The 411
The SeeingBlack.com 411
By the Red-Eye Crew, Compiled with Dispatches from DemocracyNow.org
May 16, 2008, 14:34

Red Cross: Up to 128,000 Dead in Burma
The death toll from Burma’s Cyclone Nargis continues to rise. The military junta’s official toll is at 38,000, with another 28,000 missing. The Red Cross says the toll is far higher, with between 68,000 and 128,000 dead. On Wednesday, UN humanitarian chief John Holmes said up to 2.5 million people are in desperate need of aid.

UN Emergency Relief Coordinator John Holmes: “We can’t simply force people to accept what we’d like them to do, and that’s essentially the problem we’re grappling with, and it’s also the reason why we’re trying to work particularly closely with ASEAN and other neighbors, who may have better bilateral influence on Myanmar and better bilateral links with Myanmar than any particular multilateral organization, to increase the pressure on them to accept what is clearly needed and everybody agrees is needed, which is greater willingness to accept international help.”
The Burmese junta continues to come under criticism for delaying and hoarding international aid.


China Earthquake Toll Tops 21,500
The death toll from this week’s earthquake in China’s Sichuan province has risen to 21,500 people. The number is up 3,000 from yesterday amidst warnings it could end up surpassing 50,000 dead. Ongoing aftershocks continue to cause landslides, hampering efforts to reach victims trapped beneath the rubble of collapsed buildings and roads.


Defaming Obama, Bush Likens Iran Talks to Hitler Appeasement
In Israel, a visiting President Bush continued to take part in Israel’s sixtieth anniversary celebrations. Speaking before the Israeli parliament, Bush took a swipe at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama,comparing his call to negotiate with Iran to the appeasement of Hitler before the Second World War.

President Bush: “Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along. We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared, ’Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.’ We have an obligation to call this what it is: the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

In a statement, Obama’s campaign denounced Bush’s remarks, calling them an “unprecedented political attack on foreign soil.” Sen. Joseph Biden , other Democrats and progressive commentators also joined in condemnation of Bush’s remarks.


McCain Predicts US in Iraq Until 2013
On the campaign trail, John McCain is predicting it will take at least five years for the US to achieve what he calls “victory” in Iraq. McCain spoke Thursday in Columbus, Ohio.
Sen. John McCain: “By January 2013, America has welcomed home most of the servicemen and women who have sacrificed terribly so that America might be secure in her freedom. The Iraq War has been won. Iraq is a functioning democracy, although still suffering from the lingering effects of decades of tyranny and centuries of sectarian tension.”


Edwards Endorses Obama in Dem Race
On the campaign trail, former North Carolina Senator John Edwards has endorsed Senator Barack Obama in the Democratic presidential race. Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton have heavily courted Edwards since he dropped his bid for the nomination in January. Appearing at an Obama rally in Michigan, Edwards said Obama’s seemingly insurmountable lead had sealed his choice.

John Edwards: “There is one man. There is one man who knows and understands that this is a time for bold leadership. There is one man that knows how to create the change, the lasting change, that you have to build from the ground up. There is one man who knows in his heart that it is time to create one America, not two, and that man is Barack Obama.”
Obama, meanwhile, thanked Edwards for his support and urged Democrats to unite behind his candidacy.

Sen. Barack Obama: "For the last eight years, they’ve
been told, you’ve been told, that there’s nothing this country can do to help you, that the best we can do is keep giving more and more of those with the most and tell everyone else to fend for themselves. That’s what George Bush has done for the last eight years, and that’s what John McCain is offering for the next four. Well, John Edwards and I believe in a different America. Hillary Clinton believes in a different America. The Democratic Party believes in a different America.”

Obama has also picked up support from the influential abortion rights group NARAL Pro-Choice America. NARAL had previously endorsed Clinton throughout her career.


Inglewood, California Police Shoot Dead Unarmed Teenager
Two police officers in Inglewood, California have been placed on administrative leave after fatally shooting an unarmed teenager. Police opened fire on a car in Inglewood Sunday after hearing gunshots in the area. But police now admit there is no evidence linking anyone in the car to the gunfire. No weapons were found in the vehicle.

Nineteen-year-old Michael Byoune, a passenger in the car, died after police officers shot him at least three times in the torso. The driver of the car, nineteen-year-old Larry White, was wounded. The Inglewood Police have refused to release the names of the police officers.

Rep. John Conyers Holds Forum in NYC on Sean Bell Case

The House Judiciary Committee met on the issue of police brutality , including the Sean Bell case.

Meanwhile, House Judiciary Chair John Conyers and other lawmakers held a forum in Manhattan on Monday to discuss police-community relations in New York in the wake of the Sean Bell verdict. Hazel Dukes of the NAACP told lawmakers, “We bring you back here today to our city because we are under siege again from our own New York City Police Department.”

South African Apartheid Suit to Proceed
The Supreme Court said Monday that it can’t intervene in an important dispute over the rights of South African apartheid victims to sue US corporations in US courts, because four of the nine justices had to sit out the case over apparent conflicts. The lawsuit accuses dozens of prominent US corporations of violating international law by assisting South Africa’s former apartheid government. Because the court couldn’t reach quorum, the court was forced to uphold an appeals court ruling allowing the suit to proceed. For the record, Chief Justice John Roberts owns Hewlett-Packard stock. Justice Stephen Breyer owns stock in Colgate-Palmolive, Bank of America, IBM and Nestle. Justice Samuel Alito holds shares in Exxon Mobil and Bristol-Myers Squibb. Meanwhile, Justice Anthony Kennedy sat out the case because his son is a managing director at the investment bank Credit Suisse.


Pentagon Drops Charges Against Alleged 20th Hijacker
And the Pentagon has dropped charges against a Saudi man held at Guantanamo who was was at the center of the military’s controversial torture program. Mohammed al-Qahtani was accused of being the so-called twentieth hijacker in the September 11 attacks. In 2006, al-Qahtani recanted a confession he said he made after he was tortured and humiliated at Guantanamo. Al-Qahtani was the subject of a harsh interrogation plan authorized by former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. The alleged torture included being beaten, restrained for long periods in uncomfortable positions, threatened with dogs, exposed to loud music and freezing temperatures and stripped nude in front of female personnel. On Friday, the convening authority for military commissions, Susan Crawford, dismissed the charges against al-Qahtani. She dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can be filed again later.


California Supreme Court Overrules Gay Marriage Ban
In California, the State Supreme Court has overturned a ban on gay marriage. In a five-to-four ruling, the court said state restrictions on same-sex marriages are unconstitutional. Beth Teper of Collage, a group for the children of gay couples, welcomed the ruling.
Beth Teper: “Children with LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) parents deserve our families to be respected, validated and protected legally and culturally. The Supreme Court ought to be applauded for their decision
today.”

The decision came out of a challenge to hundreds of gay marriages performed in San Francisco in 2004. The California Supreme Court had intervened to stop the weddings and later invalidated the documents. On Thursday, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said the court’s new decision could have national implications.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: “And by the way, as California goes, so goes the rest of the nation. It’s inevitable. This door is wide open now. It’s going to happen, whether you like it or not. This is the future, and it’s now.”

California joins Massachusetts as the only states extending marriage rights to gays and lesbians.


Wheelchair-Bound Scholar Dies in US Jail
In Washington State, a renowned Asian antiquities expert has died in a federal jail. Sixty-two-year-old Roxana Brown was the director of the Southeast Asian Ceramics Museum at Bangkok University in Thailand. Brown had been arrested in connection with a probe into illegal art trafficking. She was detained in Seattle as she prepared to speak before an academic conference. Her family says she died of an apparent heart attack brought about by the stress of her arrest. She had been confined to a wheelchair after losing her leg in the 1980s.


HIV-Positive Man Sentenced to 35 Years for Spitting at Officers
In Dallas, Texas, an HIV-positive homeless man has been sentenced to thirty-five years in prison for spitting in the mouth and eye of a Dallas police officer. The man, Willie Campbell, was found guilty of harassing a public servant with a deadly weapon—his saliva. None of the three officers contracted HIV. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says there are no known cases of contact with saliva, tears or sweat transmitting HIV. Campbell will not be eligible for parole until serving at least seventeen years behind bars.


May 16 is Bike to Work Day
And today is Bike to Work Day. On Thursday, bicycle activists in San Francisco held a rally ahead of the occasion. Leah Shahum of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition addressed a rally on the steps of City Hall.
Leah Shahum: “We have grave challenges facing us individually and as a society, everything from the shrinking oil supply and rising gas prices to rising sea levels through global warming, to rising obesity rates. These are big challenges, and they’re a little overwhelming. Bicycling is booming today, because the bicycle is an elegant and, I think, a particularly joyful solution to so many of these challenges.”


More International News
Palestinians Mark 60 Years Since “Nakba”
In Israel and the Occupied Territories, Palestinians are marking the sixtieth anniversary of what they call the Nakba, or catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians lost their homes during the war around Israel’s creation in 1948. Israel’s celebration of its sixtieth anniversary began last week in accordance with the Jewish calendar. President Bush is in Israel taking part in the festivities. On Wednesday, Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Zahar said Bush is celebrating Palestinian suffering.
Mahmoud al-Zahar: “He is here to celebrate our bloodshed since sixty years, our bloodshed since sixty years, our deportation, living in abnormal condition, confiscation of our national rights.”


US: 2,500 Youths Jailed in Iraq, Afghanistan, Gitmo
The US government has disclosed it’s imprisoned around 2,500 youths below the age of eighteen as “illegal combatants” in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay since 2002. In a filing with the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Bush administration says most of the youths were imprisoned in Iraq. 500 juveniles remain in US prisons there. Ten juvenile prisoners are still being held at the Bagram base in Afghanistan. Eight juveniles have been brought to Guantanamo Bay. Two of them remain: Omar Khadr, now twenty-one years old, and Mohammed Jawad, now twenty-three.


Admin Promotes GMO Crops in Food Aid Package
The Bush administration is trying to use the global food crisis to push the controversial use of genetically-modified crops in food-starved countries. The White House food package proposes one hundred fifty million dollars for development farming which would include GMO crops.






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