San Jose, CA – On June 2, members of the San Jose Japanese American community met at the Yu-Ai-Kai (Japanese American Seniors' Center). They were there to learn more about the attacks on Arab Americans, Muslims and civil liberties following Sept. 11. Susan Hayase moderated the program on behalf of the Nihonmachi Outreach Committee. In her introduction, Hayase said, “It is happening again,” and pointed the connection between the mass arrests of Japanese Americans following Pearl Harbor and the detention of Arab and Muslim Americans today.
With the help of bombs and mercenaries from the Northern Alliance, U.S. and British forces have occupied the main cities of Afghanistan. Washington convened a meeting in Europe where a strange collection of Afghan warlords, monarchists, and political has-beens were anointed as the new government. They were put in airplanes and sent to Kabul where they had to explain how the “careful” American pilots bombed a convoy of their supporters who on the way to their inauguration.
San Francisco, CA – Nearly one hundred protesters marched on the Philippine and Japanese embassies in San Francisco on Dec. 7. The “Tour of Shame” was organized by the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition Against War to protest daily bombings in Afghanistan and the loss of civil liberties throughout the world.
Washington, D.C. – Tens of thousands of people rallied here on Sept. 29, rejecting the Bush Administration's drive towards war, and the wave of violence against of Arab and Muslim peoples in the U.S.
Minneapolis, MN – About 100 people came together here, September 12, to say no to US military action in response to the attacks in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Holding aloft signs and banners, protestors lined a major bridge that spans the Mississippi River. The response of passing motorists was overwhelmingly positive. Many honked their horns and flashed peace signs.
Asheville, NC – Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) gathered for an emergency demonstration at the Asheville Federal Building, May 12 to protest the May 4 U.S. air strikes in Afghanistan, killing over 130 civilians. The Obama administration has stated that they will not ban future air strikes.
Smithfield, NC – Around 250 demonstrators rallied here, Oct. 27, to protest the war in Iraq and demand an end to the ‘torture taxi service’ run by Aero Contractors out of the Johnston County airport. Activists with the North Carolina Stop Torture Now coalition and independent journalists have documented that the CIA has moved hundreds of detainees through the rural Johnston County airport. The airport forms a link in the chain of the transportation of so-called ‘extraordinary rendition’ suspects on their way to be tortured, and sometimes killed, in secret prisons outside of the United States.
Minneapolis, MN – More than 40 anti-war protesters gathered here July 23 to express their opposition to President Obama’s surge of 21,000 troops in Afghanistan. Protesters held banners, chanted and handed out flyers to encourage other Minnesotans to speak out against the war and occupation in Afghanistan.
2009 started off poorly for U.S. and NATO forces occupying Afghanistan. Shortly after the U.S. military invaded and occupied Afghanistan in October 2001, Fight Back! reported, “No one wants their country occupied by foreign powers. So, the people of Afghanistan will mount a resistance. Its scope and power remain to be seen, but it will certainly be a factor.” (Afghanistan Occupied, New Targets Ahead, Winter 2002, Fight Back!)
