Earths.net

4/6/02
4:41:13 PM

Israel: Soldiers Who Say NO!

From: Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit, mailto:IGF@tamera.org

To the courageous soldiers who say "NO!"

2nd of April 2002

"We will not go on fighting beyond the 'green line' for the purposes of domination, expulsion, starvation and humiliation of an entire people".

[The above is] From the declaration of combat officers and soldiers of the IDF published in the Ha'aretz on the 27th of January 2002.

My name is Benjamin von Mendelssohn and I work at the "Institute for Global Peace Work" in Tamera, Portugal. We in Tamera read the declaration quoted above and hope began to rise.

I am not a young Israeli soldier who is asked to fulfil the inhuman orders of the occupation. I do not know what I would do if I were in this situation. I live in the relative safety of a peace project in Portugal.

From here I want to express my deep respect, my gratitude and my solidarity to the growing number of young men who refuse to serve in the occupied territories.

It is a service of peace to the world to take on the consequences that this decision brings along in a militaristic society.

I know the story of a friend of mine who served in the IDF. He realized the insanity of it when his best friend was blown to pieces right next to him. He quit the army and quit the country.

But he also told me about the fascination to hold a gun, the surge of power that one feels when you "can take somebody down from a 100 meters distance as a sniper".

This is the disease of a male society. We get trained what it means to be a man right from the beginning. We hardly get trained what it means to be a human.

But we young men should grow up instead of just growing old. We need to quit using violence to compensate the fear that we have inside. Fear that we project to the outside and then run fighting against it. Fear that threatens to strangle the whole globe.

I hope more and more young men start to become fighters against that fear, freedom fighters. What about using all our male strength in body and mind for the protection of our planet?

If this movement of courageous soldiers who say "NO!" to war - inside or outside - as the first Israeli soldiers do right now, would grow bigger, big enough that the discriminating punishments can not be kept up, then I could believe in a beginning peace process.

They need our support now. The support of their mothers, who do not want to loose their sons, of their fathers, who might serve in the army themselves but nevertheless recognize the new, of their friends who know that it is easier to be courageous together.

They need the support of international peace workers and peace initiatives who can provide rest, healing and a new orientation - simply through the advantage of not being involved directly.

And then we all need a perspective, a peace plan in which we can believe.

We need models for this peace. Places where peace can be researched, seen and felt. Places where peace and trust can grow between humans, between humans and animals, plants and all of creation.

May these courageous soldiers be the beginning of a stronger global peace movement.

May they grow into part of a movement for a free earth.

Shalom and Salaam!

Benjamin von Mendelssohn

The homepage of the objectors and their declaration:

http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp

* We, reserve combat officers and soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces, who were raised upon the principles of Zionism, sacrifice and giving to the people of Israel and to the State of Israel, who have always served in the front lines, and who were the first to carry out any mission, light or heavy, in order to protect the State of Israel and strengthen it.

* We, combat officers and soldiers who have served the State of Israel for long weeks every year, in spite of the dear cost to our personal lives, have been on reserve duty all over the Occupied Territories, and were issued commands and directives that had nothing to do with the security of our country, and that had the sole purpose of perpetuating our control over the Palestinian people. We, whose eyes have seen the bloody toll this Occupation exacts from both sides.

* We, who sensed how the commands issued to us in the Territories, destroy all the values we had absorbed while growing up in this country.

* We, who understand now that the price of Occupation is the loss of IDF¹s human character and the corruption of the entire Israeli society.

* We, who know that the Territories are not Israel, and that all settlements are bound to be evacuated in the end.

* We hereby declare that we shall not continue to fight this War of the Settlements.

* We shall not continue to fight beyond the 1967 borders in order to dominate, expel, starve and humiliate an entire people.

* We hereby declare that we shall continue serving in the Israel Defense Forces in any mission that serves Israel¹s defense.

* The missions of occupation and oppression do not serve this purpose -and we shall take no part in them.

There are 398 current signers of this Israeli soldiers' petition.

If you go to the site therre are links to addtional petitions to lend support to their cause.

http://www.seruv.org.il/defaulteng.asp

See also: "The Courage to Refuse" - campaign

http://www.couragetorefuse.org

IGF - Institut für Globale Friedensarbeit

(Institute for Global Peace Work)

Monte do Cerro

P-7630 Colos

http://www.www.tamera.org

mailto:igf@tamera.org

Tel: +351-283 635 3-06, Fax: -74

4/6/02
4:35:05 PM

It's Time That 'Woman Rise Up & Take Their Rightful Place In Government'

by Helen Caldicott

"We have it within our power to begin the world again."

Thomas Paine

Changing the Political Climate

Caldicott is convinced that the American people are hungry for real visionary leadership, and are ready for someone with integrity- perhaps a woman-to lead the electorate into a positive future, teaching and guiding and inspiring them with a prophetic voice. She encourages the implementation of quick, effective strategies to shift the balance of power into the hands of truly "wise, visionary, courageous leaders who will do the right thing for the people of this country-not the corporations, but the people, and by extension the entire world."

Caldicott is thrilled by France's recent 'parity law' requiring that 50% of all candidates running for office must be women. She believes the Equal Rights Amendment was nothing compared to this. "It's time that women rise up and take their rightful place in government. We are 53% of the world's population, we hold up 53% of the sky, yet we have no power at all. The three hormones-testosterone versus estrogen and progesterone-have very different and obvious effects upon the psyche. I could go on at length about the physiology of those hormones, how they affect the brain and behavior. It's imperative that there be gender balance now."

Counteracting the Corporations

Caldicott emphasized the importance of taking full advantage of the public broadcasting system to get the anti-nuclear point of view heard. "I'm setting up an institute equal and opposite to the Heritage Foundation so that Rumsfeld, Cheney, and their other spokespersons never again go on television unchallenged and lie to the American people. I may need about $1 million a year, but I guarantee, we'll do them in. We'll just put the best, most brilliant people on news and talk shows all over the country to disclose the whole truth, to educate the citizens, and we'll end the Nuclear Age."

Caldicott has experienced censorship in attempting to get equal time on television and in print. GE, whose slogan is, ironically, "We bring good things to life," is one of the two American manufacturers (along with CBS-owner Westinghouse) of nuclear weapons, nuclear space probes, and nuclear reactors/power plants for domestic and overseas markets. "As they own NBC, they predictably would be antithetical to speaking about the medical problems of what they're actually doing. After writing a book called If You Love This Planet, in which I used GE as an example of a very bad corporation, I was scheduled to go on the Today Show and was very excited. Then they read the book and I was canceled.

"There is a conspiracy of silence in this country," she said. "The European Parliament has been up in arms, frantic because so many foreign soldiers who fought in Kosovo and the Gulf are getting leukemia. Articles are flooding the European press, yet there's nothing in this country at all."

Awakening the Numbed

According to Caldicott, the manic denial of reality, or "psychic numbing," is an epidemic state of mind amongst Americans when it comes to acknowledging the immediate and ongoing possibility of nuclear war. "'Displacement Activity' is described when you put rats in a cage and threaten them with a lethal situation. They then tend to run away and do something totally irrelevant to that which threatens them. Similarly, people are running around engaged in all sorts of insignificant, smaller activities that they can get their brains around." Such distractions and obsessions are not difficult to see embedded in daily American culture: addictions to technological toys such as television, computers, video games, gourmet food, designer fashions, and spectator sports.

"There can be no more important issue than saving the planet from nuclear destruction. If we set the priority of all moving together towards the abolition of nuclear weapons and power plants, that in itself will create a massive change of perspective within the country and empower the other groups to get going on their issues." In other words, first things first.

"Our children know they have no future. It's grim. Furthermore, they see no sign that the adults are willing to protect them or fix it for them. To be good parents and grandparents, it is implicit that we take responsibility to save their future. Certainly in Australia, where we only have 19.5 million people, the male teenage suicide rate is higher than ever before, and many are profoundly depressed. That's the time you're supposed to look forward with great passion and enthusiasm for life, to fall in love, to discover your dreams. The teenagers here are just as well educated-they watch television and listen to the radio, they hear who's lying, they know the truth. Talk to primary school children, they all know. If I were a teenager now, I would be deeply depressed."

Read The Full Article At:

http://www.wholelifetimes.com/Caldicott.html

4/6/02
4:10:55 PM

Florida Bill Threatens Civil Liberties, Gives 'Unprecedented Power To Unelected Officials'

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) today urged Gov. Bush to veto SB 1262, a bill that gives the State Public Health Officer powers to declare a public health emergency and to order forced drugging and treatment 'under the guise of responding to terrorism'.

In a letter sent to the Governor, Jane M. Orient, Executive Director, writes:

"AAPS is totally opposed to SB 1262 -- 'imposing medical treatments on unwilling citizens at gunpoint, or with threats of taking children from their parents, or with other coercive measures -- obliterating informed consent and due process of law'. Medical consequences could be disastrous.

"This bill gives the State Health Officer the sole, unbridled power to issue a public health advisory and 'take any action appropriate to enforce any public health advisory,' without oversight or accountability. The Legislature has abdicated its authority with respect to the alleged emergency altogether."

AAPS first sounded the alarm about these types of bills last December, gathering thousands of signatures on a letter of opposition to President Bush. 'The Model State Emergency Powers Act' (MEPHA) was drafted by the CDC and promoted to the states by the Department of HHS -- with promises of federal dollars for new programs, and threats of withholding funding for current ones.

The bills are so alarming that 'many legislators in other states are publicly opposing them', including the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the nation's largest bipartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators. "We must take a much more deliberative approach in crafting effective policy without sacrificing the rights and liberties of individuals and families," ALEC's Director of the Health and Services told AAPS.

The letter to Gov. Bush continues:

"The Florida legislation is even more frightening. 'It bypasses the ballot box altogether, giving life and death powers to an unelected bureaucrat -- it is highly dangerous to entrust any human being with unlimited power'.

"The State Health Officer could use 'any means necessary to force vaccination or treatment on unwilling citizens', if 'there is no practical method to quarantine' such individuals, and 'if the individual poses a danger to the public health.' The degree of force, the assessment of what is 'practical,' and the definition of 'danger to public health' are all at the sole discretion of this Officer."

AAPS is also concerned that these powers could be used to invalidate all vaccine exemptions - including religious and medical -- that are now legal choices for parents who choose not to subject their children to dozens of immunizations required under blanket vaccine mandates for school attendance. Dr. Orient raises medical issues that the legislation fails to take into account, including:

The bill fails to mention smallpox by name, even though it is the only contagious disease that is a credible biological warfare threat and for which a reasonably effective vaccine exists. "In an outbreak of measles or whooping cough, with several dozen cases, is an unvaccinated child a 'danger to public health'?"

There are many scientifically valid arguments against mass smallpox immunization campaigns -- 'serious adverse effects, including death'.

The strain of smallpox used by terrorists may be vaccine resistant. "Thus, an entire population could be subjected to the dangers of mass vaccination while reaping no benefit at all." Dr. Orient urges Gov. Bush to veto the bill and demand that forced vaccination and treatment be removed from it. "Moreover, no unelected official should be permitted to declare a public health emergency, nor should such a state of emergency continue without ratification by the state legislature as soon as it can be called into session," concludes Dr.Orient.

AAPS, a national non-partisan, dues-supported professional association of physicians dedicated since 1943 to protecting the sanctity of the patient-physician relationship, opposes government-ordered vaccine mandates. While many vaccines are extremely useful and have saved many lives, patients and physicians should be free to determine the best course of treatment for an individual.

See also:

Bush Administration Orders New Generation Nuclear Weapons

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28E.Nuclear.Weapons.htm

4/5/02
3:21:23 PM

'Earth Summit For All' online

The next Earth Summit ('Rio-plus ten') is taking place this year at Johannesburg. Over 60,000 people are expected to be attending this, the biggest conference Africa has ever seen. There will be delegates from governments and big business, as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) such as Friends of the Earth and the World Development Movement. Ten years on from the last Summit at Rio in 1992, many people are calling the last decade one of missed opportunities. The catastrophic rates of climate change and species loss have not been arrested, in fact they have increased. The Jo'burg Summit is too important an opportunity to be missed.

The Open University is developing 'Earth Summit for All', a new web portal that aims to build partnerships for projects which can be launched at the Summit, the first one of the internet era. It will provide an opportunity for ordinary people and NGO delegates to hold on-line discussions and collaborate in advance of the Summit, as part of the 'multi-stakeholder' dialogues. It provides a tool for developing the all-important practical projects needed to solve the major environmental and social problems that the Summit will be tackling. A starting set of projects for discussion may include Global Green Information Networks with 'green ratings'; Co-operative and Community Networks; Fair Trade Networks; a Global Emergency Aid and Development Fund; Media Initiatives for Peace; Schools for Sustainability.

How will the on-line discussions work? Our software builds upon the innovative approaches to participative democracy developed by the Open Source Software community (see http://www.slashdot.org) 'Earth Summit for All' emphasizes public polls to promote consensus, and to enable people to make their views count, even if they prefer not to make written comments. The ethos is collaboration and consensus-seeking, rather than conflict and competition.

At earlier summits, Rio and Stockholm, the central focus was on governments and binding treaties between them. In Johannesburg, that will be much less the case. The preparatory meeting in New York that just ended puts a great emphasis on partnerships with civil society. 'Earth Summit for All' aims to be a catalyst to such partnerships. It uses the tools of internet technology to put the interested public and NGOs in touch with one another, to help develop practical projects for the Summit.

'Earth Summit for All' will be launched publicly in late April, 2002 and will be located at

http://www.earthsummit.open.ac.uk

For further information, email mailto:admin@earthsummit.open.ac.uk

SEE THE OFFICIAL WEBSITE FOR THIS EARTH SUMMIT II

http://www.joburgsummit2002.com

Check especially their latest fact sheet of updates! This is regarded as the biggest United Nations convention the world has ever seen and will shape the future of a globally defined, sustainable development agenda.

4/5/02
2:49:48 PM

Our Oceans Are At Risk

From: "Ted Danson @ Oceana" mailto:Ted.Danson@oceana.org

Dear Friends:

I just sent a free letter to protect the oceans at

http://www.OceansAtRisk.com

Our whole world depends on having healthy oceans.

But our oceans are at risk.

Every day, thousands of fish, turtles, dolphins and other marine life are drowned, crushed, and suffocated after being caught on fishing hooks and nets meant for other species. Each year, an estimated 44 billion pounds of unwanted, dead or dying fish and countless numbers of turtles, porpoises, and sharks are simply thrown overboard.

Can you take 30 seconds to help stop this senseless destruction? Join me and send your FREE message at this link:

http://www.OceansAtRisk.com

Oceans generate much of the world's oxygen, provide 95 percent of the living space for the earth's animals and plants, and feed billions of people around the world. We need healthy oceans to survive.

Like you, I love to swim in a healthy coral reef or watch whales and dolphins playing in the ocean. But in our lifetimes, the ocean abundance we treasure now could be gone.

As you read this email, hundreds of marlin, sea turtles, whales and porpoises are being caught and destroyed. Some of these species are endangered, and at risk of total extinction. We must act now to preserve the earth's web of life for future generations.

Four Federal laws clearly require the U.S. to end this senseless waste of our valuable ocean species. But, the government agency in charge has failed to enforce them.

That's why I'm helping to launch this campaign to tell President Bush to act now to enforce the law and protect ocean life. I've sent my letter -now you can send yours.

It only takes a minute to help. And once you've done your part, please forward this message along to other friends and family members. We take so much from the oceans; let's give something back.

Thanks for caring about our oceans

Ted Danson

Source: http://www.OceansAtRisk.com

4/5/02
2:43:02 PM

ACTION ALERT! HELP PROTECT CALIFORNIA'S ANCIENT FORESTS

An IMMEDIATE $1.6 million dollars is needed now for a ballot initiative to permanently protect California's 7+ million old growth trees for future generations. This ballot iniative requires 600,000 signatures by April 30th to qualify for the iniative for the November 2002 ballot in California. Your support is deeply appreciated. Please share with others. Thank You !!!

To Learn More Contact: mailto:susan@ancienttrees.org

http://www.ancienttrees.org

4/5/02
2:41:06 PM

MANY NEW COMPELLING ARTICLES ON THE MIDDLE EAST CARNAGE

http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28

Israel/Palestinian Authority: Protect Civilians, Allow Independent Reporting Human Rights Watch is alarmed that ordinary civilians are increasingly the main victims of intensified conflict in Israel and the Occupied Territories.

http://hrw.org/press/2002/04/isr-pa040302.htm

U.S. to Push Harder for Political Solution in Mideast

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/international/middleeast/04PREX.html

Israeli Armor Units Continue Sweeping Through West Bank

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/international/middleeast/04MIDE.html

REPORTS OF ISRAELI ATTACKS ON CHURCHES

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/04/27335.html

ISRAEL ISOLATES ITSELF

The policy of Ariel Sharon's government has managed to isolate Israel in the international community to an unprecedented level in recent history. Christians are starting to side with the Palestinians for the first time.

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/04/27333.html

HAMAS AND ISRAEL UNITE AGAINST ARAFAT

(...) Israel, which has already declared its intention to liquidate centers of terrorism, does not disturb Hamas, which claims responsibility for several recent acts of terrorism. This is rather strange.

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/04/27343.html

A US NEWS ANCHOR TAKES A STAND (4 Apr 2002)

Last evening on American television Peter Jennings of ABC News went out of his way to let Americans know that no other country in the world, except for the US, supports what the Israelis are doing to the Palestinians. It was a small news gesture in a sea of terribly biased and grossly inadequate American news coverage. It was an example of a small but valiant attempt to inform Americans at least a little bit through a nearly blinding fog of continual distortion and gross misrepresentation. At the same time on PBS, Public Broadcasting, the Lehrer News Hour continued its tradition of packaging Middle East commentary in a way always fit for liberal American Jewish sentiments. It was an example of the terrible slant and bias, no matter how "professional" and "sophisticated" in presentation, that is so prevalent in the US and which so badly serves the American people. At a time when the Palestinians are being pulverized with Yasser Arafat still symbolizing their predicament, for good or bad, the PBS producers chose to interview two Israelis, one of whom works directly for the Israeli/Jewish lobby, and one American Jew, whom they presented as "Arafat's biographer". No Palestinian, no Arab, no critic, nobody in fact other than their kosherized guests.

4/5/02
2:34:30 PM

Israeli Soldiers Shoot and Kill a US Citizen as She Holds Her 9-Month-Old Baby in Her Lap

With the Morgue Overflowing, the Family is Forced to Bury the 21-Year-Old Palestinian-American in the Ramallah Hospital Parking Lot

The US State Department Does Nothing

NEW YORK - April 3 - Israeli soldiers on Friday shot and killed Suraida Saleh in Ramallah as she was holding her 9-month old baby in her lap. She and her husband were driving to safety at her father's house after hearing shooting near their home. Suraida Saleh was a Palestinian-American, born in George Washington Hospital, in Washington, D.C.

Reached on the phone today in Ramallah, her father Farhan Mohammed Saleh, told Democracy Now! that Israeli soldiers asked the husband to stop the car and started shooting. He said they shot Suraida in the head and chest, and she died immediately. After shooting the husband repeatedly, they let him go. He took the baby from his dead wife's lap and stumbled up the road to the home of his father-in-law, where he collapsed.

With the Ramallah hospital morgue overflowing and Israeli soldiers preventing anyone from reaching the cemetery, Saleh said he was forced to bury his daughter in the hospital parking lot alongside dozens of other Palestinians.

Suraida's father, Farhan Mohammed Saleh, wept as he said: "I took her out of the hospital refrigerator [morgue] with my own hands, and my wife and my older son with me, we took her outside and put her in the ground, just temporary."

On Tuesday, Democracy Now! spoke to the Office of Consular Affairs at the State Department. The office said the State Department was aware that Suraida Saleh was a U.S. citizen, but did not plan to release a statement or take any action. Farhan Mohammed Saleh said that the State Department has done nothing.

As he spoke, you could hear his grandson crying in the background. "[My grandson] is with me now. He is 9 months old, I don't know what's going to happen with him without his mother. You know, he's crying all the time, that's what makes me suffer."

Details of Sureida's death were obtained by American Muslims for Global Peace and Justice (http://www.global-peace.org). They emailed, called and faxed major media for two days and no one picked up the story. Today is the first time the voice of Farhan Mohammed Saleh, the father of Suraida, will be broadcast nationwide. The following is a partial transcript of the interview that Amy Goodman, host of the radio and television show Democracy Now!, did with Farhan Mohammed Saleh in Ramullah:

Farhan Mohammed Saleh [FMS]: ...some of the neighbors, when they hear the shooting and saw her in the car, they call the ambulance... she stayed in the refrigerator [hospital morgue] from Friday morning up to yesterday evening [5 days]. ... I took her out of the hospital refrigerator with my own hands, and my wife and my older son with me, we took her outside and put her in the ground, just temporary, somewhere in the hospital, until they can take her to the cemetery.

Amy Goodman [AG]: You buried your daughter in the parking lot?

FMS: Yes, yes, she was with 2 more women, the men were buried separately. It is a temporary cemetery they make...

AG: How many other people are buried in the parking lot?

FMS: About 25 or 27 people. Three women were yesterday, and about 23 or 24 men.

AG: Why couldn't you get to the cemetery?

FMS: Nobody can go to the cemetery, there was shooting going everywhere. They just give 1 or 2 hours to the people to see their dead. We passed from the side of the tanks and the soldiers, and we was scared... [my grandson] is with me now. He is 9 months old, I don't know what's going to happen with him without his mother. You know, he's crying all the time, that's what makes me suffer. [Crying of baby in the background]

AG: Has the US embassy come to see you?

FMS: Nobody, nobody up to now. CLIP I called 2 or 3 times and I talked with some people working and nobody has shown up to now, nobody has seen me up to now. I don't know what I'm going to do with the baby now. [He begins to weep.]

It's a bad situation, a bad situation we have really, we just ask God to help her. It's killing people everywhere, in the streets, in the houses. They broke down the houses, the buildings, they get inside the houses and the apartments and they kill people and break down everything. That's barbarism. That's the situation we have. I don't know where are the human rights? The US and all the world, they're calling for human rights - where are the human rights? Civilian people, they're killing everywhere, in the streets and the houses and the apartments. Some buildings have 10 to 15 apartments, they get inside the apartments and houses and are killing everywhere,

For more information about this story, please contact "Democracy Now! "at (212) 431-9090. This show can be heard on mp3 at

http://www.democracynow.org

4/5/02
2:21:54 PM

French lap up Pentagon crash 'fraud' (2 April, 2002)

A book which argues that American Airlines flight 77 did not crash into the Pentagon on 11 September has become an immediate bestseller in France. (...) The book is currently the top of Amazon France's bestseller list and has made it to second place in the Livres Hebdo's list. (...) the whole truth about the flight 77 incident was yet to come out. "There is no official account of the crash...the lack of information is feeding the rumour." French lap up Pentagon crash 'fraud'

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1907000/1907955.stm

BP CONTRADICTS BUSH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

The oil company has exceeded its emissions reduction target eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost. That undermines Bush's claim that the Kyoto Protocol would be too expensive.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12750

Fueling the Flames

Is the choice between the environment and economic justice a false one? Now more than ever before, labor and greens must join forces to stop Bush's assault on the planet.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12734

Washington Is Criticized for Growing Reluctance to Sign Treaties

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/04/international/04TREA.html

Food of the Future

When regional, fair-trade organic farms can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for their products, it's obvious that the future of food is sustainable and organic. (...) Of the food we consume, how much is organic? Experts predict that $25 billion dollars of organic food will be consumed across the globe in 2002.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12732

Globalization Proves Disappointing

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/21/international/21GLOB.html

KILLING THE CAFE STANDARDS

Buckling under pressure from the auto industry, the Senate terminated an important bill which would have reduced our dependence on oil.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12665

Antarctic Ice Shelf Disintegrating

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.22J.Ice.Shelf.htm

WHAT I'VE LEARNED ABOUT U.S. FOREIGN POLICY: The War Against the Third World

http://www.addictedtowar.com/dorrel.html

Check also the cartoons at this website

http://www.addictedtowar.com

Oppose Oil Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Please help by signing this petition. It takes 30 seconds and will really help.

http://www.thePetitionSite.com/takeaction/179485431

Petition to request that Yahoo Inc reconsider their decision to charge fees for pop mail, groups, and homepages:

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/11213/petition.html

4TH APRIL, 2002: ANGOLA BREATHES SIGH OF RELIEF

After 27 years of a ruinous civil war, MPLA and UNITA sign a cease-fire in front of representatives of the governments of the Russian Federation, the USA and Portugal.

http://english.pravda.ru/main/2002/04/04/27338.html

4/5/02
2:17:03 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

SPECIES VANISHING ALONG LEWIS & CLARK TRAIL

SEATTLE, Washington, April 4, 2002 (ENS) - Many of the species discovered by explorers Lewis and Clark on their 19th century expeditions have either lost their historic habitat, have dwindling populations, or are near extinction, shows a new report by the Sierra Club. The list of vanishing species features some of the American west's most symbolic plant and animal species, including grizzly bears, bison and prairie dogs.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-04-06.html

MYTH OF WORLD FOREST COVER SHATTERED

WASHINGTON, DC, April 4, 2002 (ENS) - From the temperate rainforests of Chile to Russia's northern taiga forests, researchers have evidence that the world's wooded lands are shrinking faster than even pessimists had thought.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-04-02.html

NORSK HYDRO ICES ALUMINUM SMELTER IN ICELAND

OSLO, Norway, April 4, 2002 (ENS) - Norsk Hydro has decided to postpone indefinitely its plans to build a enormous aluminium smelter in Iceland. Conservationists are declaring victory against the facility which they say would destroy a highland wilderness area.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-04-04.html

POACHERS KILL TEN ELEPHANTS IN KENYAN PARK

NAIROBI, Kenya, April 4, 2002 (ENS) - Ten elephants were gunned downed by a well organized gang of ivory poachers using automatic weapons in Tsavo East National Park, the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has reported.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-04-03.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 4, 2002

Journal "Nature" Renounces Mexican Maize Article

Light Truck Fuel Standards Remain the Same

$85 Million Supports Local Wildlife Programs

Irrigation Water Delivered to Klamath Farmers

Computer Model Tracks Rainfall Sources

Flood Risks Underestimated by Current Models

$1.25 Million Supports New York Fishing Opportunities

College Students Honored for Saving Water

Animal Rights Advocate Rejects Leather Seats

Journal "Nature" Renounces Mexican Maize Article

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-04-09.html

4/5/02
2:13:44 PM

"I feel that my mission is, wherever I am,

to express my feeling about the importance of kindness,

compassion, and the true sense of brotherhood.

I practice these things.

It gives me more happiness, more success.

If I practiced anger or jealousy or bitterness,

no doubt my smile would disappear."

The Dalai Lama

4/5/02
2:11:06 PM

Litigation In The Wind

by Phillip B. C. Jones, PhD., J.D.

According to Darwin's theory, change has fueled the engine of evolution. Today, change is the spark that sets off lawsuits. The introduction of genetically modified (GM) crops has kindled its share of litigation, typically in the form of farmers and farm interest groups versus agbiotech companies. However, farmers who grow GM crops may not be immune from a lawsuit.

Farmers vs. Agbiotech Companies

In the fall of 2000, remnants of the GM corn StarLink were found in the human food supply. StarLink expresses Cry9C, an insecticidal protein that had not been approved for human consumption by the US Environmental Protection Agency and by various agencies outside the US. The discovery of StarLink "contamination" severely affected domestic and foreign markets for US corn products, which, in turn, spawned at least nine class action lawsuits in six states against Aventis CropScience USA LP (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina), the company that commercialized StarLink.

Last year, for example, a class action suit was filed in a Wisconsin federal district court on behalf of farmers who claim that they have lost money due to the depression in prices after StarLink was found to have entered the food supply (Southview Farms v. Aventis CropScience USA Holding, Inc.). Another class action suit, Mulholland v. Aventis Crop Science USA, was filed on behalf of farmers who did not grow StarLink. Here, the plaintiffs claimed that Aventis failed to take the appropriate measures to prevent the GM corn from entering the human food supply, and that, as a result, the plaintiffs lost significant domestic and foreign markets. The Mulholland complaint includes allegations of public nuisance, consumer fraud, deceptive business practices, and negligence. In Mudd v. Aventis Crop Science USA, non-StarLink growers filed a class action suit based on negligence and strict liability claims.

Concerns about GM crops also provoked the recent filing of a class action lawsuit against agbiotech companies in Canada. In this case, two farmers who specialize in organic produce initiated the lawsuit to recover compensatory damages for revenue lost by contamination of organic canola crops. The plaintiffs also requested an injunction to stop field trials of Monsanto's Roundup Ready wheat.

Larry Hoffman and Dale Beaudoin, two organic farmers in Saskatchewan, filed a statement of claim in the Court of Queen's Bench, seeking the class action lawsuit against Monsanto Canada, Inc. (Misssissauga, Ontario) and Aventis CropScience Canada Holding Inc. (Regina, Saskatchewan). They assert that the companies have ruined the province's organic canola market and must be prevented from doing the same to the organic wheat market. According to the complaint, Monsanto's Roundup Ready canola or Aventis CropScience's Liberty Link canola has been found growing on land for which it was not intended, and consequently, few, if any, seed suppliers will certify their seeds as organic. The farmers allege that the two companies are responsible for any GM contamination on the grounds of negligence, nuisance, trespass, pollution under the Saskatchewan Environmental Management Protection Act, and failure to conduct an environmental assessment. Estimates run to millions of dollars in damages for the loss of canola as an organic crop in Saskatchewan.

And what about the farmers who decide to produce GM crops designed by an agbiotech company?

Farmer vs. Farmer

Farmers who grow GM crops might find themselves as defendants in a lawsuit filed by neighbors who complain about crop contamination. For instance, plaintiffs might allege that pollen from the defendant's GM crops drifted over a property line (via wind, insects, etc.) and contaminated their non-GM crops.

Commentators have suggested that the plaintiffs of such lawsuits might assert claims of trespass to land, private nuisance, negligence, or strict liability. A claim of trespass to land can arise when someone crosses the legal boundary of another's land or causes something to cross that boundary. A private nuisance is often described as something that decreases the value of an individual's property or interferes with their use or enjoyment of the property. For a claim of negligence, a plaintiff must establish the existence of a duty owed by the defendant to the plaintiff, a breach of that duty, and an injury proximately resulting from the breach of duty. In contrast, strict liability is a type of liability without fault in which a person engages in an "abnormally dangerous" activity. Factors that a court may consider in determining whether an activity is abnormally dangerous include: whether the activity involves a high degree of risk of harm; whether the gravity of the harm that may result from the activity is likely to be great; whether the activity carries risk that cannot be eliminated by the exercise of reasonable care; whether the activity is a matter of common usage; whether the activity is inappropriate to the place where it is carried out; and the value of the activity to the community.

With regard to strict liability, commentators suggest that a court may compare a genetic contamination case to a pesticide drift case, such as the 1977 Washington State supreme court case, Langan v. Valicopters, Inc. (88 Wn.2d 855). In this case, the State supreme court affirmed an award of damages to an organic farmer who sued a crop duster in strict liability for the crop duster's use of a chemical pesticide on the organic farmer's land. Although this is characterized as a pesticide "drift" case, the Defendant had sprayed pesticide while he was flying over the Plaintiff's land in a helicopter. The pesticide did not simply float from one property to another. Courts will have to decide whether a short-term chemical drift is really analogous to the type of long-term process that would be required for genetic drift, and whether growing GM crops is the type of "abnormally dangerous activity" that is covered by strict liability. Determinations of trespass to land, private nuisance, negligence, and strict liability have nuances that can vary from state to state.

Dealing With Uncertainty

How can a farmer who grows GM crops manage the risk of a potential crop contamination lawsuit? Last November, a conference was held in Minneapolis to consider strategies for the co-existence of GM, non-GM, and organic crop production. Participants included representatives of the USDA, agbiotech companies, and academia. One recommendation from the Minneapolis meeting was to define legal responsibilities for compromised crop production. It would be helpful to establish an acceptable standard of behavior for a farmer who grows GM crops, and to identify the duty owed by that farmer to a neighbor who grows non-GM crops. Setting such a standard should provide more certainty in determining whether crop contamination was due to negligence.

Another recommendation was to establish a pilot program for an indemnity fund to reimburse losses caused by genetic contamination of non-GM and organic corn by GM corn. Many existing insurance policies do not cover pollution-related damages, and insurers may argue that pollen drift is a type of pollution. An alternative recommendation of the Minneapolis conference participants was to modify federal crop insurance programs to provide cross-contamination coverage. Farmers could also ask agbiotech companies that sell GM seed to indemnify them against liability in the event of a lawsuit.

New state laws might provide relief for certain types of GM crop-related lawsuits. Last year, at least four states considered the liability problem. The Massachusetts legislature, for example, had a bill (1789; "An Act Relative to the Liability for Genetically Engineered Food") that would shift liability to agbiotech companies. According to the legislation, a person (i.e., a natural person or business) who genetically engineers an organism for use as food shall be strictly liable for damages caused by the use of the product on the condition that the harm was not the result of another person violating reasonable safety precautions that were outlined in a signed agreement by both persons. The damages include loss of price due to crop contamination. Taking a different approach, the House and Senate of South Dakota passed a resolution urging Congress to create legislation that places all liability for damages caused by GM seeds on the companies that develop and manufacture the seeds. Currently, however, Congress is not considering this type of legislation.

Selected References

Hoffman and Beaudoin v. Monsanto Canada, Inc. and Aventis CropScience Canada Holding Inc. A copy of the Statement of Claim is available at the Saskatchewan Organic Directorate website

http://www.saskorganic.com

Iowa State University. 2001. Strategies for the coexistence of GMO, non-GMO, and organic crop production (meeting summary). (December). Available at Iowa State University's Biotechnology Home Page

http://www.biotech.iastate.edu/publications/IFAFS/coexistence.html

McInnis D. 2002. As more farmers plant GMO crops, legal issues multiply. (February 1). Available at the Checkbiotech.org website

http://www.checkbiotech.org

Moeller DR. 2001. GMO liability threats for farmers. (November). Available at the website of The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy

http://www.iatp.org

Kades D. 2001. Lawsuit filed over genetically modified corn. Wisconsin State Journal D12 (February 17).

State Legislative Activity in 2001 Related to Agricultural Biotechnology. (2002). Available from the website of the Pew Initiative on Food and Biotechnology

http://pewagbiotech.org

4/5/02
2:05:37 PM

New Copyright Bill Heading To DC

by Declan McCullagh, Wired.com

WASHINGTON -- Music and record industry lobbyists are quietly readying an all-out assault on Congress this fall in hopes of dramatically rewriting copyright laws.

With the help of Fritz Hollings (D-S.C.), the powerful chairman of the Senate Commerce committee, they hope to embed copy-protection controls in nearly all consumer electronic devices and PCs. All types of digital content, including music, video and e-books, are covered.

The Security Systems Standards and Certification Act (SSSCA), scheduled to be introduced by Hollings, backs up this requirement with teeth: It would be a civil offense to create or sell any kind of computer equipment that "does not include and utilize certified security technologies" approved by the federal government.

It also creates new federal felonies, punishable by five years in prison and fines of up to $500,000. Anyone who distributes copyrighted material with "security measures" disabled or has a network-attached computer that disables copy protection is covered.

Hollings' draft bill, which Wired News obtained on Friday, represents the next round of the ongoing legal tussle between content holders and their opponents, including librarians, programmers and open-source advocates.

Hollywood executives fret that without strong copy protection in widespread use, piracy will allow digital versions of movies to be pirated as readily as MP3 audio files once were with Napster. With the SSSCA enacted, the thinking goes, U.S. technology firms will have no choice but to insert copy-protection technology in future products.

The last legislative salvo in the content wars was the controversial 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which the SSSCA extends and expands. Under existing law, Russian programmer Dmitry Sklyarov has been charged with allegedly selling "circumvention" devices, and 2600 magazine has been sued for distributing a DVD-decryption utility.

"The government is mandating what your technology has to do," says Cindy Cohn, the legal director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation of the SSSCA. "The government's now in some ways effectively writing code that anyone who makes anything with a microprocessor has to implement in anything they make. I'm unaware of any other requirement like that."

Hollings' aides could not be reached for comment on Friday. One lobbyist opposing the legislation said Disney, which markets movies and TV shows, is the measure's most ardent supporter among industry groups.

The SSSCA and existing law work hand in hand to steer the market toward using only computer systems where copy protection is enabled. First, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act created the legal framework that punished people who bypassed copy protection -- and now, the SSSCA is intended to compel Americans to buy only systems with copy protection on by default.

The SSSCA says that it is illegal to create, sell or distribute "any interactive digital device that does not include and utilize certified security technologies" that are approved by the U.S. Commerce Department. An interactive digital device is defined as any hardware or software capable of "storing, retrieving, processing, performing, transmitting, receiving or copying information in digital form."

Jessica Litman, a law professor at Wayne State University who specializes in intellectual property, likened it to the 1992 Audio Home Recording Act that slapped restrictions on digital audio recorders.

"This appears to be an attempt to expand the concept to anything that has a microprocessor in it and to have everyone agree or to have the government set technological standards that will enforce copyright owners' preferences," Litman says.

"Forgetting all the reasons why this is bad copyright policy and bad information policy, it's terrible science policy," she says.

Sonia Arrison, a technology policy analyst at the free-market Pacific Research Institute, said, "Some parts of this go too far.... Would this mean that if I distributed a file that I received from someone who had broken security technology that I would be breaking the law? Sounds like it."

Under the SSSCA, industry groups have a year to agree on a security standard, or the Commerce Department will step in and decide on one. Sunshine laws would not apply to meetings held in conjunction with the law, and industry organizations would be immune from antitrust prosecution.

Source: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46655,00.html

4/5/02
1:42:17 PM

t r u t h o u t | 04.05

BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Israeli Defense Forces continue their offensive into the Palestinian controlled West Bank

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm

Bush Says U.S. Is to Assume Stronger Role in Ending Violence

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05A.Ending.Violence.htm

Imprisoned American Indian Activist Sues FBI for Violating Civil Rights

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05B.Peltier.htm

Conyers on Haddad Ruling : "A Victory for Fundamental Fairness"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05C.Conyers.Haddag.htm

Jennifer Van Bergen | Repeal the USA Patriot Act

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05D.JVB.Patriot.htm

Washington Is Criticized for Growing Reluctance to Sign Treaties

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05E.Sign.Treaties.htm

White House Stonewall: Day 41

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05F.Stonewall.htm

Poor Women Less Likely to be Promptly Diagnosed, Treated for Breast Cancer, Study Shows

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05G.Breast.Cancer.htm

Senate Trade Bill to Go Well Beyond President's Request for Trading Authority

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05H.Trade.Bill.htm

Federal Government vs The Last American Wild Buffalo Herd | Update 4/03/2002

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.05I.BFC.Update.htm

t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.

http://www.truthout.org

4/5/02
1:35:45 PM

A Rightwing Blueprint for the Middle East

by Jim Lobe

George W. Bush's silence in the face of the destruction of the Palestine Authority (PA) -- and with it, the nine-year-old Oslo peace process -- marks a sweeping change in U.S. policy in the Middle East.

The appeals of Arab allies to rein in Sharon have fallen on utterly deaf ears. The lack of response to date suggests that the Bush White House has now fully embraced the rightwing view that Israel is the U.S.' only strategic ally in the region. And that the interests of Arab states, such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt, will have to take second place to the broader "war against terrorism."

This shift in perspective marks a huge and potentially decisive victory for a coalition of largely Jewish neo-conservatives and Christian Right Republicans both inside and outside the administration. They have argued with increasing vehemence in recent months that Washington's traditional deference -- which they label as "appeasement" -- to Arab rulers is ultimately counter-productive.

Who is the Pro-Israel Lobby?

Members of the anti-Arab lobby within the administration include: Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, the second and third in command at the Pentagon respectively; Lewis Libby, Vice President Cheney's chief of staff and national security adviser; Elliott Abrams, a senior member of the National Security Council Staff; John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for international security; and John Ashcroft, the evangelical Christian who heads the Department of Justice. It is also evident that Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney generally share the views of their immediate deputies.

Outside the White House, William Bennett-- the influential former Reagan and Bush Sr. appointee who often spans the divide between neo-cons and the Christian Right -- is one of the prominent advocates of Israel. "America's fate and Israel's fate are one and the same," he wrote two weeks ago. Criticizing the State Department for calling on Sharon to exercise restraint, Bennett claimed that "Israel is being pressured so that we can assuage countries such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Yet it just so happens that those countries are responsible for the reappearance of the worst forms of anti-Jewish propaganda since (Nazi Propaganda Minister) Joseph Goebbels."

Bennett's article was one of dozens that have been churned out by the pro-Likud Right through publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, the National Review, and Washington Times, as well as the nationally syndicated columns of Charles Krauthammer, William Safire, and Michael Kelly.

Targeting the State Department

Many of these sources favor the even harder line of Sharon's main Likud rival, Benyimin Netanyahu. They have not hesitated to attack Sharon himself when he has shown any hesitation in destroying the Oslo peace process -- an initiative they have opposed from the outset.

But their principal target has been the State Department, and especially its Near East Bureau, which the Right believes has long been a hotbed of pro-Arab, if not anti-Semitic, sentiment. In their view, the Bureau's analysts (and Mideast specialists in the Central Intelligence Agency which tend to back up the Bureau) are simply wrong.

For example, the State Department's perspective -- which is shared by virtually all Mideast specialists in the United States, Europe, and even Israel --sees the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a central factor in the region's politics. Bureau analysts argue that any effort by Washington to build Arab support for an attack on Iraq will be made far more difficult by an escalation of the conflict or, worse, the complete collapse of the peace process. Their view of Israeli actions is best summed up by Nicholas Veliotes, retired head of the Bureau and ambassador to Egypt, who told CNN that the situation "in the West Bank and Gaza is an obscenity," which will badly damage U.S. interests in the region.

The right-wing lobby however disagrees.

"Washington needs to wean itself from viewing the Israeli-Palestinian collision as the center of the Middle East," according to Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA covert operator who is now at the staunchly neo-con thinktank American Enterprise Institute. It is a view repeatedly echoed on the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal, which noted just last week that "the path to a calmer Mideast now lies not rhough Jerusalem but through Baghdad."

A Radical Plan of Action

To the argument that Sharon's march into the Palestinian territories inspires "fury and hatred against the United States on the Arab "street," Gerecht responds, "Arabs only respect strength."

"In the Middle East, America's awe -- the key element that gives both us and our Israeli and Arab friends security -- can only be damaged by a Bush administration publicly fretting about Ariel Sharon's prosecution of his war against the Palestinian Authority," he writes. "Though the Near East Bureau at State hates the notion, the tougher Sharon becomes, the stronger our image will be in the Middle East."

Regional experts have also repeatedly argued that the conflict in Israel and Palestine makes it far more difficult for long-time U.S. allies and clients, especially Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to maintain their control -- and hence their "moderate" policies -- since their people demand strong action against Israel.

The Right subscribes to the radical view that the destabilization of such autocratic governments may be a good thing.

Permitting Arafat to set up a Palestinian Authority "is only the latest example of how dealing with Mideast dictators has become a Faustian bargain, not just for Israel but also for the U.S.," wrote the Journal's editorial staff Wednesday. "American presidents have gambled for 40 years that these rulers can buy stability, and that the alternative is far worse; in the long run they come back to haunt us."

The answer, according to this view, is to invade Iraq and establish a democratic government that can serve as a model for the region. "Liberating Iraq from Saddam and sponsoring democracy would not only rid the region of a major military threat. It would also send a message to the Arab world that self-determination as part of the modern world is possible," according to the Journal, which dismisses Arafat as a petty despot rather than leader elected by the population of the Palestinian Authority.

This view received strong support from Joshua Muravchik in The Standard few months ago. Reviewing a survey by another neo-con group, Freedom House, he noted that people in the Arab world enjoy the least freedom.

"Far from pointing toward a relaxation of military efforts (in the war against terror)," Muravchik wrote, "(the survey) suggests that the more terror-loving tyrannies the United States can topple the better."

And what if the Saudi royal family were replaced by a democratic government that was nonetheless hostile to the United States? The Wall Street Journal would be ecstatic: "It would force a decision on whether to take over the Saudi oilfields, which would put an end to OPEC."

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12785

4/5/02
1:27:27 PM

AlterNet Headlines

http://www.alternet.org

BRINGING NON-VIOLENCE TO THE WEST BANK

Eve Pell and Will Evans, AlterNet

Hundreds of civilian "internationalists" are arriving in the West Bank to act as human shields for the Palestinians under siege by the Israeli Army.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12784

VIOLENCE AND EXCUSES IN THE MIDEAST

Michael Lerner and Cornel West, AlterNet

Many Americans have been cowed into silence about Israeli aggression. But they should say aloud what they really feel: that Israel is behaving immorally and even savagely.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12771

THE MADNESS OF ARIEL SHARON

Ian Williams, AlterNet

The bloody campaign against the Palestinians is in keeping with the Israeli Prime Minister's violent history. But why is the White House participating in his vendetta?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12783

A RIGHTWING BLUEPRINT FOR THE MIDDLE EAST

Jim Lobe, AlterNet

A highly influential cabal of rightwingers have a radical vision for the Middle East -- and they include some of Bush's closest advisers.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12785

More Middle East coverage:

* Daily eyewitness accounts from Ramallah and other hot spots

* Lies about the suicide bomber

* A former soldier from Israel on Sharon's true motives

* How major editorialists keep Palestinians blurry

* Why anti-globalization activists should descend on Israel

All at http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28

AMERICA THE JOKE-FREE ZONE

Barbara Ehrenreich, The Progressive

Don't joke about Bush's policies, don't joke about CEO salaries, and in America 2002 -- aka The Security Zone -- especially don't joke about al Qaeda at the airport.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12763

YOUR CELL PHONE IS WATCHING YOU

Chris Kanaracus, Valley Advocate

The tracking ability of cell phones will soon grow exponentially, as the FCC has ordered all new phones to be equipped with GPS tracking devices.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12776

THE WEST WING'S WORKAHOLICS

Susan J. Douglas, AlterNet

Although it pays tribute to liberal humanistic values, America's favorite White House drama absolutely celebrates -- maybe even fetishizes -- workaholism.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12774

FIGHTING THE BIG BOOK CHAINS

Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives

A new survey shows book shoppers prefer indy stores over big chains. Meanwhile, the chains are being accused of illegal strong-arm tactics. Has the anti-chain revolt begun?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12770

HUTCHINSON: SUPREME COURT SHOULD OUST "THREE STRIKES" LAW

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet

The Supreme Court has agreed to review "three strikes" laws. It is unlikely to dump them, but if it does, it would bring some sanity back into the criminal justice system.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12778

HIGHTOWER: ANOTHER ENRON EXEC ON THE PUBLIC PAYROLL

Jim Hightower, AlterNet

Thomas White, the Secretary of the Army, seems to have pocketed $12 million in Enron stock sales through insider info. Why is he still on the public payroll?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12761

TEENAGE SEX SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Russell Brown, Nerve.com

As an antidote to Hollywood's endless dribble of teen sex comedies, Mexican cinema has produced Y Tu Mamá También, a realistic depiction of sexual awakenings delivered with humor and complexity.

* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19

4/5/02
1:20:04 PM

United States Violating International Treaties

WASHINGTON - The United States is increasingly violating and undermining major international security treaties in a slide away from rule of law toward the rule of power, according to a new study released yesterday.

The trend began under former President Bill Clinton but has accelerated under President George W. Bush, threatening the security of the United States as well as the larger international community, the study concluded.

Sponsored by two nonprofit groups, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research and the Lawyers' Committee on Nuclear Policy, the 188-page report analyzes the U.S. response to eight major international agreements, including the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

"The United States has violated, compromised or acted to undermine in some crucial way every treaty that we have studied in detail," said Nicole Deller, principal editor and co-author of the report, entitled "Rule of Power or Rule of Law."

This is all the more damaging because the United States was founded on the rule of law and has been viewed as a leading proponent of the international legal system, the report said.

The conclusions echo many complaints from U.S. allies and Bush administration critics.

The study determined that the United States "not only refuses to participate in newly created international legal mechanisms, it fails to live up to obligations undertaken in treaties that it has ratified."

It charged Washington is "drifting away from regarding treaties as an essential element in global security to a more opportunistic stand of abiding by treaties only when it is convenient."

This includes the 1970 Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty that bars most states from acquiring nuclear arms and commits treaty signers that do possess them - Russia, China, Britain, France and the United States - to negotiate their elimination.

In the meantime, the nuclear states are mandated under the NPT to not use such arms against non-nuclear states.

NPT VIOLATION

The study determined the Bush administration is undermining the NPT because it intends that new reductions in strategic weapons as part of an agreement with Russia can be reversed, if needed, and because its new Nuclear Posture Review "expands options for using nuclear weapons against non-nuclear states."

While the report focuses on the United States, it found that five signatories to the 1996 Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty are in breach of the pact, even though they are abiding by a testing moratorium.

That is because the United States and France are building large laser fusion facilities to conduct laboratory thermonuclear explosions up to 10 pounds of TNT equivalent and Britain is helping to finance the U.S. facility.

Also, Japan and Germany seem to be in violation because they are home to corporations whose subsidiaries provide glass for lasers at the U.S. and French facilities, the report said.

"Nothing in the public record or in the language of the CTBT provides for exceptions allowing laboratory thermonuclear explosions," the study concluded.

Although the United States has signed and ratified the NPT, the U.S. Senate refused to ratify the CTBT and Bush has made clear he has no intention of asking for reconsideration.

Bush recently announced plans for U.S. withdrawal from the 1972 ABM Treaty on national security grounds but the study said this reasoning "stretches credibility beyond the limit."

On the Chemical Weapons Convention banning such arms, limits imposed by the U.S. Congress amount to a "refusal to comply with terms of the treaty," the report said.

Washington was also faulted on its approach to the Biological Weapons Convention banning biological arms, the Kyoto Protocol curbing greenhouse gases, the International Criminal Court and the treaty banning antipersonnel land mines.

Deller, a lawyer, said a recent U.S. policy shift "towards greater reliance on military force, including nuclear weapons, as the main component for securing the people of the United States from a variety of threats sets a dangerous course and a poor example."

The report said that "over the long term, treaty regimes are a far more reliable basis for achieving global policy objectives and compliance with norms than 'do as we say, not as we do' directives from an overwhelmingly powerful state."

Source: http://www.ieer.org/reports/treaties/index.html

4/5/02
12:55:34 PM

US nuclear plants detail anti-corrosion steps

Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version USA: April 5, 2002

WASHINGTON - Twenty-five U.S. nuclear power plants told federal regulators this week that they were confident their reactors were not at risk of developing the severe corrosion recently discovered at an Ohio plant.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission launched an investigation after a corroded cavity was found in the reactor vessel head at FirstEnergy Corp.'s 25-year-old plant in Ohio.

The vessel head is a massive 17-foot (5.2-meter) wide piece of carbon steel bolted down on top of the reactor to prevent any radioactive material from escaping.

Last month, the NRC ordered 68 other pressurized water reactors - more than half of the nation's 103 nuclear plants -to look for similar problems and file a report by April 3.

As of Wednesday, 25 firms had responded, the agency said.

FirstEnergy said its Beaver Valley plant near Pittsburgh showed no signs of trouble, suggesting that repair expenses will be limited to the Davis-Besse plant. The firm has pegged repair costs at $10 million to $15 million.

FirstEnergy said it used robotic cameras to visually inspect Beaver Valley Unit 2 in February and Unit 1 last September. Neither had any signs of boric acid leaks.

The next inspection is scheduled for March 2003 during a refueling of Unit 1, the company said.

In another typical response, American Electric Power Co. Inc. said it could give regulators a "reasonable assurance" that its two nuclear plants in Michigan comply with the NRC's regulatory requirements.

Two plants told the agency they will replace reactor pressure vessels during planned unit outages in the autumn of 2003. They are Progress Energy Inc's 860-megawatt (MW) Crystal River 3 plant in Florida and Rochester Gas and Electric Corp.'s 485-MW Ginna plant in New York.

ENTERGY, AEP INSPECTIONS

Finding the kind of corrosion that plagues FirstEnergy's Davis-Besse plant is not as easy as popping the hood of a car. Maintenance workers must physically climb into the reactor vessel that houses the control rods, which is normally operated at very high pressures and temperatures.

For that reason, pressure vessel inspections can only take place while plants are shut down for refueling, when old radioactive control rods are replaced with fresh ones.

Several of the plants told the NRC they have inspections either ongoing or slated for the near future as part of their normal refueling outages.

Entergy Corp.'s 1,075-MW Waterford-3 plant in Louisiana is 80 percent finished with a full visual inspection of the reactor vessel as part of an ongoing refueling outage. Entergy told the NRC that it did not find any corrosion.

Lehman Brothers analysts had placed the Waterford-3 plant among three U.S. plants most susceptible to corrosion.

The analysts' list also included FPL Group Inc's Turkey Point plant in Florida and Wisconsin Energy Corp.'s Point Beach 2 plant, which have yet to submit reports.

Other plants said that though they had recently inspected their reactor vessels, not all the tests could check the entire surface of the vessel because of structural limitations.

For example, the design of Southern California Edison's San Onofre plant limits its visual inspection ability to about half of the vessel head. The other half is obscured by insulation which blocks direct access for inspectors.

SoCal Ed said its partial inspection regime "provides assurance that there is no corrosive process or degradation," and said it will conduct inspections during refueling outages in May and next January.

AEP said it inspected the reactor of the adjacent 1,090-MW Cook 2 plant in January as part of a refueling outage, though its efforts "would not have been able to identify a potential cavity behind nozzles," which occurred at Davis-Besse.

BORIC ACID LEAK

During a scheduled refueling outage that began Feb. 16, FirstEnergy engineers found boric acid had leaked at the base of five of the 69 control rod nozzles that penetrate the reactor. Boric acid is used in the primary coolant bath surrounding uranium rods in the reactor core.

At one of the nozzles, the acid had eaten all the way through the 6-inch (15-cm) thick vessel head.

The corrosion was so severe that a 3/8-inch (1-cm) thick stainless steel liner inside the reactor was the only barrier left between the reactor core, which operates under enormous pressure, and the metal shroud surrounding the reactor vessel.

The NRC and FirstEnergy officials will discuss the results of that inspection at a Friday meeting in Ohio.

Source: http://www.reuters.com

4/5/02
12:46:12 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Vietnam sends in troops to fight forest fire - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15322/story.htm

300 deer shot in Colorado to check wasting disease - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15323/story.htm

UPDATE - US nuclear plants detail anti-corrosion steps - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15327/story.htm

More Wisconsin deer diagnosed with wasting disease - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15321/story.htm

Environmentalists fear loss of US farm data - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15338/story.htm

Parents of autistic kids sue drug firms, dental groups - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15341/story.htm

US said violating international treaties - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15333/story.htm

Horse racing-Two horses killed on first day of National meeting - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15328/story.htm

Scientists concerned about swimming pool chemical - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15336/story.htm

CHRONOLOGY - Key events in US - North Korea relations since 1950 - SOUTH KOREA

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15326/story.htm

UPDATE - Iran's Kharrazi hopes for new Russian nuclear deal - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15324/story.htm

Asian team to clear garbage, bodies from Everest - NEPAL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15340/story.htm

Japan's whalers net maximum allowed under quota - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15332/story.htm

UPDATE - Norddeutsche sees copper sales slowdown - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15331/story.htm

Finns on baby strike to protest nuclear power - FINLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15325/story.htm

Minister denies Ottawa gives mixed view on Kyoto - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15337/story.htm

Truce over Canadian rainforest seen fraying - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15339/story.htm

Canada to toughen new-vehicle pollution rules - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15329/story.htm

Australia scientists hit on world first soil test - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15335/story.htm

Waste not, want not as sewage turns to snow - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15334/story.htm

4/5/02
12:42:28 PM

What The CIA Doesn’t Want You To Know

FTW Interview: Delmart "Mike" Vreeland

by Michael C. Ruppert

April 4, 2002, 1:00 PM PST (FTW) -- If all of its dark alleys were explored, the case of Delmart Edward Joseph “Mike” Vreeland is one which is worthy of a book that would rival “War and Peace.” It is a case that has sparked zealous attacks on FTW and me personally, and one which has seriously disturbed many officials in Washington. These attacks are an indication of the threat Vreeland poses to the credibility of the U.S. government. Only one question of any relevance exists. How was this man able to write details that described the events of Sept. 11 while locked in a jail cell, more than a month before the attacks occurred?

It matters little to a housewife in Kansas if Mike Vreeland has a very confusing criminal arrest record -- some of it very contradictory and apparently fabricated -- for a variety of petty criminal offenses including fraud. But it may be a matter of the gravest importance for the same housewife if this man knew accurate information about the attacks, tried to warn both the U.S. and Canadian governments about them, and was ignored. If a crazy man runs up to you on the street and says that a house is on fire with children trapped inside, and you smell smoke, who is the crazy one if you decide not to investigate?

The U.S. Navy says that Vreeland, arrested in Canada on Dec. 4, 2000 and currently fighting a U.S. extradition warrant, was discharged for unsatisfactory performance after only four months of service in 1986. But a growing pile of evidence, much of it filed in court records and undisputed by Canadian or U.S. authorities, establishes clearly that Vreeland was exactly what he says he was -- a spy.

In three previous stories, FTW has described how his military records, acknowledged to be in excess of 1,200 pages, have been tampered with. We have described how, in open court on a speakerphone, his lawyers obtained direct confirmation from the Pentagon that he was a Navy officer. We have also reported that, as of March 14, all Canadian charges against Vreeland were dismissed. He was released on bail and also granted temporary refugee status by the Canadian government until his battle to beat the U.S. extradition request is settled.

Something that Canadian authorities have never disputed is that Vreeland wrote his ominous and hastily scribbled warning a full month before the attacks, and that the warning was sealed away by his keepers, beyond his reach, until Sept. 14, three days after the attacks.

If he loses his extradition fight, both Vreeland and his attorneys believe that his assassination will occur within days of his return to U.S. soil.

Mike Vreeland is not a saint. Covert operatives are not made from such material, and governments do not recruit or screen candidates for saintly qualities. By his own admission in Canadian court documents and in several conversations with FTW, Vreeland says he has done bad things. He has been on probation for petty offenses, and he has behaved the way covert operatives behave in the real world -- not in Hollywood.

I have been studying, interacting with, and talking to covert operatives for more than 25 years. It is for that reason that I avoid some of the questions being raised by dilettantes and neophyte journalists who take all of the threads of Vreeland’s stories and run with them into a wilderness from which no professional journalist could credibly emerge. Yes, I have listened to him talk about so-called “red mercury,” baseball-sized atom bombs, and Star Wars weapons systems. Yes, I have heard him talk about a great many things, and I believe that what he told me was truthful according to his knowledge of events and the documents he brought back from Moscow in December 2000.

Even by his own statements, Vreeland, now 35, was a relatively low ranking officer and an intelligence field operative. Never in the history of covert operations has any government entrusted field operatives with total strategic knowledge because the knowledge held by those who make the plans is compartmentalized and locked away. Perhaps 80 percent of all intelligence work is disinformation, and governments know that their field operatives risk capture, interrogation and torture. Quite often field operatives are themselves fed disinformation so that if they talk, they will still spread lies that serve a larger strategic purpose. Quite often they carry documents that are deliberately inaccurate and their capture is engineered to give those documents credibility.

To the U.S. government, Vreeland is totally expendable. And those who run with every piece of information he has disclosed will themselves be proven fools in a fool’s game.

But one question remains. And it is a question that now stands vindicated by time and events. He knew something chillingly accurate about the 9-11 attacks before they happened. And if he knew something, based upon documents given to him by Russian officials indicating U.S. knowledge, and if the U.S. government went to great lengths to discredit him, rather than bring him in from the cold -- then there is real meat on the plate for journalists, the American government, and all of mankind.

I have asked him 35 questions, and now you can read Mike Vreeland’s answers as he speaks for himself. The first 32 questions were jointly submitted to both Vreeland and his attorney, Paul Slansky, for review. The remaining three questions were asked after the most recent hacking of FTW’s website, which we believe was perpetrated by the CIA. This made the publication of this story an emergency and also made a statement about the survival of a free press in America:

1. What part of the U.S. government did you work for? Was it the CIA?

I worked for U.S. Naval intelligence. What the CIA directs us to do is their business, so we have no way of knowing whether we’re working for them or not.

2. Was your assignment primarily connected to terrorism/oil?

Yes, on both issues, in part.

3. Why were you in Moscow and Russia in the latter part of 2000?

I was sent there by the U.S. government and the ONI [Office of Naval Intelligence]. I got my orders between Sept. 4 and Sept. 7, 2000.

Marc Bastien departed for Russia on Sept. 7, 2000. I had orders to meet him. Bastien was going to work at the Canadian embassy regarding diagrams and blueprints of a weapons defense system. The U.S. government had a direct influence on his mission. The name of the defense system is SSST [Stealth Satellite System Terminator]. There are five different individual and unique defensive and strike capabilities of the system. The only portion that I have publicly spoken on is one frame regarding actual current orbiting satellites, which are not at this time owned by the US government. On advice of counsel I cannot discuss the other components.

This one component is a satellite system. Within the confines of the system there are multiple, deployable space/orbital EMP [Electromagnetic Pulse] missiles that are not aimed at the ground. They are targeted at everyone else’s satellites. These would kill worldwide communications. The satellites of some countries that are shielded with titanium are protected from these weapons. The protected countries are Russia and China, but U.S. satellites are vulnerable and Putin has told Bush that the U.S. missile defense system doesn’t work, and that Bush knows it.

The reason why I went to Russia was because I needed to meet with Bastien and another individual from the Russian Ministry of Defense named Oleg. The purpose was to get the Canadian diplomat who had made contact with Oleg to get the book of designs out of the ministry’s R&D. That was done. We copied the entire book. Then we took certain documents, and we changed serious portions of the defense design so the program wouldn’t work. They know this now.

Additionally I was to pick up docs from other agents and bring them back.

4. You told Canadian authorities that Bastien was murdered when?

I never told them he was murdered. I wrote a letter to Bastien around June of 2000 from jail. I sent it to CSIS [Canadian Security and Intelligence Service] in Ottawa, to the director for his eyes only. I had restructured the diagram to put it back in its original state. But I never told anyone exactly how to turn it on and how to build it. CSIS already knew that Bastien was dead. He died six says after I was arrested on Dec. 6. I was discharged on Dec. 9. He was killed on Dec 12.

CSIS sent RCMP [Royal Canadian Mounted Police] (Sgt. Mabe, Corporal Kispol) to visit me in jail on Aug. 8, 2001,…and they advised me that he was dead. They didn’t say he was murdered. They told me he was dead. I told them that is Bastien was dead, it was murder, and that they should get a toxicology report. And I would tell you how it was done, and who did it.

5. When did they finally admit that Bastien was murdered?

They admitted that I was correct in mid-January.

6. When did you first learn details of the attacks that were to happen on Sept. 11?

In the first week of December 2000.

7. How did you learn of the details?

One document was written in English by a U.S. agent, who had picked up a copy of a document that had been sent to V. Putin by K. Hussein, Saddam Hussein’s son. This is what the translation of the doc indicates. The Iraqis knew in June 2000 that I was coming. I didn’t get my orders until August. The letter said that Bastien and Vreeland would be dealt with “in a manner suitable to us.” The letter specifically stated on page two, “Our American official guarantees this.”

8. Who put the information on the attacks into the pouch, and what would have been their motive for doing so?

I am not allowed to answer that. It would jeopardize the lives of active agents, and it would violate the National Security Act of 1947.

9. After having learned of the details of the impending attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon, how long did you wait before trying to notify Canadian and U.S. authorities of the information?

On Dec. 6, 2000 I told Canadian authorities to their face that I needed to contact the Canadian military immediately. I wrote it down. She [the Canadian official] was playing games, so I wrote down that I was a Russian spy and a weapons systems expert, and that I wanted to talk to them TODAY. I said I was a Russian because figured it would get their attention. The name they had on me was Mikhail Cristianov (Michael Christian), because I had ID that used this name.

10. What was their reaction?

The Canadians turned blue, walked away, and I never saw them again.

11. How did it make you feel?

I was pissed off. It’s on video [referring to a standard jail surveillance/security video].

12. Did the U.S. and Canadian response lead you to reach any conclusions? If so, what were they?

I thought I was dealing with idiots who had no clue about what was about to happen. It’s been put to me that there were certain officials who wanted the attacks to happen. No one ever had any intention of building the system I was after because it would have made the defense budget obsolete. One thing that happened after 9-11 was that the Pentagon budgets soared.

13. Your written warning contains the statement, “Let one happen, stop the rest.” Who was going to let one happen? Who was going to stop the rest?

I can’t comment on the advice of counsel.

14. Does that statement imply that the U.S. or some other intelligence agency had achieved complete penetration of the terrorist cells?

That goes without question. Sometimes certain governments design, create networks like Al’Qaeda, which was really the government in Afghanistan. Those entities create specific problems at the creating government’s direction.

15. Do you know who had achieved this penetration?

I cannot comment on that.

16. Is it possible that the terrorist cells were being “run” without knowing by whom?

Absolutely.

17. The most common excuse people use to discredit you is that you have prior arrests on fraud charges, and there are several press stories linking you to alleged criminal activity. How do you explain this?

The American Express charges are b.s., and Amex has stated on tape that the specific charges in question were approved. They admit that there was no fraud on this card. That card had been issued to Lt. Delmart Michael Vreeland. The Amex people admitted that the card was a U.S. Navy card.

People have accused me of identity theft. If anybody checked with the police departments in the U.S., they would find that there is not one police report form any individual in the U.S. who has alleged that I have stolen any identities. There is not a single identified victim anywhere. Three judges in Canada have denied my requests to have discovery and disclosure on these alleged charges.

The press stories that have circulated about my past are lies. Portions of the stories alleging fraud and ID theft are lies. I have threatened to sue these papers, and the stories have been pulled.

I’m working with ONI. Certain government officials -- politicians, brass, and high ranking military -- have 11th Amendment privileges and can’t be sued. Another government agency has to go investigate activities connected to weapons smuggling, organized crime and drug trafficking. They use their power to break laws, and we’re not allowed to investigate them. Thus certain parts of the U.S. government designed an entity called UID (Unofficial Intelligence Investigation Division). It was designed by Adm. Jeremy Michael Boorda, who allegedly committed suicide. Boorda put this together prior to becoming CNO [Chief of Naval Operations]. He was not a bad guy.

Intelligence officers are sometimes put into positions where they are given assignments to infiltrate specific organizations that are powerful enough to check out a newcomer’s background. Page 335 of the Charter Application in Canadian Court shows a copy of orders from Southern Command. These orders are dated April 18, 2000, concerning an anti-drug operation we were mounting. At approximately the same time the media released widespread stories that I was a wanted criminal. This was a means pf providing cover and credibility for me with the people I was infiltrating.

18. How many times have you been arrested on criminal charges?

Maybe three. Some of this I did, like a DUI charge in New York. I had been at the UN, and I had definitely been drinking.

19. How many times have you been convicted?

I have never been legally convicted of any criminal, felony activity anywhere. The drunk driving charge is still pending, and I have admitted in open court that I did it.

20. The Michigan warrant for credit card fraud is based upon the use of your own credit card. How do you explain this?

It is a setup.

21. Were your credit cards authorized or facilitated by the U.S. Navy or any part of the U.S. government?

Yes.

22. Could the U.S. government or any of its intelligence agencies have “inserted” the charges through state and local agencies?

Yes.

23. You were in custody in New York on the date the alleged Michigan offense took place. What was the charge, and what was the disposition of that case?

That was the DUI charge.

24. Was working with organized crime families a part of your duties with the Navy?

Yes.

25. Were any of the organized crime families in Michigan?

Yes.

26. For what reason were you working with organized crime?

I was under orders to do so 90 percent of the time. Organized crime supplies the weapons and drugs that go to the people we investigate.

27. Are you afraid that you will be killed if you are extradited to the U.S.? Why?

Yes. Because I have spoken out.

28. Can you explain why the Canadian courts will not allow your attorneys to introduce evidence that verifies your position with the U.S. Navy?

Yes. The Canadians are totally subservient to U.S. intelligence interests. They’re afraid of Uncle Sam. It would also prove that CSIS covered up Marc Bastien’s death, and that there was a cover-up involving a member of a major drug organization that had planned assassinations against prominent Canadians. In fact, one individual was found dead in a vat of acid. He was a hit man.

29. What do you want?

I want my uniform back, my back pay at $4,210.90 a month and my honor. I want President Bush to give me a full and complete pardon and the amnesty of the U.S. government. I am owed that. I want Bush personally to know everything that I know, and what kind of threats there are against the U.S.

It’s never going to happen, so I am now seeking permanent refugee status in Canada and the protection of the United Nations.

30. What do you think will happen next in your case?

I don’t know. My attorney is in court seeking a postponement of the extradition case because the Canadian government will not allow me to subpoena very important U.S. witnesses from the Pentagon and other places.

31. Is the war on terrorism about something other than what the people of the world are being told?

What war on terrorism?

32. What do you think will happen next in the war on terror?

Eventually, someone’s going to have to tell the truth. Once those people are dealt with according to law, there will be no more false terror spread across the globe.

33. You have recently had dealings with an American journalist named Rick Wiles. What is your opinion of Wiles and what was your experience?

My opinion of Wiles is that he is a psychopath, who will print anything that will make him money. My experience with him was that I had private conversations with him that he recorded, not telling me he was going to post them on the Internet and sell them to the world. Then once I contacted him and told him that he was not to do that, he said he would take them down right now. Instead of taking them down he placed a bigger ad. He made a bigger ad!

In my opinion he is neither honorable nor professional. He has placed my story right next to a story about someone who talked to aliens 25 years ago. Yeah, that’s right where I want my story to be, right next to some bozo who talks to aliens. The idiot!

So now he’s selling this phony exclusive interview with me for $20 and he’s making all the money. He never had my permission to do that.

34. You have recently had dealings with an American journalist named J.R. Nyquist. What is you opinion of Nyquist and what was your experience?

Don’t even get me started. My opinion: I think he might be working for the government. I did not know that he was writing a story about me. He asked me some questions. I answered some questions. I recorded it, and then he went off on a wild tangent about psychological crap, and I didn’t even read the whole story I was so mad.

He went off about the Russians, and it’s all bs. He sent me this fax about you saying that Ruppert was not my friend. He was saying that the Russians had me boxed in. The truth is, the American government is boxing me in. He’s full of shit.

35. Are all of these statements on-the-record?

Yes!

Source: http://www.copvcia.com

4/5/02
12:14:02 PM

Generals' Apathy

The Pentagon's appalling record on "friendly fire."

by Scott Shuger

The Pentagon revealed earlier this week that it is investigating whether the first U.S. soldier killed in Operation Anaconda might have been the victim not of an Al-Qaida mortar, as was earlier reported, but of a U.S. AC-130 gunship. This is a reminder that the U.S. military has made appallingly little progress against one of its most persistent problems: killing its own. The Anaconda death is one of four Afghanistan "friendly fire" cases currently under investigation. And it's equally appalling that neither the press nor Congress has over the years found this a particularly interesting topic. All this inaction says a lot about what, in between flag waves, the powers that be really think about the value of our soldiers' lives.

The dirty little secret of the Gulf War is that "friendly fire" accounted for 24 percent of the U.S. dead. A rate this high is not an inevitable consequence of the "fog of war." According to a study done at the Army's Command and General Staff College, "friendly fire" casualties accounted for less than 2 percent of all those occurring in battle during World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. Nor was the Gulf War statistic skewed by one or two anomalous incidents—the Pentagon found that during the 100-hour Desert Storm ground war, there were 27 separate cases of fratricide. No, what has happened is not inevitable—it's the result of expanding our offensive capability in such areas as night-fighting and beyond-visual-range targeting without commensurately expanding our capability to identify targets. This is like a car company building bigger engines without building better brakes.

You'd think that the U.S. military would be on the case, given that it has the most to lose from failure here. You'd think. But the Gulf War fiascos didn't prevent U.S. fighter planes from shooting down two U.S. helicopters over Iraq a few years later, killing 21 military and civilian personnel, including 15 Americans.

What happens instead is that the military-industrial complex talks about solving the problem and is skilled at making optimism seem warranted. So, for instance, a 1992 Air Force magazine article attributes to Gen. Wesley Clark (former NATO commander and now a studio general for CNN) the goal of having target identification systems in every Army vehicle. A 1995 Journal of Electronic Defense article states that "the Army has passed through the engineering and manufacturing development … stage of a near-term, ground-to-ground combat ID solution to provide armored units with a much more robust capability" and concludes that "the friendly fire statistics should show considerable improvement as the military heads deeper into the post-Cold War era." A 1997 Defense Daily story emphasizes one officer's enthusiasm for an identification system being tested and says "the technology permits his tank crews to locate the movements of friendly forces on the battlefield by merely checking the icons on their laptops." Only near the end is a senior Army analyst quoted saying there is only "a very small sample" of the system preventing fratricide incidents in exercises.

Similarly, although Philip Coyle, the head of Pentagon testing during the Clinton administration, tells me that the Army has a couple of $1 billion-plus target identification programs, and that its top general says the "friendly fire" problem is the Army's "No. 1 priority," Coyle admits that he doesn't know how much of this technology has gotten into the actual hands of actual soldiers. When he pulls out a document from his former office to check out the career of one such Army program (involving laptop computers that would display all friendly and enemy forces), he notes that it started in 1994, underwent its first limited testing in 1998—when problems became evident—and then experienced further difficulties during each of its subsequent field tests. Its December 2001 test was postponed. As of now, says Coyle, the gear still hasn't undergone realistic operational testing. At this point, I don't want to hear how the Army is doing on its No. 2 priority.

A similar lack of urgency lurks beneath one of the most notorious of the "friendly fire" episodes on the Pentagon's investigations list: the one last December in which a B-52 airstrike killed three Green Berets and numerous anti-Taliban Afghans—and nearly killed Hamid Karzai, the man who subsequently became Afghanistan's prime minister. It has been widely reported that the disaster occurred because a ground-based U.S. targeter mistakenly radioed his own coordinates to the bomber. The Los Angeles Times reported that this happened because the ground controller failed to re-enter the proper target coordinates after changing the batteries on his global positioning system device, which was necessary because "after a battery change, the unit automatically displays its own location." Coverage of the incident has tended to view this episode as "fog of war" stuff, but nobody in the media (or in the Pentagon or the Congress) has asked the key question: How could this obviously dangerous battery-changing feature of the Army's GPS have possibly survived the military's development, testing, and procurement process? Surely the manufacturer of the device intentionally built in this feature—but did it tell the Army? And if it did, why didn't the Army have it removed?

And if computer-based approaches to the "friendly fire" problem are proving too recondite, where are the Pentagon's quick fixes? Here's an idea that seems pretty good to me: How about putting receivers on each Army vehicle that can detect when it's being painted by an airborne laser? Once the United States establishes air superiority, as it has in Afghanistan, being lased from above can only mean one thing—and the targeted vehicle could then immediately get on the horn with a "Don't shoot me, I'm here" message (which needn't tell the enemy anything because that broadcast could go out over a scrambled friendly radio frequency and/or be in code). Laser detection technology already exists and is already in use on some military aircraft and vehicles—it's even marketed to those wishing to detect police speed traps. Why shouldn't GI's have as much protection as speeders?

Given all this, here are a couple of questions the defense press might want to pose the next time Donald Rumsfeld gives a briefing: How much has the Pentagon spent on the "friendly-fire" problem since the Gulf War, compared to, say, on the B-2 stealth bomber, the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 fighter, or nuclear submarines? And what does it have to show for it? If a U.S. aircraft is about to attack a U.S. infantry unit in Afghanistan right this minute, what can our soldiers there really do about it?

Source: http://slate.msn.com/?id=2064055

4/4/02
5:21:04 PM

DAILY GRIST

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

CITY CITY BANG BANG

Think about Bogota, the capital city of Colombia, and what comes to mind? Most likely violence, murder, mayhem, drugs, corruption, traffic, and smog. But think again. Two highly unconventional mayors, Enrique Penalosa and Antanus Mockus, have helped turn one of Latin America's most infamous cities into a model of progressive urban development. By radically limiting car traffic, heavily funding alternative transportation, and advocating for (and enabling) biking and walking, the mayors have given the city back to the people, and done the environment a good turn in the process. Lisa Jones reports, only on the Grist Magazine website.

only in Grist: A tale of two mayors -- the improbable story of how Bogota, Colombia, became somewhere you might actually want to live <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/jones040402.asp?source=daily>

THE LEFT WING

Ah, the ever-elusive boundary between art and life. Who knows where it lies, but by all indications, somewhere right down the middle of the NBC drama "The West Wing." Here's the proof: This week, New Mexico's Department of Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources felt the need to issue a press release explaining that Wednesday's episode of the hit show was fictional. In the show, a truck carrying uranium fuel rods crashes in a remote Idaho tunnel. Not to worry, New Mexico assured the public in its release, the state does not transport radioactive waste via tunnels. (Nor, it turns out, does Idaho.) Meanwhile, the previous week's episode, in which characters trashed the idea of drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, provoked a rebuke from Republican members of the Alaska Legislature. The lawmakers took issue with assertions that drilling was opposed by Alaska Natives, would destroy caribou herds, and would yield only six months' worth of oil; they likened the show to "millions of dollars of free advertising for the anti-ANWR effort."

straight to the source: Idaho Statesman, 04 Apr 2002 <http://204.228.236.37/News/story.asp?ID=6757>

straight to the source: Fairbanks News-Miner, Sam Bishop, 04 Apr 2002 <http://www.news-miner.com/Stories/0,1002,7247%257E506565,00.html>

do good: Take action to save the Arctic Refuge <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/mining.asp?source=daily#arctic>

NATURE NOT NURTURING

In a move being described as unprecedented in recent history, the highly respected scientific journal Nature has said that it should not have published a controversial article last year about the discovery of genetically engineered corn growing in Mexico. The journal's editors concluded that the article, which was welcomed by opponents of genetic modification, did not present sufficient evidence to back its two important claims: first, that genetically altered corn had contaminated natural strains in Mexico's southern valley, the international center for corn diversity; and second, that genes spliced into corn plants were unstable, a finding that appeared to challenge basic assumptions about agricultural biotechnology. The authors say they stand by the first finding and believe the second is also on the money, although they concede they might have misinterpreted some of the data in the latter case. Advocates of biotechnology, however, point to the Nature retraction as the triumph of science over ideology.

straight to the source: Washington Post, Marc Kaufman, 04 Apr 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58267-2002Apr3.html>

do good: Take action to protect Mexico's ancient corn <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/food.asp?source=daily#corn>

only in Grist: Organic panic -- genetic engineering takes its toll on organic farming -- and other gems from assorted magazines in our Best of the Rest section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/best/best101101.asp?source=daily#organic>

SUSHI AND THE BANSHEES

Japan's languishing organic food market could get a major boost from a string of recent food scandals that have rocked the nation. The scandals include an outbreak of mad cow disease and allegations of government mishandling of the crisis; the discovery of traces of prohibited biotech corn in domestic food and animal feed; and a massive outbreak of food poisoning that affected 10,000 people and was traced to unsanitary practices at the country's biggest dairy producer. In response, the Japanese are looking for food they can trust -- and the organic industry smells cash. Since last fall, organic supermarkets and restaurants have sprung up like mushrooms, and ordinary stores have started stocking organic produce as well. Although Japan's organic food sector was worth only $4-5 billion last year -- less than 1 percent of the entire food sector -- that number represents a four-fold increase in just five years.

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, Tim Large, 04 Apr 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15317/story.htm>

SITTING BY THE DOCKET OF THE BAY

A five-year-old legal battle between San Francisco Baykeeper, a conservation organization, and Dow Chemical ended yesterday when the Contra Costa County Superior Court approved a settlement. Dow stood accused of unlawfully discharging contaminated water into the New York Slough, which empties into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers and from there into the San Francisco Bay. Under the terms of the settlement, Dow will pay $3 million toward a wetland restoration project, and will clean up contaminated groundwater using an innovative new technology. The bioremediation technology involves injecting nutrients into the aquifer to encourage microbes to consume toxic chemicals. The groundwater in the area is currently contaminated with carbon tetrachloride, perchlorethylene, methylene chloride, and trichloroethylene, which are suspected of causing cancer and other health problems.

straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Jane Kay, 04 Apr 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/04/04/BA149284.DTL>

4/4/02
1:55:25 PM

The Nation

Veteran talk show host Phil Donahue is returning to televison for the first time in six years to take on Bill O'Reilly, as host of a new MSNBC prime-time program. Donahue's new talk show, will air at 8:00pm weeknights directly against Fox News's "The O'Reilly Factor."

"I want to win," Donahue told assembled reporters at a news conference yesterday. "It's even more exciting to go against a personality that has been so successful. Let's ring the bell and see what happens."

Donahue is also unapologetic about his politics: "If you want to describe me as coming from the left and O'Reilly as coming from the right, that's okay with me" said Donahue.

Scheduled to start broadcasting this summer, the still-unnamed program promises to liven up and enrich cable news programming in wholly original ways.

And, for an idea of what kind of media Donahue values, check out his contribution to The Nation's special issue on Big Media from the magazine January 7/14, 2002 issue.

Currently available at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020107&c=3&s=replies

4/4/02
1:51:37 PM

P R E S S R E L E A S E

For release after 10 a.m., Thursday, April 4, 2002, National Press Club news conference

For further information, contact

Arjun Makhijani: (301) 270-5500

Bob Schaeffer: (941) 395-6773

SYSTEMATIC UNITED STATES DISREGARD OF ITS TREATY OBLIGATIONS JEOPARDIZES NUCLEAR NONPROLIFERATION AND GLOBAL SECURITY

New Report Concludes Five Countries -- United States, France, Britain, Japan, Germany -- Appear to Violate Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Terms

Washington, D.C., April 4: The United States is disregarding crucial treaty obligations and creating a dangerous slide away from the rule of law into a power-based world that is likely to be far more insecure, according to a detailed analysis of U.S. policies and actions in relation to major security-related treaties released today. The new study, Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties, was prepared jointly by two non-profit groups, the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and the Lawyers’ Committee on Nuclear Policy (LCNP).

“The United States has violated, compromised, or acted to undermine in some crucial way every treaty that we have studied in detail,” said Nicole Deller, principal editor and co-author of the report. “Recent shifts of U.S. policy toward greater reliance on military force, including nuclear weapons, as the main component for securing the people of the United States from a variety of threats sets a dangerous course and a poor example.” Ms. Deller, a lawyer, was a consultant to IEER and LCNP during the preparation of the report.

The study concludes that five of the signatories to the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) the United States, France, Britain, Japan, and Germany appear to be violating it already, though they claim to be in compliance. The apparent violation involves the planned laboratory thermonuclear explosions in huge new laser devices being built in the United States (the National Ignition Facility) and in France (Laser Mégajoule). The devices would be used for experiments aimed at producing thermonuclear explosions of as much as ten pounds of TNT equivalent.

“The CTBT bans all nuclear explosions, even if the devices in which they are carried out cannot be weaponized,” said Dr. Arjun Makhijani, president of IEER and a co-author of the study. “It also bans all activities that are designed to encourage or cause nuclear explosions. The explanations that the United States Department of Energy has offered to suggest that the planned explosions in NIF comply with the CTBT simply do not stand up to scrutiny. There is some evidence of an agreement between a few states, not known to all the parties, to brush this issue under the rug.” Britain is helping fund the U.S. laser project. Subsidiaries of a Japanese company Hoya, and a German company, Schott, are supplying the highly specialized glass that would be used to make the lasers.

Rule of Power or Rule of Law? concludes that the United States is also flouting its obligations under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).

“The January 2002 Nuclear Posture Review makes a mockery of U.S. commitments under the NPT,” said Dr. John Burroughs, executive director of LCNP and a co-author of the study, and an expert in international law as it relates to nuclear weapons. “The disclosure of a variety of options for use of nuclear weapons, including by preemptive attack, against non-nuclear weapon states, are contrary to a commitment to a ‘diminishing role for nuclear weapons in security policy’ made less than two years ago.”

An advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice in 1996 unanimously concluded that the NPT requires nuclear weapons states not only to negotiate but also to actually achieve nuclear disarmament “in all its aspects.” The study argues that a failure to fulfill treaty commitments when it involves some constraints on the part of the United States will undermine the security of the people of the United States. Global cooperation is needed, the authors say, to detect materials that may be used in dirty bombs, to ensure that international cargo does not contain hidden nuclear weapons, and to create comprehensive accounts of nuclear materials to reduce the risk of proliferation.

“The September 2001 attacks on the United States point to the urgent need to marginalize nuclear weapons and intensify global cooperation on nuclear weapons and nuclear materials,” said Dr. Burroughs. “Instead, the United States has adopted an irrational policy of elevating the role of nuclear weapons in its overall military strategy. This will reduce U.S. and global security, not increase it.”

The report makes an important connection between the build up of greenhouse gases and security and concludes that the United States is violating the United Nations Convention on Global Climate Change. Ratified by the United States in 1992, it obligates wealthy countries to take the lead in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“If food production conditions changes and vast areas of the world are flooded, climate change could create millions or tens of millions of refugees,” said Dr. Makhijani. “This would pose serious economic and security concerns, in addition to environmental ones. The Bush Administration’s plan to reduce greenhouse gas ‘intensity’ does not come close to complying with the Convention on Climate Change by a long shot.”

The report details evidence that U.S. policy is drifting away from regarding treaties as an essential element in global security to a more opportunistic stand of abiding by treaties only when it is convenient. “The United States is setting itself above the rules and rejecting the notion that treaties are instruments among equals, in which all parties give up something and get something,” said Ms. Deller. “This is a perilous direction for the United States, which gave the world the very concept of the rule of law. If the United States sets itself up above the law, and bases itself on the rule of power instead, what’s to stop other countries from doing the same?”

The report recommends that the United States:

· Unconditionally ratify the CTBT and abandon plans for laboratory thermonuclear explosions. · Commit itself to irreversible nuclear arms reductions and help set in motion a process leading to a global agreement to eliminate nuclear weapons in fulfillment of its NPT commitments. · Reassess its unilateral withdrawal from the ABM treaty and commit itself to negotiated changes only. · Re-engage in the process to create a verification regime under the Biological Weapons Convention. · Set itself long-term goals for large reductions in greenhouse gas emissions to comply with its climate change obligations and re-engage in the Kyoto Protocol process on that basis.

The other treaties that the report examines are: the Chemical Weapons Convention, the Treaty Banning Anti-Personnel Mines, and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. It contains recommendations for action on each. Contact numbers for other authors: John Burroughs and Nicole Deller: 212-818-1861.

Copies of the report available upon request or in dowloadable PDF format at

http://www.ieer.org

Web sites: http://www.ieer.org and http://www.lcnp.org

Lisa Ledwidge Outreach Director, United States, and Editor of Science for Democratic Action Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) - Midwest satellite office 2104 Stevens Ave. South | Minneapolis, MN 55404 USA tel. 1-612-879-7517 | fax 1-612-879-7518 ieer@ieer.org |

http://www.ieer.org

IEER's main office: 6935 Laurel Ave. Suite 204 | Takoma Park, MD 20912 USA | tel. 1-301-270-5500 | fax 1-301-270-3029

4/4/02
1:48:30 PM

My name is Eric Johansson, I live in San Francisco, CA. I am a military veteran and a having served in Special Operations in the Airborne Corps, Infantry Unit from 1989-1992. I am currently a member of Veterans for Peace and a contact person for the Bay Area Anti-War Coalition.

Although I am a solid believer in non-violence, I have a few questions that I would like to address to the nations of the world:

I ask how is the Palestinian response to occupation any different than the French Resistance response to occupation?

If a Jewish suicide bomber had elected to blow up Adolf Hitler in 1935, would they have saved 5 million Jewish lives from being tragically lost later? If so, then is terrorism ever justified to contest an opposing regime with violence at its heart?

Why is a suicide bomber a terrorist for killing civilians but a soldier who kills civilians is not a terrorist? For if a soldier is not a terrorist for killing civilians, then human morality has declined quite alot since the My Lai massacre, hasn't it Secretary Powell?

Why is it that many folks say that punishing all of Arthur Andersen's employees for the actions of a few is not fair, yet when all of the Palestinians are punished for the actions of a few that it is fair?

Why do we not compensate those who lost their life savings due to corporate terrorists at Enron while we compensate those who lost their lives to international terrorists at the World Trade Center?

Why is it that if we say Israeli aggression cannot solve the problem of terrorism that the U.S. expects to do any better with their stinking war against terrorism?

Why is it 3000 American lives lost is more important than 3000 Afghani lives lost?

Why is it if we, citizens of the United States are so free, have more citizens, per capita, than any other country locked up in prison?

Why is the Democratic Party so racist against Arab peoples of the world?

Could someone answer these questions and enlighten me?

Since it seems the United States has no intention of ending their own fillthy double standards, I urge the world to come together, unify in a vast coaltion designed to isolate the United States and contain U.S. aggression before, YOU, country by country, tragically become the victim of it. Unify in global strength and collective solidarity for peace!!!

"Real power is derived from the moral strength of a compassionate heart, not from the barrel of a gun."

Eric E. Johansson, April 2002

4/4/02
1:15:46 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

YUCCA MOUNTAIN TRANSPORT DANGER DRAMATIZED ON WEST WING

LAS VEGAS, Nevada, April 3, 2002 (ENS) - The nuclear industry has a fat war chest to lobby for the permanent disposal of the nation's high level nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, but the project's opponents including Nevada lawmakers have been failing to bring in big funds to fight it.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-03-03.html

BEARS OUTLAWED IN WYOMING COUNTIES OVER FOOD FIGHT

By Jack Clinton

LARAMIE, Wyoming, April 3, 2002 (ENS) - The U.S. Forest Service has delayed the implementation of a back country food storage plan it wished to establish in the Shoshone and Bridger-Teton national forests beginning April 1. The proposal came under intense political fire from the county commissioners in three Wyoming counties who see it as an extension of zones in which bears are encouraged.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-03-02.html

BUSH ADMINISTRATION SEEKS TO OUST CLIMATE EXPERT

WASHINGTON, DC, April 3, 2002 (ENS) - With the State Department's announcement Tuesday that the U.S. government will sponsor an Indian scientist as the new chair of an international climate change group, the Bush administration took another swipe at efforts to understand and combat global warming. Dr. Rajendra Pachauri would replace Dr. Robert Watson, a widely respected American scientist who has warned of the human causes of climate change for almost six years.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-03-07.html

TIMBER HARVEST DESTROYING MEXICAN BUTTERFLY FOREST

WASHINGTON, DC, April 3, 2002 (ENS) - Logging in the Mexican cloud belt forests in which hundreds of millions of monarch butterflies spend the winter has increased, despite decades of legal protection for the forests and the insects. A new study warns that if the timber harvest continues unchecked, most of the monarch's overwintering habitat will be gone within decades.

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-03-06.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 3, 2002

Great Lakes U.S. Policy Committee Unveils Cleanup Strategy

Bush Administration Target of Earth Day 2002

Campaign Mystery of Black Water Off Florida Not Solved

Caspian Terns Win Reprieve from Dredging

Genetic Integrity of Native Trout Upheld in Court

Army Engineers Undertake Environmental Restoration

http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-03-09.html

4/4/02
1:11:49 PM

"What we need now to discover in the social realm is the moral equivalent of war; something heroic that will speak to man as universally as war does, and yet will be as compatible with their spiritual selves as war has proved to be incompatible."

William James from "The Variety of Religious Experience", 1902

"It is in the inherent nature of human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity. Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic desire for freedom and dignity."

H. H. The Dalai Lama

From Weaponry to Livingry

"There exists a realizable, evolutionary alternative to our being either atom-bombed into extinction or crowding ourselves off the planet. The alternative is the computer-persuadable veering of big business from its weaponry fixation to accommodation of all humanity at an aerospace level of technology, with vastly larger, far more enduringly profitable for all, entirely new World Livingry Service Industry."

R. Buckminster Fuller

4/4/02
1:02:41 PM

Report From Kalandia Checkpoint

Posted by The Editor

Sent 3 April 2002, 6:23PM Palestinian Time (GMT+2)

Kalandia checkpoint -- Today, between 5,000 and 6,000 people -- Israeli peace activists, Palestinians in Israel and Palestinian MK's in the Israeli Knesset -- marched to the Kalandia checkpoint, with several aims:

1. To ensure that urgently needed aid people here had collected - medicines and food -would enter Ramallah.

2. For the Palestinians, to try to enter Ramallah, breaking the military closure around the city and protesting against the curfew and occupation;

3. To protest America's open support for the clearly illegal occupation, and re-assault in the West Bank.

We marched to Kalandia with women leading, straight to the checkpoint, which is currently a big set of plastic and concrete blocks blocking off the main road into Ramallah, heavily guarded by armed Israeli soldiers and police.

We began to push against the blocks. I was in the front line. The soldiers and police reacted by letting off sound bombs over our heads, which caused people to panic. Tear gas bombs were thrown at us. "Tear gas" causes a temporary inability to breath, then immense pain as the gas enters your lungs and eyes. With that, people dispersed, running for cover. From nowhere, onions were passed out. A few minutes later, people re-gathered. We marched to the checkpoint blocks again.

The truck passed through into Ramallah after much bargaining and pleading. By accident, one young Palestinian woman found herself on the other side of the checkpoint. She returned to us by climbing over the checkpoint. The soldiers and police began to argue with her (after she arrived to the other side of the checkpoint, our side). A policeman lost his temper and began to beat her, the green light for the police to throw more tear gas at the crowd, dispersing us again.

The police were indiscriminately beating people - friends running away were smashed with batons, the police pushed an old man before me. The press was affected by the tear gas. It seemed that they had been specifically targeted. They were clearly marked with "TV" - it's impossible that the police didn't't see that.

We ran away and re-gathered. The police began to organize themselves. They pushed aside their plastic barriers and began to chase us, throwing tear gas into the crowds and beating us with batons. We kept regrouping, chanting, waving Palestinian flags, standing in groups with our hands linked, refusing to be beaten into submission, refusing to use force. Police would stand behind us, beating us with their batons, abusing us, especially the Druze police, who kept abusing us in Arabic. If we reacted, they would beat us. If we ran, they would chase after us, throwing tear gas and beating us.

One young man was caught. Around 5-6 policemen stood around him, beating him, kicking him, smashing their batons upon him. Then he was arrested.

Towards the end of the protest, we stood at traffic lights, closer to Beit Hanina. Again, chanting, grouping up, waving Palestinian flags. The police surrounded us, throwing more tear gas and beating who ever they could catch. We took refuge behind cars, in the grassy, muddy field below the road, anywhere we could. It was a war zone, but only one side was armed.

We kept searching for each other, seeking familiar faces, to reassure ourselves. In pauses between teargas, sound bombs and violent police, we were hugging, sometimes crying. As we walked back to our buses, we could count the toll: around 30 injured, including three Palestinian MK's in the Knesset - Issam Makhoul, Ahmad Tibi and Mohammad Barakeh. Two young men arrested. One young man has his finger torn off when a tear-gas bomb exploded next to his hand. A woman had her head stitched up after the police smashed her over the head with his baton.

On the bus, we received a phone call that the medicines and food convey reached the NGO's. Some of the older Palestinian women on the bus began to weep.

Ms. Diaa Hadid Public Relations and Fundraising Ittijah: Union of Arab Community Based Associations

Source: http://www.electronicintifada.org/diaries/index.html

4/4/02
12:57:21 PM

"It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society."

J. Krishnamurti, 1895-1986

4/3/02
9:19:54 PM

FAIR

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting Media

analysis, critiques and activism

MEDIA ADVISORY:

PBS's "Commanding" Conflict of Interest: Enron & other corporate giants sponsored new globalization series

April 3, 2002

In the latest example of PBS's inconsistently applied underwriting guidelines, the network is premiering a six-hour series about the global economy which was sponsored by major corporations-- including Enron-- that have a clear interest in the show's content.

Titled "Commanding Heights: The Battle for the World Economy," the series is based on the eponymous book by Daniel Yergin and Joseph Stanislaw. It has already received a rave review from the Wall Street Journal (3/28/02) under the headline "PBS Likes Capitalism More Than the Commercial Networks Do," in which it hailed the series as a "paean to private enterprise."

Corporate funders of "Commanding Heights" include the Electronic Data Systems Corporation (which bills itself as "the leading global information technology services company"), BP (formerly British Petroleum, one of the world's largest oil companies) and FedEx-- all firms with a major stake in the debate over the future of the global economy.

Enron no longer appears on lists of the show's funders, but the Boston Globe (1/23/02) has reported that Enron was one of the series' original underwriters, providing backing that might have been "in the six figures." Since Enron's scandalous collapse, PBS has downplayed the Enron link, calling it "a distraction." In January, after more than two years of work on the series and just three months before its debut, Yergin told the Globe that "preliminary discussions" had been undertaken to find a replacement underwriter.

This isn't the first time that PBS has distributed a show with a funding-related conflict of interest. Nor is it the first time that Yergin has been involved. Over the years, FAIR has found that PBS scrutinizes the underwriters of certain documentaries with more vigilance than it does others. Shows produced or funded by "interest groups" like unions and public interest activists have been rejected by PBS as compromised by these connections, while programs funded by corporate or conservative interests are A-OK. Here are a few examples of that trend:

DISTRIBUTED BY PBS:

* The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, a 1993 series funded by PaineWebber, a company with significant oil interests. The series' main analyst was Daniel Yergin, a consultant to major oil companies. Almost every expert featured was a defender of the oil industry.

* Living Against the Odds, a 1991 special on risk assessment that asserted, "We have to stop pointing the finger at industry for every environmental hazard." Funded by Chevron, a petrochemical company often criticized for environmental pollution.

* James Reston: The Man Millions Read, a flattering documentary about the New York Times' most famous pundit. The film was funded by and produced "in association with" the New York Times. The director and producer, Susan Dryfoos, is part of the Sulzberger family that owns the paper, and is the daughter of a former Times publisher.

REJECTED BY PBS:

* Out At Work, a 1997 film about workplace discrimination against gays and lesbians. Why? It was partially funded by unions and a lesbian group. PBS acknowledged that the underwriters had clearly not controlled the program's content, and that it was "compelling television responsibly done," but still refused to distribute it.

* Defending Our Lives, a 1993 Academy Award-winning documentary about domestic violence. Why? One of the producers was the leader of a battered women's support group, and PBS felt that gave her a "direct vested interest in the subject matter of the program."

* The Money Lenders, a 1993 film about the World Bank. Why? PBS was concerned that "Even though the documentary may seem objective to some, there is a perception of bias in favor of poor people who claim to be adversely affected."

According to the "Commanding Heights" trailer-- which, though it doesn't disclose the show's underwriters, does feature footage of FedEx airplanes-- the show aims to tell "the story of the battle between the power of governments and the power of the marketplace over which will control the commanding heights of the world's economies."

It's unfortunate that public television is presenting viewers with a report on the struggle over globalization that's been bankrolled by some of the key players from one side of the debate.

For some of FAIR's past work on PBS, see: http://www.fair.org/media-outlets/pbs.html

To contact PBS: Public Broadcasting Service 1320 Braddock Place Alexandria, VA 22314 mailto:viewer@pbs.org Phone: (703)739-5000

4/3/02
9:16:50 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Vietnam studies feasibility of nuclear power plant - VIETNAM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15311/story.htm

Wasting disease spreading in US deer, elk herds - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15306/story.htm

UPDATE - US sees North Korea moving toward dialogue - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15308/story.htm

US nuclear panel to hear Utah waste dump challenge - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15309/story.htm

FERC mulls plan in case of attack on US pipelines - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15312/story.htm

NRC downgrades troubled Nebraska Cooper nuke plant - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15313/story.htm

US farmers seen gaining from Pioneer-Monsanto deal - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15314/story.htm

Flood-taming US agency a threat to rivers-report - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15318/story.htm

Social values to drive tomorrow's companies - UN - UNITED NATIONS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15305/story.htm

Escape of farmed salmon threatens wild stocks - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15307/story.htm

Iceland eyes new aluminium investors - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15315/story.htm

UPDATE - Philippines to regulate import of GMOs - PHILIPPINES http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15316/story.htm

FEATURE - Japan scandals rich pickings for organic exporters - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15317/story.htm

UPDATE - Vestas wins US order, plans factory - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15310/story.htm

Canada finds mad elk disease has spread to Alberta - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15319/story.htm

4/3/02
9:10:25 PM

t r u t h o u t | 04.04

BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Israeli Military Sends Tanks Into Largest West Bank City

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm

Oprah Winfrey : White House Set Me Up

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04A.Oprah.Set-up.htm

Oil Company Memo Calls for Dr. Watson's Dismissal; Administration Obliges

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04B.Oil.Company.htm

Israeli Tanks Enter Nablus

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04C.Israeli.Tanks.htm

Bernard Weiner | An American Jew Talks About His Shame

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04D.BW.Shame.htm

Jennifer Van Bergen | Repeal the USA Patriot Ac t http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04E.JVB.Patriot.htm

John Cory | Democrats and Doormats

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04F.JC.Democrats.htm

No, Mr. Sharon! No, Mr. Arafat | Both of You Have it Wrong

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04G.Sharon.Arafat.htm

Sierra Club Criticizes Old Allies

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04H.Sierra.Club.htm

"The Treasures of Taos: Art, Culture, Scenery"

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.04I.Taos.NM.htm

t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.

http://www.truthout.org

4/3/02
9:08:36 PM

Back From The Brink

Nuclear weapons are back in the news - with the Pentagon talking about building a "usable" nuclear weapon and conducting a nuclear war on terrorism. And as our campaign has been saying, nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert are the front line of usability.

Now is the time for an informed citizenry to come to the aid of their politicians. Because, as the Chinese proverb goes: "If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed."

I encourage you to head to Back From the Brink's newly re-designed Web site and take a look at the latest information on nuclear weapons on hair-trigger alert, the Pentagon's Nuclear Posture Review and how you can make your voice heard.

Thanks,

Ira Shorr Director Back From the Brink

http://www.backfromthebrink.org

4/3/02
7:44:14 PM

Urgent: Eyewitness report from Ramallah, Tuesday, April 2, 2002

Posted by The Editor

Ramallah, Occupied Palestine -- My name is Tzaporah Ryter (See her attached picture). I am an American student from the University of Minnesota. I currently am in Ramallah. We are under a terrible siege and people are being massacred by both the Israeli army and armed militia groups of Israeli settlers. They are shooting outside at anything that moves. I am urgently pleading for as much outside help as possible to help save lives here. I arrived in Ramallah last Thursday. I had come back for a visit to the Palestinian city where I had been previously living and studying.

On Thursday afternoon, the Israeli army began sealing off each entrance to Ramallah and there were rumors that they planned to invade. People were rushing back home from across checkpoints and also people were trying to flee. People were not allowed to go out and many working people with homes and children to return to were not allowed in, everyone was trying to take cover. Those traveling in began desperately searching for alternative ways and traveling in groups, but the Israelis were firing upon them and everyone was running and screaming. Women carrying their children were trying desperately to flee from Ramallah, carrying infants and toddlers, and their young children were running along in the rain through the fields, slipping and falling on the rocks, trying to reach safety. Israeli jeeps were speeding across the terrain pulling up from every direction and shooting at the women and children, and also at me, as we ran in opposite directions. They were chasing down people, hunting them like that in the fields. When I reached Ramallah, people were panicking and trying to buy bread, rice and milk from corner stores, but most supplies were already gone. We bought what we could and went inside to wait for what was coming.

When night fell, Israeli tanks began to invade and also we saw Israeli troops coming on foot from the valley, and surrounding our house. I could hear them calling to each other in Hebrew. They were against our door and all around. They were firing everywhere a barrage of bullets and there was tank fire. We had to lay on the floor and keep silent. We stayed there, on the floor, for nearly four days in the darkness. We knew that our circumstances were better than others because old people or infants or people with medical emergency needs had no help. It was very cold, with most families packed all in one room. Some people are without life sustaining medicines like insulin, and they are altering their doses dangerously if they have any medicine left to take. People are becoming dangerously sick from lack of food and water and heat. The fear and terror only makes things worse, but it cannot be avoided. In the daytime, we heard them shooting people in the streets, and could hear them screaming and screaming. No ambulance was allowed through. Then their screams stopped and there was just silence.

We had a telephone and would receive calls from all over telling us what was happening. Everyone is in grave danger and Israeli soldiers were killing people everywhere. They are arresting medics and ambulance drivers, including foreign volunteer medical workers. They keep taking doctors and medics, just now another call. Again, this time the wife of a doctor telling us her husband has been taken from the ambulance. Large groups of people have been found in rooms, shot dead, there are blood marks where they have lined people up on their knees and shot them, with their ID cards laying on top of them. They are taking people from their homes, blindfolding them, removing their clothes, taking them away or lining them up and shooting them against the wall. People are making phone calls and saying that these soldiers and militia have come in and are shooting people and then the line cuts off. The numbers of these killings I fear are much greater than the numbers confirmed in the press, because the human rights offices and the media centers have been stormed, and everything is shut down. No one can move without almost certain chance of being shot by the Isreali snipers, who are everywhere. The Israelis are demanding that all journalists leave Ramallah and today another foreign journalist was shot. They do not want any more internationals here and are deporting people. It seems quite clear that they do not want eyewitnesses which is only heightening my own fears.

The hospitals have also been surrounded and invaded and Israeli troops are taking the injured people and interrogating them. Today a woman, a patient, tried to walk out from hospital. The Israelis shot her in the neck and killed her. The Palestinian Ministry of Health is saying that they fear the spread of diseases because of the number of unburied corpses. The numbers are only growing in reports of the mass killings here and Israeli troops continue to round up people. People are calling frantically, missing a relative and we do not know where they have been taken, including children.

The numbers we have now exceed 600, and we are estimating between 700 and 800. All human rights groups and legal advocates are being denied any information of where the detained are being held. From what we know confirmed is that 10% of those taken so far have been children under age 18. On the fourth day I decided to try to move. People were running out of supplies and I also was so worried about people, and had to check to see if they were okay. If I didn't, I feared panic would overtake me so badly that I really had no other choice but to try and go. It was not safe where I was in any case and at least if I left I would still have my sanity. It was really terrifying as there are some internationals here, usually traveling in groups, and the Israelis are saying on the radio that they will arrest or shoot the internationals. They did shoot some yesterday and regardless, it's not as if snipers differentiate and they are everywhere. My friends told me not to go, and were really scared for me, but I had to go.

When I went outside, there were cars all shot up and hit by multiple bullets and shells in the middle of the road, unparked. There must have been people in them but I don’t know where their bodies are. There are no reports of them, but they must exist I got to the corner trying to go to the bakery for bread and food for people. Some people were calling and calling with only one cup of rice left. I made it to the corner but they opened fire on my first try, and shot at me, so I had to turn back. After that I tried again and it took me one day to make it a block because I had to start over again and again. I had to climb through the valley, and as I passed house by house, people were warning me and pointing out what path seemed safest for these two minutes. In the next two minutes, it would be something different. They really helped to keep my path safe.

Today is Day Five and they are still rounding up people like this and we hear them shooting all day long. This afternoon the Israelis suddenly lifted the curfew, suddenly announcing that everyone had two hours to go out to get food. However, the Israeli soldiers also took food from many of the stores, looted, and there is no bread or things. People went to get whatever they could. Even though the Israeli army said it had lifted the closure for two hours in which we still were not able to transfer medical supplies and still was not long enough to everything that was badly needed the Israelis continued shooting people in the streets indiscriminately on their way, so people were running around trying to make it to the store or find a safe route only to have to run back home again. It was an added cruelty and terror tactic in this macabre situation, a sick joke: starve people and then shoot them when they try to find food with your permission.

In an apartment building in Beitunia neighborhood where I used to live, they took 60 people who were my neighbors, including several families, and pushed them into one room since last night. The Israelis told them that they are to be used as human shields' as the apartment building is across from a building that they were invading. One child needs to go to the hospital since last night and, initially, the families were able to call outside. Now, the Israelis have taken their phones.

There are reports that they are rounding up men between the ages of 14 and 45 in that neighborhood, and these civilians, from these same Palestinian families trapped in that building, were just used to walk in front of an Israeli tank as it invaded the Preventative Security Compound. Reports also have alleged that the Israelis were saying that some could leave but shot them when they attempted to leave. The buildings there are burning, and people are trapped inside. We keep calling to try to find people but there has been no electricity and most people's phones are dead now. I do not know what is happening to many people. The only solution to this is to try to brave the deadly streets in order to check, but its almost impossible and terrifying to leave the house at all. Each place I come to, I am afraid to leave not only for myself but for everyone else in this horrifying position.

Israeli death squads have been yanking people into the street. I also hear only shooting and shooting, with no return fire. This suggest that unarmed civilians are being gunned down mercilessly everywhere and I am so scared for everyone. I feel like maybe if I leave one place, one area or neighborhood I will never see the people again alive. There are more explosions outside now and more shooting. Another explosion. More firing, it just doesn't stop. This is a massacre.

The foreign delegations tried to get in but were turned back, the International Committee of the Red Cross is trying to help but they are being ignored. Please help. I am not only scared for myself and for people here, but if this cannot be stopped, I am truly scared for all of humanity, for a world in which we send men to the moon but cannot stop ethnic cleansing. On the news in America, we see hardly anything of demonstrations. What are you doing over there?

There do not seem to be any reports of what is happening. In truth, it's got to stop. Please go out to the streets, please demand a response from your representatives. Be loud, march up to the capitals, refuse to leave until the Israelis withdraw.

Act now! Tell them the Israelis are murdering innocent people whose only crime is being born in their own homeland, a Palestinian under a military occupation. Demand international protection for the Palestinian people, scream that this is an affront to humanity and that it is time that the US not only stop supporting Israel, but that the US stop its abuse of human rights within its own borders. This is about all of our struggles.

For the love of God, please stop this slaughter. Please help.

Source: http://www.electronicintifada.org/diaries/index.html

4/3/02
7:29:17 PM

Observer Worldview

http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/0,11581,641237,00.html

Special report: Iraq

http://www.observer.co.uk/Guardian/Iraq/0,2759,423009,00.html

17.03.2002: Army fear over Blair war plans

http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,669030,00.html

Observer investigation: what is the evidence? 17.03.2002: Should we go to war against Saddam?

http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,669024,00.html

17.03.2002: Timeline: From friend to foe

http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,669022,00.html

17.03.2002: Key sources: who to believe?

http://www.observer.co.uk/worldview/story/0,11581,669023,00.html

4/3/02
7:26:29 PM

There Is Only One Evil

by David Edwards

We live in a society that is so fantastically greedy, so fantastically irresponsible, that we cannot but be enmeshed in a net of hatred. Our selfishness, our indifference to the suffering of others, is simply staggering. Just consider...

First there are the business executives who subvert global warming treaties. Not only do that they do it but, like John Grasser of the mining industry and the Global Climate Coalition, they admit and justify doing it on the grounds that they are "buying time for our industries". Imagine that - they are obstructing action to stop a catastrophe that will claim countless thousands, perhaps millions, of lives, for short-term profit. Is it possible to conceive of such callousness, of such selfishness raised to the level of ultimate self-destruction, of such pragmatism raised to the level of ultimate naivety?

And then there are the political and media executives who almost visibly yawned when senior UN diplomats like Denis Halliday and Hans von Sponeck resigned in 1998 and 2000 describing how Western sanctions were really, truly responsible for genocide in Iraq, for the deaths of 500,000 children under five.

I wrote an article based on my own interview with Halliday. In it he demolished completely, incontrovertibly, the specious denials of Washington and London. Determined to publish such obviously vital material, I rang round every liberal newspaper in England, Ireland and Scotland. I was offering the arguments of an entirely credible high-level diplomat accusing my government of genocide. The article was dismissed out of hand, or because "Halliday is old hat", or because "the question and answer format is not right for us", or because "what is needed is for the Government position to change first", or because "we have already covered that subject" in an article before, once. The indifference and cynicism were breathtaking - they gave me a snapshot of a society utterly lost to self-interest and servility to power.

And now thousands of people lie crushed to death beneath giant buildings, and B52s are pounding a country packed with starving people. And my government, my media - this establishment, whose irresponsibility and cynicism I have personally witnessed - are telling me that 'we' are at war with evil. But they themselves are so befuddled by arrogance and compromise that they can't see the joke - that you can't wage war on evil with missiles and bombs. You can't hate someone else's hatred away.

You can wage war on evil with compassion for the suffering that causes evil, on the greed that creates the conditions on which evil thrives. You can wage war on evil by demolishing your own fatal arrogance, which, alas and alack, makes you honestly, truly and sincerely believe that you - in your skin, in your clothes, in your car, in your job - are really more important, more special, dammit more human, than that person over there in his skin, clothes and job.

There is only one evil - it is the evil of me just caring for me and mine, and not caring a damn for him and his. To wage war on evil we have to wage war on this terrible delusion: that only we matter, that we can best protect ourselves by caring only for ourselves. Bring the madmen to justice, but then turn things around for the rest of them: care for him and his, because I tell you we have not up to now, not for a moment.

But how do you do that when your whole political system, your entire economic system, your entire cultural system, is designed to take from him and to give to an opulent few?

The answer is simple: there are no systems, not really; there are only human hearts. So what are you going to do?

Source: http://www.medialens.org

4/3/02
7:25:16 PM

President of Iceland urged to work for peace in the Middle East or resign from office.

Thor Magnusson, founder of Peace 2000 and former Presidential Candidate of Iceland, delivered an appeal to President of Iceland Mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, to launch an Icelandic peace initative in the Middle East or resign from office. A press release from Peace 2000 says that when Mr. Magnusson arrived at the Presidential Residence Bessastadir, the President had just got back from a jog, but spared a few minutes to talk to the guest. The appeal of Thor Magnusson to Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, on behalf of Peace 2000, was the following:

"Now when the world stands on end because of the situation in Israel and Palestine and as our colleagues from European peace movements are trying to take up positions in the office buildings of the Palestinian Home Rule to try to prevent the murder of President Arafat by the Israeli army, I make one more attempt at imploring you to use your position as President of Iceland for peace. Again I recall your promise when we were both Presidential candidates in 1996, that you would if elected, use the office of the President for peace activism. You underlined this many times in television interviews with references to your earlier work as a peace activist, and later reiterated this to me in personal meetings. However, now six years later you have done notthing. The time has come for you to show the solidarity that you promised to peace activism and keep your election promise!

The situation in the Middle East is rapidly developing into an all-out war that may lead the a broader conflict, even to a world war within a very short time. This transformation of events in the age of nuclear weapons poses a real threat to the future of mankind, the future of Iceland and its subjects. Those people who in good faith elected you as their President. I refuse to believe that you will continue occupying the Presidential offices and not even attempt to do anything for peace or to honor your election promises in this grave situation.

Peace 2000 partners have sent us the following news from the situation of the Palestinian town of Ramalla.

1. US made helicopters of the Israeli army hover over the city shooting at buildings and people.

2. Israeli bulldozers are being used to make way for armoured tanks in residential areas.

3. The journeys of doctors, ambulances and aid workers have been impeded. Red Crescent workers are prevented from providing medical assistance. Israeli soldiers shoot at people on the streets of the city.

4. More than 500 civilians, including foreigners, gathered at an Israeli army barricade and ask soldiers to allow them leave the town. The soldiers replied with gunshots over their heads, causing even more fear and resulting in most of the people fleeing back into the city.

5. Israeli soldiers have been holding civilians hostage and using them as human shields. In some cases whole families and even tens of people have been isolated in one room, sometimes without food and drink, while Israeli soldiers have used their homes to take up armed positions all over the city.

6. Some districts of Ramallah are now lacking water and food. The Israeli army has impeded transportation. The Israeli army has even used the residents' food while they have used their apartments and houses as armed hideouts.

7. Large parts of the city are without electricity. Telephone lines have been cut. Civilians are kept in isolation and increasing numbers are gripped by fear.

8. Soldiers are walking through the streets, taking prisoners and calling upon all men between the ages of 16 and 40 to "surrender". The injured are denied medical care. There have been occurrences of executions by army personnel.

9. The Israeli army has driven tanks over civilian automobiles and strewn them in the street in front of the owners' homes. Personal possessions are destroyed in house to house "visits" and army searches.

10. Five officers in the Palestinian security forces were found dead in a building that housed Arabian newsrooms, banks and the Internet company Palestinian Online. It is clear that these men were killed without recourse to trials or laws.

11. The Israeli minister Uzi Landau has said today that it is important to topple the Palestinian Home Rule from power. Another influential person in Israel, Eli Yishai, has today also called for increased and more extensive military action. Such actions are of course completely contrary to the will of the international community and will only result in dramtatically escelating the conflict and topple the world further towards a global war.

Peace 2000 has sent a proposal to the Icelandic Foreign Ministry asking for discussions regarding the ALTHING-JERUSALEM concept. The idea is rooted in the Althing meeting at Thingvellir the year 1000, when Thorgeir Ljosvetningagodi set the scene for an almost unbroken 1000 years era of peace in Iceland. Peace 2000 has been in contact with President Arafat and the Palestinian Home Rule, together with many other parties in both Israel and Palestine, about the initiative. Those who have studied the proposal feel it is worthy of a closer examination, and that such an initative from Iceland could play a part in bringing about lasting peace in the Middle East.

In light of the support Iceland gave to the founding of the state of Israel, and recent escalation towards an all out war in the Middle East, the reticent response of the Icelandic authorities can only be described as a total lack of responsibility. Even people in ivory towers must realize that Iceland has a duty to do all in its power to stem against the bloodbath.

We have repeatedly also sent you appeals to use your Presidential position for peace initatives in the Middle East. We have offered our assistance and support and this offer is now repeated. The undersigned is prepared to travel without delay to the Middle East as your ambassador if this would help. It is important that an Icelandic peace inititative is launched in the area before the situation develops into a wider conflict or even a world war. We have cautioned against looking to the US for a peaceful solution. The importance of our message has been further underlines now that US President Mr. George Bush has taken a firm partial stance with Israel and can no longer be regarded as an impartial party.

I refuse to believe that you, a former peace activist and former head of a global peace network, will continue occupying the office of the President of Iceland without attempting to do anything. That you will allow a conflict develop that endangers the whole future of humankind without a murmur.

If you, Mr Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, do not have the courage to act for peace at this time of distress, I urge you personally, in light of your election statements in 1996, to immediately resign from your position as President of Iceland."

Peace 2000, a non profit organization with associates in more than 40 countries. Peace 2000 was founded in 1995 at a town meeting set by the Icelandic Minister for the Environment with 500 people and speakers from organizations around the world, including UNESCO, World Court Project and the Chernobyl Childrens Project. Peace 2000 has been awarded for its Santa aid flights to war torn areas done under a special permission of the UN Security Council, by the Gandhi Foundation, UNESCO and the Greek Orthodox Church who decorated its founder, Icelandic Presidential Candidate Thor Magnusson with their Holy Gold Cross for humanitarian work at a ceremony in memory of Mother Theresa and Princess Diana. The work of Peace 2000 has been featured by REUTERS, CNN, ABC, CBS and others. Peace 2000 has worked together with several other charities, including the Red Cross and the Red Crescent. The work of Peace 2000 has been made entirely possible by the support of corporate and government sponsors including: Boeing Aeroplane Group, Alitalia, Icelandair, Air Atlanta, Air Cyprus, Royal Jordanian Airways, Cronus Airways, Parcelpost, LandRover, British Civil Aviation Authority, Eurocontrol, Hilton, Sheraton and Intercontinental Hotels, DHL, Shell, BP, Western Union and technology companies: Verisign, GlobeNet, Siebel, Ctirix, Trivium, Adenin and more than 300 other companies around the world.

Telephone Iceland: +354 557 1000 or +354 552 2000

More information: http://www.peace2000.org

4/3/02
7:13:50 PM

Sept 11- Bush and Cheney were involved!

http://uk.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=19316&group=webcast

COMPELLING EVIDENCE THAT THE SEPTEMBER 11 TERRORIST ATTACKS IN THE USA WERE ORGANIZED, AT LEAST IN PART, BY USA AUTHORITIES, AS AN EXCUSE TO START AN ALREADY PLANNED WAR IN SOUTH ASIA, AND AS AN EXCUSE TO BEGIN THE BIGGEST ATTACK ON CIVIL LIBERTIES IN THE WEST SINCE THE FACIST ERA.

Rumsfeld Backs Plan to Hold Captives Even if Acquitted

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/international/asia/29DETA.html

Bush's Crony Capitalism

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29H.Bush.Crony.htm

World tribunal 4 signatories away from ratification

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20020328-7602228.htm

The International Criminal Court is on track to become a reality by mid-April, claiming a mandate to indict and try anyone in the world, including Americans, U.N. officials and supporters said yesterday. With just four more countries needed to ratify the 1998 Rome Statute that creates the court, "it is very close," said U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq. "It is reasonable to assume that there will be a few more ratifications in the next few weeks."

Foes in Angolan War Sign a Cease-Fire

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/international/africa/31REBE.html

Chechens and Russians Begin New Talks

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/25/international/europe/25CHEC.html

After more than two years of civil war in Chechnya, Russian lawmakers have opened a new dialogue with Chechen political figures in hopes of setting terms for direct talks between President Vladimir V. Putin and the rebel leaders he has branded terrorists.

4/3/02
6:59:26 PM

RAMALLAH: Palestinian City Now an Israeli Garrison

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02B.Garrison.htm

Israel's State Terrorism

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12748

While Yassir Arafat is blamed for the actions of individual suicide bombers, no one is holding Ariel Sharon responsible for the crimes committed by his own army.

The petition below will help the lawyers in Belgium who are suing Ariel Sharon for war crimes. They need 1,000,000 signatures. They currently have 304,551

http://www.petitiononline.com/warcrime

Bush Is Criticized for Mideast Role

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03C.Bush.Criticized.htm

http://www.halturnershow.com/IsraelAbusesAmericans.htm

4/3/02
6:53:33 PM

Open Letter to the Commander of the Israeli Paratroopers

by Neve Gordon

This letter by Israeli human rights activist and writer Neve Gordon was published in the weekly Jerusalem newspaper Kol Ha'Ir. It is addressed to Aviv Kohavi, Brigade Commander of the Israeli Paratroopers, and describes the Israeli military incursion into the Balata refugee camps in the West Bank.

To: Colonel Aviv Kohavi Brigade Commander of the Israeli Paratroopers

I presume you remember me. In any event, I remember you. We first met in the paratrooper brigade. I was a platoon sergeant in the corporals company; you were a young platoon officer. Even then friends of mine who were serving with you in the same post in Lebanon related that you were a sensible, serious, and above all decent officer.

The better part of our acquaintance occurred, though, at Hebrew University. We were studying towards our B.A. in Philosophy -- you in preparation for a career in the military, I as a human rights activist. During that period we had more than one political discussion. I couldn't help but admire you. I found you to be a thinking person, imaginative, and judicious -- quite different from the typical army officer that one meets at the university, one who registers merely to snatch a degree and to run off. Looking back, I believe that you really enjoyed your studies, a number of which, it should be noted, dealt with ethical theory.

Years have passed since we last met. You became the paratroopers' brigade commander, I a lecturer in the department of politics and government at Ben Gurion University. On Thursday, March 1, 2002 I once again saw you, not face to face, but on television. You were on the news program: the commander of the troops that entered Balata refugee camp, near Nablus. You solemnly explained that at that very moment your soldiers were transmitting a forceful message to the Palestinian terrorists: the Israeli army will hunt them down in every nook and cranny.

In the days after the interview, news began to trickle about what took place in the camp. Prior to the incursion the Israeli military reigned terror on the inhabitants employing helicopters and tanks. Then, Aviv, you imposed a curfew on the camp, blew up the electric transmission lines, cutting off electricity to 20,000 civilian inhabitants; bulldozers ruined the water supply pipe lines. Your soldiers, Aviv, then moved from house to house by smashing holes in the interior walls; they destroyed furniture and other property, and riddled bullets in water tanks on roof tops. The soldiers spread terror on the inhabitants, most of whom were women, elderly, and children.

But that wasn't all. I learned that your soldiers also used inhabitants as human shields. Also, in the first few hours of the incursion the Palestinians had 120 wounded, and that you, Aviv, refused to allow ambulances to enter and leave the camp.

There were, of course, several battles in the camp during the incursion. Two Palestinians and one of your soldiers were killed. You also reported that you confiscated weapons and that your operation prevented future terrorist acts from happening. But you totally ignored the connection between Israeli military violence perpetrated in the Occupied Territories and Palestinian violence in Israel, as if the incursions into the camps and the reign of terror that you and your soldiers imposed do not drive Israel/Palestine into a blood bath from which none can escape.

How, Aviv, do you think that your incursion affected the children whom you locked up for hours with other members of their families, while you searched their house and blasted holes through their walls? Did your incursion contribute a smithereen to peace, or did it instead spread seeds of hatred, despondence, and death in the crowded, poverty stricken, hopeless refugee camp?

I have not stopped thinking about you since that television interview, trying to understand what was going on in your mind. What caused you to lead your soldiers -- soldiers of the paratrooper brigade -- to a war against a civilian population?

Aviv, I am presently teaching a course entitled "The Politics of Human Rights." One of the topics I discuss during the semester is the intifada and its lessons with respect to human rights. From the standpoint of international conventions, at least, your acts in Balata constitute blatant violations of human rights. Such acts are, in fact, war crimes.

Aviv, what happened to the sensible and judicious officer? How did you become a war criminal?

Neve Gordon teaches in the department of politics and government at Ben-Gurion University in Israel.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12751

4/3/02
6:39:44 PM

Crimes and misdemeanors

by David Batstone

Have you ever made the connection between baseball players, bishops, corporate executives, and evangelists? Sounds like the start of a bad joke, I know. But bear with me, please. The news of the past few weeks has drawn the line that connects the dots.

Let's begin with Jeff Kent, the All-Star second baseman for the San Francisco Giants. As the team passed through spring training in Arizona this year, Kent mysteriously broke his wrist off the field. He originally claimed that he was standing on the hood of his truck at a do-it-yourself car wash and slipped off, falling to the ground and landing on the fateful wrist. Then witnesses came forward reporting that on the alleged day of the accident, an individual looking an awful lot like the Giants star had fallen off a motorcycle while popping wheelies. Kent's contract prohibits him from dangerous activities like riding motorcyles - next year expect a clause about car washes in all baseball contracts as well. Instead of owning up to his lie, Kent blamed the media for digging up a controversial story and, defiant to the end, has refused to talk any more about it.

Next batter up, the Catholic bishops, who are in the limelight for covering up the sexual misconduct of their clergy. In many cases, the victims of abuse were not given a compassionate hearing, nor was justice served. Years passed, and the offending priests were neither prosecuted nor expelled. Now that the media has brought these violations to light, the bishops have come across as defensive and self-justifying. Some bishops have even lashed back at the media, claiming that the Church is being made a target by those who are biased against religious faith. Barring the rare exception, the bishops have not asked for forgiveness nor made a public apology for the shameful behavior that betrays the Church's very reason for being.

Right past the confession booth walk briskly to the executives who ran Enron, GlobalCrossing, Quest, Arthur Anderson, Waste International, and their corporate kin. Daily, new revelations uncover the sophisticated manipulation of financial figures to fool investors and employees. A manager at GlobalCrossing told The Wall Street Journal, "When top executives laid us off they must have known they were going to file bankruptcy and that they'd never have to pay us severance," then added that some senior officials left the company with generous exit packages. You'll never hear a corporate executive 'fess up to the corruption. Instead, we've heard nothing but a litany of denials and "I wasn't aware of what was going on." Oh yeah, they blame the media too for being anti-corporate.

Finally, new tapes were released that record revered evangelist Billy Graham in a very unsavory conversation with then-President Richard Nixon. Graham makes some terribly bigoted comments on the tapes about Jews, then double dips into hypocrisy by admitting that he swarmed up to Jewish entertainment and media leaders even though he finds them repugnant. Granted, the tapes are nearly three decades old, but did Graham really have to follow the corporate executive track and say that he didn't recall the conversations took place? Unless Richard Nixon could give a really good Billy Graham imitation, the voice on the tape proves he was in the room saying these things. Graham followed up the early amnesia defense with a weak apology. I'm wondering if in private he's blaming the expose on the Jewish media elites.

Now do you see the pattern? See, it wouldn't make a very funny joke after all. Truth be known, I'm terribly sad about the conduct of the religious leaders especially. I guess I have low expectations about the moral conduct of professional athletes and corporate executives. But we religious folk have a very clear pathway laid out for us when we act poorly. We face up to our misconduct, make a sincere apology to those we've wronged, and ask humbly for forgiveness. End of story. No whiny excuses, rationalizing defenses, or convenient scapegoats. It all comes down to an unshakable belief: "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Source: http://www.SoJo.net

4/3/02
6:34:07 PM

Dear Editor:

Over 200 areas of the planet are conservation regions that have been declared at risk. With Earth Day approaching on April 22, it is crucial that your readers understand the urgency of this unfolding dilemma. Discover more about our imperiled habitat and take an eye-opening, online assessment of the state of the planet by visiting Nationalgeographic.com's WildWorld at:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/wildworld or

EarthPulse at http://nationalgeographic.com/earthpulse

WildWorld offers a generous selection of interactive maps that pinpoint the Earth's richest and most endangered natural regions. Access profiles of the plants and wildlife indigenous to such places as the Siberian Wilderness, the Australian desert and Amazonian rainforests. Peruse up to 867 maps of land-based ecoregions and compare ecological features including plants, animals and climates. Download audio, video, interviews and pictures that bring some of Earth's more obscure denizens and plant life to the fore. And - National Geographic has taken the homework out of creating Earth Day homework assignments: teachers may chalk up on the special Educator's Guide which offers lesson plans and activities that teach kids, the next generation of planetary caretakers, more about Earth.

EarthPulse is where readers can monitor the Earth’s "vital signs" through various indicators such as status reports, news items and interactive features. By taking readers from the ocean to the ozone and everyplace in between, EarthPulse demonstrates how ecological issues affect us all and how to make things better.

Please provide a link, list as a resource, write a feature article or highlight these sites in your web guide. And if you do, please just drop us a quick note.

Best,

Katherine Foster

On Behalf of National Geographic

Connors Communications

mailto:katherine@connors.com

http://www.connors.com

4/3/02
6:20:45 PM

Eco-terror Acts Ease, But Reasons Are Unclear

by Bryan Denson

Powerful opponents of eco-terrorism are mounting the nation's most formidable campaign against the homegrown sabotage. But the crime wave they hope to quell -- a 2½-year escalation of arsons and property destruction -- subsided last summer, perhaps due to law enforcement crackdowns.

A congressional subcommittee held a hearing on eco-terrorism last month in which lawmakers, keyed up about terrorists since the Sept. 11 attacks, likened America's green underground to al-Qaida. An FBI official testified that the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front had become the nation's most active and destructive domestic terrorist groups.

Industry representatives, meanwhile, have challenged the tax-exempt status of at least one well-heeled group that gives financial succor to suspected eco-terrorists.

Eco-terrorism escalated across the nation in the late 1990s. Underground saboteurs, claiming to act on behalf of the natural world, repeatedly struck such enterprises as logging, skiing, genetic research, home building and auto sales. They are suspected in 69 major attacks since January 1999, including 14 in the Pacific Northwest, The Oregonian found in an ongoing analysis of the crimes.

But serious cases of eco-terrorism took a precipitous plunge after July 16, when the Earth Liberation Front set fire to an oil company building in suburban Detroit. Since then, eco-terrorists have been tied to just six major crimes, compared to 21 during the same period last year. The last major act of eco-terrorism in the United States occurred more than two months ago, when the Earth Liberation Front set fire to a genetic research center under construction at the University of Minnesota, causing $630,000 damage.

Eco-terrorists have operated in the United States for at least 22 years. But their crimes took center stage in 1998, when the Earth Liberation Front claimed responsibility for an arson at the Vail, Colo., ski resort. The fire, which caused $12 million damage, remains the costliest act of eco-terrorism in U.S. history. The front is suspected of seven arsons in Oregon.

No one, except perhaps the eco-terrorists, knows why the attacks have slowed since summer. But federal authorities and industry leaders familiar with the phenomenon attribute the decline to key arrests, prosecutions and ongoing investigations. The FBI has made no secret that it hopes to infiltrate eco- terrorist cells.

"I think there's been a deterrent effect by increased law enforcement efforts across the board," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Peifer in Portland, one of a growing number of law enforcement officials nationwide now investigating eco-terrorism. "There doesn't seem to be anyplace in the country where they can effectively hide anymore."

Reason for optimism

Federal agents, frustrated for years by the elusive saboteurs, found reason for optimism in 2001.

Early last year, federal authorities in New York charged four young men with setting fire to luxury homes under construction on behalf of the Earth Liberation Front to protest development.

Then in June, a judge in Eugene sentenced Jeff Luers to nearly 23 years in prison for setting fire to three pickups and attempting to ignite a gasoline tanker in mid-2000. The sentence was the harshest ever given to an eco-terrorist in the United States. Luers said he targeted the pickups because they emit too much air pollution.

Last month, a federal judge in Phoenix sentenced Mark Sands to 18 years in prison for torching seven luxury homes under construction. Sands wanted to halt development near protected desert.

David Barbarash, a spokesman for the Animal Liberation Front, has monitored the decline in sabotage from his office in Courtenay, British Columbia, and doesn't quite know what to make of it. Barbarash said he would not be surprised to learn that some of the saboteurs were focusing on other issues, perhaps resistance to the United States' war on terrorism.

At the same time, he ridiculed the U.S. government's public campaign against eco-terrorism.

"What they're clearly doing is using September 11 as a political football," he said. "A lot of what is being pushed . . . has been on their table for a long time; it's not new. It's all coming out now with such ferocity because of this focus on rounding up terrorists."

Harsh language

On Feb. 12, lawmakers and industry leaders decried eco-terrorists in ways typically reserved for such groups as al-Qaida, Hamas and Hezbollah.

Terrorism is terrorism, they testified before a House resources subcommittee on forests and forest health. Some drew no distinction between the extremists behind the Sept. 11 attacks that killed thousands and the homegrown saboteurs who have burned down and occasionally bombed buildings -- almost always vacant at the time -- without killing anyone.

"They hate American freedoms, including the freedom to choose . . . and freedom to prosper," U.S. Rep. James V. Hansen, R-Utah, told his colleagues. "They will commit arson, vandalism and set bombs to express their hatred for our freedoms."

James F. Jarboe, who was then domestic terrorism chief for the FBI's counterterrorism division, told the panel that the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front had become the nation's most destructive domestic extremist groups. Jarboe credited the groups with more than 600 criminal acts, causing $43 million damage, since 1996. The great majority of those incidents, however, were small-time theft, property destruction and graffiti incidents.

Rosebraugh appears

The star attraction of the congressional hearing was Craig Rosebraugh, a Portland man who is a former spokesman for the Earth Liberation Front. For four years, Rosebraugh had received what he called anonymous claims of responsibility for eco-terrorist crimes and passed them to news media with laudatory remarks. But he had few words for the congressional subcommittee, which subpoenaed him to answer questions about the Earth Liberation Front.

Rosebraugh invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 54 times during the hearing. He issued an 11-page statement that chided the U.S. government for its own "terrorist history" against Native Americans and, most recently, what he called innocents in Afghanistan.

Rep. George R. Nethercutt Jr., R-Wash., encouraged colleagues to treat the Earth Liberation Front as it treats al-Qaida, by improving intelligence, freeing the hands of law enforcement, isolating terrorists from allies and cutting off their funding.

"Financing and harboring terrorists," he said, "is no different from directly committing the acts. These dangerous and misguided zealots must be left without aid or comfort."

Toward that end, groups representing ranching and restaurant interests recently attacked the tax-exempt status of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, an influential animal-rights group based in Norfolk, Va. They had long fought against PETA's ad campaigns aimed at getting people to stop using animals for food, clothing and scientific study.

On March 4, Ron Arnold, executive vice president of Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, filed a formal complaint against PETA with the Internal Revenue Service. Arnold, whose organization is based in Bellevue, Wash., complained that public records show PETA donated $1,500 to the Earth Liberation Front press office two years ago. PETA also had given thousands to the legal teams of two men later convicted of Animal Liberation Front crimes in Oregon.

PETA pays legal fees

PETA paid the legal fees of Roger Troen of Portland, who in 1986 helped steal lab animals from the University of Oregon, and Rod Coronado, who in 1991 launched a multistate arson campaign against the fur industry. The group also paid Rosebraugh's legal fees during a federal grand jury inquiry in Portland. The panel questioned Rosebraugh about eco-terrorist crimes but did not indict him.

Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president, has long acknowledged that her group gives money to the legal funds of people suspected of eco-terrorism. But she told The Oregonian last week that PETA has never knowingly funded or encouraged their crimes and limits its own pursuits to misdemeanors.

"We do civil disobedience," she said. "We will throw a tofu pie at somebody once in a while."

PETA's general counsel, Jeff Kerr, has accused industry groups of using the Sept. 11 tragedy to renew a smear campaign against social action groups that creatively exercise free speech.

Arnold's complaint accuses PETA of flagrantly violating its nonprofit tax exemption by encouraging arson and other crimes, publicizing the exploits of eco-terrorists and dispatching undercover investigators to steal papers from medical labs.

"We honestly hope the IRS will finally take these things seriously," he said.

You can reach Bryan Denson at 503 294.7614 or by email at

mailto:bryandenson@news.oregonian.com

Source: http://www.oregonlive.com

4/3/02
6:17:53 PM

DAILY GRIST

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

MY DEAR WATSON

Responding to pressure from the energy industry, the Bush administration is seeking to remove the U.S scientist who heads the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Robert Watson, chief scientist at the World Bank, has been the unpaid chair of the IPCC for nearly six years. In that capacity, he has been outspoken in his belief that human activity is contributing to global warming and must be altered to avert disaster. Now Watson's term is expiring -- and the State Department has decided not to re-nominate him. That decision has been heavily criticized by many influential scientists, who see Watson as all but irreplaceable, but has been welcomed by energy industry lobbyists and some Republican politicians, who claim Watson has an environmental ax to grind.

straight to the source: New York Times, Andrew C. Revkin, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/science/02CLIM.html>

do good: Take action to tell Bush to tackle global warming <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily#kyoto>

LAKE MANNA FROM HEAVEN?

The U.S. EPA has unveiled a new Bush administration plan to protect and restore the Great Lakes. The plan aims to reduce PCB concentration in some Great Lakes fish species, restore or enhance 100,000 acres of wetland in the Great Lakes Basin, decrease introductions of invasive species, and accelerate the clean-up of contaminated sites. However, the government has not set aside any additional funding to implement the plan. More than 30 million people rely on the Great Lakes for their drinking water, and untold numbers seek out recreation on the more than 600 Great Lakes beaches in the U.S.

straight to the source: Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 3 Apr 2002 <http://www.democratandchronicle.com/news/0403story2_news.shtml>

straight to the source: Detroit News, Associated Press, James Prichard, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.detnews.com/2002/metro/0204/03/-455292.htm>

YOU SAY YOU WANT A RESOLUTION

Do investors care if the companies benefiting from their dollars are contributing to global warming? Increasingly, the answer may be yes: Global warming is the fastest-growing resolutions category tracked by the Investor Responsibility Research Center and the Social Investment Forum, according to data released last week. So far this year, 18 global warming resolutions have been filed by shareholders -- as compared to seven in all of 2001. Most of the resolutions ask corporations to disclose estimated greenhouse gas emissions of their operations and products, as well as an assessment of the costs of reducing emissions. The resolutions are then sent to investors in publicly traded companies, who vote on the issues. The resolutions are toothless, because they are almost always opposed by management and are not binding even if passed -- but they do create public-relations hassles for companies and can provide the necessary incentive for companies to negotiate with activists.

straight to the source: Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones, Lynn Cowan, 03 Apr 2002 <http://online.wsj.com/article/0,4286,BT_CO_20020327_006923,00.html>

do good: Take action to crush capitalism with your pen <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/consumption.asp?source=daily#capitalism>

LONELIER LITTLE SPARROW

Who notices the fall of the sparrow? For starters, scientists in China, where the once-common sparrow is on the brink of extinction. Around the northeastern port of Tianjin, the sparrow population has declined by an estimated 90 percent since Mao's days; in many parts of southern and central China, the birds have all but disappeared. The primary culprit is the nation's extravagant use of pesticides, and the scientists believe the sparrows are just the canaries in the coal mine of China's environmental health. But while pesticides will affect species all up and down the food chain, the sparrows have another problem: a two-legged predator. In China, sparrows are common cuisine, often served on the streets as crunchy kabobs.

straight to the source: New York Times, Chris Buckley, 03 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/03/international/asia/03CHIN.html>

4/3/02
6:06:00 PM

DAILY GLOBAL MEDIA NEWS

http://www.mediachannel.org/news/today/

EXCLUSIVE: Globalvision News Network's Daily News And Views

http://www.gvnews.net

EXCLUSIVE: News Dissector's Daily Weblog Danny Schechter critiques what's reported - and what's not featuring reader input.

http://www.mediachannel.org/weblog

* NEW FEATURES: APRIL 3, 2002*

THE NEWS AND RHETORIC OF MIDEAST WAR

As the Middle East bursts into death and destruction, and violence is used to control the press, News Dissector Danny Schechter warns that war-centered coverage may help perpetuate the conflict.

http://www.mediachannel.org

A COLOMBIAN VOICE FOR PEACE JOURNALISM

For Colombian journalists, survival --both physical and financial-- is a constant challenge. This must-read article includes guidelines for ethical reporting under extreme conditions.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#colombia

THE TV-VIOLENCE CONNECTION

A new study may prove that watching TV leads to violent behavior. But some scholars are not convinced.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#violence

HOW TO STOP COPYING

Will technological barriers to copying music and videos save the entertainment industries or destroy them? Public comments due April 8.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#copy

CIVIL RIGHTS AND MEDIA POLICY: WAS MEDIACHANNEL WRONG?

The executive director of the Minority Media and Telecommunications Council says the premise in a recent MediaChannel op-ed is "wrong almost to the point of absurdity." Our editor responds.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#wrong

WHAT YOU'RE SAYING: VOICES FROM OUR FORUM

* "The latest blow in the war between Panama's thuggish political class and the press has been struck...."

* Gene Boggs on the Oscars, race and "black Hollywood"

.....JOIN THE DISCUSSION!

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#voices

MEDIACULTURE

A collaboration between MediaChannel and Alternet exploring the currents, crises and cultures of American media.

Featured this week:

* Poetry and the Future of Books

* 18 Tales of Media Censorship

* A Watchdog Dedicated to Media "Patriotism" .And much more...

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#mediaculture

ROUNDTABLE: MONITORING DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA

Reacting to contested elections and accusations of media bias, African democracy advocates have set up local media monitoring groups. The discussion of challenges and visions continues in the Forum.

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#africa

4/3/02
5:58:55 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

LESBIAN WOMEN DISCHARGED FROM MILITARY MORE THAN GAY MEN

Feminist Majority Foundation

-- Last year, military discharges as a result of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell Policy" have reached the highest levels since 1987, and a higher percentage of women are being discharged than men.

THE HISTORICAL ARCHIVES OF THE LABADIE COLLECTION: KEEPING ANARCHY IN ORDER

by Stephanie Kadel-Taras, Michigan Today

-- A special collection at the University of Michigan's library houses the largest holding of social protest literature in the world.

50 YEARS OF JAMES BOND

by Alexander Cockburn, CounterPunch

-- The escapades of the suave secret agent were more real than you might think.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

4/3/02
5:57:25 PM

TomPaine.com!

ALL HE SEES IS DOLLAR SIGNS

McConnell Defends Corruption

Mitch McConnell has always been audacious in opposing campaign finance reform. But now, with the recent passage of modest reform, he's sounding downright shrill. He talks about democracy, but all he sees is dollar signs.

The U.S. senator from Kentucky -- the unabashed anti-reform ringleader -- claims the new campaign rules will "criminalize" and "suppress" free speech. He's filed suit to overturn them.

But Sen. Mitch McConnell's claims against campaign-finance reform ring with the sounds of money, not truth.

READ OUR OP AD IN TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES or CLICK BELOW TO READ IT ON LINE:

http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm/ID/5376

AND READ THESE OP-AD FEATURES:

IGNORING A CENTURY OF HISTORY AND LAW

Attention Campaign Reform Critics: McCain-Feingold Is Built On Established Constitutional Principles

by Don Simon

Sen. Mitch McConnell's opposition to the nation's new campaign finance law ignores a century of law and court rulings that lets Congress regulate elections to prevent political corruption.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5374

CORPORATIONS AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

McCain-Feingold Reinstates An Old But Necessary Principle: Restraint Of Corporate Power

by E. Joshua Rosenkranz

For a century, corporate participation in elections has been intentionally regulated by Congress to minimize political corruption and create a more representative federal government.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5373

SPEAKING FREELY

Mitch McConnell's Strangely Inconsistent Defense Of The First Amendment

by Ellen Miller

It's hard to avoid the conclusion that McConnell mostly cares about free speech when it's the speech of wealthy special interests who finance campaigns (especially his).

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5370

BUYING TIME

The Fallacies Of Campaign Reform And Our Advertising Laws

by Craig B. Holman and Luke P. McLoughlin

As a result of current laws, parties and groups can skirt disclosure requirements, dodge contribution limits, and sidestep source restrictions prohibiting corporations and unions from spending treasury funds on federal campaigns.

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5371

WHAT HAS THE SUPREME COURT BEEN SMOKING?

The High Court OKs Discriminatory, No-Fault Eviction Laws

by Arianna Huffington

"A tenant who cannot control drug crime," wrote Justice Rehnquist in the majority opinion, "is a threat to other residents and the project." Shouldn't the same condemnatory logic apply to Gov. Jeb Bush, who also lives in public housing and was also unable to control his troubled daughter?

http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5372

From Our CHECK IT OUT! Department:

BLACK HOLES IN HOMELAND SECURITY

Six months after September 11, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has failed to address "troubling black holes in homeland security" at the nation's nuclear power plants, according to a report by Rep. Ed Markey. He found that nuclear facilities continue to fail about half of their security drills, and that the NRC has rejected anti-aircraft capabilities at nuclear facilities, despite the fact that 96 percent of these facilities are not built to withstand the impact from even a small plane.

The Project on Government Oversight has uncovered a particularly egregious example of security lapses at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. Two former guards at the facility have come forward with evidence of inadequate guard training and failed security drills -- five of six drills over a three month period resulted in unacceptable risk to public health and safety.

Check Out CHECK IT OUT!

http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/

4/3/02
5:55:05 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

International Daily Newswire

http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG68a379Jrb/

MOST U.S. COASTAL WATERS POLLUTED

WASHINGTON, DC, April 2, 2002 (ENS) - Almost half the nation's coastal waters are so polluted that their usefulness to humans and their ability to support aquatic life are impaired, finds a new report by a quartet of federal agencies. The study, the first environmental report card on the condition of the nation's coastal waters, rates the quality of these resources as fair to poor.

http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG69a379Jrb/

GREEN POWER PURCHASES GROWING BY LEAPS AND BOUNDS

By Bernie Fischlowitz-Roberts

WASHINGTON, DC, April 2, 2002 (ENS) - In June 2001, the city of Chicago and 48 city government agencies signed a contract with local utility ComEd to purchase 10 percent of their electricity from renewable sources, a figure due to increase to 20 percent in five years. This is the largest such purchase in the United States, but Chicago is just one example of the many cities, businesses, and individuals who are buying "green power." Utilities in eight states and many other industrial countries now offer such purchases.

http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG7aa379Jrb/

DIVERTED, POLLUTED, DAMMED: AMERICA'S RIVERS IN JEOPARDY

WASHINGTON, DC, April 2, 2002 (ENS) - The longest river in North America is the most endangered. The Missouri River tops the annual America's Most Endangered Rivers list issued today by the conservation group American Rivers.

http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG7ba379Jrb/

LEGAL NETWORK PROTECTS ECOLOGICAL CORRIDOR OF THE AMERICAS

By Katiana Murillo

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, April 2, 2002 (ENS) - Determined and farsighted ecologists envision a day when an uninterrupted, protected, and forested corridor extends all the way from Alaska's Aleutian Range to the tip of Tierra del Fuego in Argentina, protecting much of the planet's plant and animal species in an interlacing network of public and private reserves.

http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG7ca379Jrb/

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: APRIL 2, 2002

Antarctica Key To Sudden Sea Level Rise in The Past

$32 Million Supports Columbia River Basin Projects

Delaware's Runoff Program Earns Federal Approval

Economy Shifts Throw Timberland on the Market

Caspian Tern Colony Wins Reprieve

Floodplain Reforestation Efforts Lack Diversity

Fishing Restrictions Would Protect Turtles in the Chesapeake Alaska

Fishers Charged with Dumping Oil Texas Landowners Protect Endangered Birds

For full text and graphics visit: http://click.topica.com/maaajQ4aaRG7da379Jrb/

4/3/02
5:52:18 PM

"When the people fear the government you have tyranny... when the government fears the people you have liberty."

Thomas Jefferson

We are Governed by Fear:

An Interview with Congressman Dennis Kucinich

By Scott Galindez, March 14, 2002

TO.SG | Congressman Kucinich welcome to t r u t h o u t. I recently attended Americans For Democratic Action's "Our Democracy After 9-11: Can We Save It?" function in Los Angeles, and listened to you deliver your "Prayer for America..."

KUCINICH | You were there?

TO.SG | Yes, we posted the transcript on t r u t h o u t and received an enthusiastic response. It was one of the most widely read and re-distributed pieces we have ever published.

KUCINICH | Wow, that's interesting

TO.SG | In that speech in Los Angeles, you described the bunker mentality in Washington after September 11th. Could you elaborate a little on that?

KUCINICH | That was even before I knew there were bunkers. I found out a couple of weeks later that there actually were bunkers. Members of the Administration had retreated to bunkers outside Washington so that they could keep the government going. The bunker mentality I referred to in my speech represents the presence of security and police and national guards, the jersey barriers that are everywhere, where we have to literally negotiate a labyrinth of concrete barriers in order to go to vote. Aesthetically, it is unacceptable, but we're talking about politically, in terms of a democracy, that's definitely not the message that you get. This is architecture worthy of a different form of government, shall we say.

TO.SG | And that still exists?

KUCINICH | Oh yes. What it does is -- the level of security creates a mentality of caution, and an underlying sense of fear. And when that's there, it has a way of affecting consciousness, like a virus can adversely affect a healthy organism. So, when members vote, you know all of us make decisions that are affected by the conditions under which we live and work --and our political, the socio-political reality at Capital Hill has been reconstructed. It is a reality which is socially affirmed. We have circumstances that are not conducive to healthy decision-making in a democratic society. In addition to that, members are not told why. There is no discussion of these things. It just happens.

TO.SG | Okay. Also, within the last week, the reports surfaced concerning the contingency plan for using nuclear weapons against seven countries. Is that a major policy shift? Some people say it's not a shift, some say it is.

KUCINICH | Of course it is. It is a major policy shift because - there are a number of things in the nuclear posturing here which need reviewing. Number one is the equation of conventional to nuclear weapons, and loose talk of a prerogative for a first strike. There is incautiousness. The report is riddled with a fundamental incautiousness about the dangers of the use of nuclear weapons. And the release of the report - which I have no doubt came from the Administration itself - was still another attempt to heighten the level of fear in the country and make it impossible for people to be able to make rational decisions as to what their own interest might be.

TO.SG | The report also talked about developing new battlefield nuclear weapons ...

KUCINICH | That is what I'm saying: they're equating the nuclear weapons with conventional weapons, which flies in the face of all science, because any nuclear explosion underground will send out shock waves, and a nuclear explosion underground can affect the water table. All nuclear explosions release debris that goes out into the atmosphere and changes the ambient air quality. You know this is all grotesquery, masquerading as serious public policy, and it's not acceptable, period.

You see, it is one thing to say, "Well, this has existed in the past," this nuclear posture review -- but that it would be released in a climate of such turmoil in the world: of conflict in the Middle East, of the United States bombing Afghanistan and planning an invasion of Iraq, and of the U.S. sending troops to various countries all over the world -- to inject into that a miasma, a nuclear threat, a resumption of not just the Cold War mentality, but the resumption of the psychology of first strike...

TO.SG | You proposed legislation for a Department of Peace.

KUCINICH | Oh yes.

TO.SG | What would the Department of Peace do?

KUCINICH | Well, the purpose of a Department of Peace and the motivating factors involve a desire to make nonviolence an organizing principle in our society for domestic as well as international policy, and on an international level to seek to make war archaic. On a domestic level, to deal with issues such as child abuse, spousal abuse, domestic violence in the home, community relations challenges, racial violence, anything that exemplifies a lack of ability to deal with human relations, would be dealt with by the Department of Peace. And it's a cabinet level position, which would raise the whole issue of non-violence and conflict resolution to serious level of discussion in society.

TO.SG | Okay, you also proposed legislation to ban weapons in space. What's its status and why is it so important?

KUCINICH | It is very important with an Administration that wants to use space as the next platform for its weapons, so that America can achieve hegemony in space. You know, it is almost some kind of a 21st century parody of the Spanish Armada, of yesteryear, seeking to rule the seas. Now it's the United States trying to seize the highest ground in the universe, space. It is not our business to do. There is no other nation that has the capacity to mount an attack against the United States from space. So, what's this about? Perhaps some crude attempt at -- using space as the next junkyard for military contractors.

TO.SG | What can readers do to help take the country back?

KUCINICH | That is exactly the right question. The response to my speech has been just electrifying. I have had over 15,000 emails in the last three weeks, and they are just pouring into my personal email. I mean, it's just like one of those personal emails like you get your friends to send things to, and all of sudden it starts to get flooded.

So, we are organizing a whole new approach to create a new political movement in this country. If you want to keep your eyes at our site,--which is www.thespiritoffreedom.com -- we are going to be putting stuff on the website that talks about organizing. So we are going to help people get organized all around the country in a nonviolent way, in a creative way, in a way which is empowering to people, and which can help people assert their own basic rights as citizens of this country and as citizens of the world, because this is not just about America.

Peace is in our national interest. International cooperation is in our national interest. We need to have grand civic dialogue about what we might be able to do here to change the direction of the nation. It certainly needs change. We can spend an extra forty-five billion dollars this year for military when they can't even keep track of their own budget, and still we have forty-two million people without adequate health insurance, senior citizens splitting pills in order to try to meet their health requirements and still protect their budget. We have schools that are still falling apart with programs that don't work. We have so much to do. Yet, society is becoming militarized.

People want change. The fifteen thousand emails in the last three weeks told me that people want a different direction. I think they are representative of millions of Americans who want to take a different approach. They don't want to be trapped into a condition that the level of support for war is equated with patriotism.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/docs_02/03.17A.Kucinich.Interview.htm

4/3/02
5:49:48 PM

Not Under Our Mountain, Nevada Says Of Nuclear Dump

By EVELYN NIEVES, New Your Times, April 2, 2002

LAS VEGAS, March 31 - When it comes to the Bush administration's plan to store the nation's deadly radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain, political leaders here in Nevada do not mince words.

Oscar Goodman, the Democratic mayor of Las Vegas, which sits 90 miles east of Yucca, has called Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham "a piece of garbage."

The Senate Democratic whip, Harry Reid, said the president was "a liar."

Republicans, too, are incensed: Gov. Kenny Guinn said the president had "misled" Nevada, and Senator John Ensign announced that he was "profoundly disappointed" in the president.

Noting that the General Accounting Office concluded in December that nearly 300 scientific and engineering questions about the Yucca plan remained unanswered, Nevada's top officials accused the president of kowtowing to the pro-Yucca nuclear energy lobby and reneging on a campaign promise not to approve the plan without "sound science."

But the Nevada officials - of every political stripe - are not simply sounding off. Governor Guinn plans to veto the administration's recommendation within the next two weeks, before the 90-day deadline permitted for such a veto. This sets the stage for a vote by Congress by summer.mSenator Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said that transporting nuclear waste to his state was "accidents waiting to happen."

Senators Reid and Ensign have recruited two former White House chiefs of staff, John D. Podesta, who worked in the Clinton administration, and Kenneth M. Duberstein, who worked in the Reagan administration, to lobby senators to sustain a Guinn veto. (The House of Representatives is expected to override the veto.)

Now the Nevada campaign is going public.

In an effort to counter the nuclear industry's own deep-pocketed Washington lobbyists - John Sununu, chief of staff for the first President Bush, and Geraldine Ferraro, the onetime vice-presidential candidate, have been enlisted in the pro-Yucca fight - Nevada is planning a multimillion-dollar advertising and publicity campaign intended to stoke opposition to the plan beyond Nevada's borders.

On March 27, officials announced that they were trying to raise $10 million to pay for national television commercials that would be broadcast in states where nuclear waste would travel before reaching the burial site, presenting the argument that the Yucca plan is dangerous for every city and town, every highway and byway and every truck stop and railroad yard along the way. Officials are hoping to raise the money from local and county governments as well as the casino industry and other private businesses.

The state also plans to send trucks with mock nuclear casks into cities around the country, where they will find themselves trapped in traffic jams, demonstrating the potential problems with transporting nuclear material through 43 states.

Officials are also hoping for a huge publicity boost this week, when the NBC series "The West Wing" features a plot about an accident that occurs while a truck is transporting nuclear waste.

"People - and I mean the politicians - think of this as Nevada's problem," Governor Guinn said in comments echoed by his colleagues. "But it's not just Nevada's problem. It's America's problem. God forbid there should be an accident during transport."

Mr. Abraham, in a recent opinion article in The Washington Post, said that nuclear waste had been safely transported for 30 years, covering 1.6 million miles without incident, and that the science on Yucca, after 20 years of study, was sound. He accused the Nevadans of using scare tactics to sabotage the plan, adding that that it was obviously safer to store nuclear waste 800 feet beneath a barren desert owned by the government than to keep it scattered in 131 sites in 39 states in temporary, above-ground facilities.

But Nevada's leaders say that the Government Accounting Office report makes clear that much needs to be studied before the transporting of nuclear waste can be called safe, especially given the potential for terrorism. They added that it was misleading to say the Yucca plan would mean the end of nuclear waste around the country. Every active nuclear reactor in the country would continue to house highly radioactive waste because spent nuclear fuel rods must be put in on-site cooling pools for at least five years before they can be transported.

"It is so disingenuous of them to say this would mean the end of 131 nuclear waste sites," Senator Reid said, adding that the plan would instead create thousands of mobile waste sites, "accidents waiting to happen," as the waste is transported.

"If we can get this message out, we can convince the Senate to vote with us," Mr. Reid said.

But he conceded it would not be an easy sell.

While Nevadans have become well versed on the issue, the rest of the country has paid little attention to the proposals, polls show.

While Senators Reid and Ensign are lobbying their colleagues in the Senate for the 51 votes they will need to sustain Mr. Guinn's veto and kill the Yucca project, officials here have also armed themselves with lawsuits to block the project should Congress approve the plan and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission grant it a license.

Governor Guinn filed a lawsuit hours after President Bush approved the plan, contending that the Department of Energy did not let the state review the final environmental impact statement before the recommendation. That suit joins two others Nevada filed last year accusing the Energy Department of ignoring its mandate to find a geologically sound burial ground and the Environmental Protection Agency of either violating federal law or manipulating scientific data to reach pro-Yucca conclusions.

Mayor Goodman now speaks about Yucca Mountain everywhere he goes, telling Nevadans of a Clark County study released in January that estimated a roadway accident involving nuclear material on its way to Yucca Mountain could eliminate 54,000 jobs in the region, force 90,000 residents to move and cost the local economy $1.4 billion. He said he was itching to take his message national.

"One catastrophic accident, God forbid," he said, "would mean a nuclear holocaust."

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/national/02YUCC.html?todaysheadlines

4/3/02
5:47:48 PM

"It is in the inherent nature of human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity. Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic desire for freedom and dignity."

H. H. The Dalai Lama

4/3/02
5:47:01 PM

Hello,

I have just returned from a bit over two weeks in Australia, speaking at various venues, and am trying to catch up with work here at home.

As usual there are many updates on ZNet's top page (www.zmag.org/weluser.htm) and all over the site. But the paramount issue of the moment is the escalating carnage in the Middle East. Please check ZNet for regular coverage...on our top page and our Middle East Watch Page and others linked from both, of course.

Tonight's Update is sent, however, to convey to you the following query and answer session with Noam Chomsky. More Updates will follow, more often than our usual one per ten day rate, depending on unfolding events.

Interview with Chomsky

April 2, 2002

Z: Is there a qualitative change in what's happening now?

I think there is a qualitative change. The goal of the Oslo process was accurately described in 1998 by Israeli academic Shlomo Ben-Ami just before he joined the Barak government, going on to become Barak's chief negotiator at Camp David in summer 2000. Ben-Ami observed that "in practice, the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever." With these goals, the Clinton-Rabin-Peres agreements were designed to impose on the Palestinians "almost total dependence on Israel," creating "an extended colonial situation," which is expected to be the "permanent basis" for "a situation of dependence." The function of the Palestinian Authority (PA) was to control the domestic population of the Israeli-run neocolonial dependency. That is the way the process unfolded, step by step, including the Camp David suggestions. The Clinton-Barak stand (left vague and unambiguous) was hailed here as "remarkable" and "magnanimous," but a look at the facts made it clear that it was -- as commonly described in Israel -- a Bantustan proposal; that is presumably the reason why maps were carefully avoided in the US mainstream. It is true that Clinton-Barak advanced a few steps towards a Bantustan-style settlement of the kind that South Africa instituted in the darkest days of Apartheid. Just prior to Camp David, West Bank Palestinians were confined to over 200 scattered areas, and Clinton-Barak did propose an improvement: consolidation to three cantons, under Israeli control, virtually separated from one another and from the fourth canton, a small area of East Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian life and of communications in the region. And of course separated from Gaza, where the outcome was left unclear.

But now that plan has apparently been shelved in favor of demolition of the PA. That means destruction of the institutions of the potential Bantustan that was planned by Clinton and his Israeli partners; in the last few days, even a human rights center. The Palestinian figures who were designated to be the counterpart of the Black leaders of the Bantustans are also under attack, though not killed, presumably because of the international consequences. The prominent Israeli scholar Ze'ev Sternhell writes that the government "is no longer ashamed to speak of war when what they are really engaged in is colonial policing, which recalls the takeover by the white police of the poor neighborhoods of the blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era." This new policy is a regression below the Bantustan model of South Africa 40 years ago to which Clinton-Rabin-Peres-Barak and their associates aspired in the Oslo "peace process."

None of this will come as a surprise to those who have been reading critical analyses for the past 10 years, including plenty of material posted regularly on Znet, reviewing developments as they proceeded.

Exactly how the Israeli leadership intends to implement these programs is unclear -- to them too, I presume.

It is convenient in the US, and the West, to blame Israel and particularly Sharon, but that is unfair and hardly honest. Many of Sharon's worst atrocities were carried out under Labor governments. Peres comes close to Sharon as a war criminal. Furthermore, the prime responsibility lies in Washington, and has for 30 years. That is true of the general diplomatic framework, and also of particular actions. Israel can act within the limits established by the master in Washington, rarely beyond.

Z: What's the meaning of Friday's Security Council Resolution?

The primary issue was whether there would be a demand for immediate Israeli withdrawal from Ramallah and other Palestinian areas that the Israeli army had entered in the current offensive, or at least a deadline for such withdrawal. The US position evidently prevailed: there is only a vague call for "withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian cities," no time frame specified. The Resolution therefore accords with the official US stand, largely reiterated in the press: Israel is under attack and has the right of self-defense, but shouldn't go too far in punishing Palestinians, at least too visibly. The facts -- hardly controversial -- are quite different. Palestinians have been trying to survive under Israeli military occupation, now in its 35th year. It has been harsh and brutal throughout, thanks to decisive US military and economic support, and diplomatic protection, including the barring of the long-standing international consensus on a peaceful political settlement. There is no symmetry in this confrontation, not the slightest, and to frame it in terms of Israeli self-defense goes beyond even standard forms of distortion in the interests of power. The harshest condemnations of Palestinian terror, which are proper and have been for over 30 years, leave these basic facts unchanged.

In scrupulously evading the central immediate issues, the Friday Resolution is similar to the Security Council Resolution of March 12, which elicited much surprise and favorable notice because it not only was not vetoed by the US, in the usual pattern, but was actually initiated by Washington. The Resolution called for a "vision" of a Palestinian state. It therefore did not rise to the level of South Africa 40 years ago when the Apartheid regime did not merely announce a "vision" but actually established Black-run states that were at least as viable and legitimate as what the US and Israel had been planning for the occupied territories.

Z: What is the U.S. up to now? What U.S. interests are at stake at this juncture?

The US is a global power. What happens in Israel-Palestine is a sidelight. There are many factors entering into US policies. Chief among them in this region of the world is control over the world's major energy resources. The US-Israel alliance took shape in that context. By 1958, the National Security Council concluded that a "logical corollary" of opposition to growing Arab nationalism "would be to support Israel as the only strong pro-Western power left in the Middle East." That is an exaggeration, but an affirmation of the general strategic analysis, which identified indigenous nationalism as the primary threat (as elsewhere in the Third World); typically called "Communist," though it is commonly recognized in the internal record that this is a term of propaganda and that Cold War issues were often marginal, as in the crucial year of 1958. The alliance became firm in 1967, when Israel performed an important service for US power by destroying the main forces of secular Arab nationalism, considered a very serious threat to US domination of the Gulf region. So matters continued, after the collapse of the USSR as well. By now the US-Israel-Turkey alliance is a centerpiece of US strategy, and Israel is virtually a US military base, also closely integrated with the militarized US high-tech economy.

Within that persistent framework, the US naturally supports Israeli repression of the Palestinians and integration of the occupied territories, including the neocolonial project outlined by Ben-Ami, though specific policy choices have to be made depending on circumstances. Right now, Bush planners continue to block steps towards diplomatic settlement, or even reduction of violence; that is the meaning, for example, of their veto of the Dec. 15 2001 Security Council Resolution calling for steps towards implementing the US Mitchell plan and introduction of international monitors to supervise the reduction of violence. For similar reasons, the US boycotted the Dec. 5 international meetings in Geneva (including the EU, even Britain) which reaffirmed that the Fourth Geneva Convention applies to the occupied territories, so that critically important US-Israeli actions there are "grave breaches" of the Convention - war crimes, in simple terms - as the Geneva declaration elaborated. That merely reaffirmed the Security Council Resolution of October 2000 (US abstaining), which held once again that the Convention applied to the occupied territories. That had been the official US position as well, stated formally, for example, by George Bush I when he was UN Ambassador. The US regularly abstains or boycotts in such cases, not wanting to take a public stand in opposition to core principles of international law, particularly in the light of the circumstances under which the Conventions were enacted: to criminalize formally the atrocities of the Nazis, including their actions in the territories they occupied. The media and intellectual culture generally cooperate by their own "boycott" of these unwelcome facts: in particular, the fact that as a High Contracting Party, the US government is legally obligated by solemn treaty to punish violators of the Conventions, including its own political leadership.

That's only a small sample. Meanwhile the flow of arms and economic support for maintaining the occupation by force and terror and extending settlements continues without any pause.

Z: What's your opinion of the Arab summit?

The Arab summit led to general acceptance of the Saudi Arabian plan, which reiterated the basic principles of the long-standing international consensus: Israel should withdraw from the occupied territories in the context of a general peace agreement that would guarantee the right of every state in the region, including Israel and a new Palestinian State, to peace and security within recognized borders (the basic wording of UN 242, amplified to include a Palestinian state). There is nothing new about this. These are the basic terms of the Security Council resolution of January 1976 backed by virtually the entire world, including the leading Arab states, the PLO, Europe, the Soviet bloc, the non-aligned countries -- in fact, everyone who mattered. It was opposed by Israel and vetoed by the US, thereby vetoed from history. Subsequent and similar initiatives from the Arab states, the PLO, and Western Europe were blocked by the US, continuing to the present. That includes the 1981 Fahd plan. That record too has been effectively vetoed from history, for the usual reasons.

US rejectionism in fact goes back 5 years earlier, to February 1971, when President Sadat of Egypt offered Israel a full peace treaty in return for Israeli withdrawal from Egyptian territory, not even bringing up Palestinian national rights or the fate of the other occupied territories. Israel's Labor government recognized this as a genuine peace offer, but decided to reject it, intending to extend its settlements to northeastern Sinai; that it soon did, with extreme brutality, the immediate cause for the 1973 war. The plan for the Palestinians under military occupation was described frankly to his Cabinet colleagues by Moshe Dayan, one of the Labor leaders more sympathetic to the Palestinian plight. Israel should make it clear that "we have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave, and we will see where this process leads." Following that recommendation, the guiding principle of the occupation has been incessant and degrading humiliation, along with torture, terror, destruction of property, displacement and settlement, and takeover of basic resources, crucially water.

Sadat's 1971offer conformed to official US policy, but Kissinger succeeded in instituting his preference for what he called "stalemate": no negotiations, only force. Jordanian peace offers were also dismissed. Since that time, official US policy has kept to the international consensus on withdrawal (until Clinton, who effectively rescinded UN resolutions and considerations of international law); but in practice, policy has followed the Kissinger guidelines, accepting negotiations only when compelled to do so, as Kissinger was after the near-debacle of the 1973 war for which he shares major responsibility, and under the conditions that Ben-Ami articulated.

Official doctrine instructs us to focus attention on the Arab summit, as if the Arab states and the PLO are the problem, in particular, their intention to drive Israel into the sea. Coverage presents the basic problem as vacillation, reservations, and qualifications in the Arab world. There is little that one can say in favor of the Arab states and the PLO, but these claims are simply untrue, as a look at the record quickly reveals.

The more serious press recognized that the Saudi plan largely reiterated the Saudi Fahd Plan of 1981, claiming that that initiative was undermined by Arab refusal to accept the existence of Israel. The facts are again quite different. The 1981 plan was undermined by an Israeli reaction that even its mainstream press condemned as "hysterical," backed by the US. That includes Shimon Peres and other alleged doves, who warned that acceptance of the Fahd plan would "threaten Israel's very existence." An indication of the hysteria is the reaction of Israel's President Haim Herzog, also considered a dove. He charged that the "real author" of the Fahd plan was the PLO, and that it was even more extreme than the January 1976 Security Council resolution that was "prepared by" the PLO, at the time when he was Israel's UN Ambassador. These claims can hardly be true, but they are an indication of the desperate fear of a political settlement on the part of Israeli doves, backed throughout by the US. The basic problem then, as now, traces back to Washington, which has persistently backed Israel's rejection of a political settlement in terms of the broad international consensus, reiterated in essentials in the current Saudi proposals.

Until such elementary facts as these are permitted to enter into discussion, displacing the standard misrepresentation and deceit, discussion is mostly beside the point. And we should not be drawn into it -- for example, by implicitly accepting the assumption that developments at the Arab summit are a critical problem. They have significance, of course, but it is secondary. The primary problems are right here, and it is our responsibility to face them and deal with them, not to displace them to others.

Michael Albert, Z Magazine / ZNet

mailto:sysop@zmag.org http://www.zmag.org

4/3/02
5:44:20 PM

Deadly Crisis in the Middle East

AlterNet's breaking coverage continues at:

http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28

Tragically, as the Middle East boils over into a cruel war, we are stuck with leaders -- Ariel Sharon and George W. Bush -- who see brute force as the only solution to rebellion and historical disagreement.

Suicide bombers and brutal occupation cannot breed peace, only future horrors. So now is not the time to get depressed. It's the time to be informed, make our voices heard and fight for a peaceful solution.

With these headlines, AlterNet brings you a collection of voices to help make sense of the carnage:

* Painful dispatches from those under constant siege in Ramallah

* Biting analyses of U.S. policy

* Appeals from Palestinians and Israelis alike who refuse to give up in the search for peace

* Resources to help you protest the Bush administration's response to the Israeli invasion.

All at our constantly updated "War in the Middle East" page:

http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28

DISPATCHES FROM RAMALLAH

Eyewitness acccounts of the Israeli invasion are pouring in from Ramallah and Bethlehem every day. Read some of the reports being circulated on listservs and indymedia sites.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12762

SHARON'S WAR THREATENS ISRAEL'S SECURITY

Simona Sharoni, AlterNet

The aim of Ariel Sharon's military offensive to split Palestine into isolated fragments. It is a policy that can only lead to more bloodshed on both sides.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12768

HAWKS CONTROL U.S. MIDEAST POLICY

Jim Lobe, AlterNet

As Israel invades the Palestinian territories, the Bush administration's respponse is being framed by two men who despise Yasser Arafat -- Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12765

OPEN LETTER TO THE COMMANDER OF THE ISRAELI PARATROOPERS

Neve Gordon, AlterNet

An Israeli human rights activist wonders how his former classmate, who is now leading Israel's military action in Ramallah, turned into a war criminal.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12751

WATCHING FROM ON HIGH

Robert Fisk, The Independent

Reports from the streets of Ramallah as Israeli soldiers take control of this city under siege.

http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=280533

A WAY OUT OF THE BLOODSHED

Sam Bahour and Michael Dahan, AlterNet

Two Americans living in the war zone -- one Palestinian and the other Israeli -- issue an eloquent call for peace.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12746

FROM APATHY TO PARALYSIS

Robert Scheer, WorkingForChange.com

President Bush is endorsing Ariel Sharon's bloody campaign against the Palestinians as a fight against terrorism -- and abdicating his responsibility to wage peace.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12766

INTRACTABLE FOES, WARRING NARRATIVES

Eric Alterman, MSNBC.com

The conflict in the Middle East is about warring narratives, each making its own claim to land and history. But in the U.S., it is mostly the Israeli perspective that gets attention.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12769

4/3/02
5:40:53 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Iowa Senator seeks Calif switch to ethanol by 2003 - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15294/story.htm

Premcor says to pay $6.2 mln fine - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15299/story.htm

US govt maintains mileage rules for 2004 trucks - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15298/story.htm

Cummins truck engine wins EPA emissions OK - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15295/story.htm

Westinghouse seeks OK for new nuclear plant design - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15289/story.htm

UK greenhouse gas trading scheme makes slow start - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15286/story.htm

Caged Scottish salmon escape, threaten wild cousin - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15288/story.htm

World summit firm gets more donors, needs more cash - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15302/story.htm

Japan pro-whalers step up campaign - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15296/story.htm

India plans 6,000 MW wind power in next 10 years - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15290/story.htm

UK says may change power mkt to help green sector - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15291/story.htm

France to spend 10 bln euros on boosting wind power - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15292/story.htm

Activists held in Ecuador pipeline protest freed - ECUADOR http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15297/story.htm

China invests in electric cars to combat pollution - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15287/story.htm

Bears get the boot ahead of Canada's G8, hoax says - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15301/story.htm

Tigers killing more people in Bangladesh - BANGLADESH http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15300/story.htm

INTERVIEW - Three firms bid for $650 mln Bahrain project - BAHRAIN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15293/story.htm

4/3/02
5:38:56 PM

The Mineta Myth

How Bob Woodward made the secretary of transportation a false hero.

By Joshua Green

Among the public officials who gained folk-hero status on Sept. 11, only Rudolph Giuliani outshines Norman Mineta, who is credited with making the snap decision to ground all airborne planes shortly after the Pentagon attack. The transportation secretary was canonized in the opening paragraphs of Bob Woodward and Dan Balz's six-part Washington Post epic, "10 Days in September":

Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order—there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary. "[Expletive] pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those goddamn planes down."

Mineta's courageous performance has been widely praised, not least by Mineta himself in a Sept. 20 appearance before Congress, and again on 60 Minutes II a month later. Here's his congressional testimony:

I immediately called the FAA, told them to bring all the airplanes down right now. All that we have learned since that fateful morning leaves me convinced that this unusual command or order was the right thing to do.

For Mineta, the genuflection this tale has engendered has been a welcome distraction from less mythic performances, such as his department's problems getting the new airport security agency off the ground. Long considered a competent if unremarkable backbencher, Mineta has refashioned himself as a quick-thinking decision-maker with flawless instincts in an emergency.

He may be that, but he isn't the hero Woodward and Balz make him out to be. According to insiders, that honor belongs to Monte Belger, at the time the No. 2 official at the FAA. A precise, diligent career bureaucrat known among colleagues as "the Forrest Gump of the FAA," Belger was on a phone bridge with controllers at the David J. Hurley Air Traffic Control System Command Center in Herndon, Va., and ordered flights grounded 15 minutes before Mineta was even notified of the attacks. So, when the secretary issued his blunt order—"Monte, bring all the planes down!"—Monte had already done so.

FAA officials and beat reporters have known this for months. "Any clued-in transportation reporter knows what went on that day," says one. But Mineta apparently does not. After he gave his congressional testimony, FAA officials, including Belger, who is a consummate team player, kept quiet in deference to their boss. Though beat reporters knew the truth as long ago as November, none came forward for fear of being frozen out.

Until last Tuesday, when, at the end of a speech before the Aero Club of Washington, D.C., the Washington Post's veteran transportation reporter Don Phillips let the cat out of the bag. Phillips told his audience he felt it necessary to make a "historical correction," although FAA officials had begged him to maintain the fiction. Phillips proposed, charitably, that Mineta's order was a simple misunderstanding; that the secretary was unaware that "[f]or at least 15 minutes before Mineta's conversation with the FAA, controllers were bringing the planes down ... at the nearest airport." Phillips continued:

I'm told by very high sources that it happened this way: First, the decision was made on a regional basis by some gutsy local FAA officials, and the FAA command center and headquarters officials agreed that it should be spread to the whole country. First, [the FAA] acted. Then they sought permission. A top FAA official ... then called Mineta, finding him in a bunker with the vice president and other officials. He explained the plan, and Mineta agreed. ...

Then there was a pause in the conversation. You know what many of us do when there is a pause in the conversation. We try to fill the dead time. The FAA official, unfortunately said something like, "Of course we could have let them go on to their destinations, or ..." Big mistake. Norm heard that throwaway line as saying the FAA was still considering letting them go on to destination. He then fired off his now-famous order.

All this raises the question of why, if every reporter on the transportation beat knew the truth about Mineta's command, Woodward and Balz got it wrong. It's plausible that Mineta really didn't know the truth about Sept. 11—that due to his deputies' protectiveness, the secretary has been unwittingly repeating an erroneous version of events.

But that doesn't excuse Woodward and Balz. Unlike so many other juicy Woodward anecdotes, this one was easily verifiable, particularly since their Post colleague, Phillips, had ferreted out the truth. "I have no reason to doubt that the more complicated version that [Phillips] explains is probably the accurate one," Balz says.

Woodward isn't nearly as ready to concede. "This is the first I've heard of it," he told me, adding that he checked his version of the story with Mineta's staff. "If I'd known of that information—and it was correct—I probably would have included [the anecdote]. But no correction is necessary. What we wrote is not inaccurate." Not inaccurate, perhaps—but not exactly accurate either.

Source: http://slate.msn.com/default.aspx?id=2063935

4/3/02
5:32:40 PM

The Nation

Allegations that a past president of Taiwan illegally set up a $100 million secret slush fund to pay for overseas intelligence and propaganda operations are causing ripples that have reached into the Bush Administration, where two senior State Department officials have been implicated.

For the full story, check out the latest installment of David Corn's exclusive Nation web feature, Capital Games, available at:

http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/

4/3/02
5:31:45 PM

t r u t h o u t | 04.03

BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Israeli Leader Ariel Sharon Proposes Yasser Arafat Go Into Exile; Aides Say He Won't Leave

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm

Bush Administration Moves to Avoid Debt Default

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03A.Debt.Default.htm

Rangel Sharply Critical of Administration's Reallocation of Retirement Funds

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03B.Rangel.htm

Bush Is Criticized for Mideast Role

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03C.Bush.Criticized.htm

Jennifer Van Bergen | Repeal the USA Patriot Act

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03D.JVB.Patriot.htm

Andersen Yanked Adviser Off Enron

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03E.Yanked.Enron.htm

Arafat's Key Aides Targeted

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03F.Aides.Targeted.htm

Synagogues in France, Belgium Set on Fire in Spate of Attacks

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03G.Fire.Spate.htm

White House Stonewall: Day 39

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03H.Stonewall.htm

Californians Celebrate Second Annual Cesar Chavez State Holiday With Community Service

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.03I.Cesar.Chavez.htm

t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.

http://www.truthout.org

4/2/02
4:05:25 PM

DAILY GRIST

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

THE MISERY RIVER

The Missouri River is the nation's most threatened river, according to a report released today by American Rivers. In its annual report of endangered waterways, the group blamed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the terrible conditions of Big Muddy. The river is dammed in six places; dredging for barge traffic has shortened it by 127 miles and reduced its width by two-thirds. Efforts to change the management plan for the river have pitted environmentalists against farmers, as well as downstream states against those upstream. The current report marked the second year in a row and the third time since 1997 that the Missouri River came in last in the American Rivers ranking. Other rivers in bad shape include the Big Sunflower in Mississippi, the Klamath in Oregon and California, the Kansas in Kansas, the Powder in Wyoming, the White in Arkansas, and the Apalachicola in Florida.

straight to the source: CNN.com, Associated Press, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/science/04/02/endangered.rivers.ap/index.html>

do good: Take action on rivers issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/rivers.asp?source=daily>

THE FULL MONTY

In an effort to combat global warming, Great Britain has set up the world's first national greenhouse gas emissions trading plan. Under the plan, emissions credits will be traded like any other commodity; British companies that agree to participate can directly reduce their own use of fossil fuels, or they can buy part or all of their reduction quota from another company. According to the targets mandated in the Kyoto Protocol on global climate change, Great Britain must cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 7.5 percent of 1990 levels by the year 2012. The government hopes it will be easier to reach that goal under the new system, which is based on one pioneered in the U.S. to reduce acid rain by allowing companies to trade credits for cutting sulfur dioxide emissions. Other countries that are considering adopting the U.K. model include New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, and the Netherlands.

straight to the source: BBC News, Richard Black, 02 Apr 2002 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1906000/1906322.stm>

do good: Take action on climate issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily>

ONE WORLD, ONE MORE AGENCY

What the world needs is another regulatory agency. That is the conclusion of legal and environmental experts at the Tokyo-based U.N. University, who believe a new world environmental organization, as well as an international environmental court, could help make sense of the more than 500 environmental agreements and agencies operating around the world. In a report, the U.N. University folks called for the idea to be debated at September's Earth Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa. The report said that the global body would be analogous to the World Trade Organization (although with a very different mandate). It said such a body was necessary because although environmental problems are increasingly international in nature (think global warming), the current system of international environmental governance is "too complicated [and] steadily getting worse."

straight to the source: Planet Ark, Reuters, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15267/story.htm>

do good: Take action to send your leader to the World Summit <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/politics.asp?source=daily#summit>

WHAT FUELS THESE MORTALS BE

Surprise, surprise: The U.S. Department of Transportation decided yesterday not to increase fuel-efficiency requirements for sport utility vehicles and other light trucks for the model year 2004. The decision comes after the Senate voted last month against a sharp increase in Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, instead directing the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, a DOT agency, to consider the effects of higher mileage standards on passenger safety and auto industry employment. NHTSA said it did not have enough time to adequately undertake those investigations before yesterday's deadline, meaning that for the moment, fuel-efficiency standards for the gas-guzzling vehicles will remain at a mere 20.7 miles per gallon.

straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Reuters, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/asection/la-000023639apr02.story>

straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, 01 Apr 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/04/01/national1736EST0722.DTL>

only in Grist: Is that a lawmaker in your pocket, or ... ? -- a breakdown of the CAFE standards yeas and nays in the Senate -- in our Muckracker section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/muck/muck031402.asp?source=daily>

do good: Take action to pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>

THE SALTON OF THE EARTH

The Salton Sea is California's largest lake -- and one of the most endangered habitats in North America. The sea is extremely salty and getting more so every day. And outbreaks of botulism and lack of oxygen have killed thousands of the birds and fish that call the lake home. Now the lake faces another threat: California is under federal mandate to reduce the amount of water it uses from the Colorado River by the end of this year, and the proposal on the table would virtually dry up the Salton Sea's major water source -- agricultural runoff from the Imperial Valley. Scientists say the lake will be largely evaporated and entirely dead by 2030. That would cause serious erosion and air pollution problems, and would be an ecological disaster for the 400-odd bird species that currently rely on the lake. (Ironically, the Salton Sea is an artificial lake, created when a levee broke on the Colorado in 1905, but it has become increasingly important to birds, as other wetlands areas have been drained and developed.)

straight to the source: New York Times, Jim Robbins, 02 Apr 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/04/02/science/earth/02SALT.html>

4/2/02
3:08:39 PM

Public Citizen issued the following two press releases today:

1) Jerry Falwell Attempts to Silence Critics From a Bully Pulpit; Preacher Should Not Be Allowed to Shut Down Web Site That Ridicules Him, Public Citizen Says

2) Enron's Failure in Water Ventures Highlights Dangers of Privatization to Consumers, Taxpayers

April 2, 2002

Jerry Falwell Attempts to Silence Critics From a Bully Pulpit

Preacher Should Not Be Allowed to Shut Down Web Site That Ridicules Him, Public Citizen Says

WASHINGTON, D.C - The Rev. Jerry Falwell's attempts to shut down a Web site that uses his name in its address and parodies some of Falwell's statements have the goal of bullying Internet posters and suppressing dissent, a response filed today by Public Citizen with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) says.

Illinois resident Gary Cohn maintains a non-commercial site under the domain names jerryfalwell.com and jerryfallwell.com. The site makes fun of Falwell for blaming the September 11 attacks on the supposed moral decline of America and parodies the way Falwell cites Bible verses to make moral judgments.

For example, in one section of the site, Cohn lists Bible verses that instruct followers to sell daughters into slavery, put to death anyone who works on the Sabbath and avoid touching the skin of a dead pig. He asks Falwell exactly how these laws should be followed and their punishments carried out.

Falwell filed a complaint with WIPO, an arbiter for Internet disputes. He argued that the site violates a common law trademark on his name and will disrupt his business interests by leading Internet users toward "false thinking" about the Bible. He also claims that even if the site is meant to be a parody, it isn't funny.

"It doesn't matter whether the site is funny or uses the Bible differently than Falwell would," said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney with the Public Citizen Litigation group who filed the response for Cohn. "What's important here is that Cohn has every right to use Falwell's name when he is criticizing him, and he has every right to do that on the Internet."

Falwell's claim that he holds a trademark on his name because of his fame is insufficient because he doesn't show that he has used his name as a trademark in the past, Public Citizen said in its filing. Further, trademark laws and precedent under the Uniform Dispute Resolution Process, an Internet dispute arbiter, recognize that site names often refer to the subject of the site and do not imply that the site is sponsored by the owner of that name ¯ most obviously in fan sites and complaint sites.

"Falwell has tried and failed before to sue people who have made fun of him or criticized him, but it seems he hasn't learned the lesson," Levy said. "He should not be able to use his money and power to force non-commercial sites offering important social criticisms off the Web."

A copy of the filing is available on line at

http://www.citizen.org/documents/FalwellBrief.pdf

Public Citizen is involved in the case because it has a history of defending free speech on the Internet. To read more about this and other free speech cases, go to

http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/IntFreeSpch/index.cfm.

xox

April 2, 2002

Enron's Failure in Water Ventures Highlights Dangers of Privatization to Consumers, Taxpayers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Enron Corp.'s failed venture into the water business, which was marked by financial problems, complaints of poor service and allegations of political corruption, should serve as a warning to consumers and policymakers about the dangers of privatizing public water systems and resources, according to a Public Citizen report released today.

The report - Liquid Assets: Enron's Dip Into Water Business Highlights Pitfalls of Privatization - draws lessons from the troubled history of Azurix Inc., a subsidiary created by Enron in 1998 to own and manage water and wastewater systems, provide water-related services and manage water assets. The report can be viewed online at:

http://www.citizen.org/documents/LiquidAssets.pdf

"Companies like Enron sing a siren's song about privatization of water resources and systems, but there is no evidence that private companies can provide better, less-expensive service to consumers and plenty of evidence that suggests otherwise," said Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program. "Local and state governments should be extremely wary of entrusting such an essential human need as water to corporations that simply want to turn a profit."

Enron created an elaborate financial structure that involved two trusts and more than 50 subsidiaries and limited partnerships in the Cayman Islands to keep Azurix-related debt off its balance sheets. Its failed water investment cost investors hundreds of millions of dollars and contributed to the company's eventual collapse. The company's brief tenure in the water business highlighted many of the risks of water privatization: poor contract performance, political corruption and influence-peddling, environmental violations and uncertain financial stability.

In Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, for example, Azurix's concession was plagued by lengthy service interruptions, inferior water quality and failure to adequately treat wastewater, resulting in fines totaling $1 million and eventual default on a 30-year contract. In Ontario, Azurix pleaded guilty to 19 environmental charges. In Ghana, the World Bank withdrew a pledge to contribute $100 million toward a water pipeline project after allegations of corruption tainted the government's water operations contract with Azurix.

Azurix also sought to develop water resources that could be traded and unveiled a Web-based service to facilitate trading, storing and transporting water. Among its schemes was an offer to the state of Florida to help fund the restoration of the Everglades in exchange for the rights to some of its water. The company hired influential former water officials to lobby Gov. Jeb Bush and the Legislature, but the plan failed. The company also sought to develop a large ranch in California as a water "bank," to store water in wet periods and sell it during dry times. That effort also failed.

"Like the company did with electricity, Enron wanted to create a commodities market for water," said Alex Tsybine, author of the report. "Consumers in California saw what happened when electricity was traded in an unregulated market: prices tripled overnight and rolling blackouts became frequent. Fortunately, Enron did not succeed in this strategy with water, but the idea has not gone away."

Water has been called the "oil of the 21st century," and the World Bank has predicted that by 2025, two-thirds of the world's population would run short of potable water. With 85 percent of the U.S. population being served currently by public providers, corporate proponents of privatization are salivating over the prospect of huge profits in the years ahead. Enron was only one of many multinational corporations seeking to profit from the scarcity of water.

A proposal in Congress to abolish the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA), would allow traditional electric and natural gas utilities to expand their investments into water businesses. PUHCA, the Depression-era law passed in the wake of energy company excesses that contributed to the stock market crash of 1929, protects consumers by limiting the ability of utilities to make risky investments in non-utility assets.

"Rather than learn an important lesson from the implosion of Enron's house of cards, some lawmakers are bent on repeating the mistakes of the past," Hauter said. "Big energy companies want to consolidate assets across various utility sectors like telecommunications, electricity and water. But this is risky for consumers, because they're the ones who will pay for bad investments, like Enron's, through higher rates and shoddy service."

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

For more information about water privatization, please visit:

http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/

4/2/02
3:02:26 PM

Public Citizen

April 2, 2002

COMING TO A ROAD, RAIL LINE OR WATERWAY IN YOUR COMMUNITY -- DANGEROUS RADIOACTIVE WASTE --

If you are concerned about what the government and nuclear industry aren't telling you about the dangers and risks of accidents and terrorism involving the transportation of massive amounts of radioactive waste...

If you want to find out why the government wants to transport 77,000 tons over 24 years through your communities even though it hasn't fully studied the potential consequences of a disaster and even though it is relying on information from the 1970s and 1980s to assess the today's risks of terrorism...

Then 1. Watch West Wing on Wednesday night

2. Send this email to all your friends, colleagues and relatives

3. Visit: http://www.ananuclear.org\stopnucleartransport.html

http://www.atomicroadshow.org

4. Contact your members of Congress to say you don't want dangerous nuclear waste traveling through your communities, near your homes and schools.

http://www.eMailCongress.net

5.Phone or email NBC and congratulate them on the show

Source: http://www.Citizen.org

4/2/02
2:57:02 PM

t r u t h o u t | 04.02

BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict Israel Tightens Grip on West Bank

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm

Jennifer Van Bergen | Repeal the USA Patriot Act

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02A.JVB.Patriot.htm

RAMALLAH: Palestinian City Now an Israeli Garrison

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02B.Garrison.htm

White House Stonewall: Day 38

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02C.Stonewall.htm

At the Epicenter of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict | Inside al-Aqsa

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02D.Inside.Al-Aqsa.htm

Navy Bombing Resumes on Vieques

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02E.Vieques.Navy.htm

Pakistan : Pearl Slaying Suspects to be Tried in Secret

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02F.Secret.Trial.htm

Finance Law May Redirect the Flow of Soft Money

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02G.Soft.Money.htm

Court to Review Three Strikes Sentencing Laws

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02H.Three.Strikes.htm

Arianna Huffington | What Has The Supreme Court Been Smoking?

http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/04.02I.AH.Court.htm

t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.

http://www.truthout.org

4/2/02
2:53:32 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

NZ ENDS RAINFOREST LOGGING ON PUBLIC LANDS

By Bob Burton

WELLINGTON, New Zealand, April 1, 2002 (ENS) - Two hundred environmentalists from across New Zealand spent the Easter weekend celebrating a government decision to add 130,000 hectares of rainforests previously slated for logging - to National Parks and other conservation reserves.

http://click.topica.com/maaajNgaaRGqxa379Jrb/

WURCS WORKS TO HELP MALAWI VILLAGES HELP THEMSELVES

By Charles Mkoka, Youth Environmental News Desk

BLANTYRE, Malawi, April 1, 2002, (ENS) - It is six in the morning at Cape Maclear on the Nam'kumba peninsula jutting into the southern end of Lake Malawi.Waking from a deep slumber, the first thing you hear are the boat engines of fishermen returning to land after a night's work on the lake.

http://click.topica.com/maaajNgaaRGqya379Jrb/

RUSSIA RETAILIATES AGAINST EUROPEAN AIRCRAFT NOISE CURB

BRUSSELS, Belgium, April 1, 2002 (ENS) - Russia has announced it will impose restrictions on European commercial airlines entering its airspace in response to European Union transport ministers' formal decision to approve a new law phasing out the noisiest aircraft at the bloc's airports.

http://click.topica.com/maaajNgaaRGqza379Jrb/

EARTH DATA SCREENED AS 3-D WALL TO WALL IMAGES

LA JOLLA, California, April 1, 2002 (ENS) - On large curved screens, 3-D visuals dramatize data showing the impact of global warming on Earth's climate and oceans. Sixty scientists in two auditoriums 44 miles apart view the images together and participate in a joint analysis of the data. The world's first visualization complex dedicated to Earth and ocean sciences is functioning.

http://click.topica.com/maaajNgaaRGqAa379Jrb/

PREMCOR FINED $6.25 MILLION FOR BREACH OF FIVE LAWS

WASHINGTON, DC, April 1, 2002 (ENS) - Premcor Refining Group, Inc., will pay a $6.25 million penalty to resolve claims that its Blue Island Refinery south of Chicago violated five federal statutes and Illinois state laws. Premcor, formerly known as Clark Refining and Marketing, Inc., closed the large refinery in January 2001.

http://click.topica.com/maaajNgaaRGqBa379Jrb/

4/2/02
2:50:17 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

CORRECTED - Impoverished Uzbek west suffers man-made famine - UZBEKISTAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15262/story.htm

UPDATE - US govt study says Alaska drilling harmful - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15255/story.htm

Golden Northwest delays aluminum smelter restart - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15258/story.htm

US dismayed by possible Russia - N.Korea project - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15259/story.htm

Bush tapped solar energy funds to print energy plan - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15260/story.htm

US govt asked to release data on Alaska oil reserve - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15280/story.htm

Appalachians have 66 billion tons of coal - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15272/story.htm

UPDATE - US biotech crop plantings rise again in 2002 - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15271/story.htm

El Paso says Californian storage could have eased crisis - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15270/story.htm

World environment agency would ease chaos - study - UNITED NATIONS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15267/story.htm

UK says carbon emissions rise after years of falls - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15256/story.htm

Britain declares war on waste, promotes recycling - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15257/story.htm

Patter of tiny flippers at London Zoo - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15279/story.htm

Warmer water changing Portugal fish species - study - PORTUGAL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15253/story.htm

New Zealand to ban pet ferrets - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15276/story.htm

Giant octopus dredged up - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15281/story.htm

Indonesia to issue rule for GMO product labeling - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15275/story.htm

Antam seeks new partner for Gag nickel - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15263/story.htm

German study sees 5-fold global rise in wind power - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15261/story.htm

UPDATE - France, Italy fail to agree on Mt Blanc freight - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15265/story.htm

EU queries legality of Amazonian mahogany imports - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15273/story.htm

China says probes PVC dumping by US, others - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15282/story.htm

UPDATE - China clarifies GMO permits, foreign firms cheer - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15274/story.htm

Oil tanker sinks after Shanghai collision-Xinhua - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15278/story.htm

Olympics - Beijing vision has beaches, not twin towers - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15266/story.htm

Bears get the boot ahead of Canada's G8, hoax says - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15277/story.htm

Inco ordered to clean up polluted properties - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15268/story.htm

Canadian canola growers face rocky regulatory road - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/15269/story.htm

4/2/02
2:40:00 PM

What Has The Supreme Court Been Smoking?

by Arianna Huffington

In an infuriating blow to reason, logic, fairness, compassion and equal justice, the Supreme Court ruled last week that people living in public housing can be evicted for any drug activity by any household member or guest -- even if the drug use happened blocks away from the housing project and even if the tenant had no inkling that anything illegal was taking place.

Chew on that for a second. The highest judicial body in the land has said --unanimously -- that it's OK to toss people who the court acknowledges are innocent out of their houses for crimes they didn't commit and didn't even know about. The generals in the drug war are getting mighty desperate --and silly.

The justices did not just uphold the constitutionality of the "One Strike and You're Out" eviction policy, first implemented by the Clinton administration in 1996; they also rushed to its defense, calling it "reasonable," "unambiguous" and "not absurd."

But try to tell Pearlie Rucker that the law's not absurd. She was the named defendant in the case the court ruled on, a 63-year-old great-grandmother who found herself and everyone living with her facing eviction when her mentally disabled daughter was caught possessing cocaine -- three blocks away from Rucker's apartment. Or to co-defendant Herman Walker, a disabled 79-year old man, who now stands to lose his home because his full-time health care worker was found with drug paraphernalia in the apartment. You'd think that if the Supremes didn't understand the hardship of poverty, they'd at least understand the hardships of old age.

When the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals had struck down this draconian policy, it ruled that it perverted the intent of the law, which was meant to improve the lives of public housing residents -- not destroy them.

The high court's opinion, written by Chief Justice William Rehnquist no less, tried to buttress its cold-hearted argument by claiming that so-called "no fault" evictions are justified because drug use leads to "murders, muggings, and other forms of violence." But he failed to point out how locking up innocent people solves that. Or what social ills will be avoided by Pearlie and Herman being cast out on their innocent rear ends. Surely even the most brutal and utilitarian calculus would at least balance the cost of punishing so many blameless victims against whatever perceived good is achieved.

But, no, the justices couldn't be bothered. In adopting such one-sided reasoning and hyperbolic "Reefer Madness" rhetoric the Supreme Court is following in the fear-mongering footsteps of the administration, whose latest whacko anti-drug ad campaign tried to draw a link between teenage drug use and violent acts of terrorism.

In reality, two of the four plaintiffs in the case before the court were elderly women whose grandchildren were caught smoking pot in a housing project parking lot. I have a feeling the grandkids were far more interested in the munchies than in murder and mayhem.

The ruling is not only a galling example of drug war lunacy, but also a gut-wrenching reminder of just how differently America treats its rich and its poor. The multi-million dollar homes of Beverly Hills or the Upper East Side of Manhattan have more than their share of kids struggling with drug problems. But as concerned as these kids' parents are, you can bet that their problems are not compounded by the additional worry that the entire family will be tossed out onto the street because their kid is seen smoking a joint three blocks away. Why should we hold poor people to a standard of accountability most of us could never meet?

"A tenant who cannot control drug crime," wrote Justice Rehnquist in the majority opinion, "is a threat to other residents and the project." I wonder if the Chief Justice would apply the same condemnatory logic to Gov. Jeb Bush, who also lives in public housing and was also unable to control his troubled daughter.

Indeed, our political establishment, whether ensconced in plush public housing or not, is filled with people unable to "control drug crime" by a household member. But none of them -- including Sens. Ted Kennedy, Richard Lugar, and Richard Shelby, and Reps. Dan Burton, Spencer Bachus, John Murtha, Duke Cunningham and Maurice Hinchey -- were punished for the sins of their kids. What's more, unlike the thousands of poor and minority drug offenders who have had the book thrown at them, these lawmakers' lawbreaking offspring were frequently granted special treatment.

Take the amazing case of Rep. Burton's son, Dan II, who, in 1994, was arrested for transporting seven pounds of marijuana across state lines with the intent to distribute. He pleaded guilty and received probation, community service and house arrest. Soon after, he was discovered growing 30 pot plants in his apartment but skated on the charges once again -- a federal felony carrying a mandatory-minimum sentence of five years in jail having been miraculously transformed into a state level misdemeanor.

It's not surprising that poor kids are routinely sent to jail while rich kids are given a slap on the wrist and a ticket to rehab, or that poor parents are thrown out of their houses for not knowing what their kids are doing while powerful parents are given our sympathy and understanding. But it is unjust. And isn't that ultimately what the Supreme Court is supposed to be about: dispensing justice?

Since Rehnquist and company were too busy taking hits from their double-standard bong, it's now up to Congress to undo this discriminatory policy. Here's a thought: Why don't Ted Kennedy and Dan Burton call a joint Senate-House hearing on "One Strike and You're Out" no-fault evictions. They can call Jeb Bush, Pearlie Rucker and their respective daughters (one taken to rehab, one taken to jail) as the first witnesses.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12747

4/2/02
2:25:39 PM

Into YThe Buzzsaw: 18 Tales Of Media Censorship

by Michelle Goldberg

Between them, the authors of the incendiary new book "Into the Buzzsaw," out this month from Prometheus, have won nearly every award journalism has to give -- a Pulitzer, several Emmys, a Peabody, a prize from Investigative Reporters and Editor, an Edward R. Murrorw and several accolades from the Society of Professional Journalists. One is veteran of the Drug Enforcement Administration and a best-selling author, another is a Nieman Fellow at Harvard.

And most of them are considered, at best, marginal by the mainstream media. At worst, they've been deemed incompetent and crazy for having the audacity to uncover evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by government agencies and corporate octopi.

Edited by ex-CBS producer Kristina Borjesson, "Into the Buzzsaw" is a collection of essays, mostly by serious journalists excommunicated from the media establishment for tackling subjects like the CIA's role in drug smuggling, lies perpetuated by the investigators of TWA flight 800, POWs rotting in Vietnam, a Korean war massacre, the disenfranchisement of black voters in Bush's election, bovine growth hormone's dangers and a host of other unpopular issues.

Borjesson describes "the buzzsaw" as "what can rip through you when you try to investigate or expose anything this country's large institutions -- be they corporate or government -- want to keep under wraps. The system fights back with official lies, disinformation, and stonewalling. Your phone starts acting funny. Strange people call you at strange hours to give you strange information. The FBI calls you. Your car is broken into and the thief takes your computer and your reporter's notebook and leaves everything else behind ... The sense of fear and paranoia is, at times, overwhelming."

The majority of the eighteen pieces in Borjesson's book are about hard-working mainstream journalists, dedicated to the ideals of their profession, who stumble into the buzzsaw and have their careers and reputations eviscerated. Though the subjects and personalities involved are wildly diverse, the stories echo each other in disturbing ways. Journalists are sent by their bosses to do their jobs -- in the case of Borjesson, to investigate the crash of TWA Fight 800 as a producer for CBS news. Sometimes what they find is impolitic, other times it brings threats of corporate lawsuits. Suddenly, editors kill the story, or demand changes. In some instances, like that of TV reporter Jane Akre, who was investigating the use of Monsanto's Bovine Growth Hormone, reporters are ordered to insert outright lies in their pieces or face firing. Other times, like with Gerard Colby's book about the Du Pont family and Gary Webb's San Jose Mercury News series about the CIA's role in the crack epidemic, the bosses are spooked after the fact and withdraw their support from work already published, hanging reporters out to dry.

In the aftermath of Enron, plenty of journalists came forward to publicly wring their hands about the press's failure to catch the story before it destroyed the life savings of thousands. Since then, though, there's been little sign of renewed vigilance towards malfeasance at other companies, even though many have written that Enron's business practices weren't particularly unusual. Without addressing Enron directly, "Into the Buzzsaw" makes it pretty clear why this is by showing how journalists who took on companies like Monsanto and Du Pont were abandoned by their own editors and publishers and embroiled in lawsuits.

When they speak out, buzzsaw victims are usually treated as paranoid conspiracy theorists. Competing outlets valiantly defend the status quo --The New York Times, The Washington Post and the LA Times launched concurrent attacks on Gary Webb's series, eventually derailing his career and causing his paper to print a retraction (though not of any specific facts mentioned in the story). Writing of this episode in is book "Whiteout," Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair said, "From the savage assaults on Webb by other members of his profession, those unfamiliar with the series might have assumed that Webb had made a series of wild and unsubstantiated charges, long on dramatic speculation and short of specific data or sourcing. In fact, Webb's series was succinct and narrowly focused."

Borjesson was subject to similar attempts at character assassination by her former peers. After Borjesson was fired from CBS, she was asked to develop a pilot for a new investigative series to be overseen by Oliver Stone. She gathered over thirty eyewitnesses who disputed the official government story, but before production even started, other journalists started sneering at the project. Newsweek called Stone the "latest conspiracy crank to delve into the mysterious crash." Time Magazine chimed in with an article headlined "The Conspiracy Channel?" The New York Times dismissed Borjesson's reporting simply because government agencies denied its truth (never mind they were the very agencies Borjesson was investigating).

There's something of an X-Files feel to a lot of these stories, though not in the way that condescending guardians of official truth think. Rather, their surreal feeling comes from the first-person experiences of people finding the institutions they've served all their lives suddenly turning on them. As Borjesson writes, "Walk into the buzzsaw and you'll cut right to this layer of reality. You will feel a deep sense of loss and betrayal. A shocking shift in paradigm. Anyone who hasn't experienced it will call you crazy. Those who don't know the truth, or are covering it up, will call you a conspiracy nut."

In fact, that's just what a lot of these writers have been called. Once a journalist has been tossed out of the inner circle, anything they write can be smeared as sour grapes or mere ranting. The media has already branded them unreliable, so their charges are extremely unlikely to be taken seriously.

A similar thing happens to other progressive media critics. It's not that the media isn't interested in media stories -- see the blanket coverage of Tina Brown's foibles at Talk. It's just that few are interested in critiques that challenge the very essence of journalists' romantic dreams of themselves as Robert Redford playing Bob Woodward in "All the Presidents Men." Right-wingers like "Bias" author Bernard Goldberg tend to get much more attention, perhaps because their insights don't threaten most journalists' cherished self-conceptions.

While most alternative press readers are familiar with Noam Chomsky's scrupulous documentation of the way government lies become the media's conventional wisdom and with Robert McChesney (who wrote Buzzsaw's conclusion) and Mark Crispin Millers' analysis of corporate consolidation, they are routinely written off by those policing the perimeters of acceptable debate. They hardly ever appear in major newspapers or on network TV. While not quibbling with their facts, most media people tar them as alarmists or unrealistic utopians.

Indeed, some of the writers in Buzzsaw say that, before their own experiences, they were among the scoffers. Webb writes, "If we had met five years ago, you wouldn't have found a more staunch defender of the newspaper industry than me ... I was winning awards, getting raises, lecturing college classes, appearing on TV shows, and judging journalism contests. So how could I possibly agree with people like Noam Chomsky and Ben Bagdikian, who were claiming the system didn't work, that it was steered by powerful special interests and corporations, and existed to protect the power elite?"

But, like most of the contributors to "Into the Buzzsaw," he did his job too well and the powers that be hurled him onto the other side of the looking glass. "And then I wrote some stories that made me realize how sadly misplaced my bliss had been," he writes. "The reason I'd enjoyed such smooth sailing for so long hadn't been, as I'd assumed, because I was careful and diligent and good at my job ... The truth was that, in all those years, I hadn't written anything important enough to suppress."

The routine maginalizing of media critics is one reason "Into the Buzzsaw" is so important. It might be possible to discredit one erstwhile insider, but to argue that more than a dozen veterans of organizations like CBS News, CNN, The AP, The BBC and The San Jose Mercury News are all crazy in exactly the same way would be to engage in conspiracy-mongering more far-fetched than anything these authors are accused of. And while plenty of lefty writers have excoriated media monopolies, rarely has the precise way that corporate ownership and intimidation warp newsroom values been made quite so explicit. The value of these testimonies is largely in their minute accumulation of detail (which occasionally makes for tedious reading but enhances credibility). Borjesson is especially systematic, laying out every meeting, every conversation, every contradiction in government statements.

Some contributors aren't quite so convincing. The book as a whole would have been stronger without April Oliver's self-serving piece about her involvement in CNN's Tailwind debacle and subsequent firing. She doesn't bother to refute the charges made against her or defend the finer points of her work, which makes her essay seem like a self-serving screed. But that's just one weak spot in an otherwise appallingly convincing book, a book that suggests that the truth about our media-military-industrial complex might go beyond even our paranoid imaginings.

Beyond the specifics of each story, "Into the Buzzsaw" is about how the elite sector of the media to bestows the imprimatur of truth on its own interpretations of the world. In the current landscape, of course, these same outlets largely take it upon themselves to determine which books should be deemed serious. It will be interesting to see if "Into the Buzzsaw" gets any play in the outlets it exposes.

Don't count on it.

Michelle Goldberg is a freelance journalist based in Brooklyn.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12753

4/2/02
2:15:54 PM

Watching From On High As Israeli Guns Keep Firing

by Robert Fisk, From Psagot, in the West Bank

The grey smoke rose in a curtain over Yasser Arafat's headquarters, drifting high above two minarets and then smudging the skyline south of Ramallah.

"I guess he's blown himself up," an Israeli paratrooper said with contempt. "That guy is finished." We stood at the edge of the Jewish settlement just 400 yards from the first houses of the newly reoccupied Palestinian city – surrounded by Merkava tanks, Magah armoured vehicles and Jeeps and trucks and hundreds of reservists tugging blankets and mattresses and guns from the backs of lorries.

"It's only just beginning, you know that?" the paratrooper asked. "They are idiots down there. They should know their terrorism is over. We're never going back to the '67 borders. Anyway, they want Tel Aviv."

A clap of sound punched our ears, a shell exploding on the other side of the hill upon which Ramallah lies. I wandered closer to the city, through a garden of daffodils and dark purple flowers to where an Israeli boy soldier was standing.

"I want to go home," he said blankly. I said 20 seemed to be too young to be a soldier. "That's what my mother says."

He was eating matzah bread with salami, staring at the empty streets of Ramallah. "They've locked themselves in their homes," he said. "Do you blame them?"

I didn't. But it was a strange morning, sitting with the soldiers above Ramallah, a bit like those awful viewing platforms which generals would arrange for their guests in the Napoleonic wars, where food might be served while they watched the battlefield.

There was even a settler couple, cheerfully serving hot food and coffee to the reservists. The woman held out a bowl of vegetables and cheese for me. "My daughter's at Cambridge University," she said with a smile. "She's studying the history of the Crusades." A bloody business, I remarked, and her companion cheerfully agreed. Religious wars are like that.

That's when I saw the four Palestinians. Just below us, next to the garden with the daffodils and the purple flowers, three of them were kneeling on the grass in front of a group of Israeli officers. All were blindfolded, their hands tied behind them with plastic and steel handcuffs, one of them with his jacket pulled down his back so that he could not even move his shoulders. The Israelis were talking to them quietly, one of them on one knee as if before an altar rather than a prisoner.

Then I saw the fourth man, middle-aged, trussed up like a chicken, stretched across the grass with his blindfolded face lying amid a bunch of flowers.

The paratrooper shrugged: "They all say they've done nothing, that they're innocent, that we just came into their homes and took them without reason. Well, that's what they say."

I mentioned the prisoners to the two friendly settlers. They nodded, as if it was quite normal to have four men bound and blindfolded in the little garden. When I asked the 20-year-old about them, he shrugged like the paratrooper. "They are not my prisoners," he said.

I walked round the corner of a building to the little lawn upon which they were being questioned. A soldier was putting a new pair of cuffs on one of the kneeling men. Another Palestinian was repeatedly bowing his head before a door and his shoulders moved as if he was weeping.

None of it worried the soldiers. In their own unique "war on terror", these prisoners were "terrorists". Indeed, another soldier eating a plate of greens said that he thought "all the people down there" were "terrorists".

In front of us a Merkava tank passed, roaring down the hill below in a fog of blue smoke, its barrel gently swaying up and down above its hull. "Tomorrow is going to be worse," the paratrooper said. "This is only the beginning."

Had he been reading the newspapers? Or did he know something I had missed? There are all kinds of rumours in the settlement of Psagot; that the West Bank is going to be totally reoccupied, that the Israelis intend to re-establish their so-called "Civil Administration", that the Palestinian Authority will be dismantled and its leaders exiled.

The paratrooper's friend, a smiling sergeant who dwarfed both of us, thought it a good idea. "My only question is why we didn't do this weeks ago," he said. More troops arrived in more trucks with their Galil assault rifles. Radio shacks were being erected, armoured vehicles positioned above Ramallah. An officer asked what would happen if this operation failed. He answered his own question: "Sharon will be finished." Yes, you could not help feeling, something was coming.

On the road back to Jerusalem, I passed a rusting old bus opposite Maale Adumim, its windows covered in wire. Hands were gripping the wire and behind them, 20 or 30 faces stared through the mesh. The Palestinian prisoners were silent, looking out at the massive Jewish settlement, watching us, dark faces in shadow, guarded by a Jeep-load of troops.

A few minutes later, I stopped to buy bread and chocolate at a Palestinian grocery store in east Jerusalem. The shoppers – men, for the most part, with just two veiled women – were standing below the store's television set, plastic bags of food hanging from their hands. Israeli television does not flinch in telling the truth about its own casualties. "The toll so far appears to be 14 dead," the commentator announced. The Palestinians of Jerusalem understand Hebrew. A camera aboard a helicopter was scanning the roof of a Haifa restaurant, peeled back like a sardine can by a Hamas suicide bomber's explosives. A boy shook his head but an elderly man turned on him: "No," he said, pointing at the screen, "that's the way to do it."

And I thought of a girl in Cambridge who is studying the Crusades, and what a bloody business we agreed it all was. And how religious wars tend to be the bloodiest of all.

Source: http://argument.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=280533

4/2/02
2:10:15 PM

AlterNet Headlines

http://www.alternet.org

WAR IN THE MIDDLE EAST: OPEN LETTER TO A RAMALLAH COMMANDER

Neve Gordon, AlterNet

An Israeli human rights activist wonders how his former classmate, who is now leading Israel's military action in Ramallah, turned into a war criminal.

Also: - Robert Fisk's Dispatches from Ramallah

- A Way Out of the Violence

- How U.S. Media Covers Israel

All at AlterNet's new "War in the Middle East" Page:

http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=28

18 TALES OF MEDIA CENSORSHIP

Michelle Goldberg, AlterNet

The authors of the incendiary new book "Into the Buzzsaw" have won nearly every journalism award possible, yet all were censorsed for challenging corporate or government power.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12753

THE SEX-OBSESSED CHURCH SHOULD FOCUS ON JUSTICE INSTEAD

David Morris, AlterNet

Revelations about Catholic priests and sexual abuse may inspire the Church to abandon its current obsession with sex and reclaim its more compelling focus on social justice.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12752

Join the discussion about what's next for Catholics on Tuesday's Working Assets Radio with host Laura Flanders.

http://www.workingassetsradio.com/alternet/

MEDICAL MARIJUANA BAN OVERTURNED IN D.C.

Ann Harrison, AlterNet

In a major victory for the medical cannabis movement, a federal judge has overturned a ban on medical marijuana ballot initiatives in Washington, D.C.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12743

SHAKIRA DECLARES HER TERRITORY

Cynthia Fuchs, PopMatters

Though MTV and VH1 have worked hard to transform Shakira into just another blonde pop star, the Colombian icon is actually quite well read and politically aware.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12718

FINALLY, AMERICA WINS THE DRUG WAR!

from the Drug Policy Alliance

Living up to its promise of a drug-free America by 2002, the DEA has finally declared victory over drugs. Leading drug policy reform organizations will face massive layoffs.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12742

THE LEFT EATS ITS OWN AT KPFK

Ella Taylor, LA Weekly

Ella Taylor claims the battle at the L.A. Pacifica radio station reveals the widening abyss between two factions of aging sixties radicals. KPFK board member David Adelson disagrees.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12739

DOD PLAN WOULD RESTRICT IMMIGRANTS IN COMPUTER INDUSTRY

Ray Jayadev, Pacific News Service

In post 9-11 America, yesterday's model immigrants -- like the South Asians who largely built California's computer industry -- are today's security threat.

* In After 9/11: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=25

HUFFINGTON: WHAT HAS THE SUPREME COURT BEEN SMOKING?

Arianna Huffington, AlterNet

Unbelievably, the Supreme Court has ruled that anyone living in public housing can be evicted if their family members or guests use drugs -- even if they are unaware of the abuse.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12747

BUSH'S "NUCLEAR OFFENSIVE" FOR PEACE?

David Corn, AlterNet

Will someone please buy George W. Bush a dictionary? His administration has been misusing common words and, in the process, perverting political discourse.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12737

BP CONTRADICTS BUSH ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Seth Dunn, TomPaine.com

The oil company has exceeded its emissions reduction target eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost. That undermines Bush's claim that the Kyoto Protocol would be too expensive.

* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18

4/2/02
2:09:17 PM

Above The Law

Bush's Racial Coup D'Etat and Intell Shutdown

"Find out just what the people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them. And these impositions will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed only by the endurance of those whom they oppress."

Frederick Douglas (1857)

Lappe: Thanks Mr. Palast for talking with us today.

You have broken two major stories concerning President Bush in the last year - both of which have gotten little play here in the U.S. Let's start out by looking back at Florida: Last week, the final report on the Florida recount funded by a consortium of various media outlets was released. They found: Bush would have won if you only recounted the counties the Gore team had requested, Gore would have won if it was statewide.

But prior to all this, you reported a story that looked into something that went down before the election that in many ways makes these findings insignificant.

What did you find?

Palast: Yeah, insignificant. No kidding. Maybe that's what The New York Times sub-heading should be "All the news that's insignificant we print."

First of all, the story I broke was simple:

[ for the original story, go to

http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=29&row=1 ]

After looking at my evidence printed in Britain, the Civil Rights Commission said the issue is not the count of the votes in Florida the issue is the no-count. What the commission meant by the no-count is that it looks like maybe 100,000 people, at least 80,000 people, most of them black, were not permitted to vote who had a legal right to vote in Florida.

That story was simply not covered in the U.S. press. And that is how the election was won.

I reported that story for the main paper of the nation. Unfortunately, it was the wrong nation. I reported that story for the Guardian newspapers of Britain, and its related sister paper The Observer, where I have a column on Sunday. I also reported it for BBC television at the top of the nightly news, but again, it was the nightly news of Britain where they found out who really won that election, just not in the U.S.

Here's how they did it:

A few months before the election, Katherine Harris' office used computer systems to make up a list of people to purge from the voter rolls of people who were supposedly felons people who committed serious crimes and therefore in Florida were not allowed to vote. We now know those lists were as phony as a three-dollar bill. That maybe approximately 90% of the people on those lists, and there were 57,700 people on that list, approximately 90% were not felons and had the right to vote. Surprise, surprise. At least 54% of the names on that list were black. We know that because Florida is one of the few states under the U.S. Civil Rights Act that actually has to track the race of each voter.

They used this racial targeting system as a way to target and purge black voters. This was a very sophisticated Jim Crow operation done by computers, completely hidden from the public eye. And when they were asked about it they basically lied. The Governor, the Secretary of State, and the head of the Florida Department of Elections all lied under oath to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission about how that was done.

Now that was completely covered in the British and European press. That is one of the reasons why when Bush came over to Europe he was seen as a usurper and a pretender to the presidency - not elected, but a guy who had conducted a sort of racial coup d'etat.

He was not seen as legitimate.

The U.S. press did little bits of the story and then buried it. My sister paper the Washington Post, (the Guardian papers co-publish with the Washington Post) did run my story, buried, 7 months after the election. I wrote the story within 3 weeks of the election and they didn't publish it until seven months later, when it didn't really mater. And they only published it because the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said my findings were correct. If I didn't have that official approval, I don't think we would have seen that story at all.

And now these newspapers, including the Washington Post and The New York Times, spent easily a couple of million dollars doing what they called a "recount." But in fact it was not a recount. There were 180,000 votes in Florida that were never counted on order of Katherine Harris, the Republican Secretary of State. These were 180,000 votes that were never counted because they had some kind of technical error in them like a stray mark in it, or someone circled Al Gore's name instead of punching a hole, and it was not counted as an Al Gore vote.

Now you have to know I did not support Al Gore, I am not here carrying his flag. I don't care if he was elected either way. That is not my interest. I am concerned about democracy.

The thing that those ballots showed was something very simple: by a notable majority the people in Florida voted for, and believed they voted for, and assumed their ballots would be counted for, Al Gore.

Now how in the heck after spending more than a million dollars and going through each of those ballots that these so-called news organizations decided that Bush would have won it anyway? What they said was under state of Florida rulings we exclude what people wanted to do, we exclude what we see on the ballots, and we go by the Florida rulings on what ballots should be excluded for technical reasons and Bush wins. Well, we knew that. We knew that because Katherine Harris already said that Bush won on technical grounds. So we didn't need to spend a million dollars.

We have to remember that these news organizations had this information for months and withheld it. And then in the middle of a war they release information and futsed with it so it looked like Bush would have won anyway, or it's hard to see, or Bush would have won one way and Gore would have won another way. That's nonsense. In a democracy the intent of the voter is all that counts. In fact, the U.S. took that position in two other elections in 2000: when Slobodan Milosevic disqualified ballots and therefore won the presidency of Yugoslavia we refused to recognize his government. And when Alberto Fujimori of Peru knocked out counting of rural ballots for technical reasons, once again the U.S. refused to recognize his presidency. The U.S. said you cannot win a presidency on a technicality. We said that for Milosevic and for Fujimori but somehow we didn't say that to Mr. Bush.

4/2/02
2:08:46 PM

It's the votes that count in a democracy. If the votes don't count then it's not a democracy.

If you go to my web site,

http://www.gregpalast.com

you can read my reports and watch the BBC reports for yourself. I also have a book coming out called "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" (Pluto Press) which will be out in a couple of months in which I detail how they had planned to knock out the black voters well in advance and paid a Republican firm $4 million to come up with a computer program that would zoom in like a cruise missile and knock out these black voters.

They were so good knocking out black voters they should hire this firm to knock out bin Laden. They were so good at ferreting out democratic voters and purging them from the voter rolls, we should have turned them on Al-Qaeda and maybe that would have made a difference.

Lappe: Speaking of which, let's jump to the present and to another bombshell you recently reported: that Bush has hindered the FBI's investigation into various terrorist organizations. What did you find?

Palast: We obtained documents from inside the FBI showing that investigations had been shut down on the bin Laden family, the royal family of Saudi Arabia - and that is big because there are 20,000 princes in the royal family - and their connections to the financing of terrorism.

Now there is one exception. The FBI, the CIA and all the rest of the agencies are allowed to investigate Osama, the so-called black sheep of the family. But what we were finding was that there was an awful lot of gray sheeps in this family which is a family of billionaires which is tied in with the Saudi royal household which appears to be involved in the funding of terrorist organizations or organizations linked to terrorism. If you go the BBC site you will see me holding up documents from the FBI talking about Abdullah bin Laden, Omar bin Laden and an organization called the World Assembly of Muslim Youth which may or may not be a conduit for funds to terrorists. Now the problem was the investigations were shut down. There were problems that go back to Father Bush - when he was head of the CIA, he tried to stop investigations of the Saudis, continued on under Reagan, Daddy Bush's president, and it continued under Clinton too, but not as severely. What I was told by agents was that under Clinton agents were constrained but not prohibited from taking on these investigations into the Saudis.

Lappe: Now what would be behind all of this?

Palast: Let me get to this one final point. While we did say FBI [in the article], I have to add it was also CIA and all the other international agencies. You should know we were attacked by friends of Bush for just mentioning the FBI. I have been trying to protect my sources. But I can say that the sources are not just FBI trying to get even with the other agencies, but in fact other agencies. The information was that they were absolutely prohibited, until Sept. 11, at looking at the Saudi funding of the Al-Qaeda network and other terrorist organizations.

There is no question we had what looked like the biggest failure of the intelligence community since Pearl Harbor but what we are learning now is it wasn't a failure, it was a directive. Now I am not part of the conspiracy nut crowd that believes George Bush came up with a plan for an attack on the United States to save his popularity. There is no evidence of that. That is completely outside of any evidence I have seen. But what we find is something that, in a way, where the effect is just the same and it's chilling. Which is that they blinded the intelligence agencies and said you cannot look at the Saudis. Now the question is why . . .

Now the answer kept coming back with two words: One is Arbusto. The other was Carlyle. Now Arbusto is Arbusto Oil. Arbusto means shrub in Spanish. Arbusto was the company that made young George W. his first million. Now he had millions inherited from daddy and grandpa, but this was his first million. He had established this basically worthless company that kept digging dry holes in Texas and suddenly it got financing from the Gulf region and Saudi Arabian-connected financiers and it was taken over by a company called Harken Oil, which then received a very surprise contract to drill in the Gulf. Suddenly, Arbusto Oil shares became worth quite a bit.

The second company is Carlyle. While people know companies like Boeing Aircraft and Lockheed, Carlyle is just about the biggest defense contractor in the U.S. because behind a lot of these companies like United Technology is the Carlyle investment group. Carlyle is headed by Frank Carlucci who was Secretary of Defense under Daddy Bush and it includes on its payroll James Baker, the Secretary of State under Daddy Bush, who was very pro-Arab and pro-Saudi when he was in power. They have on their payroll Daddy Bush, who is an advisor to their Asian panel, and he also represented the company to the Saudi royal household in a couple of trips he made there. In addition, our president George W. was collecting money from the company by being on the Board of Directors of one of its subsidiaries, where I am sure he added a lot of his business acumen to their operations. He picked up $15,000-plus a year for showing up to a couple of board meetings. What is also interesting in this company is that you have investment in the company by the bin Laden family.

Now, let's be careful I am not a conspiracy nutter. I don't think completely ill of the Bush family, and I don't think what happened here is that the bin Laden family and the Saudis bought themselves two presidents of the United States, a simple purchase: "We give you money and you call off the dogs and don't let the CIA look at us."

That is not what is going on . . .

What is going on is the Bush family is an oil family. They have a natural business and political inclination to support the royal household and their retainers like the bin Laden family. These relationships are cemented by joint business ventures, by the Saudis making your son, who becomes president, rich. It is not a pay-off. But let's put it this way: would you think that the people who just made your family wealthier than it already is, made you a couple of a million bucks, would you immediately think these people also happen to be funding people who are blowing up buildings in New York? You tend to say to your agencies which you control: "Those are really good guys, leave them alone" especially because if we annoy them they will cut off our oil.

There seems to be this great fear that the Saudi royal family will, I don't know, fold their tents, get in their Leer jets and go off to Monaco and let the fanatics take over Saudi Arabia . . .

Lappe: Or if this comes out this will weaken the rest of the American government's resolve to support them which will further weaken their ability to control the more radical forces within the country . . .

Palast: Yeah, one of the problems is exactly what is their relationship to the terror networks. One thing you should know is that the Saudis say that they have removed Osama bin Laden's citizenship in Saudi Arabia. Of course, there are no citizens of Saudi Arabia, there are only subjects. So he is not allowed to be a subject of the king of Saudi Arabia. What a loss. And they have frozen his assets, supposedly. But the information I am getting from other sources is that they have given tens of millions of dollars to his networks. This is being done as much as a protection racket as anything else.

Lappe: Some of this was reported, or at least alluded to, in the recent Frontline report.

Palast: There was a little bit of whispering in the Frontline by my buddy Lowell Bergman. He could go further. At least you got a little bit of it on PBS. What is interesting is Bergman, who is also a reporter for The New York Times, did not have this in The New York Times.

Lappe: That is interesting, I actually noticed that myself.

Palast: Now here is a guy who has an agreement that whatever he puts on Frontline by contract can be put in The New York Times exclusively. And here The New York Times skips the report. Now we went further on BBC Newsnight, we had some of the same sources, and we have been digging further. We are allowed to dig further.

We also had another source explaining a meeting that was held, and I can't give the details because I would be scooping myself. But I got particulars of a meeting in which Saudi billionaires up who would be responsible to paying what to Osama. And apparently around the time of the meeting is when Osama blew up the Kohbar Towers in Saudi Arabia killing 19 American servicemen. It was seen by the group as not so much a political or emotional point, but as a reminder "to make your darn payment."

Osama is often compared to Hitler but he should be seen as John Gotti times one hundred. He is running a massive international protection racket: Pay me or I will blow you up. The fact these payments are made is one of the things the Bush administration is trying very hard to cover-up.

Now whether these payments were paid because they want to or it is coercion the Bush administration does not want to make a point of it. I have to tell you the Clinton administration was not exactly wonderful on this either. One of the points I made on the BBC was there was a Saudi diplomat who defected. He had 14,000 documents in his possession showing Saudi royal involvement in everything from assassinations to terror funding. He offered the 14,000 documents to the FBI but they would not accept them. The low-level agents wanted this stuff because they were tremendous leads. But the upper-level people would not permit this, did not want to touch this material. That is quite extraordinary. We don't even want to look. We don't want to know. Because obviously going through 14,000 documents from the Saudi government files would anger the Saudis. And it seems to be policy number one is we don't get these boys angry. Unfortunately, we see the results. We are blowing up Afghanistan when 15 of the 19 bombers were from Saudi Arabia.

Not that I am friends of the Taliban, who are vicious, brutal maniacs, but 15 of the 19 were Saudis and we seem to be giving these guys a full and complete pass.

Lappe: Now let's take these two stories, the Florida election theft and the Saudi cover-up, together as a backdrop. Paint me a picture of the Bush crew and how they operate. Are they above the law?

Palast: Well, they are our law. Remember they are two presidents of the United States, they go back generations to the Mayflower. The Bush family is the one of the true royal families of America. They have a long-term idea of what is good for us. Other countries think it is quite spooky that we have a guy who came out of the CIA to head of the nation. Just like Americans have a lot of doubts about Putin because he was the head of the KGB. These people are used to secrecy and not letting America know what would be frightening and troubling to us in our sweet innocence.

The problem is Sept. 11 took away our innocence. The question is will it take away our blinders.

The U.S. press does not seem capable of wanting to dig.

Lappe: Now why is that? From an outsider looking in, you have the BBC, a news organization owned by the government, and you have the American media, which has this great tradition of Woodward and Bernstein and Watergate. They are independent organizations that are not answerable to any government organization. Why is there this chasm between investigative reporting in the U.K. and in America?

Palast: Well, first of all you hit a good one. Woodward and Bernstein, which everyone comes back to, was three decades ago! What has happened in thirty years? When have we had a story in thirty years that has come close to that? I gave a talk with Seymour Hersh, who is one of the guys who broke the My Lai story. That was thirty years ago. He cannot work for an American newspaper. He writes for the New Yorker magazine. Think about that. One of our best investigative reporters in America, he has won at least two Pulitzer prizes, can't even work for an American newspaper. What is going on?

Investigative reporting is so rare in America we had to make a movie out of it. I was on a panel at Columbia University School of Journalism and there was a reporter who worked on both continents who said that the odd thing he found was the worst thing you could be called in an American newsroom is a "muckraker." Someone who looks like they are going after someone, someone who looks like they are getting too enthusiastic about going after someone. No one likes that guy.

Look what happened to Lowell Bergman. As soon as he said, 'gee we really have to push a story that will make corporate America a bit unhappy.' They killed it. After all 60 Minutes for the most part does mostly small potatoes stories. Small-time operators are the ones basically in their sights. But when they took on a big operation like tobacco they killed the story. I can tell you other stories with 60 Minutes that are just insane that have gone by the boards. I did a story about George Bush's connections to a brutal gold mining company out of Canada. And 60 Minutes said, "Oh we want to do a big story." And I said, "Oh, no you don't." And three days later they said, "Oh, we can't do that story."

Lappe: Why?

Palast: They're gutless. No one has ever advanced their career in the last thirty years by coming up with a great investigative piece. That is a way to get unemployed. Anyone who thinks it's all "Murphy Brown" and "All the President's Men" out there is wrong. That's the fantasy. That's all television and the movies. It's not in the newsrooms. If you say what I want to do is expensive and difficult and involves getting inside documents, and upsetting the established order, you are not going to get anywhere. Businessmen are the hardest ones to go after. You can go after a crooked politician but go after a corporation . . .

Lappe: And their lawyers will bury you . . .

Palast: Well, we have the First Amendment, which by the way there is no First Amendment in Britain. There is no freedom of speech or the press. Very difficult here legally, even though culturally it's easier to report the news here in Britain, even though you don't have the protection. But there is a great fear in the U.S. of corporate power, which I think has a lot to do with losing advertisers. There is a legal question because they can't win lawsuits but they can cost you a lot of money. You are looked at like some kind of left-wing, muckraker, conspiracy nut if you decide to go past an official denial and say, "I don't accept that. I want to see a document."

I got to tell you, I have seen this over and over again: my story on the Florida elections -- one of the things I found out was that Jeb Bush had deliberately excluded at least 50,000 voters, 94% of them democrats, because they had been convicted of a crime in another state. Now Florida under the U.S. constitution and its own constitution they cannot do that - punish someone for a crime in another state by taking away their right to vote in Florida. You can't do that. They know that. When we spoke to Jeb Bush's functionaries they said we know we can't do that, and then quietly they said, but we do it anyway under instructions from our superiors. The papers I was working for said, "Well, Jeb Bush denied it." And flat out denial from an official was enough to stop all these investigations. Dead cold. I was with Salon.com. They killed the story. And it was only later when the U.S. Civil Rights Commission said I was correct, and then the state of Florida admitted what they did, and then I was vindicated.

The New York Times did a story about how gold mining companies out of Nevada have tremendous influence over the Bush administration. Nowhere in the story did they mention that George Bush Sr. was on the board of the biggest gold mining company in Nevada. They didn't mention the name of the company. Here they are doing a story on gold mining in Nevada and they don't mention the name of overwhelmingly the biggest company in Nevada, which by the way is called Barrick. And it had on its advisory George Bush Sr. It left out the name of the company and the fact it had on its board a former president.

How did that happen? I can tell you because that company sued my paper when I ran a story, and I have the same lawyer as The New York Times. You can bet that The New York Times figured out it was going to cost them money or create controversy. God forbid you create controversy, that would be considered disastrous in a newsroom. When you get a letter from a lawyer who says we disagree, the story gets blocked. The Globe and Mail, which is the number one paper in Canada, was going to run the story. I was told that the top people in the Globe and Mail killed the story. So you have absolute direct corporate influence killing stories.

Most reporters understand that it is not a career-maker to have these letters coming in. In other words, you never want to have your story killed. Because if your story is killed by corporate big shots, from then on you are marked as a troublemaker and a problem, and your career is in deep trouble. When a guy like Seymour Hersh can't get a job with an American newspaper. When Lowell Bergman has to work in the PBS ghetto. When Greg Palast has to work in exile, there is a pretty evil pattern here.

What you see is institutionalized gutlessness. I'm pissed off about it because I want to come home and work. My kids have British accents. I wanna get home already.

Lappe: On that note, we'll wrap up. It seems that with this new war all of these trends you have talked about are getting worse. Do you have any hope for the future of journalism?

Palast: My only hope for the future of journalism is one word: the Internet.

The big boys are trying to grab it and seize it and control it and own it and stop it and freeze it and fill it up with corporate, commercialized crap and junk. But it is still the conduit of the real information, the real news. You are always being warned about things you read on the Internet. But be warned what you read in The New York Times. At least when you read the Internet you know you are getting all kinds of voices, some nuts, some real, and you evaluate it. The problem with something like The New York Times is it is coming to you as the stone-cold truth. It isn't true that Bush would have won Florida anyway. When the people voted they voted for Al Gore. He should have been inaugurated as president, not because I like him, but because he got the vote nationwide and in Florida, and they knew it and they didn't tell you that.

I can tell you right now the information I broadcasted on the BBC about the chilling of the investigation of the FBI and the CIA of the bin Laden family and the Saudi royal family, and I have more coming up, I can tell you that information was given to The New York Times. They didn't use it. It was given to 60 Minutes. Not that they aren't going to use it. It's like my story about the elections. They run it seven months later in the back of the paper. Or it's just like the Florida vote count. If you go to The New York Times web site you can get all the information that shows that Gore won, but they either don't run it, or eviscerate it, or they give it to you chopped up and spin it so the order of things are not disturbed.

I can't tell you all the reasons why that happens. I'm not sure myself. I think a lot of it is these guys hang out together. They go to the same clubs and they go to each others' daughters weddings.

It makes me ill.

It makes me want to throw up when I watch Tom Brokaw, that fake f***ing hairdo, go to dinner with Jiang Zemin at the White House. He's a reporter. What the f*** is he doing eating spring rolls with a dictator? He should be reporting the story not breaking bread with the powers-that-be. These guys can't seem to find the distinction between being in with the power and reporting on it.

So there you go.

Lappe: Thanks so much.

Guerrilla News Network Counter Intelligence

Source: http://www.guerrillanews.com/counter_intelligence/doc233.html

4/2/02
1:12:13 PM

Researchers Investigate 'Black Water' Phenomenon

Fishermen first noticed the water in January when spotting pilots went up to see how the kingfish season might play out.

by Cathy Zollo, Naples Daily News, mailto:crzollo@naplesnews.com

MARATHON -- Researchers from Mote Marine Laboratory took samples Tuesday of what may be the black water phenomenon reported by Southwest Florida fishermen.

Scientists speculate that the water held together when it was in deeper areas of Florida Bay but began breaking up and dissipating as it reached the shallows off the Keys.

Samples researchers took Tuesday were in water they said was unusually dark.

Robin Smith, a biology graduate student, and Susie Arnold, an intern with Mote Marine Laboratory in Summerlin Key, take a sample of dark water Tuesday in Florida Bay that was reported by commercial fishermen. Mote and Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg will test the sample to find out what is causing the darker-than-normal water. Romain Blanquart/Staff

"Goodness gracious," said Erich Bartels, a biologist with Mote, "seven feet of water and you can't see the bottom." That was in water that is usually postcard turquoise with clear water in the shallow parts. This was mostly blackish green and pea green at smaller depths.

Fishermen who'd watched the mass of water hold together and move south from off Marco Island toward the Keys said it looked diluted to about 10 percent its original strength. At one point, fish spotter pilots estimated the black water covered at least 40 square miles in Florida Bay.

Scientists, environmentalists and commercial fishermen -- groups that are often at odds with each other -- agree the phenomenon and its aftereffects deserve aggressive study. Bartels took the samples in Walters Key Basin near the southern end of the Keys on the Gulf of Mexico side and within a mile of shore.

Mote was able to collect the samples because it is funded by the state to test for red tide in waters off the Keys every four weeks, said Erich Mueller, director of Mote's Center for Tropical Research in Summerlin Key. The lab piggybacked the research trip onto a planned trip for the red tide algae. Bartels kept samples of the black water for testing by Mote and sent some overnight to the Florida Marine Research Institute in St. Petersburg for other testing.

He said researchers will look at a number of factors while seeking solutions to the black water mystery, including the amount of dissolved organic material in the water and what organisms populate it.

Scientists should have some results in coming weeks.

Field testing showed the diluted black water had normal salinity, meaning it probably didn't come from a freshwater intrusion into the gulf, and normal amounts of oxygen. Depleted oxygen is one symptom of an algae bloom.

Fishermen first noticed the water in January when spotting pilots went up to see how the kingfish season might play out. What they found was miles and miles of ink black water and no fish. They said that since that time their traditionally rich fishing grounds have been barren of the game fish usually there. They think the water might have herded mobile marine life south of the Keys as it tried to get away from the water. They worry about what it did to corals, plants and slow-moving sea creatures that didn't escape.

Fishermen reported that fish venturing into the water acted strangely, jumping and running as if they wanted to get out. Aside from abundant fishing grounds, the Keys are home to the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. The 2,800-square-mile preserve is a breeding ground for large numbers of sea creatures and contains the nation's only barrier reef.

Billy Causey, superintendent of the Sanctuary, said the possible aftereffects of the black water on fish and coral reefs in the sanctuary will bear watching.

Some scientists have speculated that the water was some kind of algae bloom, but Bartels, who was among the first scientists to see samples of the water, said a microscopic look at that early sample showed it wasn't. He couldn't rule out bacteria or any other kind of event that could've triggered the black water.

Source: http://www.NaplesNews.com

4/2/02
1:08:49 PM

New Hampshire protects 171,500 acres of forest for logging, recreation, wilderness

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) _ A nonprofit organization has bought a huge swath of northern New Hampshire wilderness from a paper company for $32.7 million to make sure it does not fall into the hands of developers.

The San Francisco-based Trust for Public Land purchased 171,500 acres _ about one-quarter the size of Rhode Island _ from International Paper Co. on Friday. The land includes the headwaters of the Connecticut River.

The trust then sold 25,000 acres to the Nature Conservancy, which plans eventually to resell it to the state as a nature preserve.

The rest of the land will be resold to Lyme Timber Co., which will log the property but will be required to use sustainable logging practices and let people use the land for hiking, fishing and other activities. Also, the company will be barred from developing or subdividing the land.

``We will make sure all generations who come after will benefit from these lands,'' Gov. Jeanne Shaheen said Monday.

International Paper had put the parcel up for sale last July, prompting fears it could be sold to developers.

The task force that crafted the deal tried to balance the concerns of environmentalists and those of local officials worried the region's economy would suffer if logging was not allowed.

The state eventually plans to manage its 25,000 acres as a natural area for environmentally sensitive wildlife, such as the three-toed woodpecker and Canada lynx. Special attention also will be given to 54 rare plants found there.

Source: http://www.planetsave.com/ViewStory.asp?ID=2332

4/1/02
7:11:13 PM

The Nation

It was announced yesterday that Wal-Mart, the discounter that has become the dominant force in American retailing, has taken over the top spot on the annual Fortune 500 list.

The first service company to lead the Fortune 500, which until 1995 was restricted to manufacturing concerns, Wal-Mart topped all US multinationals by amassing $219.81 billion in revenues in 2001, many billions ahead of its nearest competitor Exxon, which clocked in at $191.58 billion.

But in all the glowing media accounts of Wal-Mart's "ascendance," virtually nothing was said about how this retailing giant made its way to the top.

For that analysis, you may want to turn to Jim Hightower's feature in the March 4, 2002 issue of The Nation:

"Wal-Mart and the Waltons got to the top the old-fashioned way: by roughing people up. Their low, low prices are the product of two ruthless commandments: Extract the last penny possible from human toil and squeeze the last dime from its thousands of suppliers, who are left with no profit margin unless they adopt the Wal-Mart model of using nonunion labor and shipping production to low-wage hellholes abroad."

Read Hightower's piece in its entirety for a story of one city -- Glendale, Arizona -- that wasn't willing to accomodate Wal-Mart's demands and ended up running the retailer out of town.

Currently available at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020304&s=hightower

And for more information on how Wal-Mart is wreaking communities coast to coast and what people are doing to stop it, check out this site:

http://www.walmartwatch.com

Wal-Mart Watch offers a wealth of resources, including action alerts, a Wal-Mart locator, basic facts and figures, consumer reports, helpful links and a "Wal of shame."

4/1/02
7:08:53 PM

HELP GET EDISON OUT OF BO NOK, THAILAND

In the wake of California's energy crisis, Edison Mission Energy is planning to take their dirty energy practices across the globe, to Bo Nok, Thailand. This is a small fishing village surrounded by beautiful ecosystems plus highly productive fisheries and farms that will be adversely affected if Edison has its way. Over 20 years, the plant would emit 117.4 million tons of carbon dioxide, in addition to sulphuric acid, and coal dust. Coal is also a significant contributor to global warming, and in Thailand it is not needed as fuel as renewable energy options are plentiful. In California, Edison is effectively seeking a government bailout to evade bankruptcy, and has taken advantage of low pollution controls in South East Asia to continue their "profit over people" agenda. Don't let Edison spread their bad energy practices!

Tell William Heller, CEO of Edison Mission Energy, to give the people of Bo Nok the right to have a clean and safe environment, without dirty fossil fuels.

PLEASE TAKE ACTION:

http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id= 116

Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member online!

https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join

4/1/02
6:48:07 PM

Proof Of Controlled Demolition At The WTC.

by Jerry Russell, Ph.D.

Steel frame towers are built very strongly. They need to withstand the pressure of gale-force winds, the violent rocking motion of earthquakes, and the ravages of time. For this reason, they are almost impossible to destroy.

Airplane strikes do not destroy skyscrapers. A bomber strike to the Empire State Building during World War II did not harm that building. The World Trade Center towers were designed to survive a strike by a Boeing 707. The 767 is more massive, so the building was stressed near its design limits. But if a failure had occurred at that moment, it would have been at the point of highest levered stress, near the base of the tower, and the tower would have fallen over like a giant tree in a forest windstorm. That, of course, did not happen.

Fires do not destroy skyscrapers. Never in the history of steel frame structures has a single one been destroyed by fire.

How to destroy a skyscraper. So, how do you destroy a skyscraper? Suppose you need the vacant land to build another one, for example.

A nuclear bomb is very effective, but it can be difficult to get permits from the city.

An early invention was the wrecking ball. A huge lump of steel and lead is swung from a massive chain at high speed. With the benefit of momentum, it is able to bend or break a few girders at a time. But it would be a hopeless task to destroy a tower the size of the World Trade Center, using a wrecking ball.

The most effective, cleanest, safest way to destroy a skyscraper is known as controlled demolition. The trick is to distribute explosives at key points throughout the structure. The explosives are detonated simultaneously, destroying the integrity of the steel frame at key points, such that no part of the building is supported against the force of gravity. The entire mass is pulled swiftly to earth, where gravity does the work of pounding the structure into tiny fragments of steel and concrete. The gravitational potential energy of the structure is converted smoothly and uniformly into kinetic energy, and then is available very efficiently to pulverize the fragments of the building as they impact against the unyielding earth. Controlled demolitions have a striking and characteristic appearance of smooth, flowing collapse.

As your eyes will tell you, the World Trade Center collapses looked like controlled demolitions. Here's the proof.

The proof. According to the law of gravity, it is possible to calculate the time it takes for an object to fall a given distance. The equation is H=(1/2)at2, where H is the height, a is the acceleration of gravity (10 meters per second squared) and t is time in seconds. Plug in the height of the building at 1350 feet (411 meters) and we get 9 seconds. That is just about the length of time it took for the very top of the World Trade Center to fall to the street below. According to all reports, the whole thing was over in just about ten seconds.

It is as if the entire building were falling straight down through thin air. As if the entire solid structure below, the strong part which had not been burned or sliced or harmed in any significant way, just disappeared into nothingness. Yet this (within a small tolerance) is what we would expect to find if there had been a controlled demolition, because the explosions below really do leave the upper stories completely unsupported. Like the Road Runner after he runs off the edge of the cliff, the entire building pauses a moment, then goes straight down.

Any kind of viscous process or friction process should have slowed the whole thing down. Like dropping a lead ball into a vat of molasses, or dropping a feather into the air, gravitational acceleration cannot achieve its full effect if it is fighting any opposing force. In the case of the World Trade Center, the intact building below should have at least braked the fall of the upper stories. This did not happen. There was no measurable friction at all.

This proves controlled demolition.

We have been lied to. We have been lied to about this, at multiple levels. The first lie was that the load of fuel from the aircraft was the cause of structural failure. No kerosene fire can burn hot enough to melt steel. In point of fact, most of the fuel in the jets was contained in their wing tanks. The thin aluminum of the tanks was pierced or stripped as the airplanes penetrated the walls of the towers, and the result was the huge fireball which was seen on national TV, where most of this fuel was burned.

A hot, vigorous fire would have blown out many windows in the building and > would have burned a red or white color. This was not what happened. The > fire in the World Trade Center was an ordinary smoldering office fire.

But let's suppose that the fire was hot enough to melt steel. What would have happened in that case? Before it breaks, hot steel begins to bend. This redistributes the forces in the structure and puts elastic stress on those parts that are still cool. The process is asymmetric, so that the structure should visibly bend before breaking. But of course, no steel skyscraper has even bent over in a fire.

Let's suppose the structure were sufficiently weakened that it did fail catastrophically near the point of the airplane strike. In this case, the intact structure below would exert an upward force on the base of the upper story portion of the building (the part that has been broken loose), while any asymmetry would allow the force of gravity to work uninhibited on the tip of the skyscraper. Thus, the top section of the skyscraper would tip and fall sideways.

If it did not tip, it would have ground straight down through the building below. The gravitational potential energy of the upper stories would be coupled into the frame below, beginning to destroy it. The frame below would deflect elastically, absorbing energy in the process of deflecting. At weak points, the metal structure would break, but the elastic energy absorbed into the entire frame would not be available to do more destruction. Instead, it would be dissipated in vibration, acoustic noise and heat. Eventually this process would grind to a halt, because the gravitational potential energy of a skyscraper is nowhere near sufficient to destroy its own frame.

If the World Trade Center towers had been built entirely out of concrete, they might have stood for awhile before toppling in the wind. But in that case, if they had collapsed straight downwards, the energy required to pulverize the concrete would have slowed the downward progress of the upward stories. The gravitational potential energy of the World Trade Center was barely sufficient to convert its concrete into powder, and for that to happen in an accidental collapse would have been impossible, but would have taken a lot longer than 10 seconds in any case.

How it was done. The World Trade Center was leased by Westfield America and Larry Silverstein, on April 26th, 2001. Zim Israeli Shipping moved out of the buildings around that time. With a certain amount of shuffling of tenants from floor to floor, it should have been easy (with all the commotion and noise of remodeling) to plant explosives on several floors; enough for at least a sloppy kind of controlled demolition.

There was more "magic" at work on 9/11, to produce the effects that were seen on the TeeVee.

The events of 9/11, summarized. Taken all together, the evidence suggests very strongly that the attacks of 9/11 were fake terror, and quite possibly were a collaborative venture of the Israeli and US governments.

Student pilots from Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations were enrolled in flight schools in Venice, Florida and other locations. The flight school in Venice is linked to CIA drug running operations, according to one researcher.

A recently leaked document from the US Drug Enforcement Agency indicates that a number of Israeli intelligence operatives describing themselves as art students took up residences in close physical proximity to the Arabs as they moved about the country.

The Arab flight students boarded the flights on 9/11. Did they intend to hijack the airliners, and if so, for what purpose? Had the Israelis played in any way the role of agent provocateur in organizing whatever was planned? It seems reasonable to conjecture that the goals of these Arabs were opposed in some way to some US Middle Eastern policy. It would be very interesting to question the Israelis regarding their knowledge of the Arab flight students.

At any rate, if the Arab flight students had been ordinary hijackers, they might have taken the controls of the airplane, but their plot should have quickly been foiled for two reasons.

First of all, the Boeing 757 and 767 aircraft are probably equipped with remote-controlled flight computers for purposes of hijack recovery. This was stated by a British intelligence operative and was also suggested by a former German secretary of defense. The technology needed for such systems is well known, and its utility is obvious. If these systems had been operative on 9/11, then they should have been used to take control from the hijackers.

Secondly, the US air force has standard operating procedure to send jet fighters to intercept hijacked aircraft within minutes after they are reported. These fighters may be armed and are certainly very maneuverable, and an airliner cannot hope to match them.

For these reasons, the Arab hijackers' mission should have been an ignominious failure. These measures (as well as pre-9/11 airport security measures) have been effective enough that hijacking has rarely been a problem for many years now.

But on 9/11, the remote control systems were not used to bring the planes home, nor did fighters scramble to escort. Instead, the airplanes executed highly skilled aerobatic maneuvers (well beyond any known educational background of the Arab student pilots) and crashed into the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. If the remote controls were used, who was operating them?

The World Trade Center towers are designed to withstand aircraft impact, which they did for about an hour. Then they collapsed directly to the ground, with remarkably little collateral damage to surrounding buildings, in a manner strikingly resembling the appearance of controlled demolitions. The US government claims that fire was responsible for the collapse, and this is certainly possible, but many reports have overstated the likely heat of the fire and the amount of fuel from the airplanes which was not consumed in the fireballs outside the towers.

If explosives had been planted in the World Trade Center towers, they could have been used to trigger the collapse of the towers. Building 7 was destroyed later in the afternoon. It was never hit by any airplane, so there is no known reason (besides explosives) for it to have collapsed into rubble. However, a cloud of dust was seen in the area of building 7 immediately before the collapse of the south tower, which has not been explained.

While the whole attack was going on (a period well over an hour) George W. Bush sat in a classroom and listened to a story about goats, and the US military did not respond to the first three attacks. A fourth flight was also "hijacked" that day, but it was apparently struck down by some sort of missile or bomb before crashing in Pennsylvania.

Within hours, a massive media campaign to blame the attacks on Arabs and specifically on Osama Bin Laden was begun, and this campaign has continued to the present day. Our traditional American form of government, unfortunately, may not survive -- the Patriot Act appears poised to >supersede the Bill of Rights.

Given the many uncertainties about these events, it certainly seems that there should be more questions, more investigations, and more thoughtfulness about the responsibilities of the various parties involved. A little bit of logic will reveal that the Arabs alone could not have been solely responsible for the entire chain of events. It is equally unlikely that the Israelis could have pulled it off alone. Yet instead the US government is gathering up support for war against Middle Eastern nations, a tragic response to the enigmatic events of that day.

The author has a master's degree in Engineering from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Oregon.

Here are links:

Justin Raimondo http://www.antiwar.com

Michael Rivero http://www.whatreallyhappened.com

Eric Hufschmid http://geocities.com/erichufschmid/index.html

Jared Israel http://emperors-clothes.com/news/albu.htm

Mark Elsis http://www.mycountryrightorwrong.net

Source: http://www.regena.com

4/1/02
6:33:36 PM

'Digital Angel' lands in China

Will implantable tracking chips be used by totalitarian government? (March 28, 2002)

Making good on its promise to "achieve a global presence," Digital Angel Corporation - manufacturer and marketer of high-tech, implantable devices for tracking human beings - has opened a research and development facility in Shen Zhen, a special economic zone near Hong Kong, hoping to cash in on vast markets in China and the Far East.

As WorldNetDaily first reported, Digital Angel is a sophisticated, miniaturized tracking device intended by its manufacturer for subdermal implantation in large numbers of human beings. After heavy publicity, the manufacturer last year deflected criticism from privacy advocates and Christians concerned over biblical prophesy by removing all references to human implantation from its website and literature, only to re-introduce human implantation - with a product called VeriChip - after Sept. 11, due to the nation's new preoccupation with security.

CLIP

The emergence of Digital Angel has met with protests from civil libertarians in the United States who are concerned over potential involuntary applications of injectable tracking chips. But an area of even greater concern may be its use in China. After all, China currently has one of the world's worst human rights records. Over the years, human rights organizations like Amnesty International, Freedom House and the Laogai Research Foundation have documented widespread persecution in China of political dissidents and religious persons. Such persecution routinely includes surveillance and arrest of innocent persons who are then sent to slave labor camps, mental hospitals or "re-education" facilities.

Time will tell if the injectable chips will be used eventually to track the movements of dissidents, in order to round up friends, family members and locate secret meetings. Recent news reports have documented Christian believers using cell-phone codes to arrange secret prayer meetings, and the rural government officials committing protesters to psychiatric facilities where they are "treated."

Source: http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=26991

Meet the 'Digital Angel' -- from Hell

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=14913

4/1/02
6:33:12 PM

THE MICRO, MICRO, MICRO, CHIP HOW SMALL THEY REALLY ARE (AMAZING PICTURE!)

http://www.davidicke.com/icke/articles/ant.html

The Most Dangerous Game

The Most Dangerous Game traces the history of top-secret CIA mind control operation MK-ULTRA: from the covert importation of NAZI scientists at the end of WWII, to the illegal brainwashing experiments conducted on the patients of world famous psychiatric researcher, Dr. Ewen Cameron - cut to the pulsing hypnotica of Mitchell Akiyama.

http://www.guerrillanews.com/dangerous/index.html

Mind Control & MK-ULTRA

http://www.raven1.net/mk-gall.htm

4/1/02
6:32:37 PM

An ID idea: Microchips under your skin

BY Shannon Tan, The Miami Herald, stan@herald.com

TINY TECH: A dime dwarfs the VeriChip, which is made by a Palm Beach company.

Nathan Isaacson of Tamarac is one of 2,500 people who want to get computer chips implanted in their bodies. The 83-year-old is in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease. If he wanders off or gets hurt, family members worry that medical workers won't know who he is or that he's allergic to penicillin. Or that he has a recently implanted pacemaker.

The solution to such emergencies, says Palm Beach-based Applied Digital Solutions, is the VeriChip.

The $200 microchip can be encoded with information such as a person's name and Social Security number and a list of medical allergies, then injected under the skin. Emergency room workers would then use scanners to read the chip. "It might sound regimental, but aren't we in that type of world these days?" said Isaacson's wife, Micki.

Applied Digital is not the only company implanting computer chips.

MicroCHIPS, in Cambridge, Mass., makes products that deliver medicine to the body; AVID, in Norco, Calif., tracks pets implanted with its microchips; and Trovan, in Santa Barbara, Calif., has implantable transponders in more than 300 zoos worldwide.

For all the arguments against chip implants turning people into human LoJacks, the fate of kidnapped Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl is an example of how safety issues may override privacy concerns. Richard Sullivan, chief executive officer of Applied Digital Solutions, also suggests another application: helping to track undocumented immigrants.

The problem could be solved, he said, if "people were required to be chipped or had some combination of a device requiring them to be scanned and monitored at all times." "I think it's not unreasonable to ask people who want to come to work in the country that they respect the rights of people who are citizens in the United States," Sullivan said.

NEXT STEP

VeriChip is the next step in the evolution of another Applied Digital product called Digital Angel, a pager-like gadget that uses global positioning system (GPS) tracking to keep tabs on people, and biosensors that monitor vital signs. Digital Angel can be turned off by the wearer or by an administrator, depending on how it's programmed. VeriChip can be removed only surgically.

Los Angeles County parolees are being monitored by Digital Angel through a three-year pilot program. Implanted microchips currently track more than 86,000 pets in Florida, as well as livestock and zoo animals. Experts predict that if trackable chip implants become widely available, there will be a long line of military personnel, diplomats, corporate executives, foreign correspondents and celebrities waiting to "get chipped."

This month, Brazilian government official Antonio de Cunha Lima, the first distributor of the VeriChip in Brazil, will be implanted with the chip.

Even famous curmudgeon Andy Rooney is pro-chip. "We need some system for permanently identifying safe people," Rooney said in a 60 Minutes commentary on CBS. "Most of us are never going to blow anything up, and there's got to be something better than one of [those] photo IDs -- a tattoo somewhere, maybe.

"I wouldn't mind having something planted permanently in my arm that would identify me."

But not everyone will want to become a human bar code. "If a government ever requires a technology like this on a segment of its population, then I think it's going to be very provocative," said Stephen Keating, executive director of the Denver-based Privacy Foundation.

For example, airlines could encourage demand for chips by allowing people with implants to get faster security clearance. "It can become commercially coercive," Keating said.

Before there is widespread acceptance, VeriChip needs to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States -- a process that could take up to 18 months. And the company may have a tough time convincing hospitals and ambulance and pharmaceutical companies, which would have to buy scanners, of the chip's medical value.

Applied Digital needs FDA approval sooner rather than later. Amid a major corporate restructuring, the company has lost more than $267 million in the past year. The company also faces competition. A Boca Raton plastic surgeon says he has created an implantable device -- the size of a quarter -- that can monitor missing children, parolees, Alzheimer's patients and valuables.

"We hope this will be on the market within the year," said Dr. Daniel Man, who patented the device in 1987 and has been working on it since.

At Applied Digital's offices on Royal Palm Way, Vice President Keith Bolton demonstrates the product by waving a scanner two to three inches from the microchip, which can hold up to 128 characters. In nanoseconds, an identification number appears on the screen.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/2828025.htm?template=contentModules/emailstory.jsp

4/1/02
6:31:49 PM

An ID idea: Microchips under your skin

Dear Friends of Truth and Good:

Please note, in the following articles, references to implants targeted to society in general, as in telemetric microchips now being touted by media as "An I.D. Idea - Microchips Under Your Skin".

Beware of pending "smallpox scares" that may be announced, whether real, manufactured or imagined, as this has been revealed as the pre-arranged impetus for pressing the agenda forward for massive "mandatory vaccination" campaigns - complete with chip, some have confided, which are being promoted in photos of ants holding injectable microchips so tiny that they fit in their antennae. As one CIA operative confided to a respected author, "If we say 'NO' to anything, say 'NO' to this!"

As Tommy Thompson, Secretary of Health & Human Services, has himself recently said, "Every American should know that there is a vaccine prepared 'with his or her name on it'." Custom-made and rush-ordered, even "diluted", says CNN (for anticipated expedited delivery?).

No need to "obtain your agreement", as it's done quite well for you making moot the point of the nationwide social acceptance of "national I.D.'s".

Remember, $10,000 fine and 9 months in prison if you decline (already enacted zealously in Wisconsin, with little interest if any at all in others' expressed concerns) regardless of the 4% of society who are immune-suppressed, elderly, of tender age, infirm or ill, and who are quite literally subject to severe reaction or death upon injection (see vaccination warnings sites throughout the internet). 4% of 300 mil people is 12 million, friends.

If you think they won't persist in this agenda (if not first held fully-accountable for their intent) just reread the Eugenics Agendas of the British and American Eugenics Societies "Post-Hitler" (if not already plucked from the net and/or see "End Notes" at end of this message) and their membership rosters that go back to the early 1900's. Then look at their connection to who's making these decisions, and from which agencies and offices, today.

Let's keep on top of this outrage and examine more closely the undertones and motivations of such proposed (and "mandated") programs. Very few of us are fools.

Thank you for reading what follows fully and for sharing this with friends, family, and concerned colleagues at your earliest opportunity.

In genuineness,

Sharona Merel

MonaSpree@aol.com

for Concerned Humanity

4/1/02
6:31:24 PM

Ramallah: Without mercy: Israelis execute Arafat's elite guards

by Peter Beaumont

The ambulancemen were carrying the first body out of the Cairo-Amman bank in the centre of Ramallah when I came across them.

His knees were doubled up in rigor mortis. One of the legs of his green parachute jumpsuit had been burned through to the skin by a round fired at such close quarters that the muzzle flash had ignited the fabric. A gaping wound was visible in his chest - also apparently from a burst of fire from close range. What killed him, however, was the gunshot to his temple.

A few minutes later, the paramedics brought the second body, that of a young man, also in Yasser Arafat's elite guard unit, Force 17.

Someone had taken off his boots, revealing his blue socks. The wounds that he had obviously been clutching when he died were also to his upper body. But what must have killed him, like his colleague, was a shot fired at close range to his temple that had demolished the back of his head.

The third body was of an older man, in his forties, grey-haired with a moustache. Someone had pulled his parachute suit above his head to hide the wound. When the stretcher-bearers put him down, the covering was pulled back. The wound was to the head.

What happened on the third floor of the Cairo-Amman bank at midnight on Friday during Israel's occupation of the Palestinian city of Ramallah can only be surmised. But in the few minutes after Israeli soldiers stormed the Palestinian position, five men were wounded and five men were put to death by the Israelis, each with a single coup de grace administered to the head or throat.

Maher Shalabi, bureau chief of Abu Dhabi television in Ramallah, was in his office in the same building when he heard several bursts of heavy shooting on the floors below. 'I heard heavy shooting; maybe it was an exchange of fire. But I believe this was an execution.'

Hassan Asfour, a senior Palestinian negotiator, added: 'They were executed in cold blood. This is a clear example of the collective execution policy adopted by the Israeli government against the Palestinian people.'

According to local residents, the dead men were part of a large group of Palestinian policemen who had taken shelter in the building, which also houses the offices of the British council, when the Israeli army entered Ramallah.

The men had taken shelter in the foyer area on the third floor next to a dentist's surgery. Yesterday bullet holes spattered the walls and the floor was flecked with blood. On one wall were large splashes of blood. Elsewhere several bloody trails had been marked along the floor where someone had pulled the bodies towards the lift.

An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers entered the building after Palestinians opened fire from inside and threw a grenade at the force outside.

The coups de grace administered for these five men are a metaphor for what the Israeli incursion is hoping to achieve inside Ramallah. By isolating Arafat within his headquarters, Sharon hopes to decapitate the Palestinian Authority.

Yesterday, inside Arafat's compound, it was clear that, for all the claims of Ariel Sharon, Arafat was neither under threat nor under arrest. Arafat, simply, was surrounded by the Israelis.

As we approached the compound we could see the tanks and armoured personnel carriers ringing his sprawl of offices and barracks. On every side were soldiers taking positions and aiming their weapons.

Approaching closer the Israeli army tried to prevent us following a delegation from the Palestinian solidarity movement into the compound, led by Jose Bove, the French farmers leader and anti-globalisation protester.

In a surreal touch Bove and his colleagues had marched through the ruins of the town, even as fighting continued. With hands above their heads, and carrying palm fronds as Easter symbols of peace, they approached Arafat's compound with two columns of heavily armed Israeli infantry jogging the last few hundred metres behind.

Seeing Bove, who had marched through the town with a small group of fellow protesters bearing a tray of medicines for those still injured inside Arafat's compound, the soldiers relented and let us enter with him and approach the offices where Arafat was holed up.

Crossing a large car park we could see a three-storey block, its walls splattered with tank fire, two windows blackened by fire with sheets hanging where the occupants had tried to escape the flames.

I followed Bove to the entrance to the offices where Arafat was hiding but was grabbed from behind by an Israeli soldier and pulled away. Arafat may not be a prisoner but it is the Israelis who choose who goes to see the Palestinian chairman.

On every corner yesterday stood Israeli tanks. The devastation that these tanks have wrought inside the Palestinians' most attractive city has to be seen to be believed.

Roads have been dynamited or torn up by tanks. Buildings are burned and shattered. Everywhere there is rubble, spent ammunition and broken glass.

A little later, I met Hossam Sharkawi and Mohamed Awad, two senior officials in the Palestinian Red Crescent who I had met before.

Sharkawi, a co-ordinator for emergency services, told me the Israelis had arrested five of his drivers.

'They have them blindfolded and handcuffed. I cannot understand what the Israelis are thinking. They also used one of our ambulances today as a human shield. They sandwiched it inside a convoy.'

Sharkawi was able to reveal something of life inside Arafat's compound. 'We know there are injured inside,' he said. 'But they have been blocking ambulances entering to give treatment.' How many injured he could not say.

'All that we hear is that there may be between 50 and 100 people trapped with Arafat inside the building, without food, or water or any electricity and no telephone communication.' He shook his head and walked away.

Source: http://www.observer.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,676624,00.html

4/1/02
6:30:39 PM

MEG Scalar Energy Device Patented - Production Starts Next Year

http://www.rense.com/general21/free.htm

Mike Ruppert's article "A Career in Microbiology Can be Hazardous to Your Health"

http://www.copvcia.com/free/ww3/02_14_02_microbio.html

Yet another leading microbiologist dead in a plane crash this time

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/paranoidtimes

Another Top Microbiologist Dies - 12 In The Last Five Months The Times - London Obituaries

http://www.rense.com/general21/anothertop12.htm

Troops Keep Arafat Confined; U.N. Urges Israeli Withdrawal

Israel tightened its grip around Yasir Arafat today, Palestinian officials said, even as the U.N. Security Council with U.S. backing called on Israel to withdraw.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/31/international/middleeast/31MIDE.html

Porn upsets Palestinians

PORN movies and programs in Hebrew are being broadcast by Israeli troops who have taken over three Palestinian television stations of Ramallah, irate residents of the besieged West Bank town have told AFP. The offices of three local television and radio stations were occupied by soldiers yesterday morning, a few hours after tanks and hundreds of troops stormed the town in Israel's biggest offensive against the Palestinian Authority and its leader Yasser Arafat. The soldiers started broadcasting the porn clips -- considered extremely offensive by most Muslims -- intermittently this afternoon from the Al-Watan, Ammwaj, and Al-Sharaq channels, the residents said. "The pornographic movies started on Al-Watan television at around 3:30 pm," one 34-year-old Palestinian mother named Reema told AFP. "I have six children at home, they have nowhere to go with what is going on here and can't even watch TV," she said angrily. (...) "We are desperate for news and constantly flipping channels and get these terrible pictures instead," adding that videos of the intifada were also shown backwards with "ideal terrorism" written in red across the screen.

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,4049446^1702,00.html

4/1/02
6:29:51 PM

Giuliani Invokes Hitler-Rockefeller-Bush Conspiracy To Explain 9/11

by Robert Lederman

Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani may have revealed a lot more about what happened on 9/11 than he intended this past Saturday while addressing a Conference of Mayors breakfast honoring the WTC ( World Trade Center ) victims.

NY Times 1/27/2002

U.S. Ignored Threat of Terror, Giuliani Says

"In the 1930's, Hitler told us what he was going to do, and we ignored it, for years and years and years. In the 1990's, the terrorists told us what they were going to do. And we ignored it. We glorified Yasir Arafat when he was training terrorists in Palestine. We allowed Saddam Hussein to build weapons of mass destruction as we removed inspectors." End of Quote from NY Times

When a man who has been publicly compared to Hitler throughout his career invokes the Fuhrer by name we should all pay attention. Giuliani was 100% right that we knew what Hitler, Saddam Hussein and bin Laden were going to do, but he left out how we knew. How we knew is the key to understanding Giuliani, the Bush administration and what really happened on 9/11.

Hitler, Saddam and bin Laden have much in common besides being mass murderers. All worked for, were financed by and were armed at the direction of America's top corporate interests, most conspicuously among them corporations and individuals associated with the Rockefeller and Bush families and with the men who created CIA policy. Giuliani is intimately linked to these families and corporations. The Bush family were Hitler's American bankers, spending more than a decade building up the Nazi war machine until their banking and shipping assets were seized by the U.S. Congress in 1942 under the Trading With the Enemy Act.

Rockefeller's Standard Oil was half owner of IG Farben the chemical and munitions company which formed the industrial basis of the Third Reich and which built and operated 40 slave labor death camps including Auschwitz. IG Farben likewise owned half of Standard Oil.

Most of the world's current leading drug companies such as Bayer were once part of IG Farben. Today, Rockefeller's Exxon/Mobil (formerly Standard Oil) is the world's largest corporation, with his JP Morgan Chase and Citigroup - the two main banks financing Enron - close behind.

Rockefeller's Chase Bank - the main funding source for the Manhattan Institute - has admitted to helping Hitler raid the gold reserves of invaded European nations and voluntarily liquidating thousands of Jewish bank accounts and turning the money over to the Nazis. Rockefeller's intelligence representatives in what later became the CIA imported thousands of former Nazis to the U.S. after WWII, among them major war criminals who participated in the war's worst atrocities. Some of the men who helped import Nazis to the U.S. and conspired to hide this fact from the American people later became CIA directors, Secretaries of State, heads of the Securities and Exchange Commission, presidential advisors and U.S. Presidents.

Eugenics programs in the U.S. were publicly acknowledged by Hitler as the model for what eventually became the Nazi program of mandatory euthanasia, the forcible sterilization of more than 350,000 German citizens and ultimately, the Holocaust. It was the Rockefeller family and their long-time business associates - the Bush and Harriman families who were Wall Street partners in financing Hitler - whose institutions and foundations inspired both the U.S. and the Nazi eugenics laws.

These laws mandating forcible sterilization were in effect in more than 20 states in the U.S. until the Holocaust temporarily gave eugenics a bad name. Eugenics-based ideas have since come back stronger than ever under the guises of population control, the Human Genome Project, eliminating welfare and privatizing prisons, hospitals and schools - which are the preoccupations of the CIA sponsored Manhattan Institute where both Giuliani and GW Bush claim they get all of their ideas.

Contrary to their recent public statements about the sanctity of life, for the past 70 years the Bush family has been among the world's leading proponents of population control policies and abortion. GW's grandfather - the Nazi banker Prescott Bush - was a leading official of Planned Parenthood in the 1950's and lost his seat in Congress because of it. US Ambassador to the U.N. in the early 70's George Bush specialized in promoting a worldwide depopulation program sponsored by David Rockefeller.

Saddam Hussein got his chemical and biological weapons and most of his conventional weapons from the U.S. - specifically from the Bush administration and it's friends in the armaments industry. It was the first Bush administration which indicated to Saddam - after arming him - that we'd look the other way if he invaded Kuwait, thereby starting the Gulf War. It was the Reagan-Bush administration that armed, trained and financed bin Laden, deliberately building up Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan into a force to be reckoned with.

It was the Reagan/Bush CIA director William Casey who orchestrated giving bin Laden and his friends billions in weapons and special military training. That's the same William Casey who founded the Manhattan Institute (MI).

MI has since given us the GW Bush and Giuliani administrations and used them both as testing grounds for a fascistic concept of America featuring eugenics-based social programs, tax cuts for the richest corporations, widespread media censorship, a never-ending war on "terrorism" and the phoniest brand of patriotism ever seen in U.S. history.

It was Giuliani's most important patron, David Rockefeller, who created the World Trade Center with his brother, NY State Governor and Ford Administration vice President, Nelson Rockefeller. The Rockefeller families' oil policies and long entanglement with the Saudi royal family were bin Laden's stated reasons for hating the U.S.

The facts proving these statements are a matter of U.S. history and can be confirmed by anyone with a computer or a library card and an interest in doing so. Thousands of websites are dedicated to this history. There are also thousands of readily accessible mainstream media sources, records of Congressional hearings and books published by respected authors detailing this history. Many of these authors were once U.S. government officials. In the articles on my website http://baltech.org/lederman/ I list hundreds of places where you can find this information.

Admittedly, you won't find any direct reference to these things on the Rockefeller families many websites or in an authorized history of Giuliani or the Bush family. They've spent decades obliterating and whitewashing their record.

As one glaring example of the reach of their censorship consider this simple fact. Since 9/11 not one mainstream U.S. newspaper has reported that the Rockefellers built the WTC yet every history of the WTC and every article from the 1970's on it's construction prominently features this fact, usually in the first paragraph.

Despite his occasional tendency to embarrassing public confession, Rudy Giuliani will never publicly admit his connections to Nazis and the far right or why he is so obsessed with Hitler. He is however, proud to remind us of his close relationship to the Rockefeller families' CIA-initiated Manhattan Institute and to the Bushes.

While leading daily celebrity tours of ground zero, doing hundreds of interviews about his greatness and accepting credit for "saving New York" from the terrorists, Giuliani has never responded to a single question about why he illegally stored 6,000 gallons of fuel in WTC #7 to supply his "bombproof" bunker. That fateful decision caused WTC #7 to collapse thereby conveniently destroying millions of CIA, FBI and Department of Justice files.

Was it a coincidence that the two worst terrorist attacks on U.S. soil each destroyed millions of files of criminal evidence that were embarrassing for U.S. government officials and corporations? Is it a coincidence that the so-called "terrorists" in each bombing - Oklahoma City and the WTC - were trained by the U.S. military and/or the CIA?

These millions of files were evidence in criminal cases involving major U.S. banks, US-trained terrorists, the Mafia, U.S. officials and foreign governments who are now our "allies" in the so-called war on terrorism. Giuliani has also refused to answer any questions on why he ordered all of the steel beams from ground zero melted down and destroyed before they could be examined by investigators. Giuliani cleaned up millions of tons of WTC evidence even faster than he cleaned up the "squeegee menace", street artists or topless dancing.

One has to wonder why Giuliani would warn us about imminent terrorist attacks for years, even surrounding his offices at City Hall with concrete barriers and then locate his emergency response bunker in the building complex most expected by U.S. intelligence agencies to be attacked by terrorists. Evidence about what Giuliani himself knew about 9/11 before it happened may be one of the many reasons he recently stole millions of public records on his last active day as Mayor of NYC in order to prevent them from being accessed by the public.

It's tempting to reject all of this material without even looking into it. Like the countless indications in recent years that Enron was a fake, these disturbing truths are hard to face and doing so has serious ramifications for politics, finance, national security and the very idea of what the U.S. government is supposed to stand for.

It's not easy to accept that this nations' biggest enemies are almost without exception puppets of our own wealthiest families but like Giuliani said, we ignore the clear warning signs at our own peril. Our enemies have told us exactly what they intend to do. Isn't it time to take them at their word?

http://www.baltech.org/lederman/giuliani-rockerfeller-bush-conspiracy-1-28-02.html

4/1/02