7/3/02
5:51:29 PM
WHO GAVE THE GREEN LIGHT FOR 9.11?
by William Thomas, June 29, 2002, LifeBoatNews.com
See No Evil
In the weeks leading up to the aerial attacks of Sept. 11, international flight crews used to heightened precautions abroad expressed dismay over relaxed security at all major US airports. As one veteran flight attendant told this reporter: “Airport metal detectors have three sensitivity settings: green, yellow and red. When anything sets it off, you know an alert has been issued, and that it’s set to red. But on the morning of Sept. 11, airport metal detectors on the East coast were set on green.”
Why?
For the next eight months, chanting “We Didn’t Know” like a mantra, White House officials categorically denied receiving any advance warnings of attackers whose effortless evasion of airport and air force defenses left obvious questions unasked by flag-waving media celebrities.
None dared call it complicity.
GROUNDED
The Federal Aviation Administration says it alerted NORAD to the first hijackings at 8:38, less than 10 minutes before the first tower was hit. The general in charge of North American Air Defense neglected to explain why 18 minutes later a pair of F-15s were scrambled from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod – 179 miles from the fray – when other armed “ready alert” aircraft were much closer. [Miami Herald Sept. 14, 2001]
Ordered to keep their speed down to an airliner’s crawl, Otis’ Mach 2 fighters were 70 miles from New York City when the South Tower was struck at 9:03 a.m. Two F-16s from Langley, Virginia arrived overhead 20 minutes after the Pentagon was hit. [Cape Cod Times Sept. 16, 2001]
Myers never mentioned that just 10 miles away, someone held two armed “ready- alert” fighters on the ground at Andrews Air Force Base until early evening. [Andrews AFB website]
I would like to interview those two pilots:
Who overrode their repeated appeals to launch?
How did they feel as they listened to airline pilots reporting the attacks they were trained and pledged to prevent?
Who ordered their ready-to-fly, round-the-clock, “anti-terrorist” 121st and 321st fighter squadrons erased from the Andrews website on Sept. 12?
And who shot down Flight 93, which came down in two widely separated sections after a heat-seeking missile fired by a pursuing fighter flying under “weapons free” orders blew off a wing over Pennsylvania? [“Shoot down over Pennsylvania” New York Times Sept. 15, 2001]
FEMA FOLLIES
Everywhere in this strange and sickening story, contradictions feed conundrums. How did the Federal Emergency Management Agency know what was coming? Before being cured of his “memory lapse” by emergency spin doctors, FEMA Urban Rescue team leader Tom Kennedy told a nationwide CBS audience on Sept. 12: “We’re currently one of the first teams that was deployed to support the City of New York in this disaster. We arrived on late Monday night and went right into action on Tuesday morning.”
CBS anchor Dan Rather never asked what FEMA was doing deploying the night before the WTC attacks. Or how a President could claim that $30 billion worth of silicon and security specialists never considered that the previously bombed World Trade Center might still be a prime terrorist target – when the WTC is depicted in a terrorist’s crosshairs on the cover of FEMA’s ant-terrorist manual. But in mid-May, Rather and other highly paid readers and transcribers of official press releases were prodded into actually committing journalism when a three-month old Congressional inquiry learned of a flurry of high-level Washington warnings long-discussed in the British and European press.
FLEISCHER FLOUNDERS
Attempting damage control, Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer contradicted earlier denials, saying that the White House had received repeated “heads up!” calls from foreign leaders and security agencies of impending aerial attacks by al Qaeda hijackers.
Fleischer first insisted the warnings dealt solely with US interests outside the United States. Reversing himself without hesitancy or shame, the presidential spokesman then admitted that the administration had been warned of “domestic US targets” as early as the previous May.
Fleischer assured Americans that the White House immediately “notified the appropriate agencies” of the terrorist hijacking threat they had previously insisted they knew nothing about.
If so, it is compellingly curious that airport check-in and security personnel were never sent from “green” complacency to “red” alert.
US intelligence experts now say that if airline ticket agents and low-paid gate security personnel had been ordered to pay close attention to the “Terrorist Profile” card at their elbows, young Middle Eastern men paying for tickets with cash would have been stopped for questioning before being allowed to board transcontinental flights. It is unlikely that men bent on bloody business would have been seated in Business Class after being asked to produce luggage “salted” with flight manuals, hijack exhortations and suicide notes, and left as convenient clues in the trunks of their rental cars.
Airline insiders insist that razor-sharp Exacto knives would have also triggered metal detectors set to the highest sensitivity. But on May 16, a spokesman for security at Boston Logan Airport where the WTC kamikazes originated, told the Boston Globe: “The Federal government never handed down any intelligence regarding hijackings.”
Not to Logan airport security, anyway.
When San Francisco mayor Willie Brown called on Sept.10 to check the status of a flight he was planning to take into New York the following day, a return call from a person Brown described to the San Francisco Chronicle as an “airport security man”, told him to be “extra cautious about air travel” into Gotham on Sept. 11.
By then, a Sept. 7 “worldwide warning” from the State Department had alerted other US government agencies that Americans “may be the target of a terrorist threat [from] extremist groups with links to Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda organization.”
According to German BND Intelligence, an Echelon ear in England had overheard conversations regarding the coming attacks. Listening in on phone calls, faxes and emails, Echelon also automatically monitors international financial transactions and airline travel for signs of unusual activity.
TRADERS AND TRAITORS
Sudden spikes in Wall Street trading are closely checked by PROMIS software. On Sept.10, as a Brooklyn high school student of Middle Eastern descent warned classmates not to venture into Manhattan, automatic stock-trading alarms would have been triggered when 4,516 “put” options were suddenly purchased against American Airlines.
Essentially leveraged bets that American’s stocks were about to “crash”, the day’s trading volume was 600% higher than the usual level of trading in AA shares. A similar sudden spike in UAL “put” purchases represented a 1,200% jump in the usual number of daily stock “bets” placed against United the day before that airline also lost two planes.
The WTC’s biggest tenant, Morgan Stanley saw a daily average of 27 “put” contracts. On Sept. 8, 9 and 10, someone with inside knowledge of the Twin Towers takedown bought 2,157 of Morgan Stanley options. Merrill Lynch, another big brokerage house occupying 22 floors of the WTC, saw 12,215 put options purchased in the four trading days leading up to the attacks. The average trading volume in Merrill Lynch shares is 252 contracts per day. [The Independent Oct. 14, 2001]
Was there a CIA connection?
It turns out that the investment bank used to place “put options” on United Airlines stock was managed until 1998 by “Buzzy” Krongard. Currently executive director of the CIA, Krongard helmed the Alex Brown bank when it was acquired by Banker’s Trust in 1997. Accused of laundering drug-money, Banker’s Trust was then absorbed into Deutsche Bank. Europe’s biggest blockbuster bank next made the news by being named the hub of insider trades involving the insurance company Munich Re. European regulators are now examining unusually heavy trades in Munich Re, Swiss Re, Cigna and Axa of France. Each of these underwriters was exposed to heavy losses from the destruction of the Trade Center. Like Alex Brown, Axa and Cigna insurers have close links to the international drug trade and its handmaiden, the CIA. [AFD]
Osama bin Laden’s family banks at Deutsche Bank. On Sept. 15, as German investigators probed Deutsche Bank’s short-selling of sensitive Sept. 11 stocks, Alex Brown head Mayo Shattuck abruptly resigned.
So did Lt-Gen. Mahmud Ahmad. Instead of being tried by an American military tribunal, the ISI director-general quietly left his post as head of Pakistan intelligence at the insistence of US authorities, after FBI agents recorded Mahmud’s cell phone calls ordering a sheikh to wire $100,000 to Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta. [The Times Of India Oct. 12, 2001]
Since, like Osama bin Laden himself, the ISI is a creation of the CIA, did the feds at Foggy Bottom know what its director was manifesting for Manhattan? Fleischer fulminated that the President was "provided information about bin Laden wanting to engage in hijacking in the traditional pre-9/11 sense - not for the use of suicide bombing, not for the use of an airplane as a missile."
LETTING IT HAPPEN
Apparently, repeated threats of conventional hijackings by Islamic fanatics keen on killing Americans was deemed unworthy of public warning by junta the New York Times accused of "Seizing Dictatorial Power". [Nov. 15, 2001] But an unfazed Fleischer fantasized that Bush administrators would have hit alarm buttons if they’d dared dream that al Qaeda hijackers might turn commercial airliners into flying bombs.
Had Ari Fleischer forgotten President Putin’s warnings to Washington “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks on prominent symbols of American business and military might? Repeated throughout the month of August, Moscow’s urgent messages specified that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically trained for suicide missions. [Interview with President Putin MS-NBC Sept. 15, 2001]
In this, Putin proved precise. Boxcutters found on two airliners diverted to Canada subsequently raised the number of targeted suicide planes to six, and the estimated number of hijackers to 25.
A leading German daily newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that at least three months before Sept. 11, US intelligence agencies learned that “Middle Eastern terrorists were planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.” [Sept. 14, 2001]
This could not have been news to American alphabet agencies. In the months leading up to Sept. 11, the CIA was actively tracking as many as six bin Laden cells, whose members were making homes and learning news skills in the USA.
According to ex-CIA chief Stansfield Turner, every phone line, cell phone call and email was intercepted.
Vanity Fair’s Henry Porter reveals that “hundreds” of Sept. 11 ringleader Mohamed Atta’s cell phone calls were intercepted and traced by the CIA. [Dec. 2001]
Documents obtained by the Baltimore Sun boasted that National Security Agency officials “sometimes played tapes of bin Laden talking to his mother to impress members of Congress.” [April 24, 2001]
WRIGHT AND WRONG
FBI agent Robert Wright wonders why no one intervened. On May 11, his lawsuit made the Washington Post after the agent alleged that senior intelligence officials had blocked investigations that could have led to the apprehension of the terrorists before Sept. 11.
Wright confirmed that Minneapolis FBI agents were yanked off the case after arresting a suspicious Middle Eastern flight student named Moussaoui – and finding Boeing fight manuals and several passports in the trunk of his car.
When the French Directorate of Territorial Security (DST) flagged the feds that Moussaoui was a known al Qaeda terrorist, FBI counterterror specialists were ordered not to probe Moussaoui’s activities and associations.
Angry agents beseeched David Schippers to intercede on their behalf. The prominent Clinton-impeachment attorney asked Attorney General Ashcroft to allow intensified investigation of a known al Qaeda operative, who wanted to learn how to turn and bank heavy aircraft – without landing or taking off.
After schlepping with Schippers, Ashcroft immediately ordered a halt to all investigations into the man now regarded as a prime accomplice in the Sept. 11 hijackings.
Why were Wright’s worries ignored by the same superiors who refused permission to mess with Moussaoui? As Newsweek noted on May 16: “When agents learned, from French intelligence, that he had radical Islamic ties, they sought a national-security warrant to search his computer – and got turned down. From his e-mail traffic they found he wanted to learn to fly a 747.”
Just days before the Sept. 11 attack, as a crack counterterror team frantically mused over Moussaoui’s motives, the FBI agents were “in a frenzy,” recalls a senior official, “absolutely convinced he was planning to do something with a plane.”
In his memo to superiors, Wright wrote that “one possibility” was that Moussaoui might be planning to hijack an airliner and crash it into the World Trade Center.
The FBI failed to broadcast Wright's prophecy. They also neglected to correlate this experienced agent's threat-assessment with agent Kenneth Williams' "Phoenix memo", which warmed of similarly suspicious Middle Eastern flight students two months before the airborne attacks on the World Trade Center.
On May 30th, Wright appeared at a televised press conference to say that “as a direct result of the incompetence, and at times intentional obstruction of justice by FBI management to prevent me from bringing terrorists to justice, Americans have unknowingly been exposed to potential terrorist attacks for years.” [C-SPAN]
A whistle-blowing Wright further claims that his FBI employers prevented him from interdicting the financiers of Osama bin Laden’s terror network, after Washington ordered agents to avoid offending the bin Laden and Royal Saudi families.
Long-suspected as heavy donors to “charities” that help terrorists kill Americans, the King of the Saudi Kingdom, who holds to the same strict, anti-modern brand of fundamentalist Wahhabism embraced by Osama bin Laden - and the ultra wealthy bin Laden family who spawned him - are “must not offend” gateways to strategic US interests in the oil-rich Middle East.
Their privileged status is impressive.
Source: http://www.LifeBoatNews.com
7/3/02
5:29:03 PM
t r u t h o u t
Byrd Challenges Bush's Ideas on War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04A.byrd.war.htm
Memo Cited Bush's Late SEC Filings
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04B.bush.sec.memo.htm
Stocks Hammered, Close at Multiyear Lows
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04C.stock.hammer.htm
Report: Layoff Plans Up 12 Percent
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04D.layoff.12.pct.htm
Afghanistan: Better Not Happen Again
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04E.afghan.not.again.htm
AIDS' Global Spread Staggers Researchers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04F.adis.spread.htm
Jeff Woods | Norton vs. The Enviornement
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.04G.woods.norton.htm
7/3/02
4:00:40 PM
Greenpeace True Food Network
July 2002 Newsletter
The summer is heating up with supermarket campaign activities. Join us by talking with your store manager about genetically engineered food, petitioning at your local store or hosting your own GE-free BBQ!
Attention New England Activists!!! The Greenpeace True Food Road Show is coming to New England towns on July 16-24th. Read below for more details.
Inside this Edition:
- Greenpeace True Food Road Show in New England!
- True Food Activists Hit the Streets!
- Biotech Giant, Monsanto, Feels the Heat on Wall Street
- NAFTA Agency Agrees to Study Mexican Corn Contamination Issue
Greenpeace True Food Road Show: July 16th-24th
The Greenpeace True Food Road Show is coming to New England this July. For two weeks, Greenpeace and local activists will be touring in our True Food van, hosting supermarket events and spreading the word about the biggest secret experiment with our food supply - genetically engineered food!!
To find out when the Road Show will hit your town, email: roadshow@wdc.greenpeace.org
Take Action This Summer!!
Thanks to many of you who took action on June 8th, the National Day of Action. Many of you have asked us - What's next?
Many Americans still have no idea that they are eating genetically engineered food. That's why it is important this summer that we take to the streets to let people know about GE food and demand that supermarkets remove GE food from their store brands.
Here's what you can do:
1. Take Action Online.
Ask your friends to send a fax to the CEOs of supermarkets. Send this link to your friends:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/take_action/shoppersguide.html
2. Petition.
By collecting petition signatures, you are not only educating shoppers, but also sending an important message to supermarkets.
You can download petitions from
http://www.truefoodnow.org/take_action/actionkit.html
or send us an e-mail and we will send petitions to you.
Our email: mailto:geteam@sfo.greenpeace.org
(please include your name and address)
3. Talk with your store manager.
Letting your store manager know that you don't want genetically engineered food is a direct and great way to communicate to supermarkets. Send us e-mail and let us know what your manager had to say: mailto:geteam@sfo.greenpeace.org
4. Have FUN!
There are plenty of fun ways to get your family and friends involved in the campaign. Host a GE-Free BBQ. Petition at the beach. For more ideas, check out our Activist Guide at:
http://www.truefoodnow.org/take_action/actionkit.html
Monsanto Feels the Heat on Wall Street
Monsanto, the largest seller of GE seeds, took a big hit on Wall Street after news came that company profits are down.
Resistance outside of the U.S. to Monsanto's genetically engineered crops has meant that profits are down by a third. Pharmacia, which owns the majority of Monsanto stock, is planning on selling the company to avoid its controversial role in the GE crop business.
Find out more about Monsanto:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/media/publications/monsanto.htm
NAFTA Commission to Study GE Corn Contamination in Mexico
The genetic contamination of corn in Mexico's Oaxaca state is a serious hazard for biodiversity in this region, a world center of genetic diversity for the crop. Now a commission of NAFTA (North America Free Trade Agreement) has agreed to study the problem. The decision comes after indigenous communities from Oaxaca, along with Greenpeace and three other NGOs, filed a request under Article 13 of the North American Agreement on Environmental Cooperation (NAAEC), the NAFTA environmental side agreement.
For more information, check out:
http://www.greenpeace.org/news/details?campaign%5fid=3942&news%5fid=11532
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member today!
To give online, go to:
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join/tfn.htm
Our mailings are never sent unsolicited. Either you or someone using your email address subscribed to this mailing.
To read our complete privacy policy go to
http://www.truefoodnow.org/privacy.html
To manage your subscriptions, please visit our Subscription Center
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/sc
7/3/02
3:57:49 PM
Public Citizen Requests Documents Used by DOE to Assess Impact of Recent Earthquake Near Yucca Mountain
July 3, 2002
Earthquake Questions Loom as Senate Vote Nears
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Citing the "curious" nature of the Department of Energy's rapid determination that a June 14 earthquake did no damage to facilities at the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump project, Public Citizen filed a Freedom of Information request with the DOE to obtain all of the documents related to that assessment.
"How could the DOE have assessed that no damage was done to the entire compound within several hours of the earthquake?" said Tyson Slocum, research director with Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program (CMEEP). "Since Yucca Mountain sits on one of the most seismically active areas in the U.S., we need to make sure that the government is taking the time to review every nook and cranny to ensure that safety is not being compromised."
The DOE issued a press release the same day as the earthquake, stating "there was no damage to any Yucca Mountain Project facilities, structures or the underground Exploratory Studies Facilities."
"This rush to judgment is symptomatic of the larger problems with the DOE's Yucca Mountain proposal," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst with CMEEP. "The site recommendation, soon to be voted on by the Senate, is dangerously premature at best."
Opponents of the Yucca Mountain proposal have long argued that a nuclear waste dump should not be located in an earthquake zone due to the potential danger of high-level radioactive waste leaking into the surrounding environment. In 1996, an earthquake near Yucca Mountain caused nearly $1 million dollars in damages to the Yucca Mountain Project facilities. In addition, the General Accounting Office found 293 unresolved scientific and technical issues with DOE's repository proposal, and the Nuclear Waste Technical Review Board has called the technical basis for the proposal "weak to moderate."
The Senate is expected to vote on the proposed Yucca Mountain nuclear waste dump early next week. The U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of the dump in May. A copy of the letter may be found at
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/energy_enviro_nuclear/nuclear_waste/hi-level/yucca/articles.cfm?ID=7960
Public Citizen is a national consumer advocacy organization.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
7/3/02
3:51:18 PM
Toyota Plans Fuel Cell Vehicle This Year
Torrance, California, July 2, 2002 (ENS) - By the end of this year, Toyota plans to begin selling a fuel cell powered passenger vehicle, the automaker announced Monday.
Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A., Inc., said that it, and parent company Toyota Motor Corporation, will start limited marketing of a fuel cell hybrid (FCHV) sport utility vehicle (SUV) in Japan and the U.S. around the end of this year, much earlier than the first predicted marketing date of 2010.
The earlier launch reflects the successful results of a year of testing in the two countries of the FCHV-4 prototype, and Toyota's response to society's expectations for cleaner mobility solutions, the company said.
The fuel cell SUVs will be able to carry five passengers, and will run on pure hydrogen.
The SUV, based on the Kluger-V in Japan and the Highlander in the United States, will feature conventional vehicle like performance based on improvements to the FCHV-4's reliability, cruising distance, functionality and other aspects. Lowering costs, cold temperature performance and other issues remain, so the fuel cell-powered SUVs, to be available by lease, will be offered at first just to select private sectors, technology related companies, institutional organizations and research facilities.
Although terms have yet to be determined, Toyota plans to lease a total of about 20 units during the first year to entities that have access to hydrogen supply facilities and after sales service.
Toyota began testing the FCHV-4 on public roads in Japan in June 2001 and the United States a month later. So far, FCHV-4s have covered a cumulative 110,000 kilometers (about 68,000 miles) on and off the test track, providing insights toward the commercialization of FCHVs.
Toyota launched the Prius, the world's first mass produced gasoline-electric hybrid, in 1997 in Japan, and in 2001 in the U.S market. Prius is the world's best selling hybrid vehicle, with total vehicle sales nearing 100,000 units.
Source: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-09.asp#anchor3
7/3/02
3:25:44 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE PASSES CO2 EMISSIONS LIMITS
SACRAMENTO, California, July 2, 2002 (ENS) - By a one vote margin, the California state legislature voted Monday to require automakers selling vehicles in California to limit tailpipe emissions of carbon dioxide and other global warming pollutants. If Governor Gray Davis signs the bill, California will become the first state in the nation to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from automobiles and light trucks.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-06.asp
COURT FINDS DC AIR POLLUTION VIOLATES FEDERAL LAW
WASHINGTON, DC, July 2, 2002 (ENS) - Today, as the Washington DC area recorded a "code purple" air pollution day, a federal appeals court today struck down an extension of the clean air deadline for the Washington DC area, ruling that the delay violated federal law. The ruling could force the nation's capitol to shift funding from new roads to mass transit, and require area polluters to cut their emissions.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-07.asp
U.S. FOREST INDUSTRY RAISES CONSERVATION STANDARDS
WASHINGTON, DC, July 2, 2002 - North American timber companies have adopted expanded protection goals for forests with exceptionally high conservation values. The Sustainable Forestry Board today announced stronger provisions for the Sustainable Forestry Initiative Standard, which will be applied to more than 60 million acres in the United States and Canada.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-01.asp
AUSTRALIA'S CATHOLIC CHURCH EMBRACES ENVIRONMENT
SYDNEY, Australia, July 2, 2002 (ENS) - Australia's powerful Catholic Church signaled its intention to mobilize its congregation - representing one-quarter of the Australian population - on environmental issues. The church is concerned about curbing land clearing and the logging of old growth forests, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-02.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 2, 2002
U.S. Carbon Dioxide Emissions Decline
Indoor Air Pollution Threatens Children
Toyota Plans Fuel Cell Vehicle This Year
Report: Irradiated Mail Makes People Sick
EPA Grants Support Underground Tank Cleanups
Radioactive Materials Abandoned in Oil Well
Beach Water Quality Information Available Online
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-02-09.asp
7/3/02
3:20:26 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
HOW TO REACH FOR THE SUN
Audrey Schulman, Hope magazine
-- In two months more than 200 volunteers convinced San Francisco voters to pass two unlikely solar power propositions.
FIGHT TO FREE TIBET: THE HEROIC LIFE OF ANI PANCHEN
By Jane Ayers, Whole Life Times
-- Jane Ayers honors Tibet's Joan of Arc, Ani Panchen, who led 700 farmers and nomads on horseback in armed resistance to the invading Chinese People's Liberation Army.
HYDE PARK REVIEW OF BOOKS
Web site review by Julie Madsen, HPRoB.com
-- This quarterly revives book culture with its reviews of up-and-coming fiction and nonfiction, and interviews with authors and others who are changing the literary world.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
7/3/02
2:47:56 PM
SciTech Daily Review
Cell phones distract drivers, but not for the obvious reasons. For one thing, hands-free doesn't mean risk-free
http://www.healthscoutnews.com/view.cfm?id=507661
Therapies that aim to rehabilitate stroke patients may be backfiring by overstimulating the wrong areas of the brain
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992423
Scientists are using a new breed of rodent to probe genetic influences on disease, bringing industrial-style efficiency to the process of finding cures
http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,41479,FF.html
That medical errors occur and that physicians are culpable in both committing and reporting them is hardly news to the general public. But what is relatively new is the candor with which the profession has begun to deal with it
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/15601
Life, the universe, and everything: Snippets from two decades' worth of articles regarding the quest for a comprehensive theory of the universe
http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/unifiedtheory.htm
7/3/02
2:45:10 PM
POLITICAL DECEPTION: THE MISSING LINK BEHIND 911
by Michel Chossudovsky
The foreknowledge issue is a Red Herring: "A Red Herring is a fallacy in which an irrelevant topic is presented in order to divert attention from the original issue."
ON May 16th The New York Post dropped what appeared to be a bombshell: "Bush Knew..." Hoping to score politically, the Democrats jumped on the bandwagon, pressuring the White House to come clean on two "top-secret documents" made available to President Bush prior to September 11, concerning "advance knowledge" of Al Qaeda attacks. Meanwhile, the U.S. media had already coined a new set of buzzwords: "Yes, there were warnings" and "clues" of possible terrorist attacks, but "there was no way President Bush could have known" what was going to happen. The Democrats agreed to "keep the cat inside the bag" by saying: "Osama is at war with the U.S." and the FBI and the CIA knew something was cooking but "failed to connect the dots." In the words of House Minority Leader, Richard Gephardt:
"This is not blame-placing. . . . We support the President on the war against terrorism have and will. But we've got to do better in preventing terrorist attacks." 1
The media's spotlight on 'foreknowledge' and so-called "FBI lapses" served to distract public attention from the broader issue of political deception. Not a word was mentioned concerning the role of the CIA, which throughout the entire post-Cold War era, has aided and abetted Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda, as part of its covert operations.
Of course they knew! The foreknowledge issue is a red herring. The "Islamic Brigades" are a creation of the CIA. In standard CIA jargon, Al Qaeda is categorized as an "intelligence asset". Support to terrorist organizations is an integral part of U.S. foreign policy. Al Qaeda continues to this date (2002) to participate in CIA covert operations in different parts of the World.2 These "CIA-Osama links" do not belong to a bygone era, as suggested by the mainstream media.
The U.S. Congress has documented in detail, the links of Al Qaeda to agencies of the U.S. government during the civil war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as in Kosovo.3 More recently in Macedonia, barely a few months before September 11, U.S. military advisers were mingling with Mujahideen mercenaries financed by Al Qaeda. Both groups were fighting under the auspices of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), within the same terrorist paramilitary formation.4
The CIA keeps track of its "intelligence assets". Amply documented, Osama bin Laden's whereabouts were always known.5 Al Qaeda is infiltrated by the CIA.6 In other words, there were no "intelligence failures"! In the nature of a well-led intelligence operation, the "intelligence asset" operates (wittingly or unwittingly) with some degree of autonomy, in relation to its U.S. government sponsors, but ultimately it acts consistently, in the interests of Uncle Sam.
While individual FBI agents are often unaware of the CIA's role, the relationship between the CIA and Al Qaeda is known at the top levels of the FBI. Members of the Bush Administration and the U.S. Congress are fully cognizant of these links.
The foreknowledge issue focussing on "FBI lapses" is an obvious smokescreen. While the whistleblowers serve to underscore the weaknesses of the FBI, the role of successive U.S. administrations (since the presidency of Jimmy Carter) in support of the "Islamic Militant Base", is simply not mentioned.
FEAR AND DISINFORMATION CAMPAIGN
The Bush Administration through the personal initiative of Vice President Dick Cheney chose not only to foreclose the possibility of a public inquiry, but also to trigger a fear and disinformation campaign:
"I think that the prospects of a future attack on the U.S. are almost a certainty. . . . It could happen tomorrow, it could happen next week, it could happen next year, but they will keep trying. And we have to be prepared." 7
What Cheney is really telling us is that our "intelligence asset", which we created, is going to strike again. Now, if this "CIA creature" was planning new terrorist attacks, you would expect that the CIA would be first to know about it. In all likelihood, the CIA also controls the so-called 'warnings' emanating from CIA sources on "future terrorist attacks" on American soil.
CAREFULLY PLANNED INTELLIGENCE OPERATION
The 9-11 terrorists did not act on their own volition. The suicide hijackers were instruments in a carefully planned intelligence operation. The evidence confirms that Al Qaeda is supported by Pakistan's military intelligence, the Inter-services Intelligence (ISI). Amply documented, the ISI owes its existence to the CIA:
"With CIA backing and the funnelling of massive amounts of U.S. military aid, the ISI developed [since the early 1980s] into a parallel structure wielding enormous power over all aspects of government....The ISI had a staff composed of military and intelligence officers, bureaucrats, undercover agents and informers estimated at 150,000."8
The ISI actively collaborates with the CIA. It continues to perform the role of a 'go-between' in numerous intelligence operations on behalf of the CIA. The ISI directly supports and finances a number of terrorist organizations, including Al Qaeda.
THE MISSING LINK
The FBI confirmed in late September, in an interview with ABC News (which went virtually unnoticed) that the 9-11 ring leader, Mohammed Atta, had been financed from unnamed sources in Pakistan:
"As to September 11th, federal authorities have told ABC News they have now tracked more than $100,000 from banks in Pakistan, to two banks in Florida, to accounts held by suspected hijack ring leader, Mohammed Atta. As well .. . "Time Magazine" is reporting that some of that money came in the days just before the attack and can be traced directly to people connected to Osama bin Laden. It's all part of what has been a successful FBI effort so far to close in on the hijacker's high commander, the money men, the planners and the mastermind."9
The FBI had information on the money trail. They knew exactly who was financing the terrorists. Less than two weeks later, the findings of the FBI were confirmed by Agence France Presse (AFP) and the Times of India, quoting an official Indian intelligence report (which had been dispatched to Washington). According to these two reports, the money used to finance the 9-11 attacks had allegedly been "wired to WTC hijacker Mohammed Atta from Pakistan, by Ahmad Umar Sheikh, at the instance of [ISI Chief] General Mahmoud [Ahmad]." 10 According to the AFP (quoting the intelligence source):
"The evidence we have supplied to the U.S. is of a much wider range and depth than just one piece of paper linking a rogue general to some misplaced act of terrorism." 11
PAKISTAN'S CHIEF SPY VISITS WASHINGTON
Now, it just so happens that General Mahmoud Ahmad, the alleged "money man" behind 9-11, was in the U.S. when the attacks occurred. He arrived on the 4th of September, one week before 9-11, on what was described as a routine visit of consultations with his U.S. counterparts. According to Pakistani journalist, Amir Mateen (in a prophetic article published on the September 10):
"ISI Chief Lt-Gen. Mahmoud's week-long presence in Washington has triggered speculation about the agenda of his mysterious meetings at the Pentagon and National Security Council. Officially, he is on a routine visit in return to CIA Director George Tenet's earlier visit to Islamabad. Official sources confirm that he met Tenet this week. He also held long parleys with unspecified officials at the White House and the Pentagon. But the most important meeting was with Marc Grossman, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. One can safely guess that the discussions must have centred around Afghanistan . . . and Osama bin Laden. What added interest to his visit is the history of such visits. Last time Ziauddin Butt, Mahmoud's predecessor, was here, during Nawaz Sharif's government, the domestic politics turned topsy-turvy within days." 12
Nawaz Sharif was overthrown by General Pervez Musharaf. General Mahmoud Ahmad, who became the head of the ISI, played a key role in the military coup.
CONDOLEEZZA RICE'S PRESS CONFERENCE
In the course of Condoleezza Rice's May 16 press conference (which took place barely a few hours after the publication of the "Bush Knew" headlines in The New York Post), an accredited Indian journalist asked a question on the role of General Mahmoud Ahmad:
Q: Dr. Rice?
Ms RICE: Yes?
Q: Are you aware of the reports at the time that the ISI chief was in Washington on September 11th, and on September 10th $100,000 was wired from Pakistan to these groups here in this area? And why was he here? Was he meeting with you or anybody in the Administration?
Ms RICE: I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me.13
Although there is no official confirmation that General Mahmoud Ahmad met Dr. Rice, she must have been fully aware of the $100,000 transfer to Mohammed Atta, which had been confirmed by the FBI. Lost in the barrage of media reports on 'foreknowledge', this crucial piece of information, on the ISI's role in 9-11, implicates key members of the Bush Administration including: CIA Director George Tenet, Deputy Secretary of State, Richard Armitage, Under-Secretary, Marc Grossman, as well as Senator Sam Biden, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee (who met General Ahmad on the 13th of September).14
The Bush Administration had not only provided red carpet treatment to the alleged "money man" behind the 9-11 attacks, it also had sought his 'cooperation' in the "war on terrorism". The precise terms of this 'cooperation' were agreed upon between General Mahmoud Ahmad, representing the Pakistani government and Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, in meetings at the State Department on September 12 and 13. In other words, the Administration decided in the immediate wake of 9-11, to seek the 'cooperation' of Pakistan's ISI in "going after Osama", despite the fact (documented by the FBI) that the ISI was financing and abetting the 9-11 terrorists. Contradictory? One might say that it's like "asking the Devil to go after Dracula."
CIA OVERSHADOWS THE PRESIDENCY
Dr. Rice's statement regarding the ISI chief at her May 16 press conference, is an obvious cover-up. While General Ahmad was talking to U.S. officials at the CIA and the Pentagon, he had allegedly also been in contact (through a third party) with the September 11 terrorists. What this suggests is that key individuals within the U.S. military-intelligence establishment knew about these ISI contacts with the September 11 terrorist 'ring leader', Mohammed Atta, and failed to act. But this conclusion is, in fact, an understatement. Everything indicates that CIA Director George Tenet and ISI Chief General Mahmoud Ahmad, had established a close working relationship. General Mahmoud had arrived a week prior to September 11 for consultations with George Tenet. Bear in mind that the CIA's George Tenet, also has a close personal relationship with President Bush. Prior to September 11, Tenet would meet the President nearly every morning at 8:00 a.m. sharp, for about half an hour. 15 A document, known as the President's Daily Briefing, or PDB, "is prepared at Langley by the CIA's analytical directorate, and a draft goes home with Tenet each night. Tenet edits it personally and delivers it orally during his early morning meeting with Bush." 16 This practice of "oral intelligence briefings" is unprecedented. Bush's predecessors at the White House, received a written briefing:
"With Bush, who liked oral briefings and the CIA director in attendance, a strong relationship had developed. Tenet could be direct, even irreverent and earthy."17
THE DECISION TO GO TO WAR
Was it an 'intelligence failure' to give red carpet treatment to the 'money man' behind the 9-11 terrorists, or was it simply 'routine'? At meetings of the National Security Council and in the so-called "War Cabinet", on September 11, 12 and 13, CIA Director George Tenet played a central role in gaining the Commander-in-Chief's approval to the launching of the "war on terrorism."
George W. Bush's Timeline September 11 (from 9.45am in the wake of the WTC-Pentagon Attacks to midnight) Circa 9:45 a.m.: Bush's motorcade leaves the Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida.
9:55 a.m: President Bush boards "Air Force One" bound for Washington.18 Following what was as a "false report" that Air Force One would be attacked, Vice-President Dick Cheney had urged Bush (10:32 a.m.) by telephone not to land in Washington. Following this conversation, the plane was diverted (10:41 a.m.) (on orders emanating from Washington) to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. A couple of hours later (1:30 p.m.), after a brief TV appearance, the President was transported to Offut Air Force base in Nebraska at U.S. Strategic Command Headquarters.
3:30 p.m.: A key meeting of the National Security Council (NSC) was convened, with members of the NSC communicating with the President from Washington by secure video.19 In the course of this NSC video-conference, CIA Director George Tenet fed unconfirmed information to the President. Tenet stated that "he was virtually certain that bin Laden and his network were behind the attacks."20
The President responded to these statements, quite spontaneously, off the cuff, with little or no discussion and with an apparent misunderstanding of their implications. In the course of this video-conference (which lasted for less than an hour), the NSC was given the mandate by the Commander-in-Chief to prepare for the "war on terrorism". Very much on the spur of the moment, the "green light" was given by video conference from Nebraska. In the words of President Bush: "We will find these people. They will pay. And I don't want you to have any doubt about it." 21
4:36 p.m.: (One hour and six minutes later...) Air Force One departed for Washington. Back in the White House, that same evening (9:00 p.m.) a second meeting of the full NSC took place, together with Secretary of State Colin Powell who had returned to Washington from Peru. The NSC meeting (which lasted for half an hour) was followed by the first meeting of the so-called "war cabinet". The latter was made up of a smaller group of top officials and key advisers.
9:30 p.m.: At the war cabinet: "Discussion turned around whether bin Laden's Al Qaeda and the Taliban were one and the same thing. Tenet said they were." 22 By the end of that historic meeting of the war cabinet (11:00 p.m.), the Bush Administration had decided to embark upon a military adventure which now threatens the collective future of humanity, our civilization.
DID BUSH KNOW?
Did Bush, with his minimal understanding of foreign policy issues, know all the details regarding General Mahmoud and the "ISI connection"? Did Tenet and Cheney distort the facts, so as to get the Commander-in-Chief's "thumbs up" for a military operation which was already in the pipeline? In a bitter irony, a meeting between Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage and General Mahmoud, the 9-11 "money man", was scheduled at the State Department for the morning after September 11 to discuss their strategy.
Source: http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO206A.html
7/3/02
2:38:45 PM
Bush Dictates 'Democracy' To The Palestinians - An Overdetermined Version Of Self-Determination
You can't call for new elections and use the word 'democracy' six times in an 1,860-word speech and in the same breath tell the Palestinians who their leaders can and cannot be.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5884
Bush Doctrine 2.0
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
This week's New York Times headline about Bush's new "defense policy of hitting first"
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/17/international/17POLI.html
raised more than a few eyebrows. How can a pre-emptive action be considered "defense"? This recent example of Orwellian doublespeak can be understood as the Bush administration's attempt to clear the way for bombing Iraq, without revisiting the pesky War Powers Act or allowing for Congressional debate. But a nagging question remains -- what if other, more corrupt regimes, adopted the same principle? Envision North Korea or Pakistan using Bush's statement to justify enacting their own nuclear fantasies. In fact, thanks to our favorite Flash5 cartoonist Mark Fiore, the hypothetical situation is made remarkably -- and hilariously -- clear. Check It Out! Bush Doctrine 2.0 at
http://www.markfiore.com/animation/doctrine.html
Bush to issue 'strike first' strategy Doctrine of attacking enemies pre-emptively marks major policy shift
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29986
Washington's phony pretext for Iraqi invasion (29 June 2002)
Speaking before a Republican audience in Portland, Oregon June 24, Vice President Richard Cheney reiterated the Bush administration's intention to carry out a preemptive strike against Iraq under the pretext of preventing the use of "weapons of mass destruction." (...) Some administration officials have confided that the "covert" war would likely serve merely as a prelude to a US invasion involving some quarter of a million troops. The aim of any attack on Iraq will be not the elimination of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons programs, but the furtherance of Washington's hegemonic control over the oilfields of the Persian Gulf. The Bush administration is well aware that whatever weapons development programs Iraq was running before the Persian Gulf War in 1991 were abandoned after the country's infrastructure was devastated by the extensive bombing campaign. Destruction extended not merely to military targets, but to electricity, water purification and health care facilities, resulting in an appalling loss of life. According to some estimates, the death toll from disease and malnutrition directly attributable to the US war-most of it consisting of young Iraqi children-stands at over 1.5 million.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/iraq-j29.shtml
Israeli Military Advances Into More of the West Bank
An Israeli defense official said the military was preparing a "decisive and crushing" response to Palestinian attacks that have killed 33 Israelis in the past week.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/international/middleeast/23MIDE.html
Israel dismembers Palestinian Authority - Pledges "crushing and decisive" military offensive
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/isra-j24.shtml
Alert: From ISM "Call To Action: Come To Palestine"
Check also: IMC-Palestine: UPDATE: Ramallah - June 24, 2002: Israeli forces have moved into the city center imposing curfew. This intrepid IMC reporter ventured out into the empty streets, narrowly avoiding run ins with tanks and APC's, trying to ascertain locations of troops. They have surrounded the Presidential Compound which still contains a large number of international civilians. (...) June 23, 2002: Naema says that "we live in a big, crowded prison" while an independent journalist from Jerusalem says that Gaza residents live in the "world's largest jail." Israeli General Doron Almog echoes such thoughts, as he describes the people that live in the area he serves in as being "imprisoned." A little boy draws pictures not of flowers and white picket fenced houses, but of military tanks, fighter jets and bulldozers. What region of the world are these people referring to and are from? They are from and are talking about the most densely populated territory in the world: the Gaza strip.
http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/
http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/04/6592.php
Excerpt from an interview at
Where and what is the Gaza strip? The Gaza strip is a small piece of land that is 360 square kilometers in area and is no longer than 70 kilometers at any one point (its coastline is only 40 kilometers long). The strip is southeast of Israel and has been under Israeli occupation since 1967 in what is perhaps the longest running military occupation in history and is at least the longest one in existence now. Some 1.2 million Palestinians live in the Gaza strip, three-fourths of whom are refugees from the war of 1948 that led to an Israeli State in what was Palestinian territory. Despite the overwhelming majority of Gaza's residents being Palestinian, 42% of the Gaza strip is under Israeli military control and is reserved for 6,000 Israeli settlers. Settlers and Israeli soldiers, however, only account for 0.5% of the population and are thus at the center of the conflict in the Gaza strip, with their disproportionate land holdings and brutal occupying military tactics. In addition to disproportionate land holdings, Israeli soldiers and settlers enjoy a number of economic advantages and freedoms that Palestinians are not entitled to. For example, water, a precious resource in the largely desert climate of the region, is largely diverted from Palestinian territories by Israel for its own use (88% of it). Digging wells is also illegal for Palestinians, but completely legal for Israeli settlers. As a result, settlers have consume 1000 times as much water as Palestinians in Gaza and pay one-fourth the price. Settlers also enjoy highly subsidized housing and social services. But this is the catch: many, if not most settlers came for economic incentives and not so much for ideological reasons. Omar, a refusenik who is in the midst of a speaking tour in the U.S. explains that: "most settlers came from poor backgrounds in Israel, they may have even been immigrants, and came to the occupied territories to get a house and raise a family." While some settlers, to be sure, came simply because they believe in the "Greater Israel" vision that advocates annexing all of the Palestinian territories into Israel. "They are simply not the majority and are a significant, but distinct minority." Omar continued, explaining that since the start of the intifada, "even if settlers wanted to sell their houses, they couldn't, because nobody will buy them at this point."
http://jerusalem.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/52280.php
Afghanistan's loya jirga fails to provide even the illusion of democracy
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/afgh-j24.shtml
Bush claims right to jail US citizens indefinitely, without charges or hearing
In a legal argument that could as easily be used to justify a declaration of martial law, the Justice Department last week asserted the right of the president and the military to indefinitely hold US citizens deemed "enemy combatants" incommunicado, without formal charges, the right to a hearing or legal counsel. (...) Quoting the government's argument that the courts have no business questioning the military's designation of a detained US citizen as an "enemy combatant," the Washington Post editorialized: "These words were not written by some petty dictator whose kangaroo courts rubber-stamp his every whim and whose whims may include locking up citizens he regards as enemies. They were filed yesterday by the U.S. Department of Justice ..." The editorial, entitled "The I-said-so test," goes on to warn: "If this is correct, any American could be locked up indefinitely, without a lawyer, on the president's say-so. You don't have to believe that Mr. Hamdi is innocent to see grave peril in this." What the Washington Post and others within the political establishment who have voiced muted protests over the Bush administration's assumption of dictatorial powers deliberately obscure, however, is the connection between this "grave peril" to democratic rights at home and the eruption of US militarism abroad. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), for example, issued a condemnation of the military detention of Jose Padilla, criticizing it from the standpoint of weakening the "war on terrorism." "For the United States to maintain its moral authority in the fight against terrorism," declared Anthony D. Romero, ACLU executive director, "its actions must be implemented in accordance with core American legal and social values." In reality, the "moral authority" of the Bush administration's military campaigns is entirely consistent with its adoption of forms of police-state rule. Both are the expression of an increasingly desperate and disoriented ruling elite that has determined to defend its wealth and interests by means of naked force.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/hamd-j24.shtml
New Jersey appeals court upholds secret detentions (June 17)
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/secr-j17.shtml
Another step towards presidential dictatorship: Bush orders US citizen held indefinitely by military
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/bomb-j12.shtml
FOIA Bushwacked
Here's a not-so-minor detail you may have missed in the reporting on the new Department of Homeland Security: the entire department, and all information generated by or through it, will be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). This is the latest in a long line of attacks on the FOIA by Republican administrations. The bill was originally vetoed by President Gerald Ford, at the urging of his chief of staff, Donald Rumsfield, and his young deputy chief of staff, Dick Cheney, who argued that the bill would take too much power out of the hands of the president. The bill was only passed into law when Congress overrode Ford's veto. Not incidentally, it was also Dick Cheney who so infamously outlined options for punishing journalist Seymour Hersh after Hersh cited the Freedom of Information Act in his investigation of covert operations by the CIA. Among the options were ordering an FBI investigation of Hersh and The New York Times and getting a search warrant to rummage through Hersh's private papers in his apartment. The White House never actually followed through with the plans. Cheney was also instrumental in drafting the Reagan administration's policies towards the FOIA. Reagan, who hid his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal by citing the "matters of national security" exemption, said the government should withhold information from any FOIA requester whenever there was a "substantial legal basis" for withholding. Bill Clinton rescinded Reagan's 1981 policy in 1992. Clinton said information should be withheld from citizens "only when an agency reasonably foresees that disclosure would be harmful." With Cheney, Rumsfield, and the rest of those good old boys back in power, it's hardly surprising that we're returning to the days when high-level government official can operate in the shadows. Maybe Seymour Hersh should start watching his back again. Check It Out! Attack On The FOIA from the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press at
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
http://www.rcfp.org/news/2002/0619homela.html
7/3/02
2:30:57 PM
EXXONMOBIL SUES GREENPEACE
"Greenpeace, which is urging a boycott of ExxonMobil because of its anti-global warming treaty stance, has been sued by the energy giant in France for trademark infringement. That has provided a rich PR opportunity for the media savvy environmental group," O'Dwyer's PR reports. Greenpeace altered the Esso logo by replacing the "ss" with dollar signs. ExxonMobil says that the Greenpeace-altered logo resembles the insignia of the elite Nazi SS army and that it is a "repulsion." According to O'Dwyer's, ExxonMobil fears the E$$O logo "will drive consumers away from its brand."
Source: http://www.odwyerpr.com/0626exxon_greenpeace.htm
7/3/02
2:26:30 PM
THE COWARDLY CRUSADER
Someone who calls himself "Fred Curran" has been creating "parody" websites attacking environmental groups including Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and the Pure Food Campaign. Curran's parodies, at greenpiece.org, earthfiends.org and purefoods.org, say that Greenpeace "has no credibility," FoE is supported by "thousands of suckers," and the Pure Food Campaign is a "propaganda machine" running an "organic con game." But what about the credibility of "Fred Curran"? His domain name registration lists his address as 1800 M St NW, Washington, DC, which happens to be the address of a U.S. Post Office station and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Curran lists his phone number as 202-728-7510, which rings at the office of SpiralHeart, "a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education & training in the Reclaiming Tradition style of Witchcraft." Have we got a witch at the USDA, or is Curran using a fake name, a fake address and a fake phone number? If there's a whistleblower out there who would like to expose his real identity, contact mailto:editor@prwatch.org
Web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2002.html#1025113692
7/3/02
2:22:54 PM
Hitting The Trifecta
Shortly after George W. Bush was selected president, the Onion joked that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is over." Now Bush is making the same joke himself and using it as an excuse for breaking his campaign pledge to avoid defecit spending. "You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending?" Bush says. "I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency. Never did I dream we'd get the trifecta." But as MSNBC's David Neiwert points out, Bush's favorite joke about 9/11 is not only in bad taste, it's a lie.
SOURCE: http://www.msnbc.com/news/773123.asp
More web links related to this story are available at:
http://www.prwatch.org/spin/June_2002.html#1025150400
7/3/02
2:20:27 PM
WAR PROPAGANDA AS A VIDEO GAME
"Hollywood is churning out one war flic after another," notes Bill Berkovitz. "VH-1 recently premiered 'Military Diaries,' a first person POV series on life in the military; Country-Western stars are popularizing 'kick ass' patriotic songs; Iran/Contragate figure, Oliver North, is hosting 'War Stories' on the Fox News Channel. Welcome to America's escalating militarization -- designed by the Bush administration, in cahoots with defense contractors, and aided and abetted by America's culture mavens." Now the U.S. Army is getting in on the action with a new "America's Army" videogame paid for by $6.3 million in taxpayer dollars.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5900
7/3/02
2:16:58 PM
AFTER 9/11: TV NEWS AND TRANSNATIONAL AUDIENCES
The University of Wales in the UK will mark the first anniversary of 9/11 by hosting an international conference about TV news and transnational audiences. According to conference organizers, "The news media are central arenas of political conflict and public debate. The proliferation of satellite news channels brings new transnational configurations of audiences into being that may have unpredictable consequences for states, governance and citizenship. This conference will bring together academics, journalists and policy-makers to analyse and evaluate the role played by television news in mediating the events of September 11 and ensuing conflicts."
http://www.afterseptember11.tv
7/3/02
2:15:47 PM
BUSH ZIPS WHISTLEBLOWERS' LIPS
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has joined senators Chuck Grassley and Patrick Leahy in warning that the Bush Administration's proposed new cabinet-level Homeland Security Department threatens long-standing American freedoms while eliminating legal safeguards necessary to keep the agency open and accountable to the public. ACLU warns that the Bush proposal will "create an enormous agency with massive authority -- including more armed federal agents with arrest powers than any other branch of government." Bush also wants to exclude the new agency from Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and whistleblower protections -- "the very law that helped expose intelligence-gathering missteps before September 11."
http://www.aclu.org/action/homeland107.html
7/3/02
2:13:38 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
California legislature OKs greenhouse gas emissions bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16680/story.htm
EPA chief says Bush emissions cuts would save lives - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16681/story.htm
Radioactive material abandoned in Texas gas well - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16682/story.htm
Superfund cleanups slow due to lack of funding - EPA - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16684/story.htm
Crews gaining control over western US wildfires - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16689/story.htm
Suzuki, Fuji, GM to join on recycling cars - report - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16690/story.htm
INTERVIEW - UK's Meacher confident on CO2 emissions target - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16686/story.htm
UN passes laws to boost ship safety,curb pollution - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16691/story.htm
FEATURE - Plight of Peru town dim after mine's mercury spill - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16688/story.htm
Campaigners hit timing of Japan nuclear shipment - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16679/story.htm
Toyota to market fuel cell cars this year - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16687/story.htm
Water controversy may douse Alberta oil sands boom - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16683/story.htm
Kozloduy nuclear plant calls tenders for fresh fuel - BULGARIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16685/story.htm
7/3/02
1:22:29 PM
Public Citizen issued the following 2 press releases today:
1) Public Citizen Releases Database With Names of 1,111 "Questionable Doctors" in Texas - Most Still Practicing
2) Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, on Congressional Office of Compliance Report on Irradiated Mail
July 2, 2002
Public Citizen Releases Database With Names of 1,111 "Questionable Doctors" in Texas - Most Still Practicing
Consumers Can Search Online for Their Doctor
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The consumer advocacy group Public Citizen today released new information about 1,111 physicians who have been disciplined by Texas's state medical board and other agencies for incompetence, misprescribing drugs, sexual misconduct, criminal convictions, ethical lapses and other offenses. Most of the doctors were not required to stop practicing, even temporarily.
Public Citizen has been publishing national and regional editions of its Questionable Doctors database in book form for more than a decade. But now, for the first time, the database is available on the World Wide Web. The Questionable Doctors Online web site is www.questionabledoctors.org.
Consumers will be able to search the list of disciplined doctors for free. For $10, they can view and print detailed disciplinary reports on up to 10 individual doctors over a three-month period in any state listed. The web site contains information about doctors in California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. More states will be added throughout the year.
Public Citizen criticized the Texas Board of Medical Examiners' poor record of disciplining Texas doctors. Examples of doctors who were disciplined but are currently allowed to continue practicing in Texas include:
· A doctor who admitted to and was convicted for four drive-by shootings of garages and automobiles belonging to a former business partner;
· A doctor who was arrested and pleaded guilty on charges stemming from writing prescriptions in exchange for sexual favors;
· A doctor whose surgical outpatient died after he administered an overdose of Ketalar and Valium, placing her under general anesthesia rather than the conscious sedation he intended;
· A doctor who settled a lawsuit alleging he fused the wrong level of a patient's neck; and,
· A doctor who had sexual relations with four patients and admitted to a history of alcoholism.
"For many of the offenses committed by Texas doctors, the disciplinary actions have been dangerously lenient," said Sidney Wolfe, M.D., director of Public Citizen's Health Research Group. "The majority of Texas doctors who committed the five most serious offenses weren't required to stop practicing, even temporarily. Therefore, it is likely that they are still practicing in Texas and that their patients are not aware of their offenses."
Over the 10-year period covered by the Questionable Doctors Online database, there were a total of 2,106 disciplinary actions issued against 1,111 doctors in Texas. For the five most serious offenses, there were: 106 actions taken against doctors because of criminal convictions; 220 for substandard care, incompetence or negligence; 190 for misprescribing or overprescribing drugs; 290 for substance abuse; and 95 for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient.
Of the 220 actions taken against doctors for substandard care, incompetence or negligence, only six (3 percent) involved revocation or suspension. Similarly, of the 95 actions taken for sexual abuse of or sexual misconduct with a patient, only 14 (15 percent) involved suspension or revocation.
"All too often, state medical boards are more concerned about protecting the reputations of doctors than doing their job, which is to protect unsuspecting patients from doctors who may be incompetent or negligent," Wolfe said. "Texas has an appalling record of letting serious and sometimes repeat offenders off the hook."
Public Citizen also has published a ranking of state medical boards, based on the number of serious disciplinary actions (license revocations, surrenders, suspensions and probation/restrictions) per 1,000 doctors in each state. In 2001, nationally there were 3.36 serious actions taken for every 1,000 physicians. Texas ranked No. 30 (tied with New Mexico and North Carolina) on the list, with 122 serious sanctions levied against 47,994 doctors, for a rate of 2.54 per 1,000 doctors. (To view the ranking, go to: http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7166.)
For each of the past six years (1996-2001) Texas has ranked in the bottom half of states in the rate of serious disciplinary actions per 1,000 doctors, never higher than 28/29 and as low as 38. In 2001, there were 10 states that disciplined more than twice as many doctors per 1,000 doctors in those states than Texas did, including Arizona, Oklahoma, Ohio and Kentucky. If Texas had done as well as any of these 10 states, there would have been an additional 122 physicians subjected to serious disciplinary actions last year.
"Nationwide, an extremely tiny fraction of doctors face disciplinary action," Wolfe said. "And Texas is well below the national average. The state needs to start doing a better job of protecting the public."
Wolfe also criticized the Texas Board of Medical Examiners for the lack of information about physician offenses that is posted on the board's web site. "The board's web site is woefully uninformative," Wolfe said. "Most of the time, there is little or no information about the doctor's offense, only vague references to the offenses such as 'unprofessional' or 'dishonorable' conduct. This is unacceptable, because patients need to be able to make informed decisions about which doctor they choose to see."
To read a survey of state medical board web sites go to:
http://www.citizen.org/publications/release.cfm?ID=7168
Public Citizen recommends that states promptly make public all of their board disciplinary actions, malpractice payouts and hospital disciplinary actions; strengthen medical practice statutes; restructure their medical boards to sever any links with state medical societies; and increase funding and staffing for medical boards.
Public Citizen has long sought greater consumer access to information about doctors, and there have been recent improvements in making that information available. Most state medical boards now provide some physician information on the Internet, but the information about disciplinary actions varies greatly, is often inadequate and can be difficult for people to access.
Information about doctor discipline, including state sanctions, hospital disciplinary actions and medical malpractice awards is now contained in the National Practitioner Data Bank, but that database is kept secret from the public.
"HMOs, hospitals and medical boards can look at the National Practitioner Data Bank, but consumers cannot," Wolfe said. "It is time we lifted the veil of secrecy surrounding doctors and allowed the people who have the most to lose from questionable doctors to get the information they need to protect themselves and their families. But until Congress finds the will to open up this information, Public Citizen will provide the public with as much of the data as we can obtain."
With the addition of Texas, Questionable Doctors Online now lists doctors disciplined in 13 states from 1992 through 2001. Information comes from all 50 state medical boards, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration. Previously listed physicians sanctioned in 1990 and 1991 were removed.
Using the information from the state and federal agencies, Public Citizen created a database containing the doctor's name, degree, license number, date of birth, location, the disciplinary state or agency, the date of the disciplinary action, the nature of the discipline and available information about the case. Public Citizen asked all the state medical boards to provide information about court actions that may have overruled or changed previous disciplinary actions. Any disciplinary actions that were overturned by courts or for which litigation ended in the doctor's favor were deleted from the database.
###
CONSUMER INFORMATION: Consumers will be able to search for names of disciplined doctors in the online database for free. For a $10 subscription, they can obtain detailed disciplinary reports on up to 10 physicians over a three-month period in any of the states listed. States available are California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Vermont. Additional states will be added as the information becomes available. To order on the Internet, go to
http://www.questionabledoctors.org
###
Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C. The organization has an office in Austin.
July 2, 2002
Statement of Wenonah Hauter, Director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, on Congressional Office of Compliance Report on Irradiated Mail
Today the Congressional Office of Compliance provided the first honest assessment by any government entity of the safety of handling mail that has been treated with irradiation. Acting on requests for an investigation from congressional staffers, the Office of Compliance - charged by the Congress to enforce various employment laws on Capitol Hill, including the Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) - has concluded that there is justification to the complaints from some congressional employees who have developed various health ailments from handling irradiated mail. The Office also recommended that additional research be conducted to find out what irritants are being produced that are making people sick from handling irradiated mail. Irradiation advocates have attempted to dismiss and even belittle congressional staffers who brought forward their concerns. The Congressional Office of Compliance should be commended for standing up for those employees who have legitimate health complaints.
What should be especially troubling to taxpayers is that the primary proponents of mail irradiation have failed to cooperate with the Congressional Office of Compliance in its investigation. In its report, the Congressional Office of Compliance stated that it attempted to meet with officials from the U.S. Postal Service, the Armed Forces Radiobiological Research Institute, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the White House Office of Science and Technology - all of which have played a role in promoting mail irradiation - but to no avail. Furthermore, the Office of Compliance was not able to secure an un-redacted copy of a study conducted earlier this year by the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health on congressional mail irradiation. That report concluded that there were no long-term health effects from handling irradiated mail. If the technology is so safe, why won't these government entities cooperate with the agency responsible for ensuring the safety of those who work on Capitol Hill? Congressional staffers have been used as "guinea pigs" and they deserve answers from those responsible for running this experiment.
In light of the questions that still remain on the safety of mail irradiation, Public Citizen calls on the Postal Service again to cease its mail irradiation program until there has been a thorough analysis of the safety of this technology. Congress should protect its own staff by banning this technology from being used on congressional mail and should invest in detection technology. The Congress should also refrain from appropriating any more funds to the Postal Service for mail irradiation until the technology has proven to be safe.
Source: http://www.Citizen.org
7/3/02
1:19:27 PM
TomPaine.com
Independent, Commercial-free
DISSENT!
We celebrate Independence Day with articles of and about DISSENT, and the text of our op ad is adapted from an essay by columnist Matt Miller: "Loyal opposition is the mark of a patriot, principled dissent the obligation of every citizen."
http://tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm/ID/5925
Our Op-Ad Features Include:
DISSENT IN PURSUIT OF EQUALITY, LIFE, LIBERTY AND HAPPINESS
An Interview With Historian Howard Zinn
by Sharon Basco
"A government that goes against the ends of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness cannot be obeyed. If it behaves like that, it is the most patriotic thing to disobey the government."
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5908
PATRIOTIC DISSENT
Defending Liberty In America
by Wendy Kaminer, The American Prospect
"When the government seeks to expand its power to spy on us, it should be required to show how the loss of anonymity and freedom will make us safer."
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5907
COLLECT THEM ALL
'American Crusade' Trading Cards Lampoon The Powers That Be
by Bill Berkowitz, In These Times
The "American Public" card depicts the American public as wide-eyed sheep, guided by a haloed President Bush using a flag for a staff. "Military Tribunals" portrays a kangaroo with gavel dwarfing the Department of Justice.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5902
Dispatch: Missoula, Montana
COURT USES HIGH BAIL TO DETER DISSENT
Activists Jailed For Logging Protest
from the Environment News Service
While nonviolent protestors are being held in a Missoula County Jail at $70,000 bail, a Missoula man charged with the rape of a developmentally disabled woman was given a $20,000 bail.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5906
MY EXPERIENCE AS A DISSENTER
When A Minority Opinion Speaks Out
by Robert Jensen
"It is easy to speak in public when one is parroting the conventional wisdom without challenge. But faculty members at a public university have an obligation to go beyond such safe endeavors."
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5914
BILL BENNETT ORGANIZES NEO-CONS AGAINST DISSENT
'Americans For Victory Against Terrorism' Targets Independent Voices
by Jim Lobe, Foreign Policy In Focus
Seeking to expose domestic "threats," self-ordained morality czar Bill Bennett formed AVOT to track objectionable statements by professors, legislators, authors and columnists.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5928
PUNISHING THOSE WHO SPEAK OUT
The Secret War On Whistle Blowers
by Geoffrey Gray, The Village Voice
"All you have to do in the FBI is step in the line of fire. You'll get blown away," says one observer who has seen it happen.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5897
The final installment in our "Trigger Issue" series...
LOST AND FOUND: THE MEANING OF THE SECOND AMENDMENT
An Excerpt From "The Second Amendment in Law and History"
by Robert J. Spitzer
Despite definitive constitutional readings, historical lessons, and court rulings, some legal writers have sought to spin out "individualist" interpretations of the Second Amendment -- many erroneous or nonsensical.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5874
Poetry
AN AMERICAN GEOGRAPHY
by Lloyd Schwartz
A poet's observations on a cross country train trip: "Child (playing Trivial Pursuits): 'What's the President's official theme song?' Mother: "'We're in the Money!'"
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5898
NOT IN MY BACKYARD? THINK AGAIN.
The Latest Vacation Idea: Discovering Your Bio-Region
by Ann Hancock
Bio-regional vacations are another expression of elegant simplicity. More fun, less stuff. More pleasure, less hassle, too. They are the ultimate in eco-tourism.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5826
PUT DOWN YOUR FLAG AND SERVE ON TOWN COUNCIL!
Supporting America Means Showing Yours Stripes, Not Waving Them
by Ken Midkiff
"My definition of true patriots focuses on those who hang in there for the long haul, serving on city councils, county commissions, planning and zoning boards, and citizens' working groups."
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5892
The first in a new series of book excerpts:
THE CORPORATE THEFT OF THE WORLD'S WATER
>From "Blue Gold"
by Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke
Water, according to the "Washington Consensus," is a human need, not a human right. These are not sernantics: a human need can be supplied in many ways, especially for those with money. But no one can sell a human right.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5875
Plus -- an interview with one of the co-authors of "Blue Gold":
THE BATTLE TO BOTTLE
Maude Barlow On "The Corporate Theft Of Water"
by Jennifer Bauduy
There are places in the world where it's not a future crisis, it's now. There are farmers going to their wells, and the wells have gone dry because Coca-Cola got in there and bought up the water table.
http://tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5880
7/3/02
1:13:01 PM
"When the Missionaries came,
They brought the Bible.
We closed our eyes, received the Bible,
We opened our eyes... we had the Bible,
They had the Land!"
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, South Africa
7/2/02
6:08:32 PM
Greenpeace Action Alert
Support the Chemical Safety Act
July 2nd, 2002
A critical vote on new legislation is now scheduled for July 18th in the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. The Chemical Safety Act will not only beef up security, it will also require chemical plants to consider safer technologies and chemicals.
Contact your Senators today and urge them to support the Chemical Safety Act.
Take online action now at:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/actionframe.pl?action_id=124
The realities of chemical safety:
-- Major U.S. chemical facilities are inherently dangerous and vulnerable to attack or accidents and no amount of "security" will truly protect them.
-- The most problematic chemicals used are chlorine and chlorine compounds for which there are many safer substitutes available.
-- The only way to make these plants truly safe is to convert them to safer technologies or chemicals. The Chemical Safety Act will make plant owners examine safer alternatives (such as chlorine-free chemicals and processes) and explain why they are choosing not to convert to these safer alternatives.
-- Taking away the public's right-to-know won't protect us from terrorists. It will only protect the chemical companies from the embarrassing fact that their most obsolete plants threaten the lives of millions of residents and workers.
Find out more:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/toxics/chemicalsafetyaction.htm
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member today!
To give online, go to: https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join2/list.htm
7/2/02
5:25:03 PM
Rep. J.C. Watts Not Seeking Reelection
by Juliet Eilperin Washington Post Staff Writer, July 1, 2002
House Republican Conference Chairman J.C. Watts (Okla.), the only African-American Republican in Congress, announced today he will not run for reelection this year.
The move, which has been rumored for more than a week, deprives the Republican Party of its most visible minority leader and gives Democrats the chance to win another seat in their battle to retake the House. But Watts, who has served four terms in Congress, said he needed to step down to spend more time with his family.
"It has been a wonderful ride," Watts said in a morning conference, during which he choked back emotion several times. "It is time to return home, to go on with other things in my life and assuming one of the most honored titles in America, citizen."
Watts had threatened to retire two years ago, and had privately complained that GOP leaders had failed to address some of his concerns about both the direction of the party and the administration's decision to kill the Crusader artillery system, which was to be assembled in Watts' district.
But in a conference call with reporters the congressman who called the administration's handling of the Crusader flap "indecent" and "unprofessional" said the military dispute did not prompt him to leave.
"It really is family," said the 44-year old Watts, who has five children with his wife Frankie. "Of the top four [GOP] leaders, I'm the only one who still has kids at home."
Both President Bush and Vice President Richard B. Cheney called Watts over the past few days in an effort to get him to reconsider. Bush even left a message on the congressman's home machine. "My wife is having the neighbors over to hear the voice of George W. Bush," Watts said.
Despite the fact that Congress has recessed for the Fourth of July holiday, a slew of lawmakers rushed forth to say they hoped to succeed Watts as conference chairman, the GOP's number-four position in the House. Ohio Rep. Deborah Pryce, who currently serves as vice chairman, sent out an announcement 15 minutes after Watts had finished his press conference in Norman, Okla., while Reps. Jim Ryun (Kan.) and J.D. Hayworth (Ariz.) soon followed. Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.) is also expected to run for the post, which is responsible for conveying the party's message to voters.
Watts sounded taken aback at the crush of candidates to succeed him, joking with reporters after a long pause, "I was checking my pulse to see if I was dead yet."
Democrats were quick to point out they have a shot at winning Oklahoma's Fourth District now that Watts is leaving. Party officials suggested Loyd Benson, who served as speaker in the state House, and Ben Odom, Watts' rival in 1998, might consider running for the seat.
Rep. Brad Carson, the state's lone congressional Democrat, noted that nearly every state and local official in Watts' district are Democratic. "Democrats have a strong pickup chance in this area," Carson said.
But Watts, a former football star at the University of Oklahoma, said he would campaign vigorously on behalf of the district's GOP nominee.
"I don't think it will be a cakewalk but I'm confident we can and will hold this seat," Watts said, adding that voters will resist electing someone who could put House Minority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) in the speaker's chair. "Dick Gephardt does not sell in the Fourth District in Oklahoma."
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A7628-2002Jul1.html
7/2/02
5:20:12 PM
t r u t h o u t
Letter | Daschle, Leahy Ask Bush to "Rethink" Corporate Regulation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03A.dash.leh.bush.htm
Jennifer Van Bergen | The Lindh Turkey Shoot
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03B.jvb.lindh.htm
Dean Schabner | Patriot Revolution? Cities From Cambridge to Berkeley Reject Anti-Terror Measure
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03C.abc.usapa.htm
Paul Krugman | Everyone Is Outraged
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03D.krug.outrage.htm
Nicholas D. Kristof | Anthrax? The F.B.I. Yawns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03E.kristof.anthrax.htm
California Strikes a Blow Against Global Warming
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03F.cal.no.warm.htm
Rep. J.C. Watts Not Seeking Reelection
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03G.watts.retire.htm
Tim Weiner | Mexico Secrets: Envelope Holds Ghosts of 70's
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.03H.mexico.ghosts.htm
7/2/02
5:17:22 PM
The Nation
On most days when Congress is in session, the overwhelming majority of members cannot be bothered to show up for the morning prayer and patriotic pronouncements that open the House and Senate each day. However, after a pair of senior jurists on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals questioned the Constitutionality of laws requiring schools to organize recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance -- with its "one nation under God" line -- it became clear that political points could be scored with shows of national pride and piousness. So Congress' sunshine patriots and preachers came rushing into the Capitol last Thursday morning to listen to the usually neglected prayer and to join in a fumbling recitation of the Pledge.
For more on the hypocrisy of the US Congress, read the latest installment of John Nichols' Online Beat now.
Exclusively available at:
http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=80
And don't miss David Corn's latest Capital Games article, featuring a dissection of George W. Bush's "faux peace plan for the Middle East." As Corn notes, "if Bush has his way, there will be no talks until the Palestinians recreate themselves on his terms. This is not diplomacy, this is dictating. And it likely will do nothing to prevent future tragedies and acts of hatred."
Exclusively available now at:
http://www.thenation.com/capitalgames/index.mhtml?bid=3&pid=77
You can also still check out a number of Nation web reports currently:
EDITORIAL | The Ventura Legacy
by MICAH L. SIFRY - Jesse Ventura demonstrated that the public's desire for more choices outside the two-party system was real.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=sifry20020627
FSP | Nuclear Power's Menu
by MATT BIVENS - The nuclear industry has rolled out the red carpet for Congress with a series of perfectly ligit, lavish junkets.
http://www.thenation.com/failsafe/index.mhtml?bid=2&pid=78
ARTICLE | Ripped and Burned
by DAPHNE G. CARR - America, poised for broadband Internet dominance, is at yet another communications crossroads.
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=carr20020613
7/2/02
5:12:53 PM
Everyone Is Outraged
By Paul Krugman, The New York Times, July 2, 2002
Arthur Levitt, Bill Clinton's choice to head the Securities and Exchange Commission, crusaded for better policing of corporate accounting — though he was often stymied by the power of lobbyists. George W. Bush replaced him with Harvey Pitt, who promised a "kinder and gentler" S.E.C. Even after Enron, the Bush administration steadfastly opposed any significant accounting reforms. For example, it rejected calls from the likes of Warren Buffett to require deduction of the cost of executive stock options from reported profits.
But Mr. Bush and Mr. Pitt say they are outraged about WorldCom.
Representative Michael Oxley, the Republican chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, played a key role in passing a 1995 law (over Mr. Clinton's veto) that, by blocking investor lawsuits, may have opened the door for a wave of corporate crime. More recently, when Merrill Lynch admitted having pushed stocks that its analysts privately considered worthless, Mr. Oxley was furious — not because the company had misled investors, but because it had agreed to pay a fine, possibly setting a precedent. But he also says he is outraged about WorldCom.
Might this sudden outbreak of moral clarity have something to do with polls showing mounting public dismay over crooked corporations?
Still, even a poll-induced epiphany is welcome. But it probably isn't genuine. As the Web site dailyenron.com put it, last week "the foxes assured Americans that they are hot on the trail of those missing chickens."
The president's supposed anger was particularly hard to take seriously. As Chuck Lewis of the nonpartisan Center for Public Integrity delicately put it, Mr. Bush "has more familiarity with troubled energy companies and accounting irregularities than probably any previous chief executive." Mr. Lewis was referring to the saga of Harken Energy, which now truly deserves a public airing.
My last column, describing techniques of corporate fraud, omitted one method also favored by Enron: the fictitious asset sale. Returning to the ice-cream store, what you do is sell your old delivery van to XYZ Corporation for an outlandish price, and claim the capital gain as a profit. But the transaction is a sham: XYZ Corporation is actually you under another name. Before investors figure this out, however, you can sell a lot of stock at artificially high prices.
Now to the story of Harken Energy, as reported in The Wall Street Journal on March 4. In 1989 Mr. Bush was on the board of directors and audit committee of Harken. He acquired that position, along with a lot of company stock, when Harken paid $2 million for Spectrum 7, a tiny, money-losing energy company with large debts of which Mr. Bush was C.E.O. Explaining what it was buying, Harken's founder said, "His name was George Bush."
Unfortunately, Harken was also losing money hand over fist. But in 1989 the company managed to hide most of those losses with the profits it reported from selling a subsidiary, Aloha Petroleum, at a high price. Who bought Aloha? A group of Harken insiders, who got most of the money for the purchase by borrowing from Harken itself. Eventually the Securities and Exchange Commission ruled that this was a phony transaction, and forced the company to restate its 1989 earnings.
But long before that ruling — though only a few weeks before bad news that could not be concealed caused Harken's shares to tumble — Mr. Bush sold off two-thirds of his stake, for $848,000. Just for the record, that's about four times bigger than the sale that has Martha Stewart in hot water. Oddly, though the law requires prompt disclosure of insider sales, he neglected to inform the S.E.C. about this transaction until 34 weeks had passed. An internal S.E.C. memorandum concluded that he had broken the law, but no charges were filed. This, everyone insists, had nothing to do with the fact that his father was president.
Given this history — and an equally interesting history involving Dick Cheney's tenure as C.E.O. of Halliburton — you could say that this administration is uniquely well qualified to chase after corporate evildoers. After all, Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney have firsthand experience of the subject.
And if some cynic should suggest that Mr. Bush's new anger over corporate fraud is less than sincere, I know how his spokesmen will react. They'll be outraged.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/02/opinion/02KRUG.html
7/2/02
4:09:55 PM
Eco-Economy Offers Alternative To Middle East Oil
by Lester R. Brown
"For the first time since the oil age began, the world has the technology to wean itself from petroleum coming from the politically volatile Middle East," says Lester R. Brown in his new book, Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth.
"A combination of wind turbines, solar cells, hydrogen generators, and fuel cell engines offers not only energy independence, but an alternative to climate-disrupting fossil fuels," said Brown, President of the newly established Earth Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental research organization.
In Eco-Economy, Brown says the global economy is out of sync with the earth's ecosystem, as evidenced by collapsing fisheries, shrinking forests, expanding deserts, eroding soils, and falling water tables. This can also be seen in the earth's changing climate as rising temperatures lead to more destructive storms, melting glaciers, and rising sea levels.
In the new economy, which Brown calls an eco-economy, renewable energy will replace climate-disrupting fossil fuels and a recycling economy will replace the throwaway economy. Wind turbines will replace coal mines and recycling industries will replace mining industries.
The needed restructuring of the global economy has already begun, Brown reports. The shift from the fossil fuel era to the solar/hydrogen era can be seen in the contrasting growth rates of these energy sources in recent years. During the last decade, the use of wind power grew by 25 percent a year, solar cells at 20 percent a year, and geothermal energy at 4 percent annually. In stark contrast, oil expanded by only 1 percent a year and coal use declined by 1 percent annually. Natural gas, which is destined to be the transition fuel from the fossil fuel era to the hydrogen era, grew by 2 percent per year.
The restructuring is gaining momentum. For example, from 1995 to 2000, world wind electric generation expanded nearly fourfold, a growth rate previously found only in the computer industry. Denmark gets 15 percent of its electricity from wind. In the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein, it is 19 percent. For Spain's state of Navarra, it is 22 percent.
"Wind power has an enormous potential," said Brown. "According to a U.S. Department of Energy wind resources inventory, three of the most wind-rich states-North Dakota, Kansas, and Texas-have enough harnessable wind energy to satisfy national electricity needs. China can double its current electricity generation from wind alone. Europe's offshore wind potential is sufficient to meet the continent's electricity needs."
Advances in wind turbine design have reduced electricity costs from 38¢ per kilowatt hour in the early 1980s to less than 4¢ at prime wind sites in 2001. Further cuts are in prospect. In response to falling costs, wind farms have come online recently in Minnesota, Iowa, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
A quarter-acre of land leased to the local utility to site a large, advanced design wind turbine can easily yield a farmer or rancher $2,000 in royalties per year while providing the community with $100,000 worth of electricity. Money spent on wind-generated electricity tends to remain in the community, providing income, jobs, and tax revenue.
A project in the planning stages in eastern South Dakota to develop 3,000 megawatts of wind power for transmission across Iowa to the industrial Midwest around Chicago is not only a large wind power project, it is one of the largest energy projects in the world today.
As wind-generating costs continue to fall and concern about climate change escalates, more and more countries are turning to wind energy. In December 2000, France announced plans to develop 5,000 megawatts of wind power by 2010 (1 megawatt supplies 350 homes in an industrial society). Argentina followed with a plan to develop 3,000 megawatts of wind power by 2010 in Patagonia, with its world-class wind resources. In April, the United Kingdom accepted offshore bids to develop 1,500 megawatts of wind power. And in May 2001, China reported that it will develop some 2,500 megawatts of wind power by 2005.
The European Wind Energy Association, which in 1996 had set a target of 40,000 megawatts for Europe by 2010, recently raised its goal to 60,000 megawatts. The United States is projected to increase its wind-generating capacity in 2001 by at least 60 percent.
Cheap electricity from wind farms can be used to electrolyze water and produce hydrogen, which can be used to power gas turbines that supply electricity when the wind ebbs. Hydrogen is also the fuel of choice for the new fuel cell engines that every major automobile manufacturer is now working on. The farmers and ranchers who own most of the U.S. wind rights could one day supply not only most of the country's electricity, but also much of the fuel used in its automobiles.
The use of solar cells is also expanding rapidly. In remote villages where supplying electricity traditionally depended on building a centralized power plant and constructing a grid to distribute the electricity, it is now often cheaper simply to install solar cells. In inaccessible Andean villages, investing in solar cells may be cheaper than buying candles. The same is true for those villages in India where lighting comes from kerosene lamps.
At the end of 2000, nearly one million homes worldwide were getting their electricity from solar cells. With the new solar cell roofing material developed in Japan, the stage is set for dramatic gains in this new energy source as rooftops become the power plants of buildings. For many of the nearly 2 billion people without electricity, solar cells are their best hope.
"The materials economy is also changing," said Brown. "The challenge is to shift from a linear flow-through economy to a comprehensive recycling economy. Progress is being made on this front, but not nearly enough. Some countries are advancing. For example, 58 percent of U.S. steel production now comes from scrap. In Germany 72 percent of all paper comes from paper recycling mills. If the entire world were to achieve this rate, wood needed for pulp production would drop by nearly one third."
In describing the transition to the eco-economy, Brown identifies both sunset and sunrise industries. Among the sunset industries are coal mining, oil pumping, clearcut logging, and the manufacture of internal combustion engines and throwaway products. Among the sunrise industries are wind turbine manufacturing, hydrogen generation, fuel cell manufacturing, solar cell manufacturing, light rail construction, reforestation, and fish farming. Rapidly growing professions include ecological economists, wind meteorologists, recycling engineers, geothermal geologists, and environmental architects.
In an eco-economy most energy is produced locally from wind, solar cells, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal sources, thus offering a new grassroots development potential for developing countries, one that does not require spending scarce foreign exchange on imported oil. With a comprehensive recycling economy, the need for imported raw materials will also diminish, reducing vulnerability to external political and economic instability.
Another key characteristic of an eco-economy is population stability. Over the last few decades, some 31 countries in Europe plus Japan have stabilized their populations. One of the keys to this is improving the status of women. The more education women have, the fewer children they have. World Bank research indicates that investing in the education of girls yields an economic return perhaps four times that of investing in electric utilities.
Economic decisionmakers at all levels-corporate planners, government leaders, investment bankers, and individual consumers-all rely on market signals. But the market often does not tell the truth. For example, when we buy a gallon of gasoline, we pay the costs of producing gasoline, but not the health care costs of those who suffer from the polluted air, the acid rain damage, or the costs of climate disruption from burning the gasoline.
Sometimes we learn of the market's shortcomings the hard way. For example, by 1998, China's Yangtze River basin had lost 85 percent of its original forest cover. Partly as a result, flooding of the Yangtze River basin that year displaced 120 million people and caused $30 billion worth of damage. In response, Chinese officials banned tree cutting in the upper reaches of the basin. Trees standing, they argued, were worth three times as much as trees cut.
The key to restructuring the economy is to restructure the tax system, to get the market to tell the ecological truth. As Øystein Dahle, former Exxon vice president for Norway and the North Sea, observes, "Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth."
Restructuring the global economy will require ecologists and economists to work together to identify the indirect costs associated with a particular product or service. These costs can then be incorporated into market prices in the form of a tax and offset by a reduction in income taxes. "This restructuring of the tax system, which is the key to restructuring the economy, does not change the level of taxes," Brown emphasized, "only their composition."
Building an eco-economy represents the greatest investment opportunity in history. The companies that have a vision of the new economy and incorporate it into their planning will be the winners. Those that cling to the past risk becoming part of it.
The eco-economy is beginning to take shape. Glimpses of it can be seen in the wind farms of Denmark, the solar rooftops of Japan, the paper recycling mills of Germany, the steel recycling mills of the United States, the irrigation systems of Israel, the reforested mountains of South Korea, and the bicycle networks of the Netherlands.
Almost all the components of an eco-economy can be found in at least one country. The challenge now is for each country to put all the pieces of an eco-economy together.
"Building an eco-economy is a goal that cannot be compromised," said Brown. "If we are going to restructure the economy in the time available, all of us will need to be involved. One way or another, the choice will be made by our generation. But it will affect life on earth for all generations to come."
Source: http://www.earth-policy.org/Books/pressrelease.htm
7/2/02
4:07:02 PM
SciTech Daily Review
A virtual reality environment that conjures up the terrifying sounds and sights of a patient's own hallucinations could help treat people with schizophrenia
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992459
Discoveries of extrasolar planets are coming so fast and furious that it has become difficult to keep track of the exact total. So what's the planetary tally?
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/exoplanet_scoreboard_020628.html
Trading on the future: Tea leaves and crystal balls aside, some researchers believe the future isn't as murky as it used to be -- and that may soon be bad news for terrorists
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_tynan062102.asp
On the other hand ... Much of what we think we know about lefties is not right at all, says Chris McManus in Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms, and Cultures
http://www.nationalpost.com/commentary/story.html?id=BB240D38-2D84-409E-AFD6-EB6700E3CE33
The new new economy: It's time to change the way economists think about ecology, argues Lester R Brown
http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/books/books061302.asp
For some years, critics have commented that the trend in 'reality TV' will end with someone being killed for public entertainment. Strangely, when it did happen on British TV, nobody commented
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006D959.htm
7/2/02
4:04:13 PM
Globalization and Sustainable Development: Is Ethics the Missing Link?
Synthesis Report prepared by Green Cross International
http://www.earthdialogues.org/documents/synthesis.html
7/2/02
3:59:42 PM
PRESS RELEASE
Environmental Sustainability: Major New Internet Portal Launched
http://www.EnvironmentalSustainability.info/
Contact: Glen Barry, Ecological Enterprises, Inc.,
mailto:gbarry@forests.org, 1 608 288 0697
The world's first true Internet search engine and portal dedicated exclusively to global environmental sustainability has been unveiled today. Ecological Enterprises is proud to present the "Eco-Portal - the EnvironmentalSustainability.Info Source" at
http://www.EnvironmentalSustainability.info/
The Eco-portal is the Internet's most comprehensive environmental resource ever, linking and providing full text search capabilities for the entire contents of over 3,000 reviewed Internet sites related to environmental sustainability. The site tracks the latest environmental news stories which are updated several times daily.
The Eco-portal is devoted to global ecological sustainability and sustainable development. Ecosystem decline, economic disparities and failure to implement policies to achieve environmental sustainability are the greatest threats ever to human security. The new site takes a holistic, integrative approach - realizing that global ecological sustainability is dependent upon progress in conserving air, land, oceans, water and other ecosystems - while equitably meeting the economic needs of all the Earth's peoples.
Glen Barry, President of Ecological Enterprises, further explains the Eco-portal's rationale. "Noting dramatic declines in the World's forests, fisheries, atmosphere and other ecosystems; it is clear the ecological fabric of being is unraveling. Without a healthy environment, there can be no economy, or even survival. Massive efforts by the World's citizens, governments and corporations are required to establish policies adequate to achieve global environmental sustainability. Such efforts must be based upon equity, justice and sustainable development for all."
The Eco-Portal's unveiling is timed to coincide with the Earth Summit 2 in Johannesburg in late August. The site demonstrates the need to commit to both preserving the environment and to poverty eradication, providing valuable tools and information for doing so.
Ecological Enterprises, Inc. is a consulting company specializing in the application of information technologies to conservation and ecology. The site is presented as a public service in partnership with Forests.org, Inc., a non-profit active in climate and forest conservation advocacy. Their "Forest Conservation Portal" at http://forests.org/ and "Climate-Ark" at http://www.climateark.org/ are the largest, most used and comprehensive forest conservation and climate change portals. The Eco-Portal was partially funded by a grant from the European Commission.
Queries from the media or potential consulting opportunities are welcome.
http://www.EnvironmentalSustainability.info
7/2/02
3:56:22 PM
The Sky Is Falling! Get Used To It! Bush Admits Dangers Of Pollution -- And Refuses Action
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5752
Big Business on the Road to Perdition
http://www.observer.co.uk/magazine/story/0,11913,738196,00.html
7/2/02
3:53:54 PM
Independence Day – Celebrate A New American Dream
by Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D.
As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them. -- John F. Kennedy
On July 4, 1776, the Second Continental Congress of the United States unanimously adopted the Declaration of Independence. While celebrating Independence Day only became commonplace after the War of 1812, it has become synonymous with the ideals of America. What those ideals are, however, is much in question. All the assumptions most Americans make about what values drive the United States must be challenged.
George Washington of Virginia was the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. He died at the age of 67 in 1799. In his will, he emancipated his slaves. (Image courtesy The White House)
July 4th celebrates the Declaration of Independence from the King of Great Britain, and the famous document Americans now cherish contains a list of crimes committed by the King against the new colonists. Great Britain was understandably upset – the vast resources of this newly invaded continent were being denied them.
The new states declared, “That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do.”
It is well known that the Declaration’s statement “that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed, by their CREATOR, with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” was never intended to be applied to all humans. Many signers of the Declaration were slave owners, but since they didn’t believe that slaves were men anyway, then there was no conflict.
Native Americans were not included either. The original inhabitants of the captured continent were to be relentlessly hunted and killed for the next hundred years. Some would say that extermination effort continues today.
Our country’s original leaders were very much like our leaders of today in that they mostly represented the wealthiest citizens.
Some who analyze the motivations of the initial leaders of the United States suggest that their intent was never to be egalitarian. The Constitution and Bill of Rights that followed intentionally forbade government interference in private property, for example, so the wealthiest citizens of the new nation had free rein to use their wealth to acquire large tracts of land.
Assembly Room in Independence Hall, Philadelphia, site of the signing of the Constitution in 1787. (Photo courtesy Independence National Historical Park)
Steven Hill, director of the Center for Voting and Democracy, writes that because the government could not prevent privatization of lands, the richest citizens, including the Founding Fathers themselves, could now "buy, manipulate and otherwise gain control over the democratic process and government itself. This had the net effect of protecting the privileged minority who already owned property, wealth, speech, and the press from the clamoring of the majority who were trying to acquire these same rights and freedoms."
These are troubling thoughts to consider on Independence Day 2002. But they do seem consistent with the undeniable reality that our political and industrial leaders work hard to convince us that more is better, all material progress is positive, and that all consequences of this perceived progress are acceptable, even if people suffer and die and ecosystems are destroyed.
While most of us are aware that there are inaccuracies in the history we learned as children about the creation of the United States, few of us really know about the horrible truths that have shaped the values of our western culture.
The lies we continue to teach our children may be directly responsible for the destructive environmental and social ethics that continue to this day. If we are to have any chance of healing our relationship with the natural world and with each other, we must acknowledge these lies and work to transform them.
For example, before the arrival of Europeans, the inhabitants of North and South America were remarkably healthy. But along with the Europeans came their illnesses and their livestock, and the native inhabitants were then exposed to the many diseases that can be passed back and forth between those animals and humans – anthrax, tuberculosis, cholera, streptococcus, ringworm and various poxes.
The British and French had fished in southern New England for some time before the Pilgrims landed in 1620, and it is likely that they came in contact with the Indians. The native inhabitants had no resistance to the diseases brought by the Europeans, and within three years, a plague wiped out between 90 and 96 percent of the inhabitants of coastal New England! This death rate was unknown in all previous human experience. The Black Plague in the 1300s killed about 30 percent of Europe’s population.
This piece of history is omitted from most textbooks, yet these plagues, which ravaged the Indian population for the next 15 years, set the tone for our relationship with the native peoples and the natural world.
The first settler's cabin in Elmira, New York. "A small pox outbreak in 1802 caused the final exodus of Indians from this area," according to Town of Elmira records. (Photo courtesy Town of Elmira)
The English settlers inferred from the plague that God was on their side in taking over the land. John Winthrop, governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634, wrote that the plague was “miraculous.” He said “God hath thereby cleared out title to this place ...” Is it any wonder that our political leaders of today ask for God’s blessing and protection as they go to war.
Between 1520 and 1918, there were 93 epidemics among Native Americans.
The effect that this plague had on the native populations reached into their psyches as well. They felt that the Supreme Being had abandoned them. Some survivors of the Cherokee lost all confidence in their gods and priests and destroyed the sacred objects of the tribe. Indian healers could do nothing and their religion provided no cause.
But the whites usually survived and their religion seemed to save them. Many Indians turned to alcohol, Christianity or committed suicide. So, it was a psychologically and physically devastated people that for the first 50 years of British occupation presented no real opposition to the invaders.
As of 1492, prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the native population of North and South American was 100 million. Ten to 20 million of them occupied what is now the United States and Canada. The entire population of Europe at the time was 70 million. If colonists had not been able to take over lands that the Indians had already cleared and cultivated, and if the Indian population had not been devastated by disease, there might not have been any colonization at all.
By 1880, the Indian population was 250,000, a drop of 98 percent.
We must examine how we are using this stolen gift of a nation. As life support systems crumble, hundreds of species become extinct every day, and people everywhere are dying from environmentally induced illnesses, can we really say we have learned anything in the last 226 years since independence was declared?
Celebrate this 4th of July, but celebrate values that are your own creation, not those of the wealthy trying to protect profit. Celebrate the value of all life, human and non-human, the sacredness of the earth, air and water, and independence from racism, classism, and human and animal suffering. Create your own declaration of independence, independence from greed, hunger, hatred, and selfishness. Now that would be something to celebrate.
RESOURCES
1. For your celebrations, please try not to add to the air pollution problem that major holidays bring. The lighter fluid fumes from those fun backyard barbecues in Los Angeles alone dump up to four tons of hydrocarbons a day into the air, equal to the emissions from a typical oil refinery. Check out alternatives to chemical barbeque starters at:
http://www.diynet.com/DIY/article/0,2058,5127,00.html
2. Meat particles make up nearly 1/5th of the particulate component of Los Angeles air pollution, making it the largest single source of this life threatening category of toxic substances. This is an amount greater than that generated by car exhausts, forest fires, and aircraft. Read about the particulate problem at the National Resources Defense Council site at:
http://www.nrdc.org/air/pollution/qbreath.asp
3. Consider grilling something other than meat. It turns out that grilling meat releases heterocyclicamines (HCAs) which are potent animal carcinogens and may play a role in causing cancer in humans. Even the fumes of cooked meat contain HCAs, which have been implicated in cardiomyopathy, breast cancers, and colon cancer in animal studies. HCAs are formed during cooking when naturally occurring amino acids in meat react with muscle tissue in the meat. They are among the most potent carcinogens known. There are lots of vegetarian barbequing ideas on the Internet. Read about some of them at:
http://www.interlog.com/~john13/recipes/barbeque.htm
4. The July 1994 issue of the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" reported an increased risk of respiratory tract cancers among cooks! And don't think that eating chicken will get you out of the frying pan. Grilled chicken contains two to seven times more HCAs than beef. A grilled soy-based tempeh burger, by the way, contains no HCAs. For chicken lovers, try grilling “Un-chicken,” found in most natural markets. The details about HCAs and grilling meat can be found at:
http://ehpnet1.niehs.nih.gov/docs/1996/104(6)/forum.html
5. Read “Lies My Teacher Told Me” by James Loewen to learn about more surprises in American history. Visit a website devoted to this book at:
6. For many perspectives about Native Americans and the environment, check out:
http://www.indians.org/library/naehome.html?
7. Learn about ongoing harassment of native and indigenous people around the world at:
http://www.blackmesais.org/index2.html
8. Find out who your Congressional representatives are and email them. Demand that they stay strong and work harder to protect our health, the environment and animal rights. If you know your Zip code, you can find them at:
http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/ziptoit.html
9. To get help redesigning your concept of the “American Dream,” visit:
http://www.islandpress.com/ecocompass/dream.html
Jackie Alan Giuliano, Ph.D. is a writer and teacher in Seattle and the author of ""Healing Our World", A Journey from the Darkness Into the Light," available at:
http://www.xlibris.com/HealingOurWorld.html or your local bookstore.
Please send your thoughts, comments, and visions to him at:
mailto:jackie@healingourworld.com
Source: http://www.healingourworld.com
7/2/02
3:40:32 PM
Peru Forestry Law Triggers Violent Protests
by Mary Powers
LIMA, Peru, July 1, 2002 (ENS) - A new forestry law that changes the way logging concessions for Peru's tropical forests are granted is facing violent opposition by a small group of loggers who environmental groups say represent big logging interests responsible for decades of depredation in the lush Amazon rainforest.
One person was killed, 20 others were injured and up to 50 demonstrators were detained in more than a week of violent protests in the southeastern jungle city of Puerto Maldonado, officials in the city said.
Protesters last week set fire to four offices linked to the Ministry of Agriculture, including the National Institute of Natural Resources (Inrena), the body charged with organizing bidding for the logging concessions under the new law.
The offices of Pro Naturaleza, a nongovernmental environmental organization that has provided technical advice to small loggers and native communities to help them participate in the bidding for concessions, was also torched as were some 20 other private businesses.
Also burned were some 10,000 feet of illegally cut mahogany and other highly valued lumber seized by Inrena officials in recent operations, proceeds from which was to be used for a fund for technical assistance for concession holders.
At the heart of the protests is the forestry law that eliminates concessions of 1,000 hectares or less, as allowed under the previous law in effect since the early 1970s.
Although the law was actually passed by Congress in 2000, it is only now being implemented because of pressure by some logging interests. As a result of the opposition and the complex process of implementing the law, a government sponsored dialogue has been taking place for the last two years.
The protests occurred as the June 30 expiration date for the concessions held under the old law neared. A high level delegation was due to travel to Puerto Maldonado, capital of Madre de Dios department (state), today to try to resolve the demands of loggers opposed to the concessions process.
On the eve of the meeting, members of the special operations division of the National Police entered the offices of the one of the loggers associations and detained some 50 protesters.
Pro Naturaleza identified Rafael Rios Lopez as perpetrator of the attack on its offices in Puerto Maldonado.
"Rios Lopez has close links to a small sector of large logging enterprises whose interests have been seriously affected by the massive participation of small, medium sized and large logging entities in the bidding for forestry concessions that took place recently in Madre de Dios," said a statement by Pro Naturaleza released last week.
"This model represents an alternative to the irrational use of Peruvian forests made up until now and has been well received by the vast majority of small and medium sized loggers of the department," it added. "The reason for the attack on our name and the offices of Pro Naturaleza has to do with our firm support for application of the Forestry Law."
Wilfredo Ojeda, president of the National Forestry Chamber in the Peruvian Parliament, said the law eliminates the small contracts but encourages individual loggers to form companies that could be eligible to receive loans and technical assistance. Those who have not formed a legally registered firm will no longer be able to extract lumber.
In the Madre de Dios bidding, some 50 firms made up of 10 to 15 shareholders each won concessions for about one million hectares of forest, Inrena said.
Under the old law, the concessions of up to 1,000 hectares allowed the big logging companies to break up their holdings and sidestep requirements imposed for holding larger concessions, Ojeda said. The legislation also spurred informality since the smaller concessions were often registered in the names of their employees.
"This is the most modern legislation in terms of tropical forests that exists," said Michi Torres, head of policy making for Pro Naturaleza, said of the new law. "It represents a leap from the Middle Ages to the 21st century."
Besides Madre de Dios, bidding for the logging concessions has taken place in northeastern Ucayali department and is due to take place soon in the vast Amazon department of Loreto.
In addition to eliminating small contracts, the law extends the term of the forestry concessions to 40 years and requires concession holders to plant new trees. It also assigns a series of functions previously held by Inrena to a number of different institutions including Osinfor, a forestry supervisory agency, which will assure that the terms of the concessions are being met.
Companies will be required to take an inventory in the first year of the concessions and will receive certification from Osinfor every five years.
The law also foresees a degree of supervision by the concession holders themselves since it will be in their interest to see illegal logging punished.
Another important aspect of the law is that it creates areas of Permanent Forests of Production for "controlled intensive use." Under the old law, some 43 million hectares were available for extraction.
"We have returned some 20 million hectares of forest for conservation," said Ojeda, one of the architects of the law which took 12 years to win approval. "The question is Who is going to guard these forests?"
He called on international environmentalists to cooperate in this effort.
The biggest threat to the further loss of forestry resources in Peru is the conversion of forests to agricultural land, Ojeda said.
Of the 250,000 to 300,000 hectares of forestry resources lost in Peru every year, only four percent goes to the lumber industry. Another 18 percent is used as wood for fuel, while 78 percent is burned by farmers converting forests to agricultural land.
Ojeda said, "This is all the more reason why the forests being turned over for conservation as a result of this law need to be patrolled."
Source: http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-02.asp
7/2/02
3:36:19 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
PERU FORESTRY LAW TRIGGERS VIOLENT PROTESTS
By Mary Powers
LIMA, Peru, July 1, 2002 (ENS) - A new forestry law that changes the way logging concessions for Peru's tropical forests are granted is facing violent opposition by a small group of loggers who environmental groups say represent big logging interests responsible for decades of depredation in the lush Amazon rainforest.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-02.asp
MEXICO AGREES TO RELEASE RIO GRANDE WATER
WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2002 (ENS) - Texas farmers are breathing a sigh of relief as the scarce waters of the Rio Grande will soon begin flowing to their side of the border. Under an agreement reached Friday between the United States and Mexican governments, Mexico has agreed to assign to the United States, on a contingency basis, 90,000 acre-feet of water from international storage.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-01.asp
NEW YORK CITY SCALES BACK RECYCLING
By Cat Lazaroff
NEW YORK, New York, July 1, 2002 (ENS) - Starting today, New York City - the largest city in the United States - will no longer recycle residential glass or plastic wastes. Mayor Michael Bloomberg has cut the money losing recycling program, saying the city can no longer afford the program in the wake of the deadly and costly September 11 terrorist attacks.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-06.asp
DENMARK SETS OUT AMBITIOUS EU GREEN AGENDA
BRUSSELS, Belgium, July 1, 2002 (ENS) - Denmark took over the European Union's rotating six month presidency today carrying a long and ambitious environment policy agenda for its term directing the bloc's business. Key aims are to secure ministerial agreements on carbon dioxide emission trading and rules for tracking and labeling genetically modified foods.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-03.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JULY 1, 2002
Air Pollution Linked to Reduced Lung Function
Firefighter Set Massive Arizona Blaze
Superfund Cleanups Running Out of Money
Toxic Pesticide Approved for Emergency Application
Whale Hunter Killed by Wounded Whale
Clean Fuels Supported by $4.6 Million in Grants
Dirty Plastics Turned into Fuel Nuggets
http://ens-news.com/ens/jul2002/2002-07-01-09.asp
7/2/02
3:33:27 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US forest service fires worker accused in wildfire - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16667/story.htm
Bush administration cuts clean-up funding - NYT - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16672/story.htm
Military stocking up on anti-radiation pills - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16675/story.htm
Britain unhappy with US over war crimes court - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16666/story.htm
FEATURE - Pollution endangers Baltic Sea fishing - SWEDEN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16669/story.htm
Main parties target Greens in NZ election campaign - NEW ZEALAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16670/story.htm
Mexico - US reach accord to end border water spat - MEXICO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16668/story.htm
Toyota to market fuel cell cars this year - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16671/story.htm
Activists protest British antenna in Cyprus - CYPRUS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16674/story.htm
Australia moves to protect threatened albatross - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16665/story.htm
Alcoa says alumina steady at Australia plants - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16673/story.htm
7/2/02
3:31:17 PM
AlterNet Headlines
LOSING SLEEP OVER FOOTBALL FEVER
Michelle Chihara, AlterNet
A record-breaking 1.5 billion people, about one in four of the planet's population, chose the final match of this year's World Cup over all else -- over sex, over sleep.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13489
UNION BLUES AT WAL-MART
John Dicker, The Nation
Wal-Mart may hold the "world's largest corporation" title, but chances are its underlings aren't cheering the company's attempts to quash union organizing.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13490
THE DEATH OF ROLLING STONE
Sean Elder, Salon
The magazine that invented rock journalism lost its reason to exist years ago. Now, with a British lad-mag editor taking the helm, it's time to pull the plug.
*In MediaCulture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
VOUCHER DECISION DIVIDES BLACKS
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
The conflict among blacks on public education is another example of how mainstream black leaders often march to a different tune than poor and working-class blacks.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13500
THE GREAT OPEN SOURCE GIVEAWAY
Graham Lawton, New Scientist
Massive fortunes are built on great ideas. So why are some giving these ideas away for free? Cola, periodicals, encyclopedia, even legal advice are all going open source.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13494
NIGERIAN BANK SCAMS: MEET THE BOYS FROM LAGOS
Walter Brasch, AlterNet
Those poorly written emails pleading for your bank account number have a long and sordid history and thousands of people have been fleeced.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13437
PLEDGING ALLEGIANCE TO FUNDAMENTALISM
David Corn, AlterNet
Bush made a stunning declaration to select judges "who understand that our rights were derived from God." How does this fundamentalism differ from that of America's enemies?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13481
NO KIDS PLEASE, YOU'RE IN PRISON
Ann Farmer, Women's ENews
Mothers in prison are losing custody of their children because of a 1997 federal adoption law. No letters, no phone calls, no birthday cards allowed.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13496
WHAT A DRAG IT IS GETTIN' OLD
Nick Gillespie, Reason
Mick Jagger receiving an official title from the queen is simply the latest sign that the once potent countercultural force known as "rock" has become every bit as domesticated as sitcom-patriarch Ozzy Osbourne.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13477
BBC PLAYS JUDGE AND EXECUTIONER
James Heartfield, Spiked Online
The BBC reality series, Hunt for Britain's Pedophiles, is so ghoulish even child-protection activists refuse to comment on it.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13499
7/2/02
3:25:51 PM
War Crimes Court Opens In The Hague
by The Associated Press and The New York Times, July 1, 2002
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- Equipped only with a fax machine and a phone, a four-member team opened for business Monday at the temporary office of the world's first permanent war crimes court, as international criticism mounted against U.S. opposition to the tribunal.
The staffers went to work in a single room of the 16-story office complex set aside as the court's headquarters in The Hague until a permanent court is built. Their main task will be keeping track of complaints until permanent representatives are appointed early next year.
On Sunday, the United States took the extreme step of vetoing the renewal of the mandate for peacekeeping operations in Bosnia after failing to win an exemption for its troops from any proceeding at the new International Criminal Court. Washington fears the court could be used to indict U.S. troops on political grounds.
The U.S. move was denounced, even by some of Washington's closest allies, with only Israel fully supporting the American position.
In London, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw called the U.S. veto ``a serious matter'' with which the British government disagreed. But he said talks were continuing to overcome U.S. objections.
``What we are involved in is a very detailed and active conversation with Americans to try and allay their fears,'' Straw said.
German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer told reporters in Berlin that he ``regretted the United States' negative stance'' toward the court, and that he hoped for a ``long-term re-think'' in the U.S. position.
Criticism of the U.S. veto also came from Denmark, Norway and the European Union headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Bosnia said it feared its vital U.N. police mission would be dismantled, threatening its fragile peace.
After a special meeting in Brussels of NATO ambassadors to discuss the dispute Monday, the United States and alliance representatives underlined their commitment to peacekeeping in Bosnia.
``Our commitment to Bosnia remains, based on the Dayton accords,'' said NATO spokesman Mark Laity.
NATO insists that its 18,000-strong force in Bosnia is not directly affected by the U.S. threat since it is not a U.N. operation. Instead, its mandate comes from the 1995 agreement signed in Dayton, Ohio, to end the war in Bosnia. However, the lifting of U.N. backing for the mission could affect some nation's participation.
In Oslo, Norway, former Balkan peace broker and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Richard Holbrooke also expressed regret at the U.S. decision.
``I don't think there is any danger to Americans in the peacekeeping forces in Bosnia, and to jeopardize this force in this way is unnecessary,'' he said in an interview on Norwegian state radio NRK. ``I want to point out that if this continues it will affect not only Bosnia but Kosovo, Africa, East Timor and most importantly Afghanistan.''
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Monday that the Bush administration ``strongly supports Bosnian peacekeeping'' but the treaty threatens to overreach and ensnare American diplomats and military personnel on overseas duty.
Fleischer quoted criticism of the treaty made by former President Clinton that echoes the Bush administration's problems with the court, and said the United States wants protections for its citizens similar to those being sought by other countries.
``This is a very important matter of principle about protecting Americans who uniquely serve around the globe in peacekeeping efforts,'' Fleischer said. ``The world should make no mistake the United States will stand strong and stand on principle to do what's right to protect our citizens.''
With the backing of 74 countries, the Hague-based institute has the authority to prosecute individuals --not states -- suspected of war crimes anywhere in the world.
The International Criminal Court cannot try offenses committed before July 1, 2002.
On the first day of operations, the court received no allegations, and the four administrators spent most of the day answering questions from the media.
Allegations will be filed and evidence handed to the court's caretakers retained for safekeeping until prosecutors take over next year.
The start of the court's jurisdiction signals the beginning of ``the greatest institution of peace ever created,'' said William Pace, head of the Coalition for the International Criminal Court, which includes over 1,000 global organizations.
``All who believe in democracy and justice and the rule of law can celebrate,'' Pace said Sunday in an interview from New York. ``This is truly one of the greatest advances of international law since the founding of the United Nations 57 years ago.''
Staff members will keep track of complaints until permanent representatives are appointed early in 2003, said Bart Jochems, a spokesman for the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
The United States opposed the court because it fears U.S. soldiers and leaders could be indicted on political grounds. The Senate adopted legislation authorizing the president to use ``all means necessary'' to free U.S. citizens held by the court. It also enables the United States to penalize countries for cooperating with the court.
Supporters say there are many safeguards to prevent abuse, including a democratic process to elect a prosecutor and 18 judges. Each member country has one vote.
Another safeguard against political prosecution is the aim of an independent prosecutor's office that will weigh claims of war crimes on their merit, not on political grounds.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/international/AP-UN-International-Court.html
7/2/02
3:20:43 PM
Judge Rules U.S. Death Penalty Violates The Constitution
by Jerry Gray, The New York Times, July 1, 2002
A federal judge in New York declared the death penalty unconstitutional today, saying evidence has shown that there is an "undue risk" that a meaningful number of innocent people have been executed.
The ruling by Judge Jed S. Rakoff is the first to declare the current federal death penalty unconstitutional. And while it applies only in a pending case before Judge Rakoff, the ruling is certain to rekindle the debate over capital punishment.
The decision came in the case of two men -- Alan Quiñones and Diego Rodriguez -- who are facing trial on narcotics and murder charges and whose lawyers had argued in pretrial motions that the death penalty was unconstitutional.
Judge Rakoff, who sits on the Federal District Court in Manhattan, had told lawyers in the case in a preliminary ruling in April that he intended to declare the death penalty act unconstitutional unless prosecutors could persuade him otherwise. Today, he followed through on that earlier thought.
"In brief, the court found that the best available evidence indicates that, on the one hand, innocent people are sentenced to death with materially greater frequency than was previously supposed and that, on the other hand, convincing proof of their innocence often does not emerge until long after their convictions," Judge Rakoff wrote in his 28-page opinion.
"It follows," he continued, "that implementation of the Federal Death Penalty Act not only deprives innocent people of a significant opportunity to prove their innocence, and thereby violates procedural due process, but also creates an undue risk of executing innocent people, and thereby violates substantive due process."
Judge Rakoff's ruling is expected to be appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Judge Rakoff, who issued his preliminary ruling on April 25, said he based his finding in part on academic research about death row inmates who had been wrongfully convicted. He also cited cases in which death row inmates had been exonerated through DNA and other evidence.
Mr. Quiñones and Mr. Rodriguez are scheduled to go on trial in September in connection with a drug-related killing in the Bronx three years ago. They are accused of torturing and killing an informant, Edwin Santiago, on June 27, 1999. Prosecutors had announced that they would seek the death penalty in the case, prompting defense lawyers to challenge the constitutionality of the Federal Death Penalty Act.
Even before his final ruling today, Judge Rakoff's position on the issue had set off a debate between prosecutors and scientists.
In arguing against the judge's preliminary position, prosecutors had said that the studies Judge Rakoff cited had "serious methodolgical flaws."
That brought a response from the scientific community, with 42 criminologists, sociologists and psychologists submitting a "friend of the court" brief in which they attacked the prosecution's argument as inaccurate and unfair.
In his ruling, Judge Rakoff noted that since 1993 at least 12 death row inmates have been exonerated through DNA testing. In each case, the defendant had been found guilty by a unanimous jury that concluded there was proof of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and convictions in each of the 12 cases were affirmed on appeal.
The government argued that DNA testing is now available before a trial in many cases and will actually help reduce the risk of mistaken convictions.
"This completely misses the point," Judge Rakoff responded. "What DNA testing has proved, beyond cavil, is the remarkable degree of fallibility in the basis fact-finding processes on which we rely in criminal cases."
The United States Supreme Court banned capital punishment in 1972, but it was reinstated in 1976. New York is one of 38 states that has the death penalty.
Judge Rakoff, a graduate of Harvard Law School and a former federal prosecutor, was nominated by President Bill Clinton on Oct. 11, 1995, for a seat on the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York and he was confirmed by the Senate two months later. He joined the court in January 1996.
Judge Rakoff has attracted considerable attention from the news media well before today.
Last week he was named to oversee the Securities and Exchange Commission's lawsuit charging WorldCom with accounting fraud. He has also become involved in the case of an innocent Egyptian student who was detained in connection with the attack on the World Trade Center. It was reported last week that Judge Rakoff was considering opening an inquiry into how the F.B.I. got what turned out to be a false confession from the student, who spent a month in jail before authorities released him, saying that he was not guilty of any involvement in the attack.
In September of last year, Judge Rakoff became embroiled in an ethics debate, when he refused to recuse himself from a lawsuit against Texaco Inc. brought by a group of Ecuadorean Indians who accused the oil company of polluting their land in the Amazon rain forest. Lawyers for the Indians said Judge Rakoff had attended an expenses-paid seminar in 1998 in Montana at which a former chairman of Texaco spoke. They argued that this created the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Judge Rakoff confirmed that he had attended the seminar, but he said the lawsuit was never discussed.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/07/01/nyregion/01CND-DEAT.html
7/2/02
3:13:13 PM
t r u t h o u t | 07.02
Report: 120 Afghan Civillians Die in US Air Attack
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02A.120.killed.htm
Judge Rules U.S. Death Penalty Violates the Constitution
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02B.death.pen.htm
Bush Slashing Aid for E.P.A. Cleanup at 33 Toxic Sites
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02C.bush.cut.epa.htm
Jim Jeffords | Let's Push Bush on Warming
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02D.jeffords.warm.htm
Peru Convicts Montesinos in Spy Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02E.peru.spy.htm
NRDC Sues Interior Department to Obtain More Administration Energy Task Force Secrets
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02F.nrdc.suit.htm
War Crimes Court Opens in The Hague
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/07.02G.hague.open.htm
7/2/02
3:03:22 PM
Scores Are Killed By US Bomb At Afghan Wedding
by Andrew Buncombe and Kim Sengupta in Washington
American forces made their most devastating and deadly mistake since launching their operation in Afghanistan when they killed or wounded hundreds of guests celebrating a wedding yesterday.
Reports were contradictory but the US forces apparently launched the two-hour assault involving a B-52 bomber and an AC-130 gunship after mistaking the wedding guests' celebratory gunshots into the air early yesterday morning as hostile fire.
Estimates put the number of casualties at more than 120 though one unconfirmed report said up to 250 had been killed.
The Pentagon later admitted a bomb had missed its target and claimed the bomber and the gunship launched the attack after being the target of anti-aircraft fire. This, however, is just the latest in a series of incidents in Afghanistan in which civilians have been killed by "friendly fire".
With details of the incident far from clear, the Pentagon offered its condolences to the families of those killed or wounded and promised a full inquiry. A spokesman for US forces in Afghanistan, Colonel Roger King, said: "Right now there are a lot of different opinions as to what happened. We understand there were some civilian casualties during the operation. We do not yet know how many casualties."
The air assault was called in at about 2am local time by special forces soldiers who said they had come under sustained attack. Locals said a gunship repeatedly blasted a row of villages.
The air assault was followed, they said, by large numbers of American soldiers and their Afghan allies, who sealed off the destroyed properties and searched surrounding areas.
A Pentagon spokesman said an air reconnaissance patrol over the eastern Uruzgan province reported coming under anti- aircraft fire. Other coalition aircraft fired on the target. "At least one bomb was errant. We don't know where it fell," Lieutenant-Commander Jeff Davis said.
One of those injured in the attack was Haji Mohammed Anwar, a friend of Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai. Mr Karzai said: "We are aware of reports of civilian casualties but don't know if casualties were caused [by] the bomb. We are trying to organize aid and a commission has gone there headed by the Ministry of Frontiers Affairs."
A local official in Uruzgan province said Afghans were firing weapons in the air during the wedding, as is common in rural Afghanistan.
Many of the wounded were taken to a hospital in Kandahar. Most of the dead were reported to be women and children. "We have many children who are injured and who have no family," said Mohammed Nadira, a nurse. "Their families are gone. The villagers brought these children and they have no parents. Everyone says their parents are dead."
One survivor, Abdul Qayyum, said from his bed in the Mir Wais hospital that American soldiers had come to the village demanding to know who fired on the helicopters. "I said, 'I don't know' and one of the soldiers wanted to tie my hands but someone said, 'He is an old man' and out of respect they didn't."
Another villager, Abdul Saboor, said: "There are no Taliban or al-Qa'ida or Arabs here. These people were civilians, women and children."
The bombing was in the same province where US special forces killed 21 Afghans on 23 January while looking for al-Qa'ida fighters. The Pentagon later acknowledged that none of those killed was al-Qa'ida or Taliban.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia_china/story.jsp?story=311135
7/2/02
2:52:54 PM
Bari Case Blows Up On Agency Federal Bureau Of Instigation
by James Ridgeway
Anyone who buys the line that the FBI's bad old days ended with the death of J. Edgar Hoover can think again. Take one look at the scarcely believable tale of how the agency set up the environmental activist Judi Bari when her car exploded in May 1990 in Oakland.
This month, a federal court awarded a total of $4.4 million in damages to Bari's estate (she died of cancer in 1997) and to passenger Darryl Cherney. The pair had charged local police and the FBI with a gross violation of civil rights. The verdict repeatedly singled out the senior agent on the scene for his outrageous behavior.
The story goes like this: On the morning of May 24, 1990, a pipe bomb exploded directly under the driver's seat, shattering Bari's pelvis and lower backbone and leaving her permanently disabled. Cherney suffered minor injuries. The two were on a tour to recruit students for Redwood Summer, a series of protests against corporate logging. Bari awoke 12 hours later to policemen telling her she was under arrest for possessing explosives. They, of course, had not bothered even to question her. Bari had received death threats in the weeks before, but the FBI never followed up.
In the beginning, the cops claimed Bari and Cherney had themselves put the bomb in the back seat, where it accidentally went off. However, files released during the court proceedings revealed that when supervisory special agent David R. Williams—the FBI crime lab's top explosives expert—inspected the car, he pointed out to special agent Frank Doyle evidence clearly showing the device had been stowed under the driver's seat. Yet Doyle continued to tell the press that Bari and Cherney were the only suspects.
Throughout their sworn testimony, the FBI agents repeatedly said that they never heard of Bari or Cherney before the bombing, and that they were not investigating Earth First!, to which the activists belonged.
But an FBI field report, written minutes after the bomb exploded, states that Bari and Cherney were "the subjects of an FBI investigation in the terrorist department." Cherney-Bari lawyers used these facts to argue that the FBI agents lied in their sworn testimony before the court.
The history of the FBI's involvement with Earth First! is lengthy and disgusting. Before Bari's car blew up, the Bureau was in the final phases of Thermcon, an Arizona sting that involved 50 agents and was aimed at casting Dave Foreman, co-founder of the group, as a terrorist who made use of explosives. The FBI managed to infiltrate a small chapter of Earth First!, and having successfully planted an agent inside, tried to push the environmentalists into using thermite to take out a power line. But, as the alternative Albion Monitor relates the story: "The activists declined the infiltrator's offer of explosives, and he settled for providing them with a cutting torch instead. The agent provided the equipment, trained the activists to use it, chose the target, and drove them to the site, then joined an FBI strike team in busting them in the act on May 31, 1989. The case ended in plea bargaining with two activists—not Foreman—going to jail.
Several of the agents involved in Thermcon also worked on the Bari bombing, reports the Albion Monitor. FBI records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act indicate that the FBI had been spying on Earth First! since the group started in 1981. The paper reports that "heavily censored" FBI documents made available through Bari's suit detail weekly meetings in 1990 between an agent and informant in California.
Local law enforcement has been just as invasive. In his deposition, Oakland Police Department intelligence chief Kevin Griswold revealed that the cops maintain files on 300 political organizations and individuals. He said the Oakland cops had been spying on Earth First! ever since 1984.
Source: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0226/ridgeway.php
7/2/02
2:48:05 PM
After 11 Years, Jury Vindicates Earth First Pair
FBI, Oakland officers must pay $4.4 million for civil rights abuses
by Jim Herron Zamora
Five years ago, Judi Bari lay on her deathbed still saying the FBI had framed her as an eco-terrorist. A jury agreed Tuesday and awarded her estate $2.9 million.
In one of the biggest civil rights verdicts of its kind, a federal jury said FBI agents and Oakland police officers must pay $4.4 million in damages to Bari's estate and fellow Earth First organizer Darryl Cherney. The two forest activists were injured in a 1990 car bombing in Oakland and investigated as eco-terrorists. Bari died of cancer in 1997.
The jury unanimously found six federal agents and police officers liable for violating the pair's constitutional rights to free speech and protection from unlawful searches. They argued that the investigation, which has never cleared them as suspects, undermined their credibility and hurt their ability to promote forest preservation.
An attorney for the FBI agents said the government, which had fought for 11 years to keep the case from going to trial, indicated that an appeal is likely.
Attorneys for Cherney and Bari's estate said the verdict should serve as a warning as the FBI seeks broader powers for domestic spying in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks.
"The jury showed the rest of America that even in the face of brutal terrorism we cannot discard the very civil liberties that make the country great," said attorney J. Tony Serra.
U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken ordered the 10-person jury not to talk publicly about the case until after appeals are completed. Outside court, six of the jurors smiled and nodded as they walked past a group of Earth First supporters, who gave them a standing ovation.
Cherney and Bari were injured when a pipe bomb exploded in Bari's Subaru station wagon while they were driving along Park Boulevard in Oakland on May 24, 1990. Bari, who was at the wheel, suffered a crushed pelvis, and Cherney received cuts from the blast.
The two, who were on their way to speak at a rally to promote Redwood Summer, were arrested within hours, and their homes and vehicles were searched.
Authorities then said they believed that Bari and Cherney were carrying the bomb in her car and that it detonated accidentally.
Cherney and Bari later sued investigators, alleging false arrest, illegal search, slanderous statements and conspiracy.
JURY FINDS CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATED
The verdict followed a five-week trial in Oakland federal court and 18 days of deliberations over whether authorities unfairly targeted the activists as suspects in the blast. The two were arrested in the bombing but later freed for lack of evidence.
The jury found six of seven defendants liable for civil rights violations. They are retired FBI agents Frank Doyle, John Reikes, Phil Sena; Oakland police Sgt. Robert Chenault; retired Oakland police Sgt. Michael Sitterud; and former Oakland Lt. Mike Sims, now with the Tracy Police Department. The jury cleared retired agent Stockton Buck.
The trial revealed contradictions between FBI investigators and the agency's crime lab over whether the bomb was visible to the car's passengers before it detonated. The trial also showed that investigators wrongly stated that round-topped nails used in the pipe bomb were the same as flat-headed nails used by Bari in her carpentry job.
The officers said they were heavily influenced by FBI agents who came to the bombing scene and said Bari and Cherney were tied to domestic terrorism. FBI agents, meanwhile, maintain that it was Oakland police who pushed for the swift arrests and misrepresented their findings.
Of the $2.9 million in damages for Bari's estate, $1.3 million is punitive and $1.6 million compensatory.
The jury said Cherney should receive $650,000 in punitive damages and $850, 000 in compensatory damages.
The trial had been scheduled for Oct. 1 but was postponed because attorneys feared the jury would be swayed by favorable feelings toward law enforcement after the terrorist attacks.
"The American public needs to understand that the FBI can't be trusted," Cherney said. "Ten jurors got a good, hard look at the FBI and they didn't like what they saw."
FBI MAY APPEAL VERDICT
Joseph Sher, attorney for four FBI agents named as defendants in the case, said, "It's too early to talk about appeal." Earlier in court, he signaled that the federal government would probably appeal an unfavorable verdict.
Assistant Oakland City Attorney Maria Bee said she was "disappointed" at the verdict and the award of $2 million against three Oakland police investigators.
"I believe that the verdict is inconsistent with the evidence," Bee said. "The Oakland police don't have anything to apologize for. My position remains - - despite the jury's verdict --that what they did was reasonable."
Although the judgments are against the agents and officers as individuals, government agencies generally cover punitive awards, Bee said. By law, public agencies must cover compensatory damages against law enforcement officers who act within the scope of their duties.
The verdict is larger than similar decisions and settlements in which political activists sued the FBI and local police for civil rights violations, according to plaintiff's attorney Robert Bloom.
In 1981, a jury awarded Julius Hobson and several other civil rights activists $711,000 for harassment by the FBI and Washington, D.C., police. That verdict later was reduced to $46,000.
Bloom noted that other big cases with political overtones settled by the FBI often involved loss of life. In 1995, the FBI paid $3.1 million to the family of Vicki Weaver, who was killed three years earlier at Ruby Ridge, Idaho. The family of of Black Panther Fred Hampton, killed during a FBI raid in 1969, received $1.85 million.
To this day, Cherney is angry that he and Bari have never been cleared.
"We lived for years under the cloud of suspicion. . . . We waited a long time for the chance to show our innocence," Cherney said. "I think the government owes us an apology.
In a videotaped deposition taken just before her death, Bari compared her situation with that of an Atlanta security guard who was wrongly accused of a bombing during the 1996 Olympics.
"I felt some bitterness when Richard Jewell was given a public exoneration, " Bari said.
Chronicle staff writer Henry K. Lee contributed to this report.
Source: http://sfgate.com/chronicle/
7/1/02
4:03:21 PM
Homeland Security Department Must Be Open And Accountable
The Bush Administration's proposed new cabinet-level Homeland Security Department would create an enormous agency with massive authority -- including more armed federal agents with arrest powers than any other branch of government. The President's proposal also explicitly removes structural and legal safeguards necessary to keep the agency open and accountable to the public.
Congress must reject the portions of the President's proposals that exclude the new agency from the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and whistleblower protections. It should also require that the agency have a strong and unimpeded Inspector General who can investigate alleged abuses within the agency without the veto of the department secretary. Finally, Congress should reject any proposal that the FBI and CIA be melded into this new department.
Take Action! Congress is rushing with unusual haste to pass the President's sweeping proposal. But some influential Senators and Representatives are already beginning to express concerns about the proposed agency's lack of public accountability. Insist that your Members of Congress keep the new agency open and accountable to the public.
Defend Open and Accountable Government
The Department must fully comply with FOIA and whistleblowers must be protected. As proposed by the President, the agency would be exempt from FOIA disclosure, drastically limiting the agency's responsibility to answer public questions. The proposal also empowers the secretary of the new agency to waive the safeguards contained in the federal Whistleblower Protection Act. Protection for bravery like that displayed by FBI Agent Coleen Rowley would not exist in the new agency.
Internal investigations must be fully empowered. Given the enormous potential power of the proposed agency, its Inspector General must not be hampered like those in other federal law enforcement agencies. As proposed by the President, the cabinet secretary in charge would have veto power over the Inspector General's audits and investigations.
Intelligence gathering functions of the FBI and CIA must not be included in the new agency. Congress should resist any attempt to give the Department of Homeland Security new intelligence gathering powers or to fold the FBI and CIA into the new agency. Instead, Congress should put in place clear limits to prevent the department from permanently retaining files on Americans that relate to First Amendment activities and have no connection to any criminal activity.
Source: http://www.prwatch.org/spin/index.html
7/1/02
3:56:00 PM
Why We Should Be Worried About George W. Bush
by Bruce Wilson, Jume 29, 2002
The world outside the US is now getting used to the fact Americans have a fraudulently elected nitwit as their president, but George W. Bush excelled himself this week with a "long-awaited" definitive speech on Middle East policies that stretched even the weirdest imaginations.
US embassies around the world moved to "explain" the batty future Bush saw for Israel and Palestine, but nothing could disguise that the bedbug was running the White House and anything could happen next.
Hey, look. Even Tom Cruise is worried. In London this week he said he wanted his adopted kids brought up outside the USA because of what happens inside the USA. He listed terrorism and street crime, but very cogently he listed corporate crime as a reason not to bring up kids in the old US of A.
Now, Tom Cruise is not a Grade A rocket scientist. In fact, he is a Grade A Scientologist. On the whole, though, I would say he was brighter than George W. Bush (along with my neighbour's catatonic cat) and it was most intriguing that he named corporate crime as a reason not to want to grow up in America.
The WorldCom affair comes after the Enron affair while the Andersen affair simply defies belief. It has become perfectly clear that major US corporations have been running out of control, throwing billions of dollars into a kind of international financial black hole.
In vain you ask (as I tried to do), well, where has the money gone? I mean, if you back a loser at Randwick, then you know where your money went. If these companies have lost billions – $US3.8 billion in the case of WorldCom – why hasn't somebody won it? Or got it? Where has it gone? Or, more to the point, did it ever exist?
Of course it did, said the Doormouse. Otherwise, it could never have been lost and 17,000 people sacked for the lack of it. This is Alice in Wonderland stuff, capitalism rattling around like a high-velocity round in a mental vacuum. Where was government? Where was control?
Twenty years ago, when I lived in Washington, the US was said to have a trillion-dollar-a-day economy that was so strong not even government could screw it. Now, you have to ask if things have turned, that apparent fraudsters like WorldCom can screw government.
Dubya Bush seems reluctant to address these issues. He is a Texan (although not by breeding) and there they let things take their course, execute mentally deficient minors, and generally behave like good old boys, taking the Chevy to the levee.
If it were not for September 11, Bush would be in serious political trouble in America. He may be yet, in the mid-term November elections. His shocked nation rallied around him as the personification of The Flag when the atrocities stunned us all. His personal rating broke all records.
Since then, though, what? On this side of the Atlantic he is seen as a kind of strange joke. Britons try to understand him, but in Europe they simply think of him as a sort of circus act. The Middle East pronouncement was so absurd they didn't know whether to laugh or simply ask the US senior political attache over for a commiserating drink.
These concerns are based on the belief – that seems to be proven – that Washington itself is a divided city. Colin Powell, in State, is trying to plead reason over the clamouring voices in Defence, led by Donald Rumsfeld, clearly a man not always entirely in control of his senses.
Bush is listening to Rumsfeld, and other strange voices – not least the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon. And, as he does, the US looks more and more to be a long way away from the rest of the world.
mailto:bruce.wilson@newsint.co.uk
Source: http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com
7/1/02
3:19:36 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
IMMIGRATION AND DIASPORA
by various, Bad Subjects
-- Where is the human experience in globalization's focus on exports and imports?
REVIEW OF FOLGERS COFFEE
by Dan Norton, Flak
-- A former coffee aficionado offers sage advice for simple living.
20-YEAR STUDY BACKS ORGANIC FARMING
by Fred Pearce, NewScientist.com
-- Earthworm-packed and fungi-rich organic soils are just once reason the Research Insitute of Organic Agriculture has pronounced organic farming a success.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
7/1/02
3:15:16 PM
SciTech Daily Review
Water roaring out of an overfilled lake may have carved an instant Grand Canyon on the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/mars_floods_020621.html
A farmer whose pigs were said to be the origin of Britain's worst foot-and-mouth outbreak has been banned from keeping farm animals for 15 years
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16658/story.htm
Aqua makes a splash: The first images from a satellite designed to study the world's water gives a stunning view of Earth
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2071000/2071849.stm
Remember way, way back, before e-mail? James Gleick, author of What Just Happened, considers what he got right, and wrong, over the last 10 years
http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2002/06/25/what_just_happened/index.html
Science and secrets: US lawmakers and universities are struggling to reach a balance between academic freedom and national security
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/wo_leo062002.asp
When it comes to alien activities, visiting Earth seems to be pretty high on the "to do" list. But does that make sense?
http://www.space.com/searchforlife/seti_shostak_visit_020627.html
7/1/02
3:12:02 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
US biotech crop rise seen overcoming StarLink fear - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16647/story.htm
White House pushes for ethanol mandate in energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16657/story.htm
Harpooned whale flips boat, kills Alaska hunter - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16656/story.htm
UPDATE - Alaska drilling fight looming with energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16655/story.htm
Modified pollen travels far but not wide - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16653/story.htm
First pet cancer study launches in New York - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16648/story.htm
US farms to plant more biotech crops - USDA study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16646/story.htm
UPDATE - Firefighters making stand to save Arizona town - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16645/story.htm
Dry Colorado once hosted rain forest, study shows - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16642/story.htm
US energy-related emissions down first time in decade - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16637/story.htm
USDA allows CRP haying in Montana, South Dakota - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16640/story.htm
INTERVIEW - Ecuador oil line ready next June despite protests - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16649/story.htm
Plastic-wrapped Hindu offerings clogging UK canal - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16651/story.htm
UK foot-and-mouth farmer banned for 15 years - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16658/story.htm
Green power starts for London's red buses in 2003 - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16643/story.htm
Angola fines Chevron $2 mln for pollution - agency - PORTUGAL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16638/story.htm
Nissho, Mitsubishi Heavy in Indonesian CO2 project - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16660/story.htm
Japan whaling fleet leaves port for hunt - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16652/story.htm
Italy declares emergency to fight forest fires - ITALY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16641/story.htm
Berlin's penguins chill out in new ice enclosure - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16654/story.htm
EU to curb dioxins levels in food/feed from today - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16635/story.htm
WRAPUP - Russia gets G8 cash, Africa gets kind words - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16661/story.htm
Garbage strike starts to trash Toronto's image - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16634/story.htm
Czech-Austria nuclear row looms before EU expansion - AUSTRIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16644/story.htm
Australian island studied as possible LNG base - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16650/story.htm
Disfiguring epidemic hits 270,000 Afghans - AFGHANISTAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16659/story.htm
7/1/02
2:51:47 PM
NYC Rolls Back Recycling Rules
by The Associated Press | The New York Times, June 30, 2002
NEW YORK (AP) -- The nation's largest city is eliminating glass and plastics from its recycling program on Monday in what recycling advocates say is the first significant rollback of such a program in the United States.
``No other big cities have taken a step back like this, and I'm not even familiar with any smaller cities taking out elements of their recycling programs,'' said Laura Haight, senior environmental associate of the New York Public Interest Research Group.
``It's unprecedented,'' she said. ``People across the country are looking very closely at this.''
Starting Monday, sanitation workers will collect only paper and metal for recycling.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the change will save the deficit-troubled city $40 million in the coming fiscal year.
``In the case of plastic and glass, the fact of the matter was that it was phenomenally expensive and most of it ended up being dumped in a landfill anyway,'' the mayor said. ``The paper recycling has worked for a long time, and we believe that the metal recycling will certainly pay for itself.''
Critics say the change threatens the future of a program that took more than a decade to establish.
Vicente Alba, a spokesman for Local 108, a union representing workers in the city's private recycling industry, said the change will cost more than 200 of the city's 1,000 private recycling jobs. One plant already has said it will close, he said.
Bloomberg, facing a multibillion-dollar city budget deficit, originally proposed a suspension of all recycling except for paper.
Instead, his final budget, which seeks to close the deficit through various cost-cutting and revenue-generating moves, eliminated only plastic and glass.
The plastics recycling will be suspended for at least one year and glass recycling for two while the city examines whether the labor-intensive recycling program can be made more cost-effective.
``Our commitment to recycling is just as strong as ever,'' Bloomberg said. ``We're just trying to be practical.''
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Rolling-Back-Recycling.html
7/1/02
2:47:09 PM
Chavez Says Venezuela Wants Peace, Not Civil War
by Reuters | The New York Times, June 30, 2002
CARACAS, Venezuela (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez urged Venezuelans on Saturday to stop arming themselves for a civil war, and he invited his foes to try to vote him out of office in a referendum next year.
Addressing a huge rally of his supporters in Caracas, the left-wing former paratrooper went out of his way to try to defuse fears about possible further political violence in the oil-rich nation after a short-lived coup against him in April.
He pledged that his populist government and its supporters would not use violence against political adversaries and he announced a plan for citizens, starting with his own followers, to hand over the weapons they owned to the authorities.
``There can be no war possible in Venezuela ... we really do want peace,'' Chavez, wearing a red beret and red tracksuit top, told several hundred thousand cheering supporters.
The huge crowd transformed a downtown city avenue into a colorful, rippling sea of waving flags, banners and placards.
It was the largest organized pro-government demonstration since the April 11-14 coup by disgruntled military officers that briefly deposed the maverick, outspoken leader who had declared a self-proclaimed ``revolution'' in his country.
The coup, in which more than 60 people were killed in street protests and looting, shocked Venezuelans and shattered investor confidence in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
In his conciliatory two-hour speech Saturday, Chavez strongly repeated a plea for national reconciliation and dialogue which he had originally made immediately after being restored to power by loyal troops last April 11.
He urged his opponents to stop thinking about ``military adventures'' like another coup or about civil war. ``Don't let yourselves go mad, don't tear your hair out,'' he said.
FEARS OF VIOLENCE
The president noted that some inhabitants of wealthy areas of Caracas, alarmed by fears of fresh violence, were rushing to buy weapons and organizing self-defense groups.
``Don't let yourselves be exploited by the gun sellers and the dogs of war,'' Chavez said.
Addressing what he called the ``ladies and gentlemen of the well-off classes,'' the president told them: ``I guarantee to you, as the leader of this nation, that there will be no violence here. The Venezuelan people do no want violence.''
Saturday's big rally was peaceful but armed troops and police were visible on rooftops and in nearby streets.
Since the April coup, opponents of the president have staged several big street protests against him and filed appeals with the Supreme Court seeking his impeachment.
Chavez's left-leaning reforms, which he says are essential to close the gap between rich and poor, have inflamed class divisions in the South American country, where political passions flow as thickly as the country's tarry oil.
But he told his foes Saturday that under the constitution they could call a referendum against his rule after August 19, 2003, half-way through his current six-year mandate. He added that if he lost the referendum, he would leave office.
Chavez said, however, he was confident he could win any popular referendum. ``More than 60 out of every 100 Venezuelans support Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution. That's the truth and no one doubts it,'' the president told the roaring crowd.
Opinion polls before the April coup had shown his popularity slumping to below 30 percent as many Venezuelans accused him of failing to deliver on promises to end poverty and unemployment made after his landslide 1998 election.
But at least one poll since April showed that his popularity had received a boost from the failed coup against him.
Chavez said that before a vote on his rule next year, other referendums could be held on state governorships and mayorships. He urged his supporters to use these to try to oust former political allies who had turned against him.
Clearly encouraged by the huge turnout at the rally, the Venezuelan leader displayed high spirits, urging the crowd to make more noise and leading them in a ``Mexican wave'' of rippling arm movements as he watched with binoculars.
Wearing a yellow Brazilian soccer team shirt under his tracksuit, he backed the Brazilians in their World Cup final with Germany Sunday. ``They are going to win 3-0,'' he said.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-venezuela.html
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