Purple America

Iraq death toll 'soared post-war'

Poor planning, air strikes by coalition forces and a "climate of violence" have led to more than 100,000 extra deaths in Iraq, scientists claim. A study published by the Lancet says the risk of death by violence for civilians in Iraq is now 58 times higher than before the US-led invasion. Unofficial estimates of civilian deaths had varied from 10,000 to over 37,000. (more…)

The first scientific study of the human cost of the Iraq war

suggests that at least 100,000 Iraqis have lost their lives since their country was invaded in March 2003, according to researchers Jeremy Laurance and Colin Brown and reported on 29 October 2004.

Stephen Hawking to Lead Anti-War Protest on Election Day
By Andy McSmith
October 31, 2004, lndependent/UK

Stephen Hawking, Britain's most eminent scientist, has become the latest
prominent opponent of the Iraq war by agreeing to take the lead role in a
ceremonial protest to coincide with the United States presidential election.
Peace protesters will gather in Trafalgar Square at 5pm on Tuesday, where they
will read out the names of 5,000 Iraqi men, women and children known to have
died in the conflict.

The full death toll was put last week as high as
100,000. (more…)

Increase in War Funding Sought; Bush to Request $70 Billion More
By Jonathan Weisman and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, October 26, 2004; Page A01

The Bush administration intends to seek about $70 billion in emergency funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan early next year, pushing total war costs close to $225 billion since the invasion of Iraq early last year, Pentagon and congressional officials said yesterday.

White House budget office spokesman Chad Kolton emphasized that final decisions on the supplemental spending request will not be made until shortly before the request is sent to Congress. That may not happen until early February, when President Bush submits his budget for fiscal 2006, assuming he wins reelection. (more…)

“Adventure Capitalism”
By Greg Palast
October 26, 2004

Why were Iraqi elections delayed? Why was Jay Garner fired? Why are our troops
still there? Investigative reporter Palast uncovers new documents that answer
these questions and more about the Bush administration’s grand designs on Iraq.
Like everything else issued during this administration, the plan to overhaul the
Iraqi economy has corporate lobbyist fingerprints all over it. You expected the
oil industry lobbyists, but Grover Norquist? (more…)

-Lauretta Hendricks Backus
is a staunch Dean supporter and a member of the Women In Black anti-war organization.

• Former Missouri Supreme Court Justice, Charles Blackmar will deliver an address, “Why Missouri Needs a Moratorium on Executions” at 7:00 Wednesday evening, November 10th in the 2nd floor parish hall of the Calvary Episcopal Church at 123 S. 9th St. in downtown Columbia.
  
  The event, sponsored by the Mid-Missouri FOR, is free and open to the public. Justice Blackmar served for ten years on the Missouri Supreme Court, including two as Chief Justice. During that time he signed death warrants for three individuals who were ultimately executed. He also worked previously as an assistant to the Missouri Attorney General and argued in court for the death penalty in 15 cases. In recent years he has become more outspoken about his concerns with the death penalty, and the need he sees for at least a moratorium on executions and a study commission in Missouri.



• Please note and attend our next meeting of the Columbia branch with the Missouri Moratorium Campaign, 7:00-8:30 p.m., Tuesday, 30 November in Conference Room B, Daniel Boone Regional Library. Please come for what part you can & leave when you must.



• A couple copies of “Innocence and the Crisis in the American Death Penalty ” a 40-page report produced in October by the renowned Death Penalty Information Center, are available for checking out from the Mid-Mo FOR.