Protest Petraeus: Fundraising Gala

by the Ad Hoc Committee Against the Militarization of CUNY:     “Honoring and recognizing” a war criminal – that’s what John Jay College for Criminal Justice plans to do at its 2013 Gala on Wednesday, October 16th. The event will feature the former Iraq/Afghanistan war commander and ex-CIA chief known as David “Death Squad” Petraeus.

The gala’s title is “Educating for Justice” – this for a man who brought the “Salvador option” of death squads and torture centers to Iraq, where the forces he commanded slaughtered hundreds of thousands. As commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, Petraeus rained death on Afghan civilians. As CIA chief, he was the architect of almost 3,000 “targeted killings” by drones. This is the spymaster, mass murderer, death squad and torture organizer the CUNY Board of Trustees appointed to “teach” public policy at the Macaulay Honors College. Now he is being feted at a veritable “war gala” that makes a bloody mockery of the words “education” and “justice.”

To rub shoulders with Death Squad David, members of NYC’s financial elite will pay up to $50,000 for a “visionary table.” To get an idea of what’s going on here, check out the event’s Tribute Committee, which includes JPMorgan Chase & Co., Goldman Sachs, The Rockefeller Group, interim CUNY chancellor William P. Kelly, and the head of McCann Protective Services (“a former senior former ranking officer from the New York City Police Department”). On behalf of the war criminal Petraeus, the NYPD savagely attacked CUNY students for the “crime” of exercising their basic right to protest on September 17, arresting the “CUNY Six” on trumped-up charges.
John Jay’s War Gala also claims to be “honoring our veterans” – but at the University of Southern California, Petraeus’ appointment as “veterans’ adviser” brought such a storm of outrage from Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans that he canceled his speaking event, scheduled for the 12th anniversary of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. Kids from poor and working-class families are targeted by the military to be sent to kill and die for imperialism, then tossed onto the scrapheap – while top brass Petraeus gets hired by global investment firm KKR, offered $200K to “teach” three hours a week at CUNY, and blatantly exploits the City University as a stepping-stone for political and financial prospects. Petraeus’ appointment is part of the drive to target CUNY with military recruiters, military contracts, and the return of ROTC.

WE SAY NO – CUNY MUST NOT BE A WAR COLLEGE!

 

See a description of the Gala from the Gala organizers themselves here. [1]