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How Our Nation Has Become Involved In Torture & Corruption:
Seymour Hersh article - Abu-Ghraib Photos - Justice Dept. Memos - CPA "Order 30" - Bechtel Corporation Info

Please visit Neighbors for Peace and Justice for an extensive list of local vigils in Southern California

Veterans for Peace
Arlington West Memorial
Santa Monica Beach

set-up 7:30-9:30 am,
take down 6:00 pm-7:00 pm
Santa Monica Pier
(North Side)

Please come and volunteer every Sunday or any Sunday! Come help to put up over 800 crosses...

1 cross for every American soldier killed in Iraq. There is also a sign that says in order to honor all of the Iraqi people who have died, we would have to fill the entire beach with crosses.

For more information,
call Sally Marr (323) 650-8166
or Frank Dorrel – 310-838-8131

Read the New Yorker report by Seymour Hersh on US Torture at Abu Ghraib Prison

view the images of US torture of Iraqi Civilians at Abu Ghraib Prison

Pentagon Report March 2003 (PDF) 6.7MB

CCR has posted the controversial Pentagon Working Group Report on Detainee Interrogations in the Global War on Terrorism: Assessment of Legal, Historical, Policy and Operational Considerations on its website. The report is further proof of the Bush administration's disregard for the Constitution and civil liberties and shows there was planning at high levels of government to abuse and torture detainees.

CCR President Michael Ratner stated, "This memo and others show there was planning far up the chain of command to torture detainess; the atrocities at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere cannot be swept under the rug by going after low-level soldiers. Apparently highly placed U.S. officials were willing to approve interrogation methods that violate every convention on torture the United States has ever signed. But they needed to find cover for their actions and a defense to possible criminal prosecution. Government lawyers writing this report wildly distorted the law in an effort to exempt officials from potential criminal prosecution."

download a flyer with War Crimes Facts

Washington Post Editorial calls U.S. acts "War Crimes"

Economic Justice is the Foundation of Peace:
Corruption Characterizes the US Occupation of Iraq

"The disaster that is the occupation of Iraq is much more than the war that plays nightly across U.S. television screens. The violence of grinding poverty, exacerbated by economic sanctions after the first Gulf War, has been deepened by the US invasion. Every day the economic policies of the occupying authorities create more hunger among Iraq 's working people, transforming them into a pool of low-wage, semi-employed labor, desperate for jobs at almost any price."

Read about Coalition Provisional Authority "Order 30" and the New Oppression in Iraq

Bechtel, along with Halliburton,
recieves billions to implement US control over Iraq's resources.

Their efforts to privatize water in many countries was, in Bolivia, defeated by a grassroots rebellion.

Women, hardest hit by their policies,are central to the fight against Bechtel, starting with grandmothers from Big Mountain who fought displacement.

Bechtel oversees the nuclear dumpsite at Yucca Mountain

Former Secretary of State George Shultz is currently on the board of the Bechtel Corporation. Shultz is one of California Gov. Schwartzeneger's economic advisors.

Last April, the Bush administration gave Bechtel the first big Iraqi reconstruction contract, a prized $680 million deal over 18 months.

As the resistance to US occupation increases daily, Bechtel, the second largest recipient of money to 'rebuild' Iraq, continues to implement US control of Iraq's resources. Bechtel is the world's largest contractor, profiteering from war, human suffering and destruction of the environment. Bechtel made cluster bombs and other weapons of mass destruction, has built nearly half of the world's nuclear power plants and has invaded Shoshone land to oversee the nuclear dumpsite at Yucca Mountain.

Bechtel has a history with Peabody Coal which led to the displacement of Navaho people from Big Mountain. They have tried to privatize water in many countries; in Soweto South Africa women and men are resisting and in Bolivia Bechtel's efforts were defeated by a grassroots rebellion led by women. Women, who are hit hardest by Bechtel's genocidal policies, are holding Bechtel accountable for its crimes.