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.
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