a Hood Research Publication

Newswire June 23, 2004


================= THE THINKERS REPORT ==================

The e-mail edition newswire.

June 23, 2004

A Publication of HOOD RESEARCH

Your neighborHOOD RESEARCH group and Think Tank

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                        CONTENTS

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1)  HOOD RESEARCH IS COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

2)  Online Discussion site for Hood Research

3)  Legalized Torture the Real Weapon of Mass Destruction

4)  10 Similarities Between the U.S. & Nazi Germany

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1) HOOD RESEARCH IS COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD

A TOWN HALL MEETING

June 28, 2003

5:30 – 8:00 pm

Triumph Baptist Church

2550 S. Liddesdale

If you are concerned about:

· Your Personal Safety

· Insurance redlining

· Election Issues

· Other Current Issues

Come talk to your Legislator and participate in a Hood Research Think Tank Session

For more information call 313.931.2700

                        <<< >>>

2)  Online Discussion site for Hood Research

  Hood Research now has the capability to have online discussions  regarding  issues covered by Hood Research. Go to  (http://www.detropolis.com/forum/),  see the Hood Research section, and join or begin a discussion.  Our first topic, continued from the State of our City forum and still  in the  news today, the cities financial position. With the economy in Detroit  as it  is today, why is the city mortgaging the future by selling bonds to pay  off  today’s debt? This is merely a way to hide the true costs of the past  year  and push the burden of repaying the debt onto our children. Mortgaging  their  future.  Also, as Detropolis a partner site, please visit its new features and  its  expanding content. Additionally, Detroit Uncovered has other  perspectives and unique information in regards to Detroit and current issues. Hood   Research  does not control these other sites or their content, but we encourage all to get more information because as out motto states, “People would do better if they knew better.”    

                        <<< >>>

3)  Legalized Torture the Real Weapon of Mass Destruction

   (Something sent to Hood Research from the Internet)  President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld and his people have now stated that  they  torture, they intend to torture and that all the work the United States  had  done over the past century in republican and democratic administrations  to  eliminate the torture of captured (US) prisoners has been in vain.  From an article in the Associated Press, (June 23, 2004 7:52 AM EDT)  (Link to full article-  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_PRISONER_ABUSE?  SITE=MIDTF&SECTION=HOME)    

Headline/Author

        Justice Dept. Repudiates Memo on Torture

        By TERENCE HUNT, AP White House Correspondent

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Quote:

The president insisted Tuesday: “I have never ordered torture.”

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The above was quoted from the article. Yet in the same article it

states,

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Quote:

A 2002 order signed by President Bush says the president reserves the right to suspend the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war at any time.

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Does this mean that US citizens might have to fear reprisals if or when

the

United States is attacked such as what happened on September 11? Will

African

Americans or Arab Americans become possible torture subjects if the

government believes information can be gained from certain people?

Looking at

the history of this nation, it seems that this is stepping backwards

and not

only reducing civil rights but placing the power of Big Brother over

your

shoulder by the threat of the use of torture.

Will torture become a tactic used to get confessions from murders and

drug

dealers by your local police department?

Also from the Article:

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Quote:

An Aug. 1, 2002, Justice Department memo argues that torture – and even

deliberate killing – of prisoners in the terror war could be justified

as

necessary to protect the United States. The memo from then-assistant

attorney

general Jay Bybee also offers a restricted definition of torture,

saying only

actions that cause severe pain akin to organ failure would be torture.

Bybee is now a justice on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

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A U.S. judge believes its OK to torture humans. How many other judges

agree?

Torture, it seems by the actions of the president, is now an assumed

weapon

of war. This means that if the strongest nation on Earth must use

torture for

its own protection, then the tiniest nation on Earth has the same

advantage.

If the $400 billion the US (under President Bush) spends openly on the

military budget is not enough or even adequate then what is a country

that

barely has a GDP of $500 million supposed to do for their defense?

The killing and beheading of Americans in the foreign countries by

various

groups are now legalized thanks to the United States under President

Bush.

While we call it terrorism and those guilty War Criminals, those in the

foreign lands call them freedom fighters, saviors, heroes, etc.

Even Saddam Hussein, which many have said, killed his own people

including

relatives, whole villages and others in the name of protecting his

power can

be said to be doing it to protect Iraq. It was mass torture that

resulted in

many deaths but if he was doing it for the defense of his nation from

those

Iraq called terrorists then it must be justified. If the United States

can do

it openly then who else will follow our lead.

Knowing that the leaders of the so-called terrorist organizations are

well

educated, will they reach this same conclusion? Will it become open

season on

Americans? If you get tortured for walking down the street in a foreign

country, thank President Bush for tortures legalization and

formalization as

a method for national defense.

                        <<< >>>

4)  10 Similarities Between the U.S. & Nazi Germany

    (Something sent to Hood Research from the Internet)

1. Both nations were led by men who pursued hidden agendas and sold

them to

their citizens by lying.

2. In both cases the vast majority of citizens considered themselves to

be

religious, specifically Christian.

3. In both cases the leader sold the idea that the citizens’ “way of

life”

was being threatened by another religious/racial group, and pursued

some

organizational strategy which appeared to minimize that group’s

influence on

“way of life”.

4. In both cases the citizens were collectively angry at being humbled

in

recent decades, and showed some desire to aggravate and even attack

other

nations if only to satiate their pride.

5. Both nations believed in preemptive attack.

6. In both cases the business class tended to support war efforts,

knowing

expansion would enable their continued wealth, while the lower classes

were

used as cannon fodder.

7. In neither case would you find consensus among citizens as to why

their

nation fought. In each case the leader synthesized different factors

existing

in different citizens into a collective support for war – distrust of

another

ethnicity, desire to humble other nations, desire to increase influence

of

particular religious beliefs, desire for greater “national security”,

desire

to expand wealth, desire to demonstrate military superiority, revenge against others, and last but not least, blind faith in leaders and desire to trust some paternalistic father figure.

8. In neither case were citizens especially bothered during the war by

reports of systematic detention of innocents, murder of innocents, military targeting of civilian areas, or even murder.

9. Both regimes, each led by a small cabal of men, shielded themselves and their motives constantly under a veil of flag-waving and nationalism.

10. Neither regime was capable of admitting mistakes or of self-

reflection.

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Credits:

    Co-Founders Theo Broughton & Reggie Crawford

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Always remember (Our Vision),

    “People would do better if they knew better.”

    (Another Hood Research Positive Image Project)

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