Saturday, April 4, 2009

The campaign to return the Persepolis Artifacts to Iran

Background on Persepolis Artifact Case

Written by Arash Hadjialiloo
Friday, 27 June 2008

ImageDue to a March 31, 2008 Federal District Court ruling in Massachusetts, Iranians around the world are feeling their grip on their heritage loosen. Artifacts from the ancient city of Persepolis and archeological site, Chogha Mish that are currently on display by Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston are now on the chopping block. Due to the court case, Rubin et al v. Islamic Republic of Iran, these artifacts can now be sold on behalf of several plaintiffs seeking to recover $259 million in court-awarded damages against the government of Iran. The following is a brief background of the artifact case and its proceedings.

History
Over a decade ago, several Americans were victims of a bombing carried out by the Palestinian terrorist organization Hamas along a Jerusalem shopping promenade. Israeli police quickly arrested two Hamas operatives who were later convicted by an Israeli criminal court on multiple counts of murder, attempted murder, and membership in a terrorist organization. In 2000, several of the bombing victims filed suit in the United States to recover damages from the government of Iran on the grounds that it provided material support to Hamas. The plaintiffs named as defendants: Iran, the Iranian Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), Ayatollah Ali Hoseini Khamenei, Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, and Ali Fallahian-Khuzestani. Rather than defend the charges in a U.S. court, Iran's government instead chose to boycott the proceedings because it contended they were illegitimate. Experts hired by the plaintiff provided uncontroverted evidence that Iran provided terrorist training and economic assistance to Hamas during the 1990s. Yigal Pressler, an Israeli Brigadier-General and advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, testified that there existed a crucial link between Hamas and Iran.

Again, because Iran chose not to defend the suit, there was neither cross-examination nor arguments testing the plaintiffs' expert's testimony. As a result, a federal court entered a default judgment against the Iranian government. Likewise, in 2003 another federal court awarded the victims $71.5 million in compensatory and $37.5 million each in punitive damages - totaling over a quarter-billion dollars. Damages included an award for four of the victims' family members that were not present during the Hamas attack. This flowed from the theory that the family members suffered their own emotional injuries at the hands of Iran, vis-à-vis Hamas, from watching and helping their family members rehabilitate.

Despite an executive order freezing Iranian state assets in the United States in 1979, the plaintiffs faced an uphill struggle to collect on their judgments. According to the court case of Smith v. Federal Reserve Board of New York, plaintiffs are not necessarily entitled to execute civil judgments against foreign assets seized by the U.S. government.

In addition to the courts, legislation also made it difficult to execute judgments against foreign governments. The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) codified a longstanding history of precedent and practice that gave foreign states immunity from suit in U.S. courts. Unless an exception applies, the FSIA provides that the property of a foreign sovereign, as well as that of its agencies and instrumentalities, is immune from lawsuits in U.S. courts. The important exception to this case was added in 1996 to address terrorist actions by foreign states. Thus, this immunity against court judgments is lost if the country is designated as a "state sponsor of terrorism" by the U.S. government and the lawsuit seeks to recover for an "act of torture, extrajudicial killing, aircraft sabotage, hostage taking, or the provision of material support or resources ...for such an act."

While lawsuits seeking to seize a nation's assets in the United States were now authorized by the terrorism exception, satisfying judgments against assets was still difficult because the executive branch often resisted such attempts. In response, Congress enacted the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 (TRIA) allowing plaintiffs to satisfy judgments against terrorist states or agencies by seizing frozen assets. Notably, despite the TRIA, the president still holds the ability to prevent property seizure against foreign sovereigns if preventing such seizure would further national security. Technically, the option is currently available to President Bush to invoke the presidential waiver and thus prevent the seizure of Iranian antiquities. It would even be consistent with this White House's expansive view of the executive branch's powers. In a sense, the courts are usurping the power of the executive to make foreign policy - a power explicitly conferred to the executive branch in the Constitution. However, given the administration's bellicose attitude towards Iran, it seems unlikely that President Bush would step-in to aid Iran, even if it comes at the expense of his executive powers.

Rubin et al. Plaintiffs Seek to Satisfy Judgments

The Rubin et al. plaintiffs initially sought to satisfy their judgment conventionally, by targeting two Bank of America accounts containing funds of Iran's Consulate General. They convinced a federal court that the money was subject to the new Terrorism Risk Insurance Act and were set to collect, but there was a wrinkle. They failed to receive funds from the bank accounts because a prior lawsuit from other plaintiffs had already filed a lien on the accounts. Given the size of the earlier lien and the accounts, there would be nothing left for the Rubin et al. plaintiffs.

With a win in the courts but still no money, the plaintiffs then sought to execute their judgment against three Iranian bank controlled accounts held by the Bank of New York. However, the federal court followed earlier court precedent and held that the plaintiffs could not execute against these accounts because they were not considered "blocked" assets under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act.

After two successive failures, the plaintiffs successfully executed their judgment against an Iranian-owned residence in Texas. This house was located near the Reese Air Force Base, where Reza Pahlavi had once received fighter jet training. The Texas-sitting federal court issued an order directing the sale of the house, netting $390,000 for the plaintiffs - far short of their $250 million plus judgment.

Targeting Antiquities

As a result of their inability to execute judgments, the Rubin et al. plaintiffs decided upon a radical new strategy. They decided they would now target Persian antiquities held in museums nationwide to satisfy their judgments. The legal theory they would utilize asserts a right to Persian antiquities regardless of whether the museums claimed full ownership, or whether they were on loan from Iran. The Rubin et al. plaintiffs then sued several U.S. institutions, alleging that they possessed artifacts that can satisfy their legal judgments against the Iranian government. Those institutions included the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, the University of Michigan's Museum of Art and Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, the Detroit Institute of Arts, Harvard University, and the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.

The case involving the University of Chicago was the first to move forward, targeting ancient artifacts from Persepolis and Chogha Mish. The Persepolis Collection was discovered in the 1920s and 1930s, consisting of tens of thousands of clay tablets dating to the Achaemenid Empire. These artifacts have been extremely important to a wide range of academics, including linguists, sociologists, historians, and classicists. In the 1930s, the University of Chicago and Iran's National Museum entered an agreement to allow researchers to catalog and study the collection in the United States. After the tablets were studied and properly cataloged, they would be returned to Iran. Approximately 8,000 tablets yet to be studied still remain in the United States with the University of Chicago. These tablets are targeted by the Rubin et al. plaintiffs seeking to satisfy their judgment.

The Chogha Mish Collection was the result of excavations at Chogha Mish, Iran in the 1960s and 1970s. This Collection is notable because it served as evidence that humans occupied the area as far back as 6,000 B.C. - at least a millennium earlier than previously thought. Similar to the agreement regarding the Persepolis Collection, the University of Chicago and the Iranian government agreed that the artifacts would be returned once studied. By 2005, study was concluded and the artifacts were being readied for return to Iran. However, just before the artifacts were to be returned, the U.S. State Department halted the export because of a pending claim in the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague.

The University of Chicago, in Illinois Federal District Court, first asserted that the artifacts were immune from attachment, the legal term for the process whereby property is seized to satisfy a judgment. The University claimed the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act provided immunity to Iran's property. However, the court was not persuaded and instead decided that only Iran could assert the immunity of its property. As a result, despite not representing themselves at the liability or damages stages of the trial, Iran entered the case at this late stage. The Iranian government, through counsel, immediately moved for the case to be dismissed under the FSIA's sovereign immunity protections. The plaintiffs countered with two main points. First, they argued that a FSIA exception applies where the property was used commercially. Second, they urged that regardless of commercial use, the subsequent Terrorism Risk Insurance Act legislation allows them to seize the artifacts.

Targeting Antiquities at the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard University

The case involving Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston is the other major case in which the Rubin et al. plaintiffs are seeking to seize ancient Iranian artifacts to satisfy a legal judgment of a U.S. court. Harvard University has three on-campus museums that house more than 160,000 artifacts from all over the world. The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston was founded in 1870 and has the second largest collection in the Western Hemisphere, next only to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Its ancient Near East collection includes thousands of years of artifacts from Nubia, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy.

In response to the plaintiffs' attempts to seize the artifacts, Harvard argued that the items sought were donated to the museum by Grenville Winthrop, an avid art collector, upon his death in 1943. Because Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts believed they owned clear title as a result of Mr. Winthrop's donation, they claimed they did not hold any antiquities owned by Iran. However, knowing the Rubin et al. plaintiff strategy, they argued that in the event they did own Iranian property, sovereign immunity afforded by the FSIA would mean the antiquities were immune from a U.S. court judgment. Here, the main legal issue concerned whether the antiquities are considered "blocked assets" under the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. If the antiquities did qualify as blocked assets, then they would be subject to seizure and auction to satisfy the plaintiffs' judgments. The Massachusetts Federal Court noted that the executive order only blocked those assets that were "uncontested and non-contingent property interests of the Government of Iran."

The TRIA defines "blocked assets" as "any asset seized or frozen by the United States...under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act." During the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy by students, all Iranian assets were frozen by President Carter's Executive Order pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. However, during the subsequent Algiers Accords, many of these assets were "unblocked" by executive order.

The Algiers Accords were signed between the United States and Iran in 1981 to normalize relations between the two countries after the Iranian Revolution, taking of American hostages at the U.S. embassy, and subsequent freezing of Iranian assets in the United States. To implement the Algiers Accords, President Carter signed an executive order designed to undo his earlier order freezing assets and to place relations between the two countries in the position they were prior to November 14, 1979. Applying that specifically to the artifacts, with the exception of the Persepolis and perhaps the Chogha Mish artifacts, ownership would return to the museums. Importantly, according to section 535.333 of 31 CFR Ch. V from the Office of Foreign Assets Control, Treasury in the executive order for blocked assets specifically provides that property shall not be contested solely because they are sought to satisfy a court judgment.

The Rubin et al. plaintiffs argued that since Harvard and the Museum of Fine Arts claimed they owned the antiquities, when in fact Iran owned them, the assets were "contested" and thus "blocked" under the TRIA. The plaintiffs argued under a 1930s Iranian export restriction law that forbids the export of cultural property without proper governmental authority. In absence of proof of proper removal from Iran, the plaintiffs argued that legal title remained with Iran and not the museums. Again, rebutting this was difficult because the Iranian government chose not submit to the court's jurisdiction and defend the case. Thus, the court held that the artifacts in possession of the Museum of Fine Arts and Harvard were contested and thus subject to attachment.

The court's reasoning was troublesome, for several reasons. First, according to the court's analysis, all one needs to do in order to "block" assets is to claim property is owned by Iran, without any actual proof. Under the court's calculus, a mere allegation is enough to "block" them and subject antiquities to seizure to satisfy judgments. The plaintiffs never offered any affirmative proof that the artifacts are actually owned by Iran's government. Second, the court's analysis reached back and retroactively blocked the antiquities. Iran never contested the ownership of the artifacts. The only challenge to the title of the antiquities did not come until 13 years after the Algiers Accords arguably declared the assets unblocked, and that was by the Rubin et al. plaintiffs seeking to seize and auction them. Common sense dictates that Congress could only have intended for plaintiffs to be able to recover against assets that are actually claimed or owned by Iran, not museum pieces once owned by Iran, which is not the case here. Additionally, under a specific exclusion to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), President Carter could not have frozen informational materials. The Act defined artworks as informational materials, including artworks. Even if the artifacts are not considered artwork, ancient Iranian artifacts would clearly be included under any plain meaning of informational materials, as they provide information and knowledge about Iran's ancient culture. Congress clearly intended to preserve the free flow of information across cultures by creating specific exclusions to the IEEPA - and the Massachusetts Federal Court plainly ignored this. Unless the Museum of Fine Arts or Harvard can win on appeal, the ancient artifacts may then be removed from the museum and sent to auction.

The Next Steps

The Massachusetts Federal Court that issued the most recent opinion certified its rulings to be reviewed by an appeals court, before the litigation is concluded. Courts typically certify their rulings when the outcome of the case would be conclusively determined by the contested issue. This means that a higher court will likely review the Massachusetts District Court's holdings.

Unless the museums can manage to win on appeal, the final outcome of the Rubin et al. litigation will be that the ancient artifacts will be seized and auctioned. This would clearly have profound and negative consequences for all cultural property held within the United States. Because of wrongs attributed to a regime following thousands of years later, a nation's heritage is vulnerable to being sold at auction to the highest bidder.


See also:

Appeal for Protection of Persian Artifacts Reaches New Heights

Iranian Americans Raise $50,000 to Preserve Persepolis Artifacts

No comments:


Google
 

image from http://www.spitting-image.net

Favorite Links

~325~ ~9-11...Who Really Did It~ ~10:10~ ~10 Zen Monkeys~ ~911 Truth~ ~13 Indigenous Grandmothers~ ~15O~ ~15th October~ ~Activist Post~ ~ACT UP~ ~Adbusters~ ~Aerogaz (greek)~ ~Afinity Project~ ~Aging Hipsters~ ~Alecto's Ophelia~ ~Al-Jazeera~ ~Alex Constantine's Blacklist~ ~Alliance for Human Research Protection~ ~All Things Cynthia McKinney~ ~All Things Pakistan~ ~Alternative Insight~ ~Alternative Press Review~ ~Alternet~ ~American Friends Service Committee~ ~American Street~ ~Anarkismo~ ~Andy Worthington~ ~Anglican Pacifist Fellowship~ ~Anomaly News Syndicate~ ~Another Day In The Empire~ ~AntiWar~ ~Antiwar League~ ~Anxiety Culture~ ~Appeal For Redress From The War In Iraq~ ~A Poetic Justice~ ~Artists Without Frontiers~ ~Art of Europe~ ~Arts And Letters Daily~ ~Attack the System~ ~Athens IMC~ ~Ballardian~ ~Bilderberg.org~ ~Black Box Voting~ ~BlackListed News~ ~Black Vault~ ~Blog Bioethics net~ ~Blog of the Unknown Writer~ ~Blondsense~ ~Boiling Frog~ ~Boiling Frogs Post~ ~BoingBoing~ ~Book Ninja~ ~Bookslut~ ~Bradley Manning Support Network~ ~Brand New Law~ ~Brainsturbator~ ~Bring Them Home Now~ ~Bruce Eisner's Vision Thing~ ~Buckminster Fuller Institute~ ~Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists~ ~Bureau of Public Secrets~ ~Business & Human Rights Resource Centre~ ~Buzzflash~ ~Campaign For Real Farming~ ~Catapult the Propaganda~ ~Campus Antiwar Network~ ~Cargo Culte~ ~Castan Centre for Human Rights Law~ ~Catch of the Day~ ~Censorship Paradise~ ~Center for Media and Democracy~ ~Centre for Conflict and Peace Studies, Afghanistan~ ~Centre for Research and Action for Peace~ ~Center on Law and Security~ ~Chapati Mystery~ ~Choike~ ~Chomsky.info~ ~Chronicle of Higher Education~ ~Church of the FSM~ ~CIA & Drugs~ ~Citizens for Legitimate Government~ ~Citizens for Tax Justice~ ~Clandestina~ ~CODEPINK~ ~Coilhouse mag~ ~Collateral Murder~ ~Common Dreams~ ~Complete 9/11 Timeline~ ~Concerned Africa Scholars~ ~Connexions~ ~Conspiracy Archive~ ~Contra Info~ ~Corrente~ ~COTO Report~ ~Coup d'Etat in America~ ~Countercurrents~ ~Crapaganda~ ~Create Real Democracy~ ~Creative-i~ ~Crimes of the State~ ~CrimethInc~ ~Crisis Group~ ~Critical Legal Thinking~ ~Cronache da Mileto (Italian)~ ~Crooks and Liars~ ~Crowd Modelling~ ~Cryptoforestry~ ~Cryptome~ ~Cyclos~ ~Culture Change~ ~Cutting Through The Matrix~ ~Cyrano's Journal~ ~Daily What~ ~Damn Interesting~ ~Dangerous Minds~ ~Deliberative Democracy Consortium~ ~Democracy Center~ ~Democracy Journal~ ~Democracy Now~ ~Democratic Underground~ ~Detournement~ ~Digital Rights [greek lang.]~ ~Diplomacy Lessons~ ~Direct Power!~ ~Discoveries-Researchings-Visions-Understandings-Enlightenments~ ~Disinformation~ ~DistributorCap NY~ ~Dr Hugo Heyrman-Motions of the Mind~ ~Dylanology~ ~EAGAINST~ ~Earthnocentric~ ~Eco Tort~ ~Ectoplasmosis!~ ~Educate Yourself~ ~E-Flux~ ~Electronic Frontier Foundation~ ~Electronic Intifada~ ~Eliminate War Forever~ ~End Evil~ ~Energy Bulletin~ ~Eradicating Ecocide~ ~EROCx1 Blog~
~Europeanrevolution~ ~European Revolution~ ~Eurozine~ ~Exposing the Truth~ ~Extinction Protocol: 2012 and beyond~ ~Families of the Fallen for Change~ ~Fellowship of Reconciliation~ ~Financial Armageddon~ ~FKN Newz~ ~Food For Your Eyes~ ~Forward the Revolution~ ~Franchot's Band~ ~Free Bloggers in Greece~ ~Free Expression Network~ ~Free Press International~ ~Freethinking for Dummies~ ~Free Thought Manifesto~ ~From the Wilderness~ ~F-t-W's Peak Oil Blog~ ~G1000~ ~Ghostdancing in Venice~ ~GIMP~ ~Gilles Duley~ ~Global Guerillas~ ~Global Integrity~ ~Global Policy Forum~ ~Global Revolution~ ~Global Security Institute~ ~Global Voices Online~ ~Gold Star Families for Peace~ ~Government Dirt~ ~Greek Alert [greek lang.]~ ~Greek Assembly in London~ ~Green Left Weekly~ ~Groklaw~ ~Hack Democracy~ ~Hakim Bey and Ontological Anarchy~ ~Hiroshima Peace Institute~ ~History Is A Weapon Blog~ ~How Appealing~ ~How To Vanish~ ~Human Rights Law Review~ ~I Can't Believe It's Not a Democracy!~ ~Idler~ ~Impropaganda~ ~Independent Media Center~ ~INIREF~ ~Institute for Media Peace and Security~ ~International Action Center~ ~International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism)~ ~In These Times~ ~Information Clearing House~ ~Information Liberation~ ~Infoshop~ ~Institute for Policy Studies~ ~Institute for War and Peace Reporting~ ~Insurgent American~ ~Intel Hub~ ~International Labor Rights Forum~ ~Intrinsic Impact~ ~Invisible History~ ~Iraq Citizens Against the War~ ~Iraq Freedom Congress~ ~Iraq Veterans Against the War~ ~Irish Peace Institute~ ~Issues and Alibis~ ~James Howard Kunstler~ ~Jesus Radicals~ ~John Zerzan~ ~Jorgen Schäfer's Homepage~ ~JUST~ ~Just For The Love Of It~ ~Justice Not Vengeance~ ~Kasama Project~ ~Keep Talking Greece~ ~Kia Mistilis~ ~Kill Me If You Can by Bob Miller~ ~Killer Coke~ ~Labor Rights~ ~Labor Rights Now~ ~Labour Start~ ~Lava Cocktail~ ~Lemon Gloria~ ~Lemony Snicket~ ~L'ennui mélodieux~ ~Lessig~ ~Liberation Theology~ ~Libertarians for Peace~ ~Life After the Oil Crash~ ~Life & Peace Institute~ ~Lunch Street Party~ ~Lycaeum~ ~Links by George~ ~Literary Kicks~ ~Lubinproductions~ ~MacNN~ ~Mad Cow Morning News~ ~Manageable Ants~ ~Mario Profaca's Cyberspace Station~ ~Maro Kouri~ ~Maud Newton~ ~May it Please the Court~ ~McSpotlight~ ~Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture~ ~Metta Center for Nonviolence~ ~Metanoia~ ~Michael Moore - Must Read~ ~Mind Control~ ~Military Families Speak Out~ ~Mind in Peace (greek)~ ~Miss Welby~ ~MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence~ ~Molly's Blog~ ~Mother Jones~ ~MungBeing Magazine~ ~MyAntiwar.org~ ~n +1 mag~ ~National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee~ ~Natural Farming~ ~Neatorama~ ~Neuromarketing~ ~Neurosecurity~ ~New Internationalist~ ~News Dissector~ ~News Frames~ ~News Making News~ ~News Now~ ~New Tactics in Human Rights~ ~New World Dawning~ ~NEXUS~ ~NFAK~ ~Nomadic Academy Of Fools~ ~Non Fides~ ~Noor Images~ ~Not In Our Name~ ~Not Stupid~ ~Nuclear Resister~ ~NUTOPIA2~ ~[Occupy] 2012 Scenario~ ~Occupy America Social Network~ ~OCCUPY Cafe~ ~Occupy Istanbul~ ~Occupy Together~ ~Occupy Together Field Manual~ ~OWS~ ~Occupy Writers~ ~October 2011~ ~Odious Debts~ ~ODYS~ ~Olmaz~ ~On the Path to 2012~ ~Op Ed News~ ~Open Letters to George W. Bush from his ardent admirer,Belacqua Jones~ ~Open Revolt!~ ~Open Source Ecology~ ~Orthodox Peace Fellowship~ ~Orwell Today~ ~Outlaw Journalism~ ~OWNI~ ~Patriots Question 9/11~ ~Peace in Mind (greek)~ ~PeaceJam~ ~Peace Now~ ~Peaceful Tomorrows~ ~Peak Moment~ ~People's Assemblies Network~ ~Peter Frase~ ~Photography is Not a Crime~ ~Picture the Homeless~ ~Pieman~ ~Places the U.S. has bombed~ ~Pogo Was Right - privacy news~ ~Political Reform.ie~ ~Post Carbon Institute~ ~Praxis Peace Institute~ ~Primate Poetics~ ~Prisoner Solidarity~ ~Professors question 9/11~ ~Project Camelot~ ~Project Censored~ ~Project for the Old American Century~ ~Project on Corporations, Law and Democracy~ ~Psyche, Science and Society~ ~Psychogeography~ ~Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility~ ~Radical Anthropology~ ~Rainbow Family~ ~RawStory~ ~Reality Sandwich~ ~Real Democacy GR~ ~Real Democracy Now.net~ ~Rebel Dog~ ~Reflections on a Revolution~ ~Reporters Without Borders~ ~Re-public~ ~Resistance Studies Magazine~ ~Resource Based Economy Foundation~ ~Re-volt Radio~ ~Richard Heinberg's Museletter~ ~Rockefeller's War on Drugs~ ~Ruckus Society~ ~Sacred Texts~ ~Salon~ ~Save Orphan Works~ ~Scholars and Rogues~ ~Scoop~ ~SCOTUS Blog~ ~Secrecy News~ ~Service Academy Graduates Against the War~ ~Shadow Government Statistics~ ~Signs of the Times News~ ~Slovenia Peace Institute~ ~Smirking Chimp~ ~smygo~ ~SNU Project~ ~Soil And Health Library~ ~SourceWatch~ ~Speaking Truth to Power~ ~Spirit Horse Foundation~ ~Spunk~ ~Squattastic~ ~Starhawk~ ~Stockholm International Peace Research Institute~ ~StopCartel TV-GR~ ~Stop The Arms Fair~ ~Stop the Spying.org~ ~Strangers in a Tangled Wilderness~ ~Students Against War~ ~Survival Acres~ ~Survival International~ ~Swan's Commentary~ ~Take The Square~ ~Tangible Information~ ~Tax Justice Network~ ~Tax Research UK~ ~Theatre of the Oppressed~ ~The Black Commentator~ ~The Black Vault~ ~The Borowitz Report~ ~The Carpetbagger Report~ ~The Center for Public Integrity~ ~The Daily Reckoning~ ~The Dark Age Blog~ ~The Digger Archives~ ~The End of Being~ ~The Guardian~ ~The Hidden Evil~ ~The Huffington Post~ ~The Intelligence Daily~ ~The Lazy Man's Guide To Enlightenment~ ~The Mountain Sentinel~ ~The Nation~ ~The National Security Archive~ ~The New Z-Land Project~ ~The Other Israel~ ~The Pathology Guy~ ~The Progress Report~ ~The Progressive Magazine~ ~The Real News~ ~The Situation Room~ ~The Truth Seeker~ ~ The Watcher Files~ ~Think Progress~ ~Third World Traveller~ ~This Land Is Ours~ ~This Modern World~ ~TomDispatch~ ~Total Collapse~ ~Total Dick-Head~ ~Transform!~ ~Transnational Institute~ ~Transnational Foundation for Peace and Future Research~ ~True Democracy~ ~Troops Out Now~ ~True Democracy Party~ ~Truthdig~ ~Truth News~ ~Truthout~ ~TW3 and fotografia la dolce vita~ ~Uncommon Thought~ ~United for Peace & Justice~ ~United States Institute of Peace~ ~Unknown News~ ~UNPA Campaign~ ~Urbanibalism~ ~US Labor Against the War~ ~VBS TV~ ~Veterans Against the Iraq War~ ~Veterans for Peace and Justice~ ~Video Rebel's Blog~ ~Vietnam Veterans Against the War~ ~Virusmyth - Rethinking AIDS~ ~visionOntv~ ~Voices for Creative Non-Violence~ ~Void Network~ ~Voice Memo~ ~Voters for Peace~ ~Waging Nonviolence~ ~Waking the Midnight Sun~ ~Want To Know~ ~War Costs~ ~War Crimes and Military Improprieties~ ~War Criminals Watch~ ~War on Society~ ~War is Illegal~ ~War Resisters International~ ~War Resisters League~ ~Was Jack Kerouac a Punjabi?~ ~Watergate Exposed~ ~West Point Graduates Against The War~ ~What Really Happened~ ~What’s On My Food?~ ~Why Work? Creating Livable Alternatives to Wage Slavery~ ~Wikileaks~ ~WikiLeaks Central~ ~Wild Wild Left~ ~willyloman~ ~Winning Cancer~ ~Win Without War~ ~Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)~ ~Wonkette~ ~World Prout Assembly~ ~Worldwide Hippies~ ~Yes Lab~ ~Yippie Museum~ ~Young Protester~ ~Youth Against War and Racism (YAWR)~ ~Zapatistas~ ~Zine Library~ ~Zippy Elder-at-Large~ ~ZMag~
~ Thank you for visiting Circle of 13 ~

FAIR USE NOTICE

This blog may contain videos with copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in an effort to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.