This is the garment Col. Qaddafi was wearing in the living room before he left for the backyard children’s petting zoo, where he was tending to the animals when the U.S.-NATO air strike hit the house. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

Obama’s order to kill Qaddafi is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s order to kill Sadaam Hussein at the outset of the U.S. war against Iraq, an assassination order that was also a violation of international and U.S. law.

Putting into context what occurred at Mrs. Qaddafi’s home and the aftermath, let one say that there is an unprovoked and surprise enemy missile attack on a secondary U.S. presidential residence, say Camp David. The world’s major media then claims that the attack was justified because the U.S. president was committing unsubstantiated war crimes, all reported from sketchy sources. A group of independent journalists and human rights activists drive to Camp David and are welcomed by a plainclothes member of the Secret Service’s Presidential Protective Division.

The Secret Service official then proceeds to show the delegation one of the bombed out bedrooms of the main residence and points out that one of the pulverized bedrooms is where the president’s daughter was killed in the attack. The delegation is then shown the First Lady’s singed handbag thrown several hundred feet away in the explosion.

This gazelle is one of the fortunate but still traumatized survivors of the children's petting zoo. – Photo: Wayne Madsen

Although the president was taking a walk away from the main residence, the delegation is shown a windbreaker bearing the presidential seal lying on the couch of the destroyed living room. A room said to contain military command and control systems is then found by the delegation to have a destroyed pool table and a shattered pinball machine.

The attacking nation claims that the Camp David compound was a security threat. But the American people rally to support their president and his family after the attack.

Now, you can begin to understand how the people of Libya feel after the U.S. attack on Mrs. Qaddafi’s house that killed her and her husband’s son and three grandchildren, along with a family friend.

The DIGNITY Delegation of independent journalists from across the United States is on a truth-telling, fact-finding mission to Libya. Headed by former Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, the delegation will be joined by former Sen. Mike Gravel and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark. For more information, contact Don DeBar at dondebar@optonline.net.