2 October 2005

A REPORT ON THE CNI PUBLIC HEARING ON CAPITOL HILL

Kevin Zeese, Director of Democracy Rising and a candidate for U.S Senate in Maryland. (Photo: CNI)

The links between the U.S. occupation of Iraq and the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza and Golan Heights were emphasized in a September 26th public hearing sponsored by the Council for the National Interest at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington DC. The speakers were Kevin Zeese, Director of Democracy Rising and a candidate for U.S Senate in Maryland; Phyllis Bennis, a Fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies; and Huwaida Arraf, co-founder of the International Solidarity Movement.

Bennis addressed the question of how the United States plays a direct role in both. In Iraq, it is as the major occupier. In Palestine, the role resembles that of the "enabler," the power than allows Israel to carry out its occupation. For a more direct link, she pointed out the role that Jenin played both occupations, and how the U.S. military experts learned the "right" occupation techniques from Israel's brutal destruction of the refugee camps.

As students stood divided on the steps of Memorial Chapel last night, they held strong to their political views while awaiting antiwar activist Cindy Sheehan’s arrival.

More than an hour before a talk on the Iraq war with Sheehan, dozens of students lined the chapel entrance in a face-off. They held signs, passed out pamphlets — including military recruitment forms — and chanted their beliefs for everyone to hear while occasionally debating back and forth.

Capital News Service
Wednesday, September 21, 2005

WASHINGTON - Maryland advocates of paper records for electronic voting machines are renewing their cause after a report this week from a panel headed by former President Carter recommended receipts to alleviate voting security issues.

Critics of the Maryland State Board of Elections were buoyed by federal election reform recommendations released this week by the Carter-Baker commission -- named for its leaders, Carter, and former Secretary of State James Baker III -- and by the unexpected softening of two former opponents toward voter-verified paper records.

"Voting machines must be both accessible and transparent," the Carter-Baker report said, adding that direct recording electronic machines, the kind Maryland uses, usually don't allow voters to check if their ballot was recorded correctly. Some can't be used for an independent recount, it said.

Friday, September 23, 2005