WAWA/WeAreWideAwake is my Public Service to America as a muckracker who has journeyed seven times to Israel Palestine since June 2005.
WAWA is dedicated to confronting media and governments that shield the whole
truth.
We who Are Wide
Awake are compelled by the "fierce urgency of Now" [Rev MLK, Jr.] to raise
awareness and promote the human dialogue about many of the crucial issues of our
day: the state of our Union and in protection of democracy, what life is like
under military occupation in Palestine, the Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land,
and spirituality-from a Theologically Liberated Christian Anarchist
POV.
"Observe good faith and justice towards all nations; cultivate peace and harmony with all...and passionate attachments for others, should be excluded; and that, in place of them, just and amicable feelings towards all should be cultivated. The nation which indulges towards another a habitual hatred or a habitual fondness is in some degree a slave...a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils." George Washington's Farewell Address - 1796
"My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I'm not selling bread, I'm selling yeast." Unamuno
"Imagine All the People Sharing All the World." John Lennon
"If enough Christians followed the gospel, they could bring any state to its knees." Father Philip Francis Berrigan
"You can stand me up at the gates of hell, but I won't back down." Tom Petty
"If I can't dance, it's not my revolution." Emma Goldman
"We have yet to begin to IMAGINE the power and potential of the Internet." Charlie Rose, 2005
Only in Solidarity do "We have it in our power to begin the world again" Tom Paine
"Never doubt that a few, thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead
"You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free." John 8:32
DO SOMETHING!
Photo of George shown here and in web site banner courtesy of Debbie Hill, 2000.
We hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights; that, among these, are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; that, to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed; and, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it. -July 4, 1776. The Declaration of Independence
July 10, 2010: Back to Vanunu and "Let your conscience be your guide"-Jiminy Cricket UPDATED July 14, 2010 FAX @ END
After
serving more than ten years of a 15-year sentence for espionage, Russian arms
researcher Igor Sutyagin was freed in what is being reported as the largest spy
swap between the United States and Russia since the end of the Cold War. His
case was taken up by human rights organizations, and the U.S. State Department
declared him a political prisoner.
On 18 June 2010, Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International’s
Middle East Programme stated:
"Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at all, let alone be held
in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent criminals. He
suffered immensely when he was held in solitary confinement for 11 years
after his imprisonment in 1986 and to return him to such conditions now
is nothing less than cruel, inhuman or degrading.
"Mordechai Vanunu is a
prisoner of conscience. The prison authorities might claim that he has
been put in isolation to protect him from the risk of attack by other
inmates, but if the Israeli government is really concerned for his
safety it should release him without delay. His re-imprisonment is both
harsh and unjustified.
"The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily
limit his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and
are therefore in breach of international law. They should be lifted and
he should be allowed to start his life again as a free man."
God knows I have petitioned my government and have pleaded since 2005 to get The Media to report on Vanunu's ongoing misery, but I have been ignored, blocked, censored and deactivated by many.
What follows is what I emailed
to the following members of the Israeli Government, over 200 US
mainstream media
outlets and published as a PRESS RELEASE on PRWEB on January 25, 2006!
Dear Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Ehud Olmert, Acting Prime Minister, Tzipi
Livni,
Minister of Justice, Gideon Ezra Minister of Internal Security, Menahem
Mazuz,
Attorney-General, Ministry of Justice, Brigadier General Avihai
Mandelblit,
Judge Advocate General,
Jerusalem, Israel (PRWEB)
January 25, 2006 -- Today begins the trial of Mordechai Vanunu, a
Christian in
Jerusalem fighting for the inalienable right to free speech and
movement.
Five months ago over a
thousand journalists covered the drama in the Gaza. Not one explored the
building of more illegal settlements, OR the continuing land and water
grab of
The Wall and its effects on the Palestinian economy OR interviewed
Mordecahi
Vanunu, a Christian held captive in Jerusalem.
After enduring 18 years in jail for blowing the whistle on Israel's
underground
WMD program in the Negev, Vanunu was released April 2004 under the
draconian
restrictions of the Emergency Defense Regulations, which were
implemented first
by Britain against Palestinians and Jews after World War II.
Vanunu, a Moroccan secular
Jewish atheist, was baptized a Christian just days before being
kidnapped,
clubbed, drugged, bound and thrown onto an Israeli cargo ship leaving
Rome for
home by the Mossad.
After a closed-door trial
and 18 years in jail he has lived in the guesthouse at St Georges
Cathedral in
Jerusalem forbidden to leave Israel.
Israel claims they cannot
allow Vanunu to leave because he has a secret he has yet to tell. He has
not
set foot in the Dimona for twenty years nor have any International
Inspectors.
“Israel is the only State
that approved torture of detainees. I know there are dictators who use
torture,
but Israel is the only State that supported torture until 1999. That is
when
International, Israeli and Palestinian pressure groups forced the issue
and
Barack was confronted about it when he visited the United States…The
methods
and photos from Abu Grahib and Guantanamo were no shock to any
Palestinian who
had been in prison between 1967 and the '80's. All the methods used in
Abu
Grahib were normal procedures against Palestinians. In 1999
Internationals,
Palestinians and Israelis for human rights threatened a boycott against
Israel
and that is what forced the Supreme Court to address the torture issue.
They
did not ban torture and the General Prosecutor can choose not to
prosecute
those who still use it.”- Ala Jaradat at the Ramallah
Headquarters of ADAMEER to
me, January 5, 2006.
In Amy Goodman's 2004 interview
with Vanunu he stated, “From the beginning they put me in total isolation for
seven weeks after my kidnapping they even didn't admit I am in an
Israeli
prison. They put me in total isolation. The first two years, they keep
me in a
small room, filled with light 24 hours and camera inside. I couldn't
sleep for
two years; they tried to break my nerves. I demanded to meet a priest.
They
give me a priest, but without able to speak to him or him speak to me,
only
through notes. ShinBet men sitting near the priest, reading the notes.
I'm
sending him notes, they're reading them. We couldn't meet as a human
being.
“Eleven and a half years I
was in total isolation alone in a cell...I wasn't allowed to use the
phone...So
I use my simple brain, and my initiative. Like if they say I cannot
speak to
anyone, I decided I can speak, I spoke by reading in a loud voice from
the New
Testament in English.
“I want to leave Israel
after suffering seventeen and a half years in total isolation and very
cruel,
barbaric treatment by the Mossad Shabac inside the prison. Also because
Israeli
media damaged my image in all of Israel amongst the Jewish people, and
some of
them hate me, some of them threatened my life when I was released. Some
of them
are anti-Vanunu because I became a Christian, so I am not free and I am
not
safe in Israel. And I am demanding to leave Israel to be free.
“It could only happen in a
free state, the United States or Europe…. I would like to move to the
United
States. I have adopted parents in Minnesota."
USA taxpayers provide three
billion dollars a year to a democracy that ignores International Law and
the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
All roads lead to Jerusalem
and the war on terrorism will not be won until human beings do indeed
have
inalienable human rights and a democracy in name is also one in fact.
NOT ONE media outlet or government official bothered to respond to me then or since.
On
July 6, 2009, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish, continued the restrictions
against Vanunu, stating that his “case is still generating great interest, like
any other security-related case. The media’s attention he gets is proof of
that.”
On
July 7, 2009, while in the midst of posting the following question to, “Letters
to Netanyahu and Obama: FREE VANUNU NOW” a Facebook Cause that I created and
was the only administrator of, I was Deactivated.
Facebook
never responded to my email inquiries as to WHY did they
banish-delete-censor-deactivate me for posting this question and the links that
lead to the videos which are freely streaming on my site at THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010!
“Have
you eyes to see and ears to hear Vanunu on video in 2005, 2006, 2008?”
On July 8, 2010, I established a Youtube group: Do
Something to Help FREE Mordechai Vanunu
It
is for anyone who will act by petitioning their political representatives to
Help FREE Vanunu via phone calls, emails, faxes, create Youtube messages in
support of FREEDOM for Vanunu and ALERT their Mainstream Media to Learn the
Facts @ http://wearewideawake.org/
THE VANUNU SAGA 2005-2010!
"Let your conscience be your guide."-Jiminy Cricket
Israel and
the Occupied Palestinian Territories: Mordechai Vanunu - Prisoner of
conscience: Medical action
Public Index: MDE 15/013/2010
To: Health Professional Network
From: Special Thematic Projects Team
Date: 9 July 2010
Mordechai Vanunu
Prisoner of conscience
Israel
Amnesty International is
concerned for the health and well being of 56-year-old Israeli nuclear industry
whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, a prisoner of conscience, who has been held in
solitary confinement for more than five weeks. Mordechai Vanunu previously
spent 11 years in solitary confinement after he was sentenced to 18 years’
imprisonment in 1986 for revealing details of the country’s nuclear arsenal to
a UK newspaper, The Sunday Times. Amnesty International believes that
individuals exposed to prolonged or repeated periods in solitary confinement
may experience depression, anxiety, and other significant mental health
problems.1
According to Vanunu’s lawyer, the Israeli authorities claim
they are holding him in isolation in order to protect him from attacks from
other prisoners. He is being held in a special unit for dangerous prisoners in
Ayalon Prison, which is an inappropriate measure for a prisoner who does not
pose any credible threat to others.
The harsh conditions under which he is held mean that he can
leave his cell for only one hour a day to walk in the prison courtyard. He has
notbeen in touch with friends or family since the beginning of
his current incarceration as a result of a dispute between him and the prison
authorities over the conditions under which he can make phone calls. While he
continues to be imprisoned, Amnesty International believes that he should be
transferred to an alternative wing or a prison where he would not be under
threat from fellow prisoners and would not need to be held in solitary
confinement.
Mordechai Vanunu’s brother, Meir Vanunu, told Amnesty
International on 17 June 2010: “It is very traumatic for Mordechai to be put
again in solitary confinement and subjected to harassment. These are the same
conditions he was kept under previously for 18 years and there is no
justification for it after 24 years of suffering. We fear for the impact this
will have on his health. Now is the time for Mordechai’s true freedom – he
should be allowed to travel and leave Israel. He should never have been put in
this situation in the first place.”
His lawyer, Michael Sfard, was able to visit him and told
Amnesty International: “Mordechai Vanunu is suffering from isolation. He should
not be made to pay a price because of the enmity of others towards him.”
Amnesty International is calling for the immediate and
unconditional release of Mordechai Vanunu as he is a prisoner of conscience who
has been imprisoned solely for exercising his rights to freedom of expression
and association. Amnesty International remains concerned that his isolation and
other measures against him are not conducive to good mental health and
consequently there is a danger that Mordechai Vanunu’s health could be affected
adversely.
Please write to the Israeli authorities
below:
·Explaining
that you are a health professional concerned about human rights; [I add, write them as a
person of Conscience!]
·Calling
for the immediate and unconditional release of Mordechai Vanunu on the basis
that he is a prisoner of conscience detained solely for the peaceful exercise of
his right to freedom of expression and association;
·Noting
the potential negative health effects of solitary confinement and urging the
authorities to ensure that, pending his release, Mordechai Vanunu is moved to a
prison where his safety and security can be guaranteed, and where he can have
contact with others;
·Further
urging that he should be permitted to have regular access to both fresh air and
somewhere where he can engage in meaningful exercise;
·Urging
the authorities to ensure that on his release the military order that imposes
arbitrary restrictions upon him is annulled.
Please also send copies to diplomatic representatives of
Israel accredited to your country.
If you receive no reply within six weeks of sending your
letter, please send a follow-up letter seeking a response. Please send copies
of any letters you receive to the International Secretariat, attention of the
Special Thematic Projects team, 1 Easton Street, London WC1X 0DW or e-mail:
1
S. Grassian, “Psychopathological effects of
solitary confinement”, American Journal of PsychiatryJournal of Law and Policy, 2006, 22: 325-84;
C. Haney, “Mental health issues in long-term solitary and
‘supermax’ confinement”, Crime and Delinquency 2003, 49(1):
124–156; P. S. Smith, “The effects of solitary confinement on
prison inmates: a brief history and review of the literature”,
Crime and Justice 2006, 34: 441–528. 1983,
140: 1450-1454; S. Grassian, “Psychiatric effects of solitary
confinement”,
PS: I emailed the above, President Obama and Jimmy Carter and will email and FAX them all every few days until Vanunu is free, as it is a matter of Conscience for me:
READ MORE:
Vanunu
Mordechai J.C.; like a prisoner in a world of mystery - Bob DylanRead more...
The Martyrdom of
Vanunu: Machiavelli and PeresRead more...
Orwell meets Vanunu and The
Industrial Military Media Security/Surveillance Complex
Read more...
Dear Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,
Minister of Justice Prof. Yaakov Neeman, Attorney General Menahem Mazuz and
President Obama,
Whereas
in October 2009, President Obama agreed to persist in America’s four-decade-old
‘secret’ understanding that allows Israel to keep a nuclear arsenal without
opening it to international inspections,
Whereas
in July 2010, President Obama pledged to sell Israel nuclear
technology and other supplies, despite the fact that Israel is not a signatory
of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty,
Whereas there is increasing
international pressure for Israel to be more transparent about its nuclear
arsenal,
Whereas Israel locked Mordechai Vanunu back
up in solitary 23 May, 2010 for speaking to foreign media in 2004,
Whereas on 18 June 2010, Malcolm Smart,
Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East Programme stated:
“Mordechai Vanunu should not be in prison at
all, let alone be held in solitary confinement in a unit intended for violent
criminals. Mordechai Vanunu is a prisoner of conscience. The prison authorities
might claim that he has been put in isolation to protect him from the risk of
attack by other inmates, but if the Israeli government is really concerned for
his safety it should release him without delay. His re-imprisonment is both
harsh and unjustified. The restrictions on Mordechai Vanunu arbitrarily limit
his rights to freedom of movement, expression and association and are therefore
in breach of international law. They should be lifted and he should be allowed
to start his life again as a free man.”
Whereas on 24 April 2004, Uri Avnery wrote:
“Everybody understands that Vanunu has no
more secrets. What can a technician know after 18 years in jail, during which
technology has advanced with giant steps?
“But gradually it becomes clear what the
security establishment is really afraid of. Vanunu is in a position to expose
the close partnership with the United States in the development of Israel’s
nuclear armaments.
“This worries Washington so much, that the
man responsible in the State Department for ‘arms control’, Under-Secretary
John Bolton, has come to Israel in person for the occasion. Vanunu, it appears,
can cause severe damage to the mighty super-power…The world must be prevented
by all available means from hearing, from the lips of a credible witness, that
the Americans are full partners in Israel’s nuclear arms program, while
pretending to be the world’s sheriff for the prevention of nuclear
proliferation.”
Whereas, in 2005, Vanunu told me:
“President Kennedy tried to stop Israel from
building atomic weapons. Kennedy insisted on an open internal inspection. When
Johnson became president, he made an agreement with Israel that two senators
would come every year to inspect. Before the senators would visit, the Israelis
would build a wall to block the underground elevators and stairways. From 1963
to ’69, the senators came, but they never knew about the wall that hid the rest
of the Dimona from them. Nixon stopped the inspections and agreed to ignore the
situation. As a result, Israel increased production. In 1986, there were over
two hundred bombs. Today, they may have enough plutonium for ten bombs a year.”
Whereas if Israel had allowed Vanunu the
right to leave Israel in 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, or 2009 and fade into
history, instead of continuing to make it, I would not have written my third
book:
BEYOND NUCLEAR: Some of
my Experiences of Mordechai Vanunu and the Holy Land: 2005-2010, which documents Vanunu’s
FREEDOM of SPEECH Trial and acts of individual conscience vis-à-vis government policies,
secret police operations and judicial decisions.
BEYOND NUCLEAR was also
written as a matter of my destiny, as I was NOT a reporter until after I met
Vanunu!
I established my website three weeks after
my first of seven trips to Israel Palestine, compelled to do what THE MEDIA has
failed at: report about life under military occupation and the reasons for the
Christian EXODUS from the Holy Land.
Whereas the longer Israel denies Vanunu his
full freedom, the larger his legend and greater international compassion will
grow; thus the time is NOW to FREE VANUNU!
Most sincerely and in solidarity with Micah
6:8:“What does God require? He has told you o’man! Be JUST! Be Merciful! And
walk humbly with your Lord.”
Eileen Fleming, Producer "30 Minutes with Vanunu" and "13
Minutes with Vanunu"
Founder of WeAreWideAwake.org
Staff Member of Salem-news.com
A Feature Correspondent for Arabisto.com and Dandelionsalad.wordpress.com
Author of "Keep Hope Alive" and "Memoirs of a Nice Irish
American 'Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory" http://www.youtube.com/user/eileenfleming
Visitors since 07.22.05
Visitors: 34924334
"HOPE has two children.The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it."-St. Augustine
"He who is not angry when there is just cause for anger is immoral. Why? Because anger looks to the good of justice. And if you can live amid injustice without anger, you are immoral as well as unjust." - Aquinas
Everyone has the right to freedom of
opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions
without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
" In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway."-Mother Teresa
“You cannot talk like sane men around a peace table while the atomic bomb itself is ticking beneath it. Do not treat the atomic bomb as a weapon of offense; do not treat it as an instrument of the police. Treat the bomb for what it is: the visible insanity of a civilization that has ceased...to obey the laws of life.”- Lewis Mumford, 1946
The age of warrior kings and of warrior presidents has passed. The nuclear age calls for a different kind of leadership....a leadership of intellect, judgment, tolerance and rationality, a leadership committed to human values, to world peace, and to the improvement of the human condition. The attributes upon which we must draw are the human attributes of compassion and common sense, of intellect and creative imagination, and of empathy and understanding between cultures." - William Fulbright
“Any nation that year after year continues to raise the Defense budget while cutting social programs to the neediest is a nation approaching spiritual death.” - Rev. MLK
Establishment of Israel
"On the day of the termination of the British mandate and on the strength of the United Nations General Assembly declare The State of Israel will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel: it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion it will guarantee freedom of religion [and] conscience and will be faithful to the Charter of the United Nations." - May 14, 1948. The Declaration of the Establishment of Israel
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