[COAT] Arms Bazaars, the Real Obama & Democracy by Deceit

[coat AT list.openconcept.ca]

Here are three related items that I hope you'll find useful:

(1) Jumping the Gun: Canada's Largest Weapons Bazaar Sets
its Sights on Ottawa
Despite the City of Ottawa's 20-year ban on hosting arms
exhibitions, Canada's largest military industry association and lobby
group has begun booking 500 booth spaces for its controversial
arms bazaar, CANSEC 2009, which it says "will be held at
Lansdowne Park" in May 2009.... (This represents a 25% increase in
the number of booths since CANSEC 2008.)  This may come as a
surprise to concerned citizens, Ottawa Councillors, and even City Staff
who apparently have not yet signed a contract to allow CANSEC 2009 on
City property...
     Read the rest here...
http://coat.ncf.ca/ARMX/JumpingGun.htm

PLEASE sign ONLINE PETITION to "Stop all Ottawa Arms
Shows!" Although a US-sponsored arms trade show
("Secure Canada") scheduled for the fall of 2008 was
cancelled, CANSEC 2009 is now looming on Ottawa's horizon. Please
help us ensure that it too is cancelled. Whether or not you live in
Ottawa, please sign COAT's online petition. It only takes a
minute!
http://prax.ca/coat/No-Arms-Shows

Every year, the US war machine buys billions of dollars worth of
hardware from Canadian corporations. This won't change under President
Obama....

(2) A Rough Guide to the Real Obama, on $2.3 Billion a
Day
Did you know that President-elect Obama:

• voted for every one of President Bush's Iraq-War funding increases?
• believes Bush's "surge" in Iraq has "succeeded beyond our wildest dreams" and has proclaimed his "absolute" belief in the "War on Terror"?
• criticized the Iraq War because it is "unwinnable," not because it is illegal, immoral and has killed one million Iraqis?
• will probably leave 140,000 private contractors (mercenaries) and as many as 60,000 to 80,000 regular US troops in Iraq?
• is willing to bomb Iran and won't rule out a first strike nuclear attack?
• wants to send an additional 10,000 US troops to wage war in Afghanistan?
• wants to expand that war with unilateral air strikes to bomb Pakistan?
• supported Israel's war against Lebanon?
• supports Ballistic Missile Defense and the death penalty, but opposes gay marriage and universal, single-payer health care?

Unfortunately, this is just the tip of the Real Obama
iceberg....
The naive idea that Obama opposes war is a powerful myth that will impede
the peace movement's ability to mobilize opposition to the inevitable
continuation of US militarism and imperialism....
     Read the rest here...
http://coat.ncf.ca/articles/Obama.htm

War is a masquerade. Peace and human rights activists have been duped
many times before. To avoid a repeat performance, read COAT's magazine.

(3) Democracy by Deceit: "Lies without
Borders"

Hot off the Press! Issue #63 of COAT's magazine Press
for Conversion! is now available. It focuses on a CIDA-funded
propaganda war that lead to the overthrow of a popularly-elected
government and was used to justify a brutal two-year dictatorship that
killed thousands of pro-democracy advocates in one of the world's poorest
countries. Two hundred years earlier that same country had become the
first republic run by black slaves whose revolution had freed them from
colonialism...  

"Lies without Borders: 
How CIDA-funded 'NGOs' waged a propaganda war to justify Haiti’s 2004
coup"
This issue examines five major lies that were used to destabilize
Aristide's democratically-elected government. CIDA-funded
"NGOs" in Canada played a major role in rationalizing the
overthrow of Haitian democracy. These groups then covered up the human
rights atrocities of the Canadian-backed, coup-empowered dictatorship
that followed. This issue also contains background articles on: (a) the
demonization of Vodoun and the politics of religion in Haiti, (b) a
CIDA-funded group in Haiti that fabricated many of the lies that were
then spread by CIDA's partners in Canada and (c) how CIDA's Canadian
agents of regime change adopted a vicious elitist swear word to tar all
poor black supporters of democracy as if they were violent criminal
thugs.
     Click here to view the first 10 pages on
"Demonizing Democracy:
Christianity vs. Vodoun and the
Politics of Religion in Haiti."
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/63/P4C-63_1-10.pdf
     Click here to subscribe/renew, order a copy
or donate...
http://coat.ncf.ca/support_us/support_us.htm

Thanks for your interest and support!
Richard Sanders
Editor, Press for Conversion!
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
http://coat.ncf.ca

P.S.    COAT hits 20!
Next month marks twenty years since COAT was initiated. And
COAT's magazine, Press for Conversion!, has been going since 1990.
It began by focusing on the economic conversion of military industries to
socially-useful and environmentally-sound civilian alternatives. However,
for the past 10 years, the magazine has dealt with a wide variety of
peace-related subjects that are all but ignored by the mainstream media.
Each issue now provides a collection of articles on one specific anti-war
theme. Over the years, we've covered everything from the long history of
U.S. war pretext incidents and covert CIA operations, to regime changes
in the Middle East and elsewhere. More recently, we've provided original
research exposing Canada's major contributions to "BMD" weapon
systems, Canadian support for Afghan warlords and CIDA participation in
the overthrow of democracy in Haiti. So, if you are interested in
learning more about Canadian corporate and government complicity in the
business of repression, regime change and war, then please check out our
magazine.