Speaking Truth to Power – IS THE GOP’S BLACK CHAIRMAN: “OFF DA HOOK” by William Reed Columnist

IS THE GOP’S BLACK CHAIRMAN: “OFF DA HOOK”

Embattled Republican National Committee (RNC) head Michael Steele “should resign his chairmanship “says a Black RNC committee member.

In a fit of determination to counter Barack Obama last January, Republican Party members elected Michael Steele the brand-changer that would remake the party’s image, but it’s turned out that Steele may not be the guy.  “He’s become clownish,” says North Carolina’s national committeewoman Dr. Ada Fisher.  One of three Black members of the Republican National Committee, Fisher says Steele is “eroding confidence in the GOP” and “should be encouraged to step aside”.  In the Black elephant-on-Black elephant slug fest; Fisher’s call comes amid growing frustration in the GOP that Steele’s gaffes are hurting the party.

Fisher backed South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson for the RNC’s chairmanship.  It’s unclear how much trouble Steele may be in with the RNC base; and Fisher’s call for his ousting is dismissed by the Republican mainstream. But many Black Republicans feel Steele doesn’t represent Blacks.  Dr. Fisher says: “I don’t want to hear anymore [sic] language trying to be cool about the bling in the stimulus package or appealing to D.L. Hughley and blacks in a way that isn’t going to win us any votes and makes us appear too many blacks as quite foolish”.  Steele appeared on Hughley’s CNN show and fought back against the assertion that radio host Rush Limbaugh was the “de facto leader” of the Republican Party.  Steele called Limbaugh an entertainer whose program’s content was “incendiary” and “ugly.”  Limbaugh shot back that Steele was not the leader of the party and that many conservatives would “hang up” when Steele’s RNC came calling for contributions.  Fisher calls the Limbaugh-Steele clash a “Republican Horror Show” and says she’s, “never seen such ineptness in our GOP leadership.  “Limbaugh has already promised that ‘His Conservatives’ won’t be giving to the RNC.  If we can’t raise money and continue alienating the few verifiable red states remaining, we are foolish.”

Black Republicans such as political consultant Raynard Jackson have helped highlight Ada M. Fisher.  She is a retired physician from Salisbury, North Carolina.  She challenged Democratic incumbent Mel Watt in the state’s 12th Congressional district in 2004 and 2006.  A lifelong Republican and NAACP member, Fisher epitomizes “Black Republicanism”.  Before she retired with a leg disability, she ran a rural health clinic, a 16-county substance abuse program, served on Rowan-Salisbury’s School Board and the board of trustees of Concord, North Carolina’s historically black Barber-Scotia College.   

Longtime GOP strategists also have angst about Steele.  GOP strategist Ed Rodgers suggests that the freewheeling Steele will survive if he lowers his profile and gets to work organizing and raising money for the party.  Rodgers says Steel “needs to devise a media strategy that’s decidedly less about him and more about the party’s message and goals”.  He says “I’m against us appearing befuddled.  Another GOP campaign consultant, Ed Rollins, said he would advise Steele to steer clear of television.  Rollins says Steele “needs to be outside making speeches and raising money, and building the political organization.”

If Steele can build the party’s treasury back to parity with Democrats, and help Republicans win elections, he’ll be “a success” among the mainstream.  But, building a measurable Black Republican constituency will require Steele moving away from the party’s past exclusionary practices.  Another gaffe Steele made was dismissing “outreach” programs, saying the term is “dead to me”.  In a management move he calls “full integration coalition building,” Steele has taken the Coalitions arm, previously housed in the RNC’s Political Unit and made it a budgeted “stand alone” department.  But budget or not, it’s déjà vu all over again.  Steel named former RNC staffer Angela Sailor to head the unit.  An anathema to Blacks as Director of African-American Affairs for the RNC and Bush/Chaney Victory 2000, Sailor is a part of the past the GOP should shed.  If he seeks to be a success among Blacks, Steele’s priority should be to quietly dismantle Republican practices that diminished the presence of Blacks in the GOP over past years.

(William Reed – www.BlackPressInternational.com)

Press Release – AFRICAN LEADERS SAY “HANDS OFF SUDAN!”

For Immediate Release

Contact: William Reed

(202) 547-4125

AFRICAN LEADERS SAY “HANDS OFF SUDAN!”

March 11, 2009 (Washington, DC)… As vehicle horns blared and motorist flashed their lights in support, a predominately male group of demonstrators marched in front of The Republic of Sudan’s Embassy site along Washington’s Embassy Row.  In contrast to past demonstrations at the Massachusetts Avenue location protesting against the government of Africa’s largest country, this cross-section of Christians and Muslims group of 75 were there in support of Sudan’s President Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.

“I have come here to express solidarity with the people of Sudan in their struggles against imperialist domination” said Akbar Muhammad, Founder of the Youth 4 Africa Foundation.  The former International Representative for the Nation of Islam said that the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) March 4th decision to issue an arrest warrant for Al-Bashir was “illegitimate”.  Muhammad said “Imperialist powers seek regime change in Sudan because the country has vast lands and resources they are loath to let out of their control”.

Rally protesters held signs aloft that labeled the ICC as “a racist court” for its indictment of Bashir.   Hodari Abdul-Ali, executive director of the Give Peace A Chance Coalition, said the ICC, “received 1700 complaints from over a hundred countries to investigate charges of serious crimes of concern to humanity, yet the only investigations the Court has initiated have been in African countries”.  The African Union has formally called on the United Nations Security Council to defer an indictment for 12 months, to give a greater chance to the peace process now ongoing between the Sudanese government and rebel factions.  The AU’s Commission Chief has also accused the court of concentrating only on Africans.

The Rally’s speakers said “ICC and US allegations against Al-Bashir thwart the Darfur peace process and encourage rebel intransigence.  Lawrence Freeman, African specialist for a Lyndon LaRouche publication pointed out that “the United States stands along in the world alleging “genocide” against Sudanese leaders” and “that Western media distorts the realities occurring in the war-torn country”.

In Sudan, the Sudan Tribune reports that the leaders from three Darfur tribes that Western media says are victims of war crimes by the Khartoum government are suing International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor Luis-Moreno Ocampo for “libel, defamation and igniting hatred and tribalism”.  “We think that Ocampo’s claim that particular tribes are targeted is not true and creates more chaos,” said Abd Allah Ibrahim.  Ibrahim is an advisor on tribal reconciliation efforts in Darfur.  He is working with the Sudanese Lawyers Union to bring a case against the ICC prosecutor, alleging he and fellow tribal leaders were harmed by Ocampo’s claim of organized genocide in Darfur and that “will hurt the social fabric of Darfur and create more chaos.”  Al-Bashir’s image in Darfur and Africa is vastly different than the “international pariah” Western media depicts.  Shoring up support against the ICC in Sudan, Al-Bashir went to El Fasher to the same airport tarmac where rebels set off the Darfur conflict in 2003 by blowing up government planes parked there.  As he deplaned, Bashir was greeted by a hundred tribal elders and a white dove was thrust into his hands.

The African Union (AU) opposes the ICC indictment.  South African Foreign Minister Nkosazana-Dlamini Zuma’s comments that her country “concurs with the African Union’s initial response that the ICC’s decision is regrettable as it will impact negatively on the current peace processes in the Sudan”.  The AU has appointed former South African President Thabo Mbeki to “intercede between the ICC and the Sudan.”  Saudi Arabia expressed “strong dissatisfaction” over the ICC decision.

Dr. Kaukab Siddique of Jamaat Al-Muslimeen Islamic told the DC rally, “It’s curious that the ICC ignores the greatest tragedy in the world in Iraq and does not cite George Bush for his crimes…A million people have been cooped up in Gaza and killed at will by occupation forces…Yet, there are no ICC charges for gross human rights violations”.

Brian Becker, Executive Director of International ANSWER coalition, protestors of U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, and Zionist aggression against Palestine, said “there is imperialist hypocrisy over Darfur.  History shows that so-called Western ‘peace-keeping’ forces sent for ‘humanitarian’ reasons, in reality are deployed to further imperialist interests, not for peace and reconciliation”.

Lawrence Freeman told the rally that LaRouche organization is engaging in a world-wide campaign “to expose ICC duplicity on Africa”.  After being greeted by Sudan’s Ambassador Akec Khoc Acieu, Abdul-Ali said “Supporters to curb the ICC will grow internationally once people stop accepting biased media reports and start to investigate who benefits from continuing the war in Sudan.  Instead of inflaming the conflicts in Sudan and Darfur, it’s time for the American people demand that the rebel factions, that started the war in Darfur, be brought to the table to curb the crimes and killings and make peace”.

Speaking Truth to Power – AMERICAN ACTIVISTS DEMAND “HANDS OFF SUDAN” by William Reed Columnist

“The International Criminal Court is a racist tool of Western imperialists” says Akbar Muhammad, an organizer of an upcoming rally that will denounce the ICC arrest warrant of Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir.  Mohammad has a coalition of African Americans, Muslims and African-oriented groups that say the indictment against Al-Bashir is “totally unwarranted” and “a new racist genocide against Africa”.

The “Hands Off Sudan” rally will occur Wednesday, March 11, 2009 at 1:00 pm in front of the Embassy of Sudan at 2210 Massachusetts Avenue. According to Hodari Abdul-Ali of the Give Peace a Chance Coalition, “a Human Rights Watch report, the ICC has received over 1700 complaints from at least 103 different countries, to investigate charges of “the most serious crimes” of concern to humanity as a whole, inclusive of crimes against humanity, genocide, war crimes, and the crimes of aggression. Yet, the only investigations which the Court has initiated have been in African countries”.  Ali says “The African Union, the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Conference and the Non-Aligned Movement all stand in solidarity with the Sudanese government against this immoral western attempt at regime change that does nothing to help the peace process in Darfur. Concerned citizens we know in the U.S. plan to show their support for Sudan”.

“Americans need to know that the rest of the world is condemning this decision” says Ali.  African Union Commission Chief Jean Ping has also accused the court of concentrating only on Africans, “We think there is a problem with ICC targeting only Africans, as if Africa has been a place to experiment with their ideas.   The African Union has formally called on the United Nations Security Council to defer an indictment for 12 months, to give a greater chance to the peace process now ongoing between the Sudanese government and rebel factions. Ping says, “A judge should be impartial.  The law should apply to everyone and not only the weak.” Ping went on to question why the denunciations of African leaders by the international community, are not also leveled at other countries, such as those involved in the conflicts in Gaza, Iraq, or Sri Lanka as well”.

Lyndon LaRouche says: “It is well-known to all parties in Africa that any indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir is not only unjust, but also a means of detonating broad genocidal warfare throughout the African continent.  Pope Benedict XVI is reported to have told British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, during his meeting in the Vatican on Feb. 19, “We should give priority to peace efforts first, then we look for judicature.” The Pope singled out the recent goodwill declaration signed between the Sudanese government and one of the leading rebel groups in Darfur, as a sign that peace efforts should be given a chance.  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with President Bashir in Cairo in February, prior to the ICC decision and said, “The repercussions will be dangerous on Darfur, in particular, and in Sudan in general”.

Abdul-Ali says that the indictment of Bashir will destroy any hopes of peace in the war-ravaged region of Darfur, and likely lead to the break-up of Sudan, destroying a hard-fought agreement of comprehensive peace.  “A collapse of the fragile peace talks over Darfur might result in renewed danger for hundreds of thousands; the biggest danger is the collapse of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement between North and South, which could lead to the death of millions”.  “We call for the abolition of the International Criminal Court. Its existence itself is a crime against humanity – because it disregards the principle of the sovereignty of nation-states. It is now clear that the ICC, in the tradition of the racists of the past, targets some nation-states and peoples more than others -specifically, dark-skinned African people”.

“Americans have real interests in justice in this matter and should join us in demanding the Obama administration join responsible world leaders in these matters” says Hodari Abdul-Ali of the Give Peace a Chance Coalition.  For more information contact him at 301-728-8949 or Akbar Muhammad of the Youth4Africa Foundation at 314-422-4338.  Other participants in the coalition include Hashim El-Tinay of the SalamSudan Foundation; Dr. Kaukab Siddique of Jamaat Al-Muslimeen; and Lawrence Freeman of the Executive Intelligence Review magazine – Africa desk.