This week's conference call This Thursday, we'll be joined by members of the campaign to End Pornography & Patriarchy from the streets of DC where this week they have been rousing people to stand up for abortion rights — on demand and without apology! Register for the conference call Thursday: 10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific Alert: Attorney Lynne Stewart's Health in Prison Lynne has been a friend and advisor to World Can't Wait from 2005. She's been locked up for more than two years now, and is suffering from a recurrence of breast cancer.  Supporters send this update, and ask for letters and support for Lynne.

Supporter,

Washington was strangely quiet yesterday, in contrast to 2009. Though hundreds of thousands came out to the Mall to celebrate another term for Barack Obama, there wasn't bubbling, hopeful excitement in the air this time.

There was really a contrast to the inauguration day in 2005, when those of us protesting the war were assaulted by cowboy hat-wearing bullies cheering on W. Then, there were thousands of us protesting the war, yesterday there were hundreds, the fruit of a Commander in Chief who has sold many people on supporting what they opposed under Bush.

But atmospherics, language, and cultural references aside (can you imagine W knowing what the word "Stonewall" connotes, much less using it in a positive way?), Obama's address was an endorsement of empire and American power with a big lie: "a decade of war is now ending." 

Yesterday morning, we had a block-long march down 16th Street toward the White House. Too few of us, though spirited. We put together the largest fleet of replica Reaper drones to date — five — to dramatize the illegitimacy of the war on terror across, now, eight countries. We protested:     

• The spreading “war on terror” from Iraq and Afghanistan, to Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, Libya, the Philippines and now Mali, conducted by the U.S. in violation of borders and international law. U.S. occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan failed in protecting civilians (casualties from NATO/US strikes went up when Obama sent more troops to Afghanistan). The president has given himself the power of targeted assassination.
• A system begun illegally by the Bush regime of indefinite and secret detention without charge and torture (“enhanced interrogation” still authorized in the Army Field Manual). Guantanamo is still open despite most prisoners having been cleared. The U.S. detains thousands in Afghanistan without charge or trial.
• Spreading domestic surveillance in laws signed by Obama, including the National Defense Authorization Act authorizing the president to hold anyone, including U.S. citizens, anywhere without charge or trial, indefinitely.

Read press coverage, view photos and video.

CHEERS for Lupe Fiasco

Our protests were dwarfed by what Lupe Fiasco accomplished Saturday night by getting pushed off the stage at a pre-inaugural concert.  Cheers to Lupe for speaking the truth while others are mindlessly celebrating, or worse, mindfully accommodating themselves to crimes.

Limbaugh is a racist, Glenn Beck is a racist
Gaza Strip was getting bombed, Obama didn't say shit
That's why I ain't vote for him, next one either
I'ma part of the problem, my problem is I'm peaceful
And I believe in the people
Yeah

In an interview last summer, Lupe spoke about Obama as a "war criminal:"

"I'm talking about ordering a drone attack...Ordering drone attacks that go and kill mothers, innocent bystanders, children. Militants too, but the collateral damage. You're responsible for that, too."

More on January protests to Stop Torture and Shut Down Guantanamo

Witness Against Torture has compiled more reports, photos, and videos from the protests in January against eleven years of Guantanamo, writing:

Two presidents now, Bush and Obama, have worked to seal America’s identity as a torture nation, based in nearly incomprehensible hypocrisy and delusional commitment to the myth of America’s essential and unerring virtue.

We are part of a community that rejects this identity and comes together with a shared mission to close Guantánamo and end torture.

Click to read more.

Debra Sweet, Director, The World Can't Wait