PGHIMC - Pittsburgh Independent Media Center

Code Pink, along with other peace organizations, sponsored an emergency candlelight vigil in Frick Park Thursday night. A group of about 100 gathered on the corner of Forbes and Braddock Avenue to remember the 1000 Americans and 13,000 Iraqis who have died.

Among those present were WWII veteran Dan Bolef, who fought in the Battle of the Bulge; Regina Birchen, a Pittsburgher who was recently elected International President of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and Judy Focareta of Code Pink.

[ Read More w/photos | Code Pink: Pittsburgh ]

[ Other vigils around the US:  Union Square, NYC,  more |  Minneapolis/St. Paul | Portland/Eugene, OR |  DC: Parents and Veterans speak out ]
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The US Federal Government is again engaging in attempts to squelch dissent, harass people who are simply exercising their free speech rights, and intimidate others from exercising their right to protest in connection with the Republican National Convention. To quote one Indymedia volunteer, regarding New York City Indymedia:

"It has come to my attention, that our hosting provider, Calyx Internet Access, has been under harassment and scrutiny by the United States Secret Service in a blatant attempt to disrupt our relationship. Furthermore, it has been revealed to me that my contact information, was required to be disclosed to the government, presumably to begin directly harassing me. The SS did not contact the IMC directly in relation to this matter, but instead felt it prudent to put a strain on a place which we do business with. The agents attempted to circumvent Indymedia by contacting Calyx by phone, originally without a warrant or subpoena, in order to obtain user connection logs regarding a particular post on an Indymedia site. The post in question is a repost by an anonymous person containing information that is already available all over the Internet, and publicly available in other forms." Specifically, a public list of delegates to the RNC was posted.

One subject of the subpoena was Pittsburgh Indymedia volunteer Matt Toups, who helps run the NYC Indymedia web server with the IMC network's tech working group. The American Civil Liberties Union is defending Calyx Internet and the four IMC volunteers subject to the subpoena.

This is not the first time the US Federal Government has gone after Indymedia in a baseless investigation -- click here for more background on the 2001 FBI/Secret Service case in Seattle.

[ More info | See the subpoena | Wired News | NY Times Story ]

"Praised as one of the most brilliant secretaries of state in United States history, Kissinger earned a Nobel Peace prize for his leadership and diplomacy skills." Henry Kissinger has also been directly tied to genocide and murders in Vietnam, East Timor, Chile, & Cyprus. Many have argued that he should be indicted for war crimes; the most recent being Christopher Hitchens in his book The Trial of Henry Kissinger.

Henry Kissinger will be speaking in Pittsburgh on October 5th, 2004 as part of the Robert Morris University Distinguished Lecture Series.

[ Reactions | Protest announcement ]
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Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank, which supports high-cost predatory payday lenders, now wants to buy Riggs Bank, which is embroiled in a money laundering scandal involving, among others, Pinochet of Chile, the oil dictator of Equatorial Guinea, and the Saudi Arabian embassy. Inner City Press / Fair Finance Watch has filed opposition to PNC's application for regulatory approval, covered (begrudgingly) in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and in greater depth on Inner City Press' Finanace Watch.

[ Read More ]

The Thomas Merton Center and Pennsylvanians United for Single-Payer Healthcare (PUSH) are joining together to hold a rally and march on Sunday, August 15th 2004 beginning at 12 noon at Market Square in downtown Pittsburgh.

The rally's call, "Healthcare Not Warfare," is meant to remind Pennsylvanians of the tradeoffs that we must make as taxpayers to fund massive wars like the war in Iraq. In addition to the humanitarian cost of war, the thousands of civillian deaths, money that goes to war means less money spent on social programs; while millions of Americans still are uninsured and lack access to quality healthcare, bombs rain down on Baghdad.

[read more] [ Healthcare Not Warfare ] [ PUSH ] [ Thomas Merton Center ]