Help us to address peace and nuclear weapons in the upcoming presidential debate! Please repost this message and pass it along to your friends and colleagues.

Thank You,
Peace Action West

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Over the next few days, Jim Lehrer will be hearing from many people about what kind of questions should be asked at the debate. With so many questions pouring in, it will be challenging to find those questions which are most important to citizens. We have a chance to impact his selection. That's why Peace Action West is focusing all of our efforts on one key question. If thousands of people all ask Lehrer to ask this one question, it will be impossible to ignore. Will you help? Click here.

There are, of course, many critical questions about peace that we could ask. We've narrowed it down to just this one to better the chance that it will be asked:

"This is the first time in American history that both major party presidential candidates have endorsed the vision of a nuclear weapons free world. What are the specific steps you would take as president to get us there?"

Here's why this question matters so much to achieving a more peaceful world. Nuclear weapons can wipe out millions of people, millions of families, in the blink of an eye. Fear of this terrible power has defined US foreign policy for too long, from the Cold War, to the war in Iraq, and the threat of war with Iran.

Everyone, we only have a few days to ask Jim Lehrer to put our question into the debate. He needs to hear from us today, loud, strong, and many. Please take just a moment right now to request that just this one question be included, and then tell your friends and family who also care about peace to do the same.

    Wednesday 22 November 2006

Pentagon has been keeping tabs on groups perceived as security threat.

    A year ago, an NBC News investigation revealed the existence of a secret Pentagon database that included information on antiwar protests and American peace activists.

    Now, newly disclosed documents reveal new details on who was targeted and which other government agencies may have helped monitor Americans. At universities across the country, an antiwar group called Veterans for Peace has staged protests by setting up crosses for soldiers killed in Iraq. In New Mexico last year, the local paper described the event as a display of honor.

    But a previously secret Pentagon intelligence report labeled that same event a "threat to military installations." The report lists the group's upcoming events and warns that while it's a "peaceful organization," there is potential that "future protest could become violent."

    "No, we are not a threat to military installations," says Michael McPhearson, the leader of Veterans for Peace and a former Army captain whose son recently returned from Iraq. "We are not a threat to military installations. We're not trying to blow up anything or anything of that nature.

    "It angers me that the rights I'm supposed to be protecting I can't exercise without the government looking at me and calling me the enemy," McPhearson says.

    Pentagon documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union provide new details on how even Quakers and churches came to be labeled "threats" worthy of the attention of the military.

    "What's clear is that there's a proliferation of surveillance and targeting of Americans who have done nothing wrong, other than disagree with the government," Anthony Romero says. The documents also suggest for the first time that agents of the Department of Homeland Security played a role in monitoring antiwar activities. A DHS spokesman says agents merely disseminated public information about public events that could impact federal buildings.

    The Pentagon admits it made a mistake in collecting information on 186 antiwar protests but claims the problem has been fixed.

    That isn't good enough for Senate Democrats.

    "I fully intend to ask what's in those databanks, because many of them go way beyond any legitimate needs for our security," says Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy.

    Congress wants to know not just what data was collected, but why and how it was to be used.

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/112406E.shtml