7/1/02
11:42:30 AM
Living Their Faith: And Those Who Trespass
by Stephanie Salter
Given that the guests of honor face federal prison terms for civil disobedience, there was a fair bit of joking last week at a going-away party for Bay Area Roman Catholic priests Louis Vitale and Bill O'Donnell.
"My speech before the judge will be short," said Vitale, a Franciscan friar.
Pointing at his longtime friend, O'Donnell, Vitale feigned fear and repeated the Apostle Peter's denial of Jesus: "I do not know the man!"
About 150 friends and supporters at the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley laughed and shook their heads in amusement and affection. By just about any standard, both Vitale, 70, and O'Donnell, 72, are considered near- saints in their activist communities.
Vitale has garnered respect and devotion as pastor of St. Boniface Church in San Francisco's Tenderloin District and through decades of peaceful protest against everything from nuclear weapons labs to the purported drug eradication program, Plan Colombia. Earlier this year he received a Paul VI Teacher of Peace Award from the international pacifist organization, Pax Christi.
An Oakland diocesan priest, O'Donnell has become something of a legend during 30 years of similar peace-and-justice activism at St. Joseph the Worker Church in Berkeley and through a drug-and-alcohol rehab center, Options Recovery, that he co-founded with Dr. Davida Coady. He logged his first arrest for civil disobedience alongside Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers in the 1960s. The count now stands at 224, many with his pal of 20 years, actor Martin Sheen.
If previous cases are any indication, Vitale's and O'Donnell's social works won't impress U.S. District Judge G. Mallon Faircloth next month in Columbus, Ga.
On July 8, both priests will join 35 other defendants in Faircloth's court to be tried for "crossing the line" during a mass demonstration at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- better known by its former name, the School of the Americas -- at Fort Benning, Ga.
Despite its dramatic sound, crossing the line means peacefully trespassing onto the Army base. Each November, hundreds of protesters -- who contend that the school trains foreign soldiers in such black arts as assassination and making biological and chemical weapons -- trespass and get themselves arrested.
The following summer, dozens go before Faircloth; most receive maximum six- month sentences.
Among the many people Faircloth sentenced last July to six-month stays in federal prison was an 88-year-old Franciscan nun, Dorothy Hennessey. Three years ago, he slapped consecutive six-month sentences on Charlie Liteky, a Vietnam War hero who won the U.S. Medal of Honor for dragging 27 G.I.'s to safety during a firefight in 1967.
Liteky, a former Catholic priest who lives in San Francisco with his human rights activist wife, Judy, was among the well-wishers at last week's bon voyage party. After he listened to O'Donnell read a speech he plans to give in Faircloth's courtroom, he told the throng: "Say goodbye to Bill now because you're not going to see him for a long time if he reads that statement."
Along with calling the court "a pimp for the Pentagon," O'Donnell will ask Faircloth to sentence him to study at the Fort Benning school so he can "tell the world: indeed the new institute has amended its ways and teaches only nonviolence and democracy to its students."
For all the joshing, Vitale and O'Donnell both know that what's ahead is serious business. Besides his usual pastoral duties, Vitale is in the middle of a multimillion-dollar renovation and earthquake retrofitting of St. Boniface. O'Donnell's Options Recovery center, which primarily serves the East Bay poor, is perpetually in need of funding.
But both men also believe priests can be called to live their faith in ways beyond their pastoral duties.
"I really, actually, did not intend to get arrested at Fort Benning," said Vitale. "But there's something just deep down inside of me that says this is the right thing to do. I'm really glad to have the opportunity to make this witness."
Source: http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle/
7/1/02
11:05:11 AM
American Servicemen Used As Guinea Pigs
Tests Revealed DOD Releases Project SHAD Fact Sheets
Project SHAD
Project SHAD, an acronym for Shipboard Hazard and Defense, was part of the joint service chemical and biological warfare test program conducted during the 1960s. Project SHAD encompassed tests designed to identify US warships' vulnerabilities to attacks with chemical or biological warfare agents and to develop procedures to respond to such attacks while maintaining a war-fighting capability. Although classified, the Department of Defense has been actively pursuing declassification of relevant medical information. To date twelve SHAD projects have been evaluated and released for your review. The Department of Defense continues to search and declassify documents associated with this project, and will post additional information as it becomes available.
http://deploymentlink.osd.mil/current_issues/shad/shad_intro.shtml
American Servicemen used as Guinea Pigs JimCast@infowars.net (Last update) June 27, 2002
"Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense" (SHAD), was a program started in the early 1960's, to learn the vulnerabilities of US warships, during chemical or biological warfare attacks. Under "Project SHAD" were 113 different "Operations" or tests.
US Naval crews and Marine personnel were sprayed with various biological and chemical germ warfare agents, and simulants. Some ships, and Marine personnel were sprayed from overflying aircraft, while other tests on ships were being sprayed by aircraft carriers, which were upwind. While some high ranking personnel may have had knowledge of what was happening, most of the ships crews did not.
Project SHAD was controlled by The US Army Deseret Test Center, later to be known as Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. For over 35 years, The Department of Defense said, "there was NO Project SHAD".
Today the DoD admits that it tested the deadly nerve agent Sarin, known as VX, or biological toxins on American Servicemen, but said the information was "classified".
Lately the DoD agreed to declassify all of the 113 "Operations" and inform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of the findings. Presently 12 of the 113 have been declassified, although the information being released is very limited.
The Department of Defense is not releasing ALL the information needed by the Veteran, which would allow him to apply for treatment in a VA facility and to file a claim for service connected disability compensation.
Only about 600 veterans of the estimated tens of thousands of those exposed to warfare agents have been notified they could be suffering from related dangerous health effects, according to VA and Pentagon officials.
A study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs completed in September of 2001, but never released to the public or the affected veterans, suggests that Veterans, who participated in "Project SHAD", may be at increased risk for cerebrovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. That they are three (3) times more likely to die of respiratory and vascular brain diseases than the general population.
Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resources Center, said: "These veterans could be dying at a rate three times greater than the general population from diseases that could be related to their military service."
"We have a moral responsibility to set the record straight and that seems to be a problem for both the leaders in the Department of Defense, and the entrenched bureaucrats of the Department of Veterans Affairs."
Agents and decontaminants used, different ones in different tests are: Bacillus globigii (BG), Coxiella burnetii, Pasteurella tularensis, Zinc Cadmium Sulfide,
Beta-propriolactone, Sarin, VX, Escherichia Coli (EC), Serratia Marcescens (SM), Sodium Hydroxide, Peracetic acid, Potassium hydroxide, Sodium hypochlorite, "tracer amounts" of radioactivity and asbestos, Methylacetoacetate.
Senator Bill Nelson (D) of Florida, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Rep. Mike Thompson (D) of California plan to introduce legislation in their respective chambers next week, urging the Pentagon to reveal more information about the tests, known as "Project SHAD". Eleven other members of Congress have signed the request from Thompson. They have attached a provision on to Senate bill, S-2514, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, to fund the declassification of Project SHAD.
The President has vowed to veto the bill. The tests involved substances that the military believed at the time to be harmless. But evidence now shows that some could be harmful.
The Secretary of veterans affairs, Anthony Principi, urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to declassify more of the tests "as quickly as possible".
Anyone that believes they were part of the SHAD tests, should contact:
Vietnam Veterans of America 8605 Cameron Street, Suite 400 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301-585-4000, Fax 301-585-0519, 1-800-VVA-1316
The SHAD helpline is at 1-800-749-8387 or contact VA by e-mail at shadhelpline@vba.va.gov
All known SHAD operations, dates of operations, the agents sprayed, and the ships and Marine personnel involved, in no particular order, are:
Operation Dates, Agent Sprayed and Ships involved:
'Copper Head' Jan 24-Feb 25, 1965 Bacillus globigii Zinc Cadmium Sulfide (FP-fluorescent particle) * USS Power
'Shady Grove' Jan 22-Apr. 9, 1965 Bacillus globigii, Coxiella burnetii (OU), Staphylococcal enterotoxin (Type B _PG2) Uranine dye (sodium fluorescein) * USS Granville S.Hall
'Autumn Gold' May 3-31-1963 Bacillus globiggi (BG) * USS Navarro (LPA-215) * USS Tioga County (LST-1158) * USS Carpenter * USS Hoel (DDG13) * USS Granville S. Hall (Yag-40) * Marine Air group 13, First Marine Brigade
'Purple Sage' Jan & Feb 1966 Methylacetoacetate * USS Herbert J. Thomas (DD-833)
'Eager Belle I' Jan-Mar 1963 Bacillus globiggi (BG) * USS George Eastman (yag39)
'Eager Belle II' Feb-Mar 1963 Bacillus globiggi (BG) * USS George Eastman (yag39) * USS Granville S. Hall (yag40) * USS Carpenter (DD-825) * USS Navarro (LPA-215) * USS Tioga County(LST-1158)
'Scarlet Sage' Feb 9,1966-Mar 4, 1966 Bacillus globiggi (BG) * USS Herbert J. Thomas (DD-833) (Army tugs manned by naval personnel)
An article at www.tugboatsF.com/1t2080Frame1 LT-2080, LT-2081, LT-2085 source1.htm, lists the following agents as being used: LT-2086, LT-2087, LT-2088
Tularamia, anthrax, parrot fever, Q fever, botulism, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
'Fearless Johnny' Aug-Sep 1965 VX nerve agent Diethylphthlate * USS George Eastman (yag-39), * USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40) * Two light tugs (not identified) * VC-1 Utility squadron One, * Blue Aiis Squadron (Blue Warriors) * Patrol Squadron Six (PATRON SIX) * Flight Wing Two, * Covered lighter (barge) YFN-811 * US Navy Tug, ATF-105
'Flower Drum I' Feb-Apr Sarin nerve agent * USS George Eastman (yag-39),
Aug-Sep 1964 Sulphur dioxide, Methylacetoacetate * USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40)
'Flower Drum II' Nov & Dec 1964 VX nerve gas * US Navy Barge YFN-811
Phosphorous 32 * US Navy Tug, ATF-105 Bis (2 ethyl-hexyl) hydrogen phosphite
DTC Test 69-32 Apr 30-Jun 28, 1969 Serratia * USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40),
Marcensen, Escherichia coli, Five Army light tugs, (manned Bacillus subtilis var. by naval personnel). niger (BG),
DTC Test 68-50 Sep-Oct 1968 Bacillus globiggi (BG) * USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40)
Staphylococcal enterotoxin, Type B (PG2), Uranine dye (sodium fluorescein). used on: * 4533rd Tactical Test Squadron * 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing (F-4E aircraft) * Marine Air Group 13, First Marine Brigade
'Half Note' 'Red Beva' 'Night Train' 'Big Tom'
101 Others to come (Hopefully).
Karl Theis Video Field Reporter RealityExpander Channel 10 TimeWarner Austin,Texas cell 512 297-9875 k_t723@yahoo.com
IF THEY DID THIS THEN...WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW?
DoD News, the official news of the Department of Defense, HA!
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/May2002/b05232002_bt264-02.html
7/1/02
10:35:46 AM
U.S. COMPLICITY IN 9-11 ATTACKS WIDELY ACCEPTED AT G6B SUMMIT IN CANADA
June 27, 2002, 16:00 PDT (FTW) -- An estimated crowd of 1,200 turned out on June 25 at the University of Calgary's MacEwan Hall to hear FTW Publisher Mike Ruppert and University of Ottawa Professor Michel Chossudovsky present evidence of and a rationale for U.S. government complicity in last September's terrorist attacks. (See photos at www.fromthewilderness.com). Their two-and-a- half-hour presentation, including documentary evidence, was greeted with a standing ovation.
In a question and answer session after the lecture, not one audience member questioned that the Bush Administration needed the attacks in order to mobilize public support for a war to control Central Asian oil reserves and the cash from the Afghani opium trade. Traditionally, Afghanistan has been the world's largest producer of opium.
The G6B -- standing for a global population of six billion people whose interests need to be balanced against the corporate interests of the industrialized world -- was a three-day event sponsored by, among others, the government of Canada, Amnesty International and the University of Calgary. It brought delegates and activists together from 60 countries. The counter summit was timed and located in Calgary, Alberta so as to juxtapose it with the G8 meeting in nearby Kananaskis of the world's eight largest industrialized nations starting on June 26.
The first-ever joint presentation involving Ruppert and Chossudovsky, an economics professor, presented the strongest evidence to date that not only did the Bush Administration have complete foreknowledge of the attacks and allow them to happen, but also that the CIA had a direct hand in financing the attacks. Chossudovsky presented documentary evidence from ABC news, citing FBI sources, confirming a report that Gen. Mahmud Ahmad, then-chief f the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI), ordered for $100,000 to be wired to lead hijacker Mohammed Atta just weeks before the attacks. The new corroboration from U.S. media, using FBI sources, gave considerable weight to earlier press stories originating in India linking the ISI to 9/11. [These new revelations will be the subject of an upcoming story in FTW].
"General Ahmad arrived in Washington on Sept. 4 and met with, among others, his good friend [CIA Director] George Tenet, [Deputy Secretary of State] Richard Armitage, [Sen.] Joe Biden, [D-Del.,] and the heads of the two intelligence committees," Chossudovsky said.
"To me the issue of foreknowledge is a red herring. Osama bin Laden is and remains to this day a CIA asset. Even now his Al Qaeda operatives are working with the Kosovo Liberation Army who are U.S. allies and with U.S.-backed forces in Macedonia. Members of Al Q'aeda have been protected as they moved into Kashmir where they are now fomenting conflict between India and Pakistan.
"The evidence is becoming clearer every day that the U.S. government helped to plan and fund the Sept. 11 attacks," said Chossudovsky.
In addition, Chossudovsky has uncovered what may be complicity on the part of the major media in hiding the smoking gun. Using transcripts from the Federal Records Service (FRS), Chossudovsky obtained the transcript of a question posed to National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rica at a May 16 press conference, in which she was asked if she had met with the "ISI chief" while he was in Washington. The CNN transcript of the event indicated that the words "ISI chief" were "inaudible" when, in fact, they were quite audible to the FRS. Rice's response was a troubled, "I have not seen that report, and he was certainly not meeting with me."
Chossudovsky painted a broad picture of globalization pushing events toward a possible nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan by noting that one U.S. company with strong intelligence and military connections, MPRI of Vienna, Va., was acting as adviser to both governments. He also noted the strong links between CIA Director George Tenet and Deputy Secretary of State Armitage to the leaders of both countries. Chossudovsky also pointed out that George W. Bush receives daily "personal" intelligence briefings from the CIA Director -- a custom that has never previously been followed by any sitting president. Previously most CIA briefings have been delivered in written format.
Ruppert, using new evidence of U.S. government foreknowledge disclosed by major media sources and through recent press conferences, established that by using only open source material, the U.S. government had warnings that multiple airliners, most likely from United and American Air Lines would be hijacked during the week of Sept. 9 and crashed into the twin towers. Using revelations of intelligence intercepts and a Pentagon drill responding to an attack from a hijacked airliner staged prior to Sept. 11, Ruppert established that the Bush Administration's position, which held it had no hint that aircraft would be used as weapons, was false. Pointing to last year's G8 summit in Genoa, Italy, Ruppert noted that extensive precautions had been taken there (including anti-aircraft guns) to prevent just such an attack. A Los Angeles Times story disclosed that President Bush was the target of the suspected attacks in Genoa.
"Bush ought to be having some interesting conversations with the leaders of Italy, Germany, France and Russia since it was their intelligence services who forwarded detailed advance warnings to the CIA throughout the summer of 2001," said Ruppert. "And they referred specifically to suicide attacks with airliners."
Ruppert also debunked the notions that the 9-11 attacks were caused by a lack of cooperation between agencies, and that great numbers of people would have had to be involved in the U.S. end of the operation. Citing a BBC TV report by Gregg Palast which showed an FBI report stating that the Bush administration had ordered the FBI to curtail investigations into bin Laden relatives, Ruppert demonstrated that orders were coming from levels above FBI and CIA leadership. Additionally, referring to the recent memorandum from FBI Special Agent Colleen Rowley and a press conference given by FBI Special Agent Robert Wright, Ruppert popped the government's position that somehow the so-called intelligence "failures" of 9-11 were the result of negligence.
"If you look at the text of Rowley's message and listen to what Wright said at his press conference you hear and see words like, 'obstruct,' ' deliberately thwart,' 'intimidate,' 'block,' 'harass,' 'dishonest,' 'rewrite,' 'omit,' 'undermine,' 'suppress,' 'punish,' 'retaliate' and 'prevent.' These are not words describing negligence. These are words describing deliberate and willful actions.
"And if you note from both the Rowley memo, and apparently from the Wright press conference, it was only one supervisory special agent at FBI headquarters who did all of the deliberate work to stop investigations that could have prevented the attacks. And what did Rowley tell us? Right after Sept. 11 the agent who had blocked the investigations was promoted!"
The $64,000 question remains unanswered: Was the agent in Rowley's case also involved in blocking Wright's Chicago-based investigations into money-laundering for terrorist groups, including Al Qaeda? In any event, the Rowley memorandum proves that just a few officials in key positions could have carried out the 9-11 conspiracy successfully.
LEAVING ANYWAY BUT KICKED OUT JUST THE SAME -- A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH AIR FORCE ONE
On entering Canada Ruppert was questioned first by Canadian Customs officials and then by immigration officers. Upon learning that Ruppert was a journalist and publisher of FTW the immigration officer typed Ruppert's name into a computer and asked specifically if he was going near the G8 conference. Ruppert stated that he was only planning on attending the G6B conference and had plans to return to Los Angeles on June 25. Nonetheless, the immigration officer stamped Ruppert's passport with a visa dated to expire on June 26, requiring that he not be in the country when the conference began. This highly unusual practice was offensive to many Canadians who pointed out that there are no visa requirements between the two countries.
After the lecture, as he was hurrying to the airport, Ruppert was questioned by the local press who photographed his passport as evidence of the Canadian government's desire to censor coverage and public access to the conference.
Ruppert's departure coincided with the arrival of President George Bush and two identical 747 aircraft painted with Air Force One markings. He was able to photograph the arrival of the president and a heavy deployment of support and security aircraft. Ruppert's flight home was delayed by more than an hour. He returned safely to Los Angeles while his suitcase was forced to spend the night in San Francisco. The Calgary lecture was Ruppert's eighth stop in a month in his "Truth and Lies of 9-11" lecture series. He plans to spend the next six weeks working on new stories.
6/30/02
6:34:15 PM
Flavors Of Fraud
by Paul Krugman, The New York Times, June 28, 2002
So you're the manager of an ice cream parlor. It's not very profitable, so how can you get rich? Each of the big business scandals uncovered so far suggests a different strategy for executive self-dealing.
First there's the Enron strategy. You sign contracts to provide customers with an ice cream cone a day for the next 30 years. You deliberately underestimate the cost of providing each cone; then you book all the projected profits on those future ice cream sales as part of this year's bottom line. Suddenly you appear to have a highly profitable business, and you can sell shares in your store at inflated prices.
Then there's the Dynegy strategy. Ice cream sales aren't profitable, but you convince investors that they will be profitable in the future. Then you enter into a quiet agreement with another ice cream parlor down the street: each of you will buy hundreds of cones from the other every day. Or rather, pretend to buy; no need to go to the trouble of actually moving all those cones back and forth. The result is that you appear to be a big player in a coming business, and can sell shares at inflated prices.
Or there's the Adelphia strategy. You sign contracts with customers, and get investors to focus on the volume of contracts rather than their profitability. This time you don't engage in imaginary trades, you simply invent lots of imaginary customers. With your subscriber base growing so rapidly, analysts give you high marks, and you can sell shares at inflated prices.
Finally, there's the WorldCom strategy. Here you don't create imaginary sales; you make real costs disappear, by pretending that operating expenses; cream, sugar, chocolate syrup are part of the purchase price of a new refrigerator. So your unprofitable business seems, on paper, to be a highly profitable business that borrows money only to finance its purchases of new equipment. And you can sell shares at inflated prices.
Oh, I almost forgot: How do you enrich yourself personally? The easiest way is to give yourself lots of stock options, so that you benefit from those inflated prices. But you can also use Enron-style special-purpose entities, Adelphia-style personal loans and so on to add to the windfall. It's good to be C.E.O.
There are a couple of ominous things about this menu of mischief. First is that each of the major business scandals to emerge so far involved a different scam. So there's no comfort in saying that few other companies could have employed the same tricks used by Enron or WorldCom; surely other companies found other tricks. Second, the scams shouldn't have been all that hard to spot. For example, WorldCom now says that 40 percent of its investment last year was bogus, that it was really operating expenses. How could the people who should have been alert to the possibility of corporate fraud; auditors, banks and government regulators miss something that big? The answer, of course, is that they either didn't want to see it or were prevented from doing something about it.
I'm not saying that all U.S. corporations are corrupt. But it's clear that executives who want to be corrupt have faced few obstacles. Auditors weren't interested in giving a hard time to companies that gave them lots of consulting income; bank executives weren't interested in giving a hard time to companies that, as we've learned in the Enron case, let them in on some of those lucrative side deals. And elected officials, kept compliant by campaign contributions and other inducements, kept the regulators from doing their job ‹ starving their agencies for funds, creating regulatory "black holes" in which shady practices could flourish.
(Even while loudly denouncing WorldCom, George W. Bush is trying to appoint the man who drafted the infamous "Enron exemption" a law custom-designed to protect the company from scrutiny to a top position with a key regulatory agency. And some congressmen seem more interested in clamping down on New York's attorney general, Eliot Spitzer, than in doing something about the corruption he has been investigating.)
Meanwhile the revelations keep coming. Six months ago, in a widely denounced column, I suggested that in the end the Enron scandal would mark a bigger turning point for America's perception of itself than Sept. 11 did. Does that sound so implausible today?
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/28/opinion/28KRUG.html
6/30/02
6:23:44 PM
Before 911, Terror Was Low Priority For Bush Administration
by The Associated Press | New York Times, June 29, 2002
WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush's national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions, officials say.
The White House acknowledged the dearth of top-level meetings devoted to the subject of terrorism by the ``principals committee'' of the National Security Council. Yet it has aggressively defended the level of attention, given only scattered hints of al-Qaida activity.
One current security council official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that intensive planning of anti-terrorism strategies was largely the role of midlevel committees at the NSC -- not the Cabinet-level players.
``The president was being briefed. The principals were being briefed, perhaps not together,'' this official said.
The description of the 90 to 100 meetings was confirmed by three White House officials.
Critics said the low number of terrorism meetings by the most senior members of the security council indicated the administration's priorities were elsewhere.
``What were the principals doing to bring this to the attention of the president?'' asked P.J. Crowley, council spokesman for the Clinton administration. ``Given our growing understanding of this threat that we built in '90s about the emerging threat of terrorism, they just didn't seem to get it.''
Clinton officials said their council principals met every two to three weeks to discuss terrorist threats after mid-1998. Those meetings increased during times of heightened terrorist concerns, such as immediately prior to the millennium celebrations, when the principals met nearly every day to discuss threat levels.
Bush's principals committee was focused on missile defense, Iraq, China, international economic policy, global warming and the U.S. stance toward Russia, a subject of particular interest to National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, a Russian expert who has now worked for both Bush presidents.
In addition to Rice, the principals usually included CIA Director George Tenet, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Myers was appointed by Bush in August, replacing Gen. Hugh Shelton.
One discussion on terrorism occurred July 3, amid escalating concerns about a likely attack by al-Qaida, one official said. But experts believed al-Qaida would attack American targets overseas, not inside the United States.
The other terrorism meeting occurred Sept. 4 as the security council put finishing touches on a proposed national security policy review for the president.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer has described the council's review as a ``comprehensive, multi-front plan to dismantle the al-Qaida.'' It included instructions for the Pentagon to develop military strikes, plans to work closely with Afghanistan's Northern Alliance against al-Qaida and proposals to freeze bank accounts linked to Osama bin Laden's group.
That review was finished Sept. 10 and was awaiting Bush's approval when the first plane struck the World Trade Center.
Bush himself said in February 2001 that the nation hadn't done enough to prepare for possible terrorist attacks, and he pledged: ``I will put a high priority on detecting and responding to terrorism on our soil.''
A few weeks earlier, Tenet had told Congress, ``The threat from terrorism is real, it is immediate, and it is evolving.'' He described bin Laden and his global network as a serious and immediate threat.
In the last months of the Clinton administration, as early as November 2000, the security council had determined that al-Qaida was responsible for the Oct. 12 bombing of the destroyer USS Cole, which killed 17 sailors. Bush first linked al-Qaida to the Cole bombing publicly in his speech to Congress after the Sept. 11 attacks.
``This was a failure in the Bush administration to recognize the nature of terrorism and its impact on the United States,'' said Vincent Cannistraro, a former CIA chief of counterterrorism operations and analysis. ``Everybody felt that it was a chronic phenomenon, it would continue and the best we could hope was to contain it.''
One official argued that the lack of regular meetings devoted to terrorism among Bush's upper-echelon advisers did not mean inadequate attention was paid to the subject. More work was done by lower-level council staffers, who regularly briefed the principals individually, even if the principals didn't meet frequently on the issue, this official said.
Crowley, who worked under Clinton, argued that senior-level meetings are necessary for important work to be done.
``You really get the pull of the best information that each agency has when you bring together the principals with the purpose of making decisions and teeing up recommendations to the president,'' Crowley said. ``It's the only way that you overcome those bureaucratic barriers.''
Rice has described the work of the council's Counterterrorism Security Group, directed by Special Assistant Richard Clarke, which met several times each week during July and August. By Aug. 6, Bush received a briefing report with the heading, ``Bin Laden Determined to Strike the United States.'' The report discussed the possibility of traditional airline hijackings.
``To say that the principals never talked about it before Sept. 4 is wrong,'' another official said. ``There were lots of conversations on the margins at meetings or informal meetings. But the first formal meeting was to review the draft policy.''
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Attacks-Bush-Council.html
6/30/02
6:18:51 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.30
Jennifer Van Bergen | Arizona Burns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.30A.jvb.ariz.htm
Supreme Court Enters HMO, Drug Pricing Battle
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.30B.sc.hmo.htm
Before 9 - 11, Terror Was Low Priority For Bush Administration
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.30C.pre.911.ba.htm
Paul Krugman | Flavors of Fraud
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.30D.krug.fraud.htm
Testimony in El Salvador Torture Trial
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.30E.salvador.trial.htm
6/30/02
6:13:52 PM
Alice Stewart Interview: A-Bomb Data Wrongly Interpreted
The Survivor
In the 1950s, Alice Stewart found that exposing pregnant mothers to X-rays doubled the risk of cancer in their children. Ever since, the physician and epidemiologist has argued that low doses of radiation might be harmful. It's a view that has put her at odds with governments, the military and the nuclear industry. This week, Stewart, who is 93, publishes new research supporting her claims. Michael Bond spoke to the maverick of radiation epidemiology and found her in fighting form.
What new evidence do you have to support your claims that low-level radiation could be dangerous?
Radiation safety standards are derived from studies of the A-bomb survivors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These studies were food for people supporting hormesis, the theory that a little bit of radiation can be good for you--that it stimulates the immune system. When it was found that a small number of the A-bomb survivors were living longer than they ought to, this was seen as proof that radiation had done them good. But we have new data that should put paid to that. We have proof that the A-bomb data have been wrongly interpreted. (See "Radiation: how safe is safe?")
What does your research show?
It shows that cancer was not the only effect of the A-bomb radiation. People died from immune system damage as well. Our paper also shows that the A-bomb survivors were not a normal, homogenous population. They were the best athletes--the top 10 per cent--and did not include the young and the old. This means that we cannot base standards of radiation safety on such an elite cohort.
Do you think that the authorities will now reassess the idea that radiation at low doses is not harmful?
I think this new paper will do it. But I don't think it will lead to an immediate reaction.
Why do you think your findings always take so long to be taken seriously? Take your work in the 1950s showing that a fetus exposed to X-rays has a higher risk of cancer. Or your findings in the 1970s that workers at the Hanford weapons complex in the US were getting cancer after supposedly safe levels of exposure.
The trouble is that I've always had a very small set-up, with only just enough money to employ people to do the research. I've never had a department that's out selling the message to other people. So it's been a bit slower than usual.
When it came to my work on X-rays, nobody wanted to believe it. X-rays were a favourite toy of the medical profession. But much more than that, it was just the moment when the nuclear industry was taking off. If we were right, the industry couldn't develop properly.
Your work has tended to attract a lot of criticism from scientists, one of whom is the leading epidemiologist Richard Doll. Why do you think he doesn't like your work?
I moved to Birmingham University for that reason. I knew that if I stayed at Oxford I would always be under the thumb of Doll. But that is the extraordinary thing. I can have reason to be angry with him because he was powerful and I was weak. He can have no reason at all to be angry at me, and yet he must resent me for some reason. Something irks him about me, and I'm conceited enough to think he suspects I'm a better epidemiologist than him. Now, he will tell you he has never had any quarrel with me at all.
Doll has criticised your methodology on the Hanford Studies. Why?
He's criticised my methodology from the word go. I don't know why. He's even criticised the mathematics of George Kneale, my statistician. But Doll doesn't know a fraction of the mathematics that George knows. I don't know what he means when he says our method is wrong, but he should be called to account.
The main objections to my X-rays study was that the mothers were lay informants --that they weren't scientists, and they could have made up stories. We always knew there were weaknesses in our story. But we'd done our best to check this through the hospitals where they had their X-rays.
You've been described as "an avowed opponent of the nuclear industry". Are you?
Well, I've never avowed it to anybody. But if by the nuclear industry you mean the war and energy industries, then yes I'm against it. If you mean, do I think we should stop using X-rays, then no, but you must use them knowing they are a dangerous toy. I think the medical profession has quite a lot of uses for it. Take, for example, irradiated food. If this was going to prolong the life of food that you could send to a country to save it from starving, it would be excellent. But what you've got to be careful of is not to allow industry to indiscriminately use this radiation and to find it's going down your back drains.
I'm automatically against it for war, and you have to remember that the nuclear military and energy industries have always been far more intimately connected than most people realise.
The discovery that made your name in 1956 was that a fetus exposed to an X-ray is twice as likely to develop cancer within 10 years as one that is not. Did this finding come as a complete surprise to you?
Yes. We weren't particularly looking for a link between cancer and X-rays. We were comparing the medical records of children who had died from leukaemia with those of healthy children from the same regions. And in the questionnaire, we had asked mothers if they'd been X-rayed. It looked to me as if there had been something before birth that produced a little epidemic at a certain age group that never repeated itself. But the risk was so small that if we'd tackled it any other way we'd never have discovered it.
We were lucky, but it wouldn't have been thought of by someone who hadn't had some experience of medicine, and it might have been wrongly interpreted. So if you hadn't found the link it might have been another 20 years before someone else did?
No, not 20 years. To this day we would be thinking X-rays were safe. This is because, as I've indicated, the A-bomb survivor studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which was the only other study on this, was saying it was safe, and this would have been considered satisfactory to the point where everybody would have been quite happy about X-rays.
How much do you think being a woman helped or hindered your career? When you first walked into the lecture hall as a medical student at Cambridge in 1925 you were met with 200 male students stamping their feet at you.
I'm sure my sex made a tremendous difference. But thanks to my family--my mother was a doctor--and thanks to the war, rather than being a crippling difficulty it actually proved to be rather a helpful one. I found I was constantly thinking of things in an unusual way. I didn't expect to be allowed to get to the top rung, which is something a man would expect, and so perhaps that made it easier to stay with a subject that wasn't very popular.
Has that bothered you?
Not at the time, but in retrospect I think it's the one thing I rather regret . . . that I should have pressed for something more. But I was stuck, I could only do one or other of two things: I could either be fighting the battle for women or I could be getting on with my job. I couldn't win both. And I chose to go on with my job. But I think a braver person might have done something about it.
Were you ever bitter about being sidelined?
No, I think I personally had everything to gain by it. It's always worked in my favour. An element of uncertainty is always a good thing. It's been a constant help. You need some resistance and criticism to bring out the good work. One of the reasons it's been so interesting for me is that no one has ever lost interest in what I've said about radiation. They may despise me, they may hate me, but the problem is there and will stay there if nobody's solved it.
Most people think about cutting back on work when they reach seventy. Did you miss out on anything by carrying on in your nineties?
I stayed working because I was enjoying it, and it was all voluntary. It became obvious early on that we had hit on something that was going to take more than a lifetime to resolve. It wasn't just the radiation thing that interested me. I was really interested in where the other cancers were coming from. You need to follow it for a long time.
Who will carry on your fight in the radiation debate?
I've got a voice in the next generation in Steve Wing and his department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Mind you, they're going to make life difficult for them, with grants and everything. People in the nuclear industry will do their very best to stop it. But I'm a great believer that in the end, they'll get caught up in their own machinations and the truth will emerge from an unexpected quarter.
Further reading:
"A bomb survivors: factors that may lead to a re-assessment of the radiation hazard", International Journal of Epidemiology, volume 29, no 4 (4 August 2000) The Woman Who Knew Too Much by Gayle Greene, University of Michigan Press, £19.99, ISBN 0472111078
Radiation: how safe is safe?
The A-bomb database--a record of the health and mortality of the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bombs--is considered the gold standard when assessing the health risks of radiation. Alice Stewart, however, has spent much of her career arguing that it cannot be trusted. Her latest research, published this week in the International Journal of Epidemiology (vol 29, no 4), strengthens that argument.
The database is used to compare the mortality rates of A-bomb survivors with other Japanese citizens born at the same time. The results have always been the same: people exposed to low doses do not have a higher than average risk of cancer. Stewart says these conclusions are unreliable because the bomb survivors are not truly representative of Japanese society.
In her latest paper, she focuses on the 2600 people who suffered severeradiation injuries even though most received only a small radiation dose. In particular, she wanted to compare their incidence of cancers and other diseases with that of around 60 000 low-dose survivors who did not suffer from serious injuries.
Stewart found the minority group had a much higher incidence of cancer and heart disease. She says these findings were reported to the European Parliament two years ago (see New Scientist, 28 February 1998, p 12) but that the assembly, curiously, decided not to make them public.
Stewart's detractors have pointed to a series of studies showing that certain survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs lived slightly longer than people who had not been exposed.
But research published in The Lancet (vol 356, p 303) at the end of last month casts doubt on these results. Researchers from the Radiation Effects Research Foundation in Hiroshima examined the effects of radiation on the 120 000 A-bomb survivors and found that people who received low doses did not live longer than average.
Source: http://www.NewScientist.com
6/30/02
6:07:01 PM
FAIR-Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY: Attacks on Pledge Ruling Bolster Its Logic
June 28, 2002
In the immediate aftermath of an appeals court ruling that the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional, nearly all the commentary in the country's leading newspapers criticized the decision. But some of the more alarmist arguments used to defend the phrase "under God" actually tended to support the judges' finding that including it in the Pledge is an impermissible government establishment of religion.
Of the 10 largest-circulation dailies in the country, six had run editorials on the ruling as of June 28; all six attacked the decision. Editorialists called it "a fundamentally silly ruling" (L.A. Times (6/27/02) or an "addled opinion" (Wall Street Journal, 6/27/02). The New York Times (6/27/02) said it "lacks common sense," while the Washington Post (6/27/02) compared it to a "parody." The appeals court "went way overboard," in the opinion of Long Island Newsday; for the New York Daily News (6/27/02), "the sooner this decision is overturned, the better."
Signed columns in the top papers had little more balance. Jeffrey Rosen in the New York Times (6/28/02) criticized the ruling's "polarizing vision." In the Washington Post (6/27/02), Marc Fisher criticized "a court steeped in the arrogance of political correctness."
A column by the Chicago Tribune's John Kass (6/27/02) ran under the headline, "Ruling on Pledge Is a Slap in Face to All Americans." Marc Howard Wilson (Chicago Tribune, 6/28/02) called it "typical San Francisco lunacy" and "misguided grandstanding."
In a twist, the L.A. Times (6/28/02) ran a feature by staff writer Martin Miller, who described himself as an atheist but attacked the non-believer whose lawsuit prompted the decision as "sullen, cantankerous and litigious...intolerant, pushy and self-righteous."
Compared to these harsh attacks on the ruling, supporters were muted. The Washington Post's E.J. Dionne (6/28/02) mustered half a cheer for the decision in an op-ed headlined "Wrong for the Right Reasons." The Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn (6/27/02) noted that he had criticized mandatory recitations of the Pledge in the past, and invited readers to view those columns on his website.
Susan Jacoby in Newsday (6/28/02) narrowly endorsed the opinion as "entirely correct in constitutional terms," although she wished that the Pledge were "a more substantive issue." Libertarian conservative James Pinkerton (L.A. Times, 6/28/02) produced the most robust defense of the appeals court justices, praising their "historical wisdom" (although calling their ruling "poorly thought out").
Though support for the court ruling was limited in the leading U.S. papers, the criticisms of the decision in some ways backed up the court's reasoning. Several critics adopted the position of the appeals court's dissenter, saying that "under God" is not an establishment of religion because it is a "rote civic exercise" (New York Times, 6/27/02), a "harmless civic recitation" (Newsday, 6/28/02) with "such a minimal religious effect" (New York Times, 6/28/02). "God's name is just a frill, a space-filler in the unthinking torrent of much daily conversation," claimed Fisher in the Washington Post (6/27/02).
But at the same time, many opponents of the decision warned that it could provoke a powerful, emotional response from believers. The New York Times (6/27/02) warned that it was "inviting a political backlash," whose effects Rosen spelled out in the paper the next day: "That ruling will almost certainly galvanize Republicans to push for the appointment of conservative judges who will seek to place religion in the center of public life." The Washington Post (6/27/02) noted that the ruling " can only serve to generate unnecessary political battles and create a fundraising bonanza for the many groups who will rush to its defense."
Those are fairly serious consequences for the cessation of a "rote civic exercise." Indeed, the vitriolic attacks against the decision, and the warnings of what Christians and other monotheists might do if the Pledge were not maintained as is, bolstered the appeals court's finding that including "under God" was "not a mere acknowledgment that many Americans believe in a deity" or "merely descriptive of the undeniable historical significance of religion in the founding of the republic," but rather "an impermissible government endorsement of religion" that "sends a message to unbelievers 'that they are outsiders, not full members of the political community, and an accompanying message to adherents that they are insiders, favored members of the political community.'"
Granted, some of the defenders stood up for the Pledge because of, rather than despite, its religious content. "The sentiment that this is a land blessed has been accepted since Pilgrim days," asserted the Daily News (6/27/02). The Tribune's Kass (6/27/02) wondered whether his children will be "jailed for having any dangerous and heretical beliefs, like a belief in God."
The most disingenuous assertions in support of the Pledge status quo related to the purpose of adding "under God"-- an important constitutional question, since church/state separation questions typically hinge on the secular intent of governmental action.
"The pledge, taken as a whole, was not intended to be a coercive prayer, but was designed to promote patriotism, and as such is consistent with the neutrality principle," wrote Rosen (New York Times, 6/28/02). Editorialized the Daily News (6/17/02): "The two words, viewed in the context of the entire pledge, have nothing whatsoever to do with avowing fealty to God."
Yet if one can believe President Dwight Eisenhower, who signed the bill that added "under God" to the Pledge, that is precisely what altering the oath was meant to accomplish. "In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future," Eisenhower announced at the time (Columbus Dispatch, 6/28/02). "From this day forward, the millions of our schoolchildren will daily proclaim in every city and town, every village and every rural schoolhouse, the dedication of our nation and our people to the Almighty."
Source: http://www.FAIR.org
6/28/02
5:33:38 PM
Greenpeace's Positive Energy
Time for Greenpeace's CLEAN ENERGY NOW! campaign's weekly good news update!!! If you want some of our positive vibe next week, you will have to come find us in Sierra. We are taking next week off and having fun in the sun!
Inside this edition:
-U.S. Mayors Back Renewable Energy
-Positive Energy Goes Global
-Cookin' With Solar
U.S. Mayors Back Renewable Energy
Mayors across the country are in consensus! At the U.S. Conference of Mayors in Madison, Wisconsin this past week, Republican and Democratic mayors agreed that global warming is a serious problem and progressive clean energy initiatives must be adopted by our cities. At the Conference, representatives passed resolutions urging the federal government to further invest in scientific research of global warming and to support state and federal legislation that will promote a marketplace for renewable energy. Five progressive clean energy resolutions were adopted at the conference setting the stage for cities across the country to invest in clean energy as the solution to global warming.
To review the resolutions, go to the following website and look under "Energy":
http://www.usmayors.org/USCM/resolutions/70th_conference/
Positive Energy Goes Global
Greenpeace is setting sail around the world with its "Choose Positive Energy Tour" this summer. The Rainbow Warrior, the flagship for Greenpeace, starts its journey in the North Sea where the potential for offshore wind energy is so great that it is certain to become a renewable energy powerhouse. In the weeks leading up to the Earth Summit in Johannesburg, the Rainbow Warrior will be sailing to demonstrate that renewable energy is ready to replace oil, coal, gas, and nuclear power. On the second leg of the tour, the Arctic Sunrise will be visiting Southeast Asia where communities in the Philippines and Thailand are rejecting the use of dirty fuels, such as coal power plants and pushing for a "Solar Generation."
To read more about the Rainbow Warrior's "Choose Positive Energy Tour,"
http://www.choose-positive-energy.org/
Cookin' With Solar
The Rolling Sunlight, the Greenpeace truck that has a large solar array and runs on biodiesel fuel, is in Canada this week cooking with sunlight. French fries deep-fried with solar energy were provided for people on their lunch breaks in Calgary during the G8 Summit. Greenpeace Canada's message to the world economic and political leaders was "Don't Fry Our Planet." The G8 has ignored it's own report on renewable energy that would bring clean, sustainable energy to the billion people who now lack reliable access to electricity.
To learn more about Rolling Sunlight and the G8, go to:
http://www.greenpeace.ca/g8/en/audio/truck.php
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our web site,
will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
Want to do more? Become a Greenpeace member today! To give online, go to:
https://www.greenpeaceusa.org/join2/cen.htm
6/28/02
5:22:30 PM
t r u t h o u t
Leahy: Bush Plan 'Above the Law'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29A.leahy.abv.law.htm
FBI Investigates Anthrax Researchers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29B.anthrax.htm
GOP Pushes $450 Billion Debt Limit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29C.gop.450.dbt.htm
Gephardt Statement on Corporate Expatriation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29D.gep.corp.ex.htm
Pelosi Statement on Republican Rule on Prescription Drugs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29F.pelosi.drugs.htm
Bush's Terrorism Adviser to Leave White House
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29G.bush.adv.go.htm
Nicholas D. Kristof | Mr. Bush Talks the Talk
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.29H.kristof.talk.htm
6/28/02
2:16:49 PM
TIMES OBITUARIES, Dr. Alice Stewart, June 27, 2002
Epidemiologist who proved links between exposure to radiation and cancer, and forced the authorities into greater openness
For more than 40 years the epidemiologist Alice Stewart challenged official estimates of the risks of radiation. Her research in 1956 and 1958 alerted the medical profession to the link between foetal X-rays and childhood cancer. Two decades later, in her seventies, she again called for a change in working practices when she published a study showing that workers at nuclear weapons plants are at greater health risk than international safety standards admit.
She was born Alice Mary Naish in Sheffield in 1906. Her parents were both physicians and widely known for their dedication to children's welfare. Alice took a medical degree at Cambridge, where she formed an intense relationship with the literary critic William Empson. Their friendship ended only with his death in 1984. But in 1933 she married Ludovick Stewart. They had a son and a daughter, but divorced in the early 1950s.
During the war she studied the health risks of industrial chemicals in factories and among miners, and in 1946 she was one of the founders of the British Journal of Industrial Medicine. This first stage of her career culminated with her election as a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, the youngest woman to achieve this distinction. She already had a reputation as a brilliant teacher and clinician.
Shortly after the war, she accepted a position under Professor John Ryle, at the new department of social medicine at Oxford, and became a Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. Ryle hoped to direct the attention of the medical profession towards public health, and his ideals greatly appealed to Stewart, but with his death in 1949 social medicine at Oxford was demoted, and although she was kept on as a reader, she was left with "barely enough to light a gas fire".
Then, with a grant of £1,000, she launched her landmark study of the causes of childhood cancer. Beginning from a hunch that mothers might remember something that the doctors had forgotten, she devised a questionnaire for women whose children had died of any form of cancer between 1953 and 1955. By the time a mere 35 questionnaires had been returned, the answer was clear: a single diagnostic X-ray, well within the exposure considered safe, was enough almost to double the risk of early cancer.
This news was a surprise to Stewart and was not welcome in the scientific community. Enthusiasm for nuclear technology was at a high point in the 1950s, and radiography was being used for everything from treating acne and menstrual disorders to ascertaining shoe fit. X-rays, as Stewart put it, "were the favourite toy of the medical profession". The British and American Governments were investing heavily in the arms race and promoting nuclear energy, and there was little willingness to recognise that radiation was as dangerous as Stewart claimed. She never again received a major grant in England.
For the next two decades, however, she and her statistician, George Kneale, extended, elaborated and refined their database at what became the Oxford Survey of Childhood Cancer, until in the 1970s major medical bodies recommended that pregnant women should not be X-rayed, and the practice ceased.
The Oxford Survey had collected information on hundreds of thousands of children across Britain over a 30-year period. Stewart and Kneale had demonstrated that children incubating cancer have greatly increased susceptibility to infections, and turned up a connection between inoculations and resistance to cancer which suggests links between cancer and the immune system. They also had theories about ultrasound and sudden infant death syndrome that they would have liked to test - but such funding as they had was cut off.
In 1974, having officially retired and moved from Oxford to Birmingham, where she had accepted a research appointment, the 68-year-old Stewart received an unexpected phone call from America. Dr Thomas Mancuso, who had been at work on a government study of the health of nuclear workers at Hanford, the weapons complex that produced plutonium for the Manhattan Project, wanted her to "take a closer look" at his data.
Mancuso's study had been going on for more than a decade, and was not expected to turn up anything troubling, since workers' exposure at Hanford, the oldest and largest nuclear weapons facility in the world, was well within the safety limits set by international guidelines. But Stewart and Kneale found that the cancer risk to the workers was about 20 times higher than was being claimed, a discovery that put them at odds with the multimillion-dollar Hiroshima and Nagasaki studies on which international safety guidelines are based.
The American Department of Energy dismissed Mancuso and attempted to seize the data. But Stewart and Kneale took their work back to England and, together with Mancuso, published a series of studies which continued to corroborate a cancer effect considerably higher than the Hiroshima studies indicated. The Energy Department denied the scientists further access to the workers' records and kept research under strict government control. Although the statistical methods of the study were criticised by the Oxford epidemiologist Richard Doll (who had been one of the first to prove the link between smoking and cancer), the Mancuso findings attracted public attention and provoked congressional investigations in 1978 and 1979.
The accidents at Three Mile Island in 1979 and Chernobyl in 1986, while the British and American Governments were trying to expand nuclear facilities and weapons production, brought the anti-nuclear movement back to life, and Stewart became one of its heroes. She found herself much in demand, called on as an expert witness to testify against the siting of nuclear facilities and dumps and to testify in compensation cases by veterans and victims who had lived downwind of various plants.
In 1986, when she was 80, she received the Right Livelihood Award, the "alternative Nobel" as it is called, which is awarded in the Swedish Parliament the day before the Nobel Prize to honour those who have made contributions to the betterment of society. The British Embassy, however, refused even to send a car to the airport to pick her up. In 1992 she was awarded the Ramazzini Prize for epidemiology.
Even in the years when Stewart was making dozens of public appearances on behalf of activists in Britain and America, she always insisted that she was a scientist, not an activist, and that she did not have a political programme. She published more than 400 papers in scientific journals. However, although she could deliver her findings in person with exceptional clarity, her publications were often very hard to decipher.
Also in 1986, Stewart received a $1.4 million grant to study the effects of low-dose radiation. This came not from a government agency or academic institute, but from activists, and derived from a fine imposed upon the Three Mile Island facility. To undertake the study, Stewart needed access to the nuclear workers' records, but the American Government refused to release them. It took several years and several freedom of information suits to get at them. When in 1992 Stewart was finally granted access to the records of one third of all workers in nuclear weapons facilities in the US, the front page of The New York Times called it a blow for scientific freedom.
Stewart continued to publish and present papers into her nineties. She was a charismatic speaker and a person of great warmth and generosity. She did not have an easy time as a lone woman in male-dominated fields, and she suffered keenly from the loss of funding and her isolation as a result of taking unpopular stances, but she maintained that obscurity had its advantages, since it allowed her to take risks that other scientists could not.
"Truth is the daughter of time," she was fond of saying; and "It helps in this field to be long-lived" - since in such a political area truth is slow in coming out. She lived long enough to see radiation science move in her direction, with each official estimate of radiation risk acknowledging greater danger than previous estimates admitted.
She also lived to see her efforts help to break the American Department of Energy's hold on radiation health research. She had the satisfaction of seeing one Secretary of Energy in 1993 open the record of the Government's management of nuclear operations during the Cold War, including the records of human experimentation, and then seeing another in 2000 recommending compensation for nuclear workers suffering from cancers that may have been incurred at work.
A biography of her, The Woman Who Knew Too Much by Gayle Green, was published in England and America in 1999.
Alice Stewart is survived by her daughter.
Alice Stewart, epidemiologist, was born on October 4, 1906. She died on June 23, 2002, aged 95.
6/28/02
2:12:39 PM
EMS Update - June 28, 2002
U.S. Rejection of Climate Treaty Could Hurt Businesses
Renewed global momentum in favor of the Kyoto Protocol means there is a strong possibility the international treaty regulating greenhouse gas emissions will enter into force this year. At an EMS press briefing on Tuesday, July 2, leaders in developing market-based approaches to climate change will discuss the implications for U.S. businesses of ratification of the treaty without U.S. participation.
Media advisory: http://www.ems.org/climate/business_advisory.html
Clean Power Bill Clears Senate Committee
Legislation headed for the Senate floor would significantly cut air pollution and address the problem of global warming, in contrast to a plan offered by the Bush administration that green groups say would worsen air pollution.
Natural Resources Defense Council press release:
http://www.nrdc.org/media/pressreleases/020627.asp
Republicans for Environmental Protection press release:
http://www.enn.com/direct/display-release.asp?id=7219
6/28/02
2:09:04 PM
Naval bombing questioned after endangered whale found dead
June 28, 2002
BOSTON (AP) _ The Humane Society has asked the U.S. Navy to halt bombings in the Gulf of Maine after an endangered North Atlantic right whale was found headless about 60 miles northeast of Cape Cod.
However a preliminary investigation found no evidence that the whale died during a Naval firing, Lt. Cmdr. Joe Carpenter said.
``It is absolutely inconclusive that the Navy was the cause of death of this right whale,'' he said.
The Sharrer Ridge range is ``fairly active,'' and exercises were conducted in May, but Carpenter did not know if any firing had been conducted this month. Sharrer Ridge is approximately 60 miles northeast of Cape Cod.
The whale was found by the National Marine Fisheries Service on June 10. It was so badly decomposed that it is unlikely if a cause of death will ever be determined, said Teri Frady, Fisheries Service spokeswoman. The whale's head was missing, but could have rotted away, she said.
A whale has never been killed in New England by military exercises, Frady said.
``But everyone can figure out that you don't see every single'' whale that dies, Frady said. ``If they're conducting exercises that potentially pose the threat, we're interested.''
Patrol airplanes look for ships, boats and marine animals before launching torpedoes or dropping bombs, which can be live or inert, Carpenter said.
Carpenter and Frady said they were not familiar enough with an Aug. 1 report commissioned by the Fisheries Service that recommended alternative bombing ranges.
``We can't emphasize enough we take it seriously,'' Carpenter said. ``We don't operate with reckless abandon.''
Carpenter said the whale might not have died near Sharrer Ridge, but could have been carried there by a current. The Navy and the Fisheries Service are investigating
The Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility agreed with the Humane Society's request.
``They should just not drop anything out of any airplanes when whales have the potential to be in that area, period,'' said New England director Kyla Bennett.
The Fisheries Service did create a temporary no-fishing zone east of Nantucket Island after 75 endangered North Atlantic right whales were sighted in the area will begin Monday.
The no-fishing zone will last for 15 days, but could be extended, National Marine Fisheries Service spokesman George Liles said.
``We know where they are, we know they get entangled, we know there's significant amount of line that will go in the water unless we do something,'' Liles said.
Liles said he never had seen so many of the whales in one place. The 75 whales represent a quarter of the whales' total population.
Rules allowing Dynamic Area Management zones, restricting fishing when three or more whales are spotted within 75-square nautical miles, were created last fall.
The zones were proposed after last summer's highly publicized plight of a right whale, dubbed Churchill, who got caught in marine rope. He was presumed to have died after six failed rescue attempts.
Source: http://www.AP.org
6/28/02
2:03:37 PM
TomPaine.com
Independent, Commercial-free
EXPORTING ENRON
Public Funding For Global Plunder
by Mark Engler and Nadia Martinez
"The ongoing reports about Enron's collapse have led many people to believe that the corporation is for all practical purposes defunct. Not so."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5815
THE WEST'S BIG FIRES, LITTLE WATER
After Our Long-Time Abuse, Nature Strikes Back
by Shepherd Bliss
Fires are natural phenomenon, but, because of our relative success at subduing and controlling nature, humans have gotten the idea that we are in charge. This year's fire season, which has just started, could challenge that illusion.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5905
Dispatch: Chicago
COOLING THE CITY WITH GREEN ROOFTOPS
by Lester Graham
"Last summer in 2001 on the hottest day, while it was about a hundred degrees on the City Hall side, it was 165 on the opposite end of the building where's there's a blacktop roof."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5811
U.S. MILITARY MAKES GAME OF RECRUITMENT
Propaganda Is Fun With The New Army Videogame
by Bill Berkowitz
Is the "America's Army" videogame specifically designed to be an action-packed contemporary recruiting device?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5900
6/28/02
2:00:52 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
BOMB SCHOOL
by Jon Elliston, The Independent Weekly
-- Residents of Hertford, NC, don't pay much attention to the secret CIA training base in their community--even when they hear the explosions.
DIARY
by Michael Brus, Slate
-- A former Slate staffer shares his experience as an entry-level shelter worker, handing out towels, toothbrushes, and tampons to Seattle's homeless in the wee hours of the morning.
ASSERTING DEMOCRATIC CONTROL OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE
by Dave Henson, HopeDance
-- Ecological activists have productively battled corporate agriculture in the last few decades, but the state of local and global farming is still in distress.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/28/02
1:56:29 PM
SciTech Daily Review
An extensive study shows no link between vasectomy and prostate cancer, even 25 years after the fact. So that's one less thing to worry about
http://www.healthscoutnews.com/view.cfm?id=507720
How would you like to swap your mobile phone for a molar phone?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2055000/2055654.stm
Scruffy of beard and long of hair, brilliantly obsessive, and given to geek eccentricities ... Founder of the burgeoning free-software movement and legendary hacker/freedom fighter Richard Stallman is profiled in Sam Williams's Free as in Freedom
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0226/dibbell.php
Researchers plan to use grid computing to help authorities prepare for worst-case scenarios involving terrorist attacks
http://www.technologyreview.com/offthewire/3001_1762002_3.asp
In the visual smorgasbord that is the modern world, it can be easy to forget that we must also feed our other senses
http://enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/06/06252002/s_47531.asp
The glamour of the jet age is gone, and that's a shame. Maybe it's time to bring back the wonder of flight
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/06/21/askthepilot/index.html
6/28/02
1:50:45 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
G8 PLEDGES TO BACK SUSTAINABILITY, FIGHT TERROR
KANANASKIS, Alberta, Canada, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - Leaders of the world's eight major industrialized democracies concluded their two day meeting here pledging to cooperate in fighting terrorism, strengthening global economic growth and sustainable development, and building a new partnership for Africa's development.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-04.asp
AUSTRALIAN ANTI-TERRORISM LAW COULD STIFLE PROTEST
By Bob Burton
CANBERRA, Australia, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - Environmental groups are alarmed that provisions in anti-terrorism legislation passed by the Australian Parliament Thursday may be used against environmental groups involved in civil disobedience protests.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-02.asp
BILL CHALLENGES REVERSAL OF PARKS SNOWMOBILE BAN
WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - A bill introduced in the House today would override a National Park Service decision to continue to allow snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. The Park Service announced its decision two days ago, overturning a ban instituted by the same agency, under a different administration, almost two years ago.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-06.asp
GROUPS OPPOSE PUBLIC FINANCING OF CASPIAN PIPELINE
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON, DC, June 27, 2002 (ENS) - A multi-billion dollar pipeline that would carry oil more than 1,000 miles from the Caspian Sea to Ceyhan, a Turkish port on the Mediterranean, is being challenged by an international coalition of environmental groups.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-03.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 27, 2002
Yucca Mountain Shipments Called Mobile Chernobyl
Cheetah Supercomputer Improves Climate Modeling
Chilean Sea Bass Seizures Make Small Dent
Planting Clover Among the Cotton Helps Birds
New Coal Burners May Reduce Pollution
USFWS: Cutthroat Trout Population is Safe
Seal Skin Shipment Seized in New Jersey
Students Help Measure Air Pollution
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-27-09.asp
6/28/02
1:47:32 PM
AlterNet Headlines
THE MIX IS THE MESSAGE #3: A TALE OF TWO BOOKS
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Despite a media black-out -- and themes that repudiate the myth of Bush's invincibility -- books by Michael Moore and Mark Crispin Miller are selling at a brisk pace.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13476
THE MYTH OF GAY MACHO
Richard Goldstein, Village Voice
From disco clones to drag queens, the world rarely sees a gay identity that is free from the taint of macho.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13463
G-8 SUMMIT SIDELINES AFRICA
Ross Crockford, AlterNet
The meeting of the world's most powerful nations was touted as the best and last chance to reverse the crisis in Africa. But the summit has come up well short of expectations.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13475
--Also on our Global Affairs page:
A Wake-Up Call for the G-8 Let's Get Real About "Aid"
http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=31
CONSUMERS AND CREATORS
Alana Kumbier, PopPolitics.com
Fandom encompasses a broad spectrum. Some fans practice purely appreciative consumerism and others, rabid obsession.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13467
NOT FOR PUBLIC CONSUMPTION
Ashley Day, Tolerance.org
It's time catcalling be recognized for what it really is: harassment.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13432
ROCKETS' RED GLARE
J.A. Savage, AlterNet
The Fourth of July is an attractive target date for terrorist attacks. Are the nation's 103 operating commercial nuclear reactors safe? Does the Nuclear Regulatory Commission even care?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13468
BROKERMAN
Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman, AlterNet So, you want to buy some stock in an American corporation?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13454
RALPH AND ME
Janet Reynolds, Hartford Advocate
Can the failed Green Party presidential candidate lure back disenchanted voters?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13465
RIGHT-WING HAWKS WIN BIG ON MIDDLE EAST
Jim Lobe, AlterNet
President Bush's policy address marks a resounding victory for Ariel Sharon and the pro-Likud faction -- and major setback for peace activists on either side of the conflict.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13461
WEB CASTES
Sarah Klein, Detroit Metro Times
Internet radio was dealt a deathblow last week as the Library of Congress set licensing rates for the webcasting of digital music.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13444
6/28/02
1:34:27 PM
World Environment News - June 28th 2002 from Planet Ark
Global warming threatens US parks, waters - green group - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16628/story.htm
US Senate panel passes first greenhouse gas curbs - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16612/story.htm
UPDATE - Devastated Apache Indians count cost of Ariz blaze - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16613/story.htm
Senate panel votes to ban mercury thermometers - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16615/story.htm
Timber industry unscorched by recent fires - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16616/story.htm
Nebraska seeks CRP land for drought-hit livestock - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16618/story.htm
FACTBOX - Comparison of US Senate, House energy bills - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16610/story.htm
UPDATE - Alaska drilling fight looming with energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16627/story.htm
UPDATE - UK urges more farm controls against badger visits - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16623/story.htm
UPDATE - Fried foods may cause cancer, more tests needed - UN - SWITZERLAND
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16617/story.htm
Kangaroo meat demand jumps on the Balkans markets - ROMANIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16620/story.htm
Loggers in Peru jungle town protest new law - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16614/story.htm
Animals sacrificed for Nepal king in Indian temple - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16622/story.htm
FEATURE - In Iceland whales may be worth more alive than dead - ICELAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16625/story.htm
Germany OKs more cash to clean communist coal mess - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16619/story.htm
UPDATE - German court clears use of bottle, can deposits - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16621/story.htm
EU tells Ireland to update archaic animal test law - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16629/story.htm
China to require GMO health permits from '03 - trade - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16624/story.htm
Bear falls victim to G8 security - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16630/story.htm
TEXT - Canada summary of G8 Kananaskis summit - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16626/story.htm
UPDATE - G8 agrees fund for weapons destruction - Italy - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16611/story.htm
6/28/02
1:32:28 PM
American Servicemen Used As Guinea Pigs
JimCast@infowars.net
June 27, 2002
"Project Shipboard Hazard and Defense" (SHAD), was a program started in the early 1960's, to learn the vulnerabilities of US warships, during chemical or biological warfare attacks. Under "Project SHAD" were 113 different "Operations" or tests.
US Naval crews and Marine personnel were sprayed with various biological and chemical germ warfare agents, and simulants. Some ships, and Marine personnel were sprayed from overflying aircraft, while other tests on ships were being sprayed by aircraft carriers, which were upwind. While some high ranking personnel may have had knowledge of what was happening, most of the ships crews did not.
Project SHAD was controlled by The US Army Deseret Test Center, later to be known as Dugway Proving Grounds, Utah. For over 35 years, The Department of Defense said, "there was NO Project SHAD".
Today the DoD admits that it tested the deadly nerve agent Sarin, known as VX, or biological toxins on American Servicemen, but said the information was "classified".
Lately the DoD agreed to declassify all of the 113 "Operations" and inform the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of the findings. Presently 12 of the 113 have been declassified, although the information being released is very limited.
The Department of Defense is not releasing ALL the information needed by the Veteran, which would allow him to apply for treatment in a VA facility and to file a claim for service connected disability compensation.
Only about 600 veterans of the estimated tens of thousands of those exposed to warfare agents have been notified they could be suffering from related dangerous health effects, according to VA and Pentagon officials.
A study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs completed in September of 2001, but never released to the public or the affected veterans, suggests that Veterans, who participated in "Project SHAD", may be at increased risk for cerebrovascular diseases and respiratory diseases. That they are three (3) times more likely to die of respiratory and vascular brain diseases than the general population.
Steve Robinson, executive director of the National Gulf War Resources Center, said: "These veterans could be dying at a rate three times greater than the general population from diseases that could be related to their military service."
"We have a moral responsibility to set the record straight and that seems to be a problem for both the leaders in the Department of Defense, and the entrenched bureaucrats of the Department of Veterans Affairs."
Agents and decontaminants used, different ones in different tests are: Bacillus globigii (BG), Coxiella burnetii, Pasteurella tularensis, Zinc Cadmium Sulfide,
Beta-propriolactone, Sarin, VX, Escherichia Coli (EC), Serratia Marcescens (SM), Sodium Hydroxide, Peracetic acid, Potassium hydroxide, Sodium hypochlorite, "tracer amounts" of radioactivity and asbestos, Methylacetoacetate.
Senator Bill Nelson (D) of Florida, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Rep. Mike Thompson (D) of California plan to introduce legislation in their respective chambers next week, urging the Pentagon to reveal more information about the tests, known as "Project SHAD". Eleven other members of Congress have signed the request from Thompson. They have attached a provision on to Senate bill, S-2514, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, to fund the declassification of Project SHAD.
The President has vowed to veto the bill. The tests involved substances that the military believed at the time to be harmless. But evidence now shows that some could be harmful.
The Secretary of veterans affairs, Anthony Principi, urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to declassify more of the tests "as quickly as possible".
Anyone that believes they were part of the SHAD tests, should contact:
Vietnam Veterans of America 8605 Cameron Street, Suite 400 Silver Spring, Maryland 20910 301-585-4000, Fax 301-585-0519, 1-800-VVA-1316
The SHAD helpline is at 1-800-749-8387 or contact VA by e-mail at shadhelpline@vba.va.gov
All known SHAD operations, dates of operations, the agents sprayed, and the ships and Marine personnel involved, in no particular order, are:
Operation Dates Agent sprayed Ships involved
Copper Head /Jan 24-Feb 25, 1965/Bacillus globigii, USS Power Zinc Cadmium Sulfide (FP-fluorescent particle) Shady Grove/Jan 22-Apr. 9, 1965/Bacillus globigii, USS Granville S.Hall Coxiella burnetii (OU), Staphylococcal enterotoxin Type B _PG2) Uranine dye (sodium fluorescein)
Autumn Gold/May 3-31-1963/Bacillus globiggi (BG), USS Navarro (LPA-215) USS Tioga County (LST-1158) USS Carpenter USS Hoel (DDG13) USS Granville S. Hall (Yag-40) Marine Air group 13, First Marine Brigade
Purple Sage/ Jan & Feb 1966/Methylacetoacetate USS Herbert J. Thomas (DD-833) Eager Belle I/ Jan-Mar 1963/Bacillus globiggi (BG) USS George Eastman(yag39) Eager Belle II/Feb-Mar 1963/Bacillus globiggi (BG) USS George Eastman(yag39) USS Granville S. Hall (yag40) USS Carpenter (DD-825) USS Navarro (LPA-215) USS Tioga County(LST-1158)
Scarlet Sage/Feb 9,1966-Mar 4, 1966/bacillus globiggi USS Herbert J. Thomas (DD-833)
(Army tugs manned by naval personnel) An article at www.tugboatsF.com/1t2080Frame1 LT-2080, LT-2081, LT-2085 source1.htm, lists the following agents as being used: LT-2086, LT-2087, LT-2088
Tularamia, anthrax, parriot fever,Q fever, botulism,and Rocky Mountain spotted fever.
Fearless Johnny/Aug-Sep 1965/ VX nerve agent Diethylphthlate USS George Eastman (yag-39), USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40) Two light tugs (not identified) VC-1 Utility squadron One, Blue Aiis Squadron (Blue Warriors) Patrol Squadron Six (PATRON SIX) Flight Wing Two, Covered lighter (barge) YFN-811 US Navy Tug, ATF-105 Flower Drum I/ Feb-Apr Sarin nerve agent, USS George Eastman (yag-39), Aug-Sep 1964/ Sulphur dioxide, USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40) Methylacetoacetate. Flower Drum II /Nov & Dec 1964/VX nerve gas, US Navy Barge YFN-811 Phosphorous 32, US Navy Tug, ATF-105 Bis (2 ethyl-hexyl) hydrogen phosphite DTC Test 69-32/Apr 30-Jun 28, 1969/Serratia USS Granville S. Hall (yag-40), marcensen, Escherichia coli, Five Army light tugs, (manned Bacillus subtilis var. by naval personnel). niger (BG), DTC Test 68-50/Sep-Oct 1968/ Bacillus globiggi (BG) USS Granville S. Hall (YAG-40) Staphylococcal enterotoxin, Type B (PG2), Uranine dye (sodium fluorescein). 4533rd Tactical Test Squadron 33rd Tactical Fighter Wing (F-4E aircraft) Marine Air Group 13, First Marine Brigade Half Note Red Beva Night Train Big Tom
101 Others to come (Hopefully).
- IF THEY DID THIS THEN! WHAT ARE THEY DOING NOW? -
DoD News, the official news of the Department of Defense, HA!
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/dodnews.html
6/28/02
12:38:56 PM
Court Approves Random Drug Tests For Many Students
by David Stout, The New York Times, June 27, 2002
WASHINGTON, June 27 -- The Supreme Court approved random drug-testing for many high school students today, ruling that the interest of educators in keeping drugs out of school outweighs privacy considerations.
The 5-to-4 ruling authorizes a substantial expansion in testing of public school students. The High Court previously upheld random testing for student-athletes.
Today, the Court said drug tests were permissible as a condition for participating in any extracurricular activity that involves interscholastic competition, including the chorus, the band and the Future Homemakers of America.
"We find that testing students who participate in extracurricular activities is a reasonably effective means of addressing the school district's legitimate concerns in preventing, deterring and detecting drug use," Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority.
"Students who participate in competitive extracurricular activities voluntarily subject themselves to many of the same intrusions on their privacy as do athletes," Justice Thomas added.
He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy and Stephen G. Breyer.
In dissenting, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said the testing program under scrutiny, that of a school district in Pottawatomie County, Okla., "is not reasonable, it is capricious, even perverse."
By aiming their testing at students who want to participate in extracurricular activities, Justice Ginsburg said, school officials are going after those young people least likely to be in danger from illicit drugs. The other dissenters were Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter.
The opinions in the case, Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls, 01-332, can be read on the Supreme Court web site: www.supremecourtus.gov.
The decision overturned a ruling by the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, in Denver, which found in 2001 that the testing program adopted in 1998 was unreasonable because Pottawatomie officials had not shown there was a specific problem for which drug testing was a solution.
Today's ruling went against Lindsay Earls, an honor student who graduated from the district's Tecumseh High School a year ago and whose sister is still a student there.
Lindsay Earls tested negative, but she and another student sued on grounds the test was accusatory and humiliating. The testing program was suspended after the suits were filed; while it was active, three students out of 505 tested positive. All were athletes.
When the case was argued before the Supreme Court on March 19, the Bush administration argued that a schoolwide drug-testing program, not just one for extracurricular participants, would be constitutional. The High Court has not taken up that issue.
The majority rejected the suggestion that the random drug-testing might amount to an "unreasonable" search and seizure under the Fourth Amendment. That consideration is more appropriate for criminal cases, the majority said.
Both Justice Thomas and Justice Breyer, in a concurring opinion, emphasized that they were not passing judgment on whether the Oklahoma district's testing policy was wise. They simply said it was constitutional.
Justice Ginsburg said the majority ruling was both unconstitutional and unwise, that it set a poor example. Borrowing a quote from a Supreme Court ruling of 1943, she saw a need for "scrupulous protection of Constitutional freedoms of the individual, if we are not to strangle the free mind at its source and teach youth to discount important principles of our government as mere platitudes."
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.)
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/27/national/27CND-DRUG.html
6/28/02
12:30:30 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.28
Supreme Court Moves US Education to the Right
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28A.SC.edu.right.htm
William Rivers Pitt | Behold, A Child Shall Lead Them
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28B.pitt.child.htm
Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. | Vouchers: Illegitimate Cure For Legitimate Concerns
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28C.jjj.vouch.htm
Rangel: Republican Leadership Has Denied The American People a Chance to Have a Real Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28D.rangel.per.drugs.htm
Tribal Leaders Press for Commission
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28F.tribe.comm.htm
Away From the TV Cameras, Fire Consumes Apache Land
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.28G.apache.fire.htm
6/27/02
7:25:26 PM
Public Citizen
June 27, 2002
Safety Left at Side of Road in Administration's Haste to Open Border to Mexican Trucks
Shortage of Inspectors, Facilities Will Jeopardize Safety, Groups Say
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Bush administration is in such a rush to open the border to Mexico-domiciled trucks that it has overlooked crucial safety issues and ignored a severe lack of inspectors and inspection stations, which are necessary to ensure the border can be opened safely, four safety groups said today.
In a letter sent today to the Senate Commerce Committee and the Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, Public Citizen, Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, CRASH Survivors Network and the Trauma Foundation warned lawmakers that "the extremely tight schedule laid out by the administration for opening the border has allowed crucial issues to slip through the cracks."
Congress last year agreed to allow Mexico-domiciled long-haul trucks to ship goods throughout the United States, as long as certain inspection requirements are followed. However, 23 of 25 commercial crossings in the United States still do not have permanent inspection facilities, and the government has not hired enough inspectors to check incoming trucks, the groups said. The administration has said it will open the border by the end of July.
In a report released this week, the Department of Transportation Inspector General focused on the implementation of certain goals established by Congress but failed to address safety shortcomings, the groups said. Further, the administration's efforts to put a good face on the chaotic scramble to open the border has resulted in a diversion of resources away from truck safety in the United States.
"The government for years has failed to prepare for the opening of the border - an event required under NAFTA," said Joan Claybrook, Public Citizen's president. "Now, transportation officials are scrambling to get ready. But they are utterly neglecting the agency's domestic truck safety agenda."
Other deficiencies in the government's preparedness to open the border include:
· The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has proposed allowing short-haul trucks to continue to operate without certification that they comply with U.S. manufacturing safety standards - a blatant violation of lawmakers' intent that all Mexican carriers follow U.S. law;
· The administration has no meaningful plan to ensure that Mexican truck drivers abide by U.S. rules setting a limit on the number of hours they can drive;
· There is no system to ensure that Mexico-domiciled carriers have valid and adequate insurance by a U.S.-licensed insurer.
"The safety of the public should not be compromised," said Jackie Gillan, vice president of Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety. "Every year, 5,200 people lose their lives in truck crashes, and this not the time to add to the death toll. We can't allow unsafe trucks to drive through these loopholes."
A copy of the letter is available at
http://www.citizen.org/autosafety/Truck_Safety/nafta/articles.cfm?ID=7912.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
Source: http://www.Citizen.org
6/27/02
7:21:41 PM
Peru Swaps Debt For Tropical Rainforest Protection
WASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2002 (ENS) - Peru's rare pink river dolphins, jaguars, scarlet macaws, walking palms and giant water lilies will be better protected after an agreement signed today in Washington under which the United States cancelled $14 million in Peruvian debt payments.
For the first time, conservation groups joined the U.S. government in making up the funding to finance a debt-for-nature swap. These debt swaps relieve foreign debt in exchange for a government’s commitment to spend a certain amount of their local currency for conservation work.
Under the agreement, The Nature Conservancy, Conservation International and the World Wildlife Fund each committed approximately $370,000 for a total of $1.1 million. The U.S. government allocated $5.5 million to cancel a portion of Peru’s debt to the United States.
Treasury Department Under Secretary for International Affairs, John Taylor, and Peruvian Finance Minister Pedro Paulo Kuczynski signed the agreement today at the U.S. Treasury Department.
As a result, Peru will save about $14 million in debt payments over the next 16 years, and will provide the local currency equivalent of approximately $10.6 million toward conservation over the next 12 years.
At the signing ceremony, Under Secretary Taylor said the Bush administration is committed to "protecting this hemisphere’s natural resources," and is using the Tropical Forest Conservation Act of 1998 to fund this debt-for-nature swap.
"From the top of the Andes to the Amazon basin, Peru is home to 84 of the 103 types of "life zones" found on Earth, with nine "life zones" in Machu Picchu alone," Taylor said today. "The funds generated will go towards protecting rainforests in Peru, including the Peruvian Amazon. This area is home to dozens of endangered species, such as the jaguar, harpy eagle, the giant river otter, black caiman, and several species of macaws and rare plants such as walking palms and giant water lilies," he said.
The debt swap will generate funds for distribution to local Peruvian conservation groups that will use them to protect 10 tropical rainforest areas covering more than 27.5 million acres within the Peruvian Amazon — about the size of the state of Virginia.
"This strong international partnership marks a key step in protecting a spectacular place that is among the biologically richest on Earth and facing imminent threats," said Peter Seligmann, chairman and CEO of Conservation International.
Threats to these areas include the loss of habitat due to unsustainable logging of hardwoods such as mahogany and cedar, conversion of forest land to agriculture, mining, oil and gas exploration and unsustainable harvesting of nontimber forest products such as Brazil nuts and hearts of palm, the U.S. conservation groups say.
“This agreement provided a perfect opportunity for our organization and our conservation group partners to put our monies where our convictions lie,” said Steve McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy. “We have long advocated the use of the Tropical Forest Conservation Act as a tool to help protect vital rainforests around the globe, so being able to pitch in to help make this agreement happen is particularly gratifying to me.”
“With this debt-for-nature swap, one of the world’s great biological libraries can be saved for future generations,” said Kathryn Fuller, president of WWF. “We applaud the governments of Peru and the United States for helping protect these places of exceptional wonder and beauty.”
The Peruvian conservation groups may use the funds to establish, restore, protect and maintain parks, protected areas and reserves.
They can improve natural resource management systems and train individuals and organizations involved in conservation efforts. Funding can be used in the development and support of livelihoods for people living in or near these tropical forest in ways that help protect them.
The funds may be used for the restoration, protection, or sustainable use of animal and plant species, and for the research and identification of medicinal uses of tropical forest plant life to treat human diseases, illnesses, and health-related concerns.
Under Secretary Taylor said today's agreement is the second U.S. debt-for-nature swap, and the fifth agreement concluded under the Tropical Forest Conservation Act.
"We are still looking to extend the benefits of the program," said Taylor. "We have already seen agreements with Bangladesh, Belize, El Salvador, and Thailand, we expect to conclude an agreement with the Philippines this year."
Source: http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-02.asp
6/27/02
7:19:01 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
ARIZONA WILDFIRES SPARK MANAGEMENT CONTROVERSY
EAGAR, Arizona, June 26, 2002 (ENS) - President George W. Bush visited Arizona on Tuesday to review the devastation caused by a massive wildfire that has scorched almost 375,000 acres outside the resort town of Show Low. The fire has prompted accusations by government officials and environmental groups, each blaming the other for creating the conditions that allowed the devastating blaze to develop.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-06.asp
BREAST CANCER CLUSTERS MAY START IN CHILDHOOD
By Cat Lazaroff
BUFFALO, New York, June 26, 2002 (ENS) - Researchers seeking the environmental triggers of breast cancer may need to look far back into a woman's past, suggests a novel study by geographers and epidemiologists at the University at Buffalo (UB). Where a woman lives at birth and puberty may have an impact on her risk of developing breast cancer later, the team concluded.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-07.asp
PERU SWAPS DEBT FOR TROPICAL RAINFOREST PROTECTION
WASHINGTON, DC, June 26, 2002 (ENS) - Peru's rare pink river dolphins, jaguars, scarlet macaws, walking palms and giant water lilies will be better protected after an agreement signed today in Washington under which the United States cancelled $14 million in Peruvian debt payments.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-02.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 26, 2002
Lost Fuel Rods Prompt Fines
U.S. Approves Vicuna Wool Imports
Dying Trees Release Air Polluting Chemical
Environmentalists Challenge Nevada Land Sale
Grants Support Clean Car Research
Prairie Dogs Need Protection on BLM Lands
Cleanup Begins in Ohio's Little Scioto River
House Subcommittee Supports Efficiency Funding
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-26-09.asp
6/27/02
7:16:48 PM
Dollar slides to brink of free fall
Worldcom scandal: Currencies: Latest Wall Street disaster sends investors all over the world running for cover
by Philip Thornton, Economics Correspondent, 27 June 2002
The US dollar yesterday moved to the brink of free fall a nightmare scenario for the world economy after reverberations from the WorldCom scandal triggered panic among investors.
The currency came within a whisker of parity with the euro and crashed through key psychological barriers against the yen and the pound as investors rushed to dump dollar assets.
"This is threatening to become a disorderly market," David Bloom, global economist at HSBC, said. "There's no better way to show a loss of confidence in a country than through its currency."
Speculation mounted that the Federal Reserve would lead the world in a fresh round of interest rates cuts amid fears of a deflationary slump, although it kept rates on hold last night.
The dollar tumbled as much as 1.5 per cent to 99.42 cents to the euro, its weakest level since February 2000, from 97.22 late Tuesday. It fell below 120 yen for the first time despite three interventions by the Bank of Japan overnight to support the US currency. The misery was compounded by confusion over the US's dollar policy and a roller-coaster day on Wall Street.
The Dow gyrated between a 200 point fall and 34 point gain before ending down 6.7 at 9,120.1, while the Nasdaq recovered from 2 per cent fall to end up 5.3 points at 1429.3, still within a whisker of a five-year closing low. In Europe the FTSE 100 fell 100 points to 4,531, above an earlier nine-month low of 4,442.
The US President, George Bush, appeared to imply the administration had abandoned its strong dollar policy. The White House later was forced to insist there had been no policy change after Mr Bush said the currency would "seek its own level based on market forces".
The WorldCom scandal, coming hard on the heels of the Enron collapse and crises at Tyco and Adelphia, is the latest piece of news to undermine the dollar.
Sharp falls on Wall Street and fears about the solidity of the US economy have slowly undermined the dollar over the past few weeks. A dollar collapse is seen as one of the greatest threats to the nascent global economic recovery.
Mark Cliffe, a global economist at ING Financial Markets, said: "If the dollar's decline turns explosive, this could compound the problems of the US asset markets as currency losses raise fears of a massive capital flight out of the US."
Americans have collectively acted as the consumer of last resort through the financial crises of 1997, 1998, 1999 and even during the latest slump, sucking in imports from the rest of the world. More importantly, investors were happy to pour money into US markets to cash in on booming hi-tech industries.
Now, however, outsiders may be deterred from pumping any more money into the US, for fear the cash will simply be squandered. "We thought it was a bubble, but perhaps the whole thing was overstated," Mr Bloom said. "The dollar bull market was just plain wrong."
A dollar crisis would be a major headache for the Fed in its struggle to juggle tumbling markets with signs of a strong economic rebound. There was serious speculation ahead of last night's monetary policy decision that the Fed would cut rates despite figures showing new home sales soared to a record and factory orders increased in May.
Gold rose as much as $6.33, or 2 per cent, to $325.75 an ounce in London. The metal has risen 16 per cent so far this year, its best first-half performance since 1980.
Source: http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=309438
6/27/02
7:01:11 PM
New England's Only Totally Solar-Powered Festival
SolarFest: July 13 & 14, 2002
For Immediate Release:
Middletown Springs, Vt. - New England's only totally solar-powered festival happens in Middletown Springs, Vermont on July 13 & 14. SolarFest's Eighth Annual Solar-Powered Music Festival and Sustainable Future Fair hosts over 25 performers on two solar-powered stages and more than 26 workshop on sustainable living and renewable energy. SolarFest has something for everyone.
SolarFest is an intimate festival held on 40 acres of pristine, private land. With no power lines to the site, the entire festival is powered by solar panels and batteries and is itself an exciting demonstration of solar power's effectiveness. The arts, the natural setting and inspiring renewable energy presentations make up the unusually engaging mix for which SolarFest is recognized.
SolarFest's designation by the Vermont Chamber of Commerce as one of 2002's Top Ten Summer Events and a three-page article in Home Power Magazine on SolarFest 2001 are both indications that SolarFest is the place to go for quality performances, inspiration and information about living more lightly on the earth.
Chelsea Green Publishing of White River Junction, Vt. will again present two days of workshops on a variety of sustainable living topics. In SolarFest's own renewable energy workshop tent, topics will include Renewable Energy Basics, Grid-Independent Solar Energy Systems, Grid-Connected RE Systems, and Eco-Friendly House Appliances, to name a few. Six new workshop topics have been added this year.
Since 1995, SolarFest has made a name for itself by offering a wide variety of quality performances (contemporary folk, roots music, blues, pop, reggae, storytellers, puppetry, children's theater, poetry, and mime) in a beautiful, family-friendly setting. This year's line-up features such artists as Entrain, Gandalf Murphy and the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, guitarist Jeff Lang, Bluegrass band Gopher Broke, and many more. SolarFest's unique goal is to inform and inspire people about renewable energy and sustainable living options through workshops, exhibits, demonstrations and performances.
There are also food and crafts vendors, children's activities, solar site tours, and much more at SolarFest. Weekend tickets are $40 and include all performances and workshops. Day rates are available and admission for children 12 and under is free when accompanied by an adult. The gates open at 9 a.m. both days. To facilitate everyone's happiness over the weekend, SolarFest has a few ground rules: no dogs, no glass bottles, no open fires. While parking is free, the parking area has a limited capacity. The SolarFest organizers urge guests to car pool. Walk-in camping is allowed: no RV hook-ups. For other lodging suggestions and further information check the SolarFest website, or call (802) 235-2866.
Source: http://www.solarfest.org
6/27/02
6:56:21 PM
The Truth On Warming
by Mark Hertsgaard, The Nation
The journalist I.F. Stone used to joke that the government issues so much information every day, it can't help but let the truth slip out every once in a while. The Bush Administration's recent report on global warming is a classic example. Though far from perfect, it contains some crucial but awkward truths that neither George W. Bush nor his environmentalist critics want to confront. Which may explain why the Administration has sought to bury the report, while critics have misrepresented its most ominous conclusion.
U.S. Climate Action Report 2002 made headlines because it contradicted so much of what the Administration has said about global warming. Not only is global warming real, according to the report, but its consequences--heat waves, water shortages, rising sea levels, loss of beaches and marshes, more frequent and violent weather--will be punishing for Americans.
The report's biggest surprise was its admission that human activities, especially the burning of oil and other fossil fuels, are the primary cause of climate change. Of course, the rest of the world has known since 1995 that human actions have "a discernible impact" on the global climate, to quote a landmark report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. But the White House has resisted this conclusion. After all, if burning fossil fuels is to blame for global warming, it makes sense to burn less of them. To a lifelong oilman like Bush, who continues to rely on his former industry colleagues for campaign contributions as well as senior staff, such a view is nothing less than heresy. No wonder, then, that Bush and his high command have virtually repudiated the report. Although their staffs helped write it, both EPA Administrator Christine Todd Whitman and Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham claimed they were unaware of the report until the New York Times disclosed its existence on June 3. Bush himself dismissed it as a mere product of "the bureaucracy," that oft-vilified boogeyman of right-wing ideology. But he could equally have blamed his own father. The only reason U.S. Climate Action Report 2002 was compiled in the first place is that George Bush the First signed a global warming treaty at the 1992 Earth Summit that obligates the United States to periodically furnish such reports to the UN (one more reason, it seems, to despise treaties). But somebody in the Administration must have seen trouble coming, because the report could not have been released with less fanfare: It was simply posted on the EPA's website, three unguided links in from the homepage. If you weren't looking for it, you'd never find it.
The Administration has been hammered for issuing a report that on one hand admits that global warming threatens catastrophe but on the other maintains there is no need to reduce consumption of fossil fuels. The report squares this circle by arguing that global warming has now become inevitable, so we should focus less on preventing it than on adapting to it. To deal with water scarcity, for example, the report advocates building more dams and raising the price of water to encourage conservation. Critics see such recommendations as proof that the Administration is doing nothing about global warming. Unfortunately, it's not that simple.
The worst thing about the new global warming report is that it is absolutely correct about a fundamental but often unmentioned aspect of the problem: the lag effect. Most greenhouse gases remain in the atmosphere for approximately 100 years. The upshot of this undeniable chemical fact is that no matter what remedial steps are taken today, humanity is doomed to experience however much global warming the past 100 years of human activities will generate. That does not mean we should make matters worse by continuing to burn fossil fuels, as Bush foolishly urges; our children and grandchildren deserve better than that. It does mean, however, that we as a civilization must not only shift to green energy sources immediately but also begin planning how we will adapt to a world that is bound to be a hotter, drier, more disaster-punctuated place in the twenty-first century.
Many environmentalists know it is too late to prevent global warming; the best we can do is minimize its scope. They don't like to admit this truth, because they fear it will discourage people from making, and demanding, the personal and institutional changes needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. There is that risk. But a truth does not disappear simply because it is inconvenient. Besides, a green energy future would mean more, not less, economic well-being for most Americans, while also increasing our chances of avoiding the most extreme global warming scenarios. Sometimes the truth hurts. But avoiding it will hurt even more.
Mark Hertsgaard is the author, most recently, of Earth Odyssey: Around the World in Search of Our Environmental Future (Broadway). His new book, The Eagle's Shadow: Why America Fascinates and Infuriates the World, will be published in October by Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
Source: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020708&s=hertsgaard
6/27/02
6:54:05 PM
How Hot Is Too Hot?
by Bob Herbert
One of the more startling stories in The Times recently was Timothy Egan's article on the climate in Alaska, where the average temperature has risen seven degrees in the last 30 years and mosquitoes have shown up in normally frigid Barrow, the northernmost town in North America.
Large portions of Alaska are melting and other strange things are happening. Just a few hours' drive from Anchorage, a four-million-acre spruce forest has been killed by beetles, a development that is both astonishing and depressing. It is believed to be the largest loss of trees to insects ever recorded in North America.
"Government scientists," wrote Mr. Egan, "tied the event to rising temperatures, which allow the beetles to reproduce at twice their normal rate."
Meanwhile, enormous wildfires have been raging in bone-dry regions of the West and Southwest. Fires whipped by high winds in the mountains of eastern Arizona have driven thousands of residents from their homes. One local official, Jim Paxon, said: "The forest is burning like you're pouring gasoline on it. And the wind is like taking a blow torch to it."
In Colorado, which is enduring its worst drought in decades, residents have been trying to cope with at least five major fires, including the so-called Hayman fire, the largest in the state's history. Investigators believe it was deliberately set by a U.S. Forest Service worker. The long drought and continuing hot weather provided the conditions that enabled this apparent act of arson to explode into an unprecedented conflagration.
Big fires are becoming the rule. By late last week authorities reported that in the first six months of this year, nearly two million acres have burned or are currently burning in the United States, which is almost twice the average of the last 10 years.
Strange, indeed. Mosquitoes in northernmost Alaska. Much of the West and Southwest ablaze. Extended droughts. Extreme heat waves.
Can you say global warming?
The year 2001 was, globally, the second hottest on record. The hottest was 1998.
Now imagine that just a few more years go by and the world becomes hotter still, which will almost certainly be the case. What then?
Do you think, maybe, we should be paying more attention to this?
What is missing in most conversations in the U.S. about global warming is a sense of urgency. A Bush administration report earlier this month acknowledged that human activity - the burning of fossil fuels that send heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere - was the primary cause of the recent warming of the planet, and that the warming will result in some extremely serious consequences in the U.S.
President Bush (who has distanced himself from his own administration's report) wants to rely mostly on voluntary - not mandatory - efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under the president's strategy, it's estimated that emissions will actually increase over the next decade. We're speeding toward a wall and the president is not only refusing to step on the brake, he's accelerating.
Ten years is too long to wait to do something real about this problem. Dr. Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton who is an expert on climate change, has studied the imminent threat that planetary warming poses to the world's coral reefs. These are ecosystems so abundant in animal and plant life that they are sometimes called the rain forests of the oceans.
Dr. Oppenheimer noted that one of the essential questions of the global warming debate is, "How warm is too warm?"
When you consider that the increased warming is already threatening to decimate the world's coral reefs, and that we're already seeing the melting of the tundra in Alaska, and that alpine ecosystems are already being squeezed off the tops of mountains, it's not too difficult to reach the conclusion that "too warm," in Dr. Oppenheimer's words, "isn't awfully far from where we already are."
Closing our eyes and pumping another decade's worth of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere at the current very dangerous rate would not seem to be a very bright idea. The gases remain in the atmosphere for centuries, and in some cases millenniums, which means the damage cannot quickly be undone.
What a miserable legacy for this generation to leave to its children and grandchildren.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/24/opinion/24HERB.html
6/27/02
6:40:41 PM
Tennis Great Navratilova Attacks U.S. Values
June 26, 2002
BERLIN (Reuters) - U.S. tennis great Martina Navratilova criticized her adopted homeland in a German newspaper on Wednesday, saying money is the only thing that matters there.
Navratilova, a Czech-born American who won 18 grand slam singles titles when she dominated women's tennis in the late 1970s and 1980s, also wrote in an article for Die Zeit weekly that she believed free speech was being suppressed in the United States.
"The most absurd part of my escape from the unjust system is that I have exchanged one system that suppresses free opinion for another," said Navratilova, 45, who fled Czechoslovakia at the age of 18 to go to the United States.
The nine-time women's Wimbledon champion, who still plays in some doubles tournaments and last week played in a singles tournament at the Eastbourne International Championships in England, singled out President Bush's Republican Party for unusually harsh criticism.
"The Republicans in the United States manipulate public opinion and sweep any controversial issues under the table," Navratilova said.
"It's depressing. Decisions in America are based solely on the question of 'how much money will come out of it' and not on the questions of how much health, morals or the environment suffer as a result."
Navratilova, who is openly homosexual, said she fights actively for gay rights.
Source: http://www.Reuters.com
6/27/02
6:33:19 PM
SciTech Daily Review
Firefighters battling wildfires are increasingly reliant on satellite data. But satellites can't always tell a hot parking lot from a blaze -- and that's where human analysts come in handy
http://space.com/businesstechnology/technology/noaa_firewatch_020626-1.html
Haven't you always wanted to write your name on an asteroid? Japanese space scientists plan to make your wish come true
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_2067000/2067694.stm
There's one thing experts know for certain about treating repetitive motion injuries: there's nothing that works for everyone. And sometimes, nothing seems to work at all
http://www.philly.com/mld/philly/living/health/3516290.htm
In all its black and gooey glory, ferrofluid -- the stuff that makes rotary seals for disk drives or dampers for high-end speakers -- just doesn't turn many heads. But award-winning photographer Felice Frankel has an eye for making science attractive
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0620/p16s01-bogn.html
Cloning Trevor: Granted rare access to the labs of the only US group openly pursuing human cloning research for medical purposes, Kyla Dunn spent six months tracking highly experimental work on the cells of a young boy with a life-threatening genetic disorder
http://www.theatlantic.com/issues/2002/06/dunn.htm
There's no doubt that SSRI antidepressants have revolutionized the treatment of depression. But is it a change for the better?
http://www.healthscoutnews.com/view.cfm?id=507713
6/27/02
6:29:59 PM
MoJournal
Free thinking, non-conforming, investigative reporting
From the Editor
More than two years ago, Robert Dreyfuss told Mother Jones readers how the deadly legacy of America's use of Agent Orange still haunted the Vietnamese. Now, as George Sanchez reports on MotherJones.com, a group of Canadian scientists are detailing how deadly chemical byproducts of the powerful defoliant continue to contaminate the soil, water and food in a remote Vietnamese valley. Still, as was the case two years ago, officials in Washington reject suggestions that the US should shoulder some of the financial burden of cleaning up the contamination and caring for those suffering as a result of dioxin exposure.
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB1Za4pkFbb/
Will Tacy
Editor, MotherJones.com
Sunscreen, sandals, and savvy investgative reporting.
This summer take a vacation from work, not the issues that matter most. Subscribe to Mother Jones magazine! 1 year (6 issues) just 10 bucks.
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB15a4pkFbb/
Democrats.com is the home of the "Aggressive Progressives" -and the largest online community of grassroots Democratic activists, over 30,000 strong. We publish a hard-hitting daily (and weekly) newsletter for Democrats, host moderated discussions, and organize campaigns to stop Bush, elect Democrats and enact progressive policies.
To subscribe, e-mail dem-daily-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB11a4pkFbb/
WEB EXCLUSIVES
News - A Toxic Burden - Despite mounting scientific evidence, Washington refuses to accept the deadly legacy of its chemical warfare in Vietnam.
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB1Za4pkFbb/
Cartoon - The King and the Warlords - Hamid Karzai has been confirmed as Afghanistan's new leader, but can he guide his country out of the shadow of the powerful warlords?
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB12a4pkFbb/
Updates - 7UP No Longer Laughing, Breaking Up the Bakassi Boys, Easing Access to Bush's Texas Records
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB13a4pkFbb/
Daily Briefing - Europe Closing the Door?; A Giant Leap in Quebec; Aid to the 'Axis'; Au Revoir, Arafat?; Karl Rove A-Roving; Hunting Hispanic Votes
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB14a4pkFbb/
FROM THE MAGAZINE
Seeds of Secrecy - The Mexican government has tried to silence scientists who discovered genetically modified corn where it doesn't belong.
http://click.topica.com/maaap5ZaaSB2ka4pkFbb/
6/27/02
6:26:32 PM
Carol Brouillet <cbrouillet@igc.org>
Subject: Raising Questions on 9-11
Dear friends and activists,
"If you think you're too small to be effective; you've never been in bed with a mosquito."
We felt a bit like mosquitoes last January when we marched on our legislators demanding a Congressional Inquiry of 9-11. Subsequently, Bush and Cheney asked that the inquiries be limited to "why the CIA failed to prevent the attacks and how to justify expanding the National Security State to prevent the next 100% certain terrible devastating attack..."and overseen by the joint House/Senate Intelligence Committees with the assistance of outside staff headed by the CIA.. As a result of our march, I was flooded with e-mails from all over the world, sending thanks, encouragement, and offering bits and pieces of information, brilliant analysis, and an entire website by a mysterious MalcontentX entitled "September 11- Unanswered Questions" which is posted at my website-http://www.communitycurrency.org/9-11.html, which I have reorganized, adding links to ever increasing resources, including books, videos, humor, song,... but I have also been demonstrating weekly, making flyers, writing articles, press releases, organizing, speaking, not to mention taking care of the kids...
June has brought a burst of hope- with cracks in the official story, lies being exposed, the defense of the Bush Administration crumbling to dust, the strenuous, doomed efforts to control the damage. The telling leak from the NSA that on September 10th the messages intercepted said- "tomorrow is zero hour", and "the match is about to begin." Indeed the match was "staged," the press compliantly began to "demonize and conjure" an enemy, ignoring the inconvenient observations that did not fall within the "official story."
Stepping back to see the larger pattern, one can see that "in order to win public support" one must always "contrive an attack," a justification for war. In retrospect it seems so obvious, the question is why doesn't everyone see it sooner? August West posted a piece on indymedia on "Why They Believe the Government- Left Denial on 9/11"
(http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/117429.php).
In the dysfunctional family, where a father abuses his wife and children, the first rule is "don't talk about it." The Second rule is "Don't talk about not talking about it." The third rule is "Don't talk about don't talking about don't talking about it."... Our Culture of Make Believe
( see Derrick Jensen's work on this - http://www.derrickjensen.org/)
makes a complete mockery of truth, particularly the politicians, especially Bush, whose entire career is based upon lies, and whose reign is dependent upon secrecy.
We started working on a "transformational film on 9-11" with Derrick and others, to weave people's personal stories of transformation together with the harsher truths of 9-11, and our hope for cultural transformation when collectively people realize that "The War on Terrorism" is truly a "War on Truth, Freedom, Democracy, Dissent, All Opposition to Corporate Globalization/Transnational Facsism." There is a cartoon which captures the historical moment that we are in now; I'd like to paint it on a giant banner for my weekly demos, it is called "American Reichstag" by Charles Amsellem
(at http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=165945)
which shows Hitler and Bush standing before the burning Reichstag and WTC mouthing the same speech... This is where we are- the targeting of "convenient enemies," the "neutralization of opponents," the dismantling of civil liberties, the grab for power, the denial that "security forces" had anything to do with the attack upon which all these repressive actions are justified...
On June 10th, an extraordinary Press Conference on 9-11 and Public Safety was held in Washington DC (
see http://UnansweredQuestions.Org for details).
C-Span did not cover it, the "established Left/Progressive Press" did not cover it, but a video, audio tapes are available, investigative journalists came, the powerful truths, questions will continue to come out. Another event is being planned for New York City (PLEASE Contact- Kyle Hence to get involved kylehence@earthlink.net ), and many of us want to organize "Citizen's Inquiries of 9-11" to share what we have learned from one another, to raise issues, raise more questions, put more public pressure on the politicians, media, demand some accountability, rein in this criminal government which is threatening Americans, Congress, the World. (Remember the Butterfly effect- sometimes small actions can spark dramatic change...) Fortunately, outside the U.S., many excellent books, videos, articles are being produced which challenge "The Bush Administration's story."
I hope that you will join us in seeking the truth about 9-11, challenging and resisting "The War on Terrorism," and in transforming the system.
Carol Brouillet
P.S. Here are URLs to my articles...
Real Terrorists- Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld... (photos of our weekly demo)
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/132715.php
CDC Hearing on Smallpox Vaccination Policy in SF (Phase 2 in the War- the Bioterrorist attack)
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/131803.php
Deadly Connections- Corporate Globalization, Space and War
http://www.communitycurrency.org/deadly.html
Spinning 9-11
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/05/127984.php
Opposing the Emergency Health Powers Act
http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/03/119147.php
---
See also
We won't deny our consciences (June 14, 2002)
Prominent Americans have issued this statement on the war on terror... "Let it not be said that people in the United States did nothing when their government declared a war without limit and instituted stark new measures of repression. The signers of this statement call on the people of the US to resist the policies and overall political direction that have emerged since September 11, 2001, and which pose grave dangers to the people of the world. We believe that peoples and nations have the right to determine their own destiny, free from military coercion by great powers. We believe that all persons detained or prosecuted by the US government should have the same rights of due process. We believe that questioning, criticism, and dissent must be valued and protected. We understand that such rights and values are always contested and must be fought for. " CLIP
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0%2C3604%2C737060%2C00.html
9/11 conspiracy book is bestseller in France
Meyssan is the author of a book that insists no plane ever crashed into the Pentagon on Sept. 11 and all the attacks that day were plotted by a faction within the U.S. military. (...) "It's the biggest seller in the history and politics category in at least 10 years." (...) Now the book is coming to the United States - in late July. Its English title: 9-11, The Big Lie.
6/27/02
6:22:20 PM
Bush's new Department of Homeland Defense: the scaffolding of a police state
The sudden announcement by President George W. Bush that he will seek the creation of a huge new federal Department of Homeland Defense, to control most federal domestic policing and security programs, must be understood on two levels. In its timing, it is a transparent attempt to distract public attention from the revelations of advance warnings to the government about the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. In its substance, the proposal represents an acceleration of the moves towards presidential dictatorship that have characterized every step taken by the Bush administration since September 11.
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/bush-j08.shtml
US Treasury Secretary warns the US is running out of dollars to pay its bills
A collapse in the value of the dollar is implicit in a warning by the US Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill on Tuesday that the U.S. government will run out of money to pay its bills unless Congress increases the limit on how much the Treasury can borrow before June 28. According to an article in the Washington Post, "The national debt cannot exceed $5.95 trillion, and at the close of business Monday government borrowing stood a scant $25 million below that limit. Since mid-May, Treasury has avoided breaching the limit only by engaging 'in a series of extraordinary account measures,' O'Neill said." And, "Senate Majority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) told reporters, 'The government checks for Social Security, veterans and civil service retirement will bounce if the debt limit increase is not passed.'"
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8143-2002Jun18.html
Excerpt from a Gold-Eagle editorial by Ursel Doran
"Never before has a Mania become so large as to suck in the whole world. Of all the past manias, the size and scope of the U.S. Stock Mania is without precedent. History indicates that ALL the past manias eventually correct back to about where they started. The NIKKEI has dropped from 39,000 to 11,000. NASDAQ is down to 1,500 from 5,000, after starting up at 300! DOW and S&P indexes appear to be magically held aloft with PE [price to earnings] ratios of 45, with 15 the norm. Never seen before. Crash of 1929 PEs were only 33. Never before have 50% of all USA households had all their worldly wealth in the stock market, and houses and cars they do not own. Banks, Fannie and Freddie own the houses, GMAC et al, the cars. The magnitude of the packaging, repackaging, selling and reselling of these liabilities, and the derivatives on them, is literally beyond imagination or comprehension - in excess of $100 Trillion."
http://www.gold-eagle.com/editorials_02/doran061702.html
Dollar Hits a 2-Year Low Against Euro (June 21)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.22F.dollar.euro.htm
Who Really Pays for Corporate Abuses
Corporations are often found responsible for grievous environmental and social injustices. Lives are lost, ecosystems destroyed, and racism and sexism flourish in many corporate environments. Yet the only punishment our system usually assigns is the payment of a fine. Does this approach do anything to deter the illegal behavior or do the industries simply consider it another cost of doing business? Even the most egregious polluters are rarely shut down. Most say that a hefty fine is the way to punish a business. But is this really true when the money comes from the company bank accounts and the individuals who are responsible for the actions walk away free? What if we shut down criminal companies, prosecuted their owners and officers, and distributed their profits among the victims and the agencies responsible for cleaning up their mess?
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-21g.asp
PART 2 - THE EMPIRE ISN'T IN AFGHANISTAN FOR THE OIL
Washington wants to take over Afghanistan in order to speed up the fulfillment of its strategy of pulverizing the former Soviet Republics in the same way Washington has been pulverizing the former Yugoslavia.
http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/jared/oil-1.htm
Why Washington Wants Afghanistan
This article analyzes the geo-political designs behind the massive deception called The War On Terror.
http://www.tenc.net/analysis/afghan.htm
Afghan war documentary charges US with mass killings of POWs (17 June 2002)
Showings in Europe spark demands for war crimes probe. A documentary film, Massacre in Mazar, by Irish director Jamie Doran, was shown to selected audiences in Europe last week, provoking demands for an international inquiry into US war crimes in Afghanistan. The film alleges that American troops collaborated in the torture of POWs and the killing of thousands of captured Taliban soldiers near the town of Mazar-i-Sharif. It documents events following the November 21, 2001 fall of Konduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in northern Afghanistan. (...) Leading international human rights lawyer Andrew McEntee, who was present at the special screening in Berlin, said it was "clear there is prima facie evidence of serious war crimes committed not just under international law, but also under the laws of the United States itself." (...) Late last year Doran shot footage of the aftermath of the massacre of hundreds of captured Taliban troops at the Qala-i-Janghi prison fortress outside of Mazar-i-Sharif. His film clips, showing prisoners who had apparently been shot with their hands tied, ignited an international outcry over the conduct of American special operations forces and their Northern Alliance allies. Doran's new film includes interviews with eyewitnesses to torture and the slaughter of some 3,000 POWs. It also contains footage of the desert scene where the alleged massacre took place. Skulls, clothing and limbs still protrude from the mound of sand, more than six months after the event. (...) While the documentary has become a major news story in Europe, it has been virtually blacked out by the American media. CLIP
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jun2002/afgh-j17.shtml
War Crimes: grave discovered in Afghanistan - U.S. involvement alleged
http://portland.indymedia.org/archive/features/2002/06/2002-06.html#4066
Australian TV show on Mass grave in Afghanistan
http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/s586222.htm
INDECENT PROPOSAL
President Bush's absurd plan for an interim Palestinian state will not resolve the bloody stalemate produced by suicide bombings and Israeli reprisals.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13423
OUR DAUGHTER'S DEATH IS ISRAEL'S FAULT
"Our daughter was killed because of the terror of Israeli occupation. Every innocent victim from both sides is a victim of the occupation. The occupation is the cancer feeding Palestinian terror." (said Nurit Elhanan a doctor of language at Israel's Hebrew University)
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=11979088&method=full
ADDICTED TO OIL: CONFRONTING AMERICA'S WORST HABIT
The relationship with America's most popular liquid has long since become self-destructive. It's time to re-examine the nature of gasoline.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13392
R.I.P., Politically Incorrect As 'Politically Incorrect' ends its remarkable run, the appropriate farewell is not a eulogy, but a celebration of the show's rare willingness to speak truth to power.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13400
GLOBAL: GROWTH OF INDYMEDIA (Jun 20 2002)
Indymedia Network Continues Growth Across the Globe. The Independent Media Center, or Indymedia, network, is continuing to grow explosively throughout the world. The first center, opened in Seattle in November of 1999 to cover the WTO Ministerial, has been joined by nearly ninety others operating in various localities on every continent except Antarctica. While almost half of the Indymedia centers are based in the United States, more are being formed in Asia, Africa, and particularly Latin America. Many of these media groups have grown from covering single protest events into independently-operating local sources of ongoing news and information. CLIP
6/27/02
6:12:04 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
CLASSROOM CONSCIOUSNESS
by Alissa Quart, The Nation
-- With slogans like "students are not property" and "I'm not for sale," Edison students speak out against the corporate control of their education.
SEMPRA: EXPORTING POLLUTION
by J.P. Ross, Corpwatch
-- If all goes as planned, a new Sempra Energy natural gas-fired power plant will operate south of the border to create power for Californians while dodging U.S. environmental restrictions.
PLUCK OFF
by Brendan O'Neill, Spiked Online
-- Cutesy stereotypes about the "Plucky, Spirited Irish" do not amuse this Irish football fan, especially in the wake of Ireland's World Cup defeat.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/27/02
6:10:27 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Canadian firm unveils new design for US nuke plants - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16596/story.htm
US Senate backs stronger non-proliferation efforts - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16603/story.htm
UPDATE - Firefighters now hope to save mountain town - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16597/story.htm
Earth can't meet human demand for resources - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16588/story.htm
NRC issues fine for missing fuel rods at nuclear plant - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16593/story.htm
Chernobyl suspected in rise in UK child deaths - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16590/story.htm
FEATURE - Cheap air travel adding to global warming woes - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16589/story.htm
Contested South African minerals bill passes final vote - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16600/story.htm
South Africa readies 26,000 police for Earth Summit - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16601/story.htm
FEATURE - Peru's Yanacocha eyes deposit in disputed gold site - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16599/story.htm
TEPCO to buy into Tomen wind power unit - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16592/story.htm
Nepali king's sacrifce plan sparks ire in India - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16602/story.htm
Mont Blanc tunnel traffic calm after protests - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16605/story.htm
IAEA warns against "regionalising" nuclear safety - FINLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16595/story.htm
France, Ireland to face EU court over ship safety - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16604/story.htm
Activists loudly protest but G8 leaders miss show - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16598/story.htm
EU says beats US on greener energy policies - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16591/story.htm
UN says materials for dirty bomb easy to find - AUSTRIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16594/story.htm
6/27/02
6:08:50 PM
Public Citizen issued the following two press releases today:
1) Consumer Groups Sue Over Tire Pressure Monitoring Rule; Rule is Arbitrary and Capricious, Groups Say
2) Proposed Changes to Nuclear Transportation Rule Reflect Dangerous Trend to Weaken Role of U.S. Regulators
June 26, 2002
Consumer Groups Sue Over Tire Pressure Monitoring Rule
Rule is Arbitrary and Capricious, Groups Say
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Public Citizen, New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) and the Center for Auto Safety today sued the Secretary of Transportation over a rule it issued last month addressing tire pressure monitoring systems. The groups challenge the rule as arbitrary and capricious because it allows manufacturers to choose to install either an effective system or an inferior system. The inferior system, by the agency's own admission, will fail to prevent numerous preventable accident fatalities and serious injuries.
The suit was filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York City.
Underinflated tires are associated with hundreds of deaths and serious injuries each year and also decrease fuel efficiency. In late 2000, following the Firestone tire tragedy, Congress directed the Secretary of Transportation to issue a rule requiring vehicles to contain warning systems to alert drivers when a tire was significantly underinflated. The Secretary delegated that task to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which issued a final rule on May 30, 2002.
In both its proposed and final regulations, NHTSA identified two types of available monitoring systems - the direct system and the indirect system. As NHTSA explicitly recognized, the direct system is far superior; in contrast to the indirect system, it can detect a lower level of underinflation in every tire, on any road surface, as soon as the vehicle is turned on.
The indirect system, although for cars with anti-lock brakes is marginally less expensive to install, does not detect underinflation if all four tires or if two tires are underinflated, does not work on bumpy roads, and does not work until the vehicle has been driven for at least 10 minutes.
NHTSA's analysis predicted that the direct system would save more lives and prevent more serious injuries than the indirect system. Yet, under pressure from the White House's Office of Management and Budget, NHTSA weakened its final rule, allowing manufacturers to install either type of system in new vehicles indefinitely. In fact, the schedule for phasing in the warning system requirement in new cars will allow manufacturers to comply with the new regulation by using the inferior system almost exclusively for at least four years.
"Knowing whether your tires are underinflated is so important and so basic. The right system for consumers is obvious," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen, a national consumer advocacy organization. "By allowing manufacturers to install inferior monitoring systems, the government is derelict in its duty to protect the public, and the regulatory process is undermined."
As administrator of NHTSA in the late 1970s, Claybrook proposed that a tire monitoring safety system be adopted, but the idea was dropped by the Reagan administration.
"As the agency charged with making our cars and roads safer, NHTSA is supposed to put public safety, not industry interests, first," said NYPIRG legislative counsel Russ Haven. "Now it's up to the federal court to direct NHTSA to comply with Congress's tire-safety law, born of the Ford Explorer-Firestone Tire debacle, to prevent avoidable deaths and injuries."
Added Clarence Ditlow, executive director of the Center for Auto Safety, "Indirect tire pressure sensors are a second-rate solution to first-rate safety problems. American consumers deserve the best system to save lives, not the second-best system to save auto companies money."
The lawsuit was initiated by filing a petition for review. Public Citizen, NYPIRG and the Center for Auto Safety are being represented by Allison Zieve of the Public Citizen Litigation Group. A copy of the petition is available at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/PCvMinetaPetition.pdf.
xoxox
June 26, 2002
Proposed Changes to Nuclear Transportation Rule Reflect Dangerous Trend to Weaken Role of U.S. Regulators
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's (NRC) proposed changes to safety standards for transporting radioactive material would endanger public health and safety, groups opposing nuclear waste shipments to Nevada's Yucca Mountain repository said today. The NRC held a public meeting on proposed changes to 10 CFR 71 at its Rockville, Md., headquarters this week. The changes are an attempt to "harmonize" U.S. regulations with weaker international standards. The Department of Transportation (DOT) also is proposing a parallel harmonization rulemaking.
"This is nuclear shipment safety as written by nuclear industry lobbyists - not government safety officials," said Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group.
While the proposed rollback threatens protections for many types of radioactive shipments, it could have a spillover effect on standards for transporting high-level nuclear waste and irradiated fuel from commercial nuclear power plants - just as the nuclear industry is pushing a shipment plant of unprecedented magnitude to the Yucca Mountain repository in Nevada. In particular, proposed changes would weaken reporting requirements of events involving defective or shoddy high-level nuclear waste transport containers, and allow the nuclear industry to make design changes to licensed containers without prior NRC approval.
"The NRC admits that there is no quantitative data which would conclusively show that harmonization improves public safety," said Bob Halstead, transportation advisor to the Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects. "We are particularly concerned about NRC's proposal to weaken the containment standards for plutonium waste shipments to the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) facility in New Mexico."
International standards also feature more lenient submersion test requirements for high-level nuclear waste shipping canisters and specify allowable levels of contamination on shipments - although the NRC is not currently proposing to adopt these changes.
"This proposed rulemaking fails to address any of our longstanding concerns about the inadequacies of regulatory standards governing irradiated fuel shipments," said Lisa Gue, policy analyst with Public Citizen. "It does not even consider the specific implications of this administration's plan to ship an unprecedented 77,000 tons of high-level nuclear waste on the roads, rails and waterways of 44 states and the District of Columbia.". The International Atomic Energy Association (IAEA), established in 1957 to promote nuclear technology internationally, has encouraged its 130 member countries - including the United States - to adopt its international standards for nuclear waste transportation, disposal and release into commerce.
"This trend of invoking international standards as a justification for undermining more stringent domestic requirements does not bode well for NRC and DOT regulation of proposed nuclear waste repository shipments," Gue said.
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.Citizen.org
6/27/02
6:06:51 PM
FAIR-Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY: Euphemisms for Israeli Settlements Confuse Coverage
June 26, 2002
The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported last month (5/31/02) that at the behest of a Likud party minister, the Israel Broadcasting Authority has banned its editorial departments from using the terms "settlers" or "settlements" on radio and TV. According to Ha'aretz, "it is not clear if the editors will obey the order," which was seen as an attempt by the new IBA director to curry favor with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. What does seem clear is that settlements-- housing built on land illegally seized by Israel after the 1967 war-- are such a contentious issue within Israel that the Israeli government would like to stop reporters from even saying the word.
Nonetheless, the opinion pages of an Israeli paper like Ha'aretz often show a franker debate over Israel's aggressive settlement policy than one can generally find in mainstream U.S. media. Direct government interference doesn't seem to have been necessary to convince some major U.S. news outlets to avoid honest investigation of settlements, and sometimes even to avoid the word itself.
The "neighborhood" of Gilo
This may be partly due to campaigns by pressure groups within the U.S. Take the case of Gilo, an Israeli settlement that some pro-settler groups have used as a focal point for their campaigns to eliminate the term "settlements" in favor of "neighborhoods." In September 2001, CNN changed its policy on how to characterize Gilo: "We refer to Gilo as 'a Jewish neighborhood on the outskirts of Jerusalem, built on land occupied by Israel in 1967.' We don't refer to it as a settlement," said the order from CNN headquarters. CNN denies that its decision was a concession to outside pressure, but according to veteran Middle East reporter Robert Fisk (London Independent, 9/3/01), sources within the network said that the switch followed "months of internal debate in CNN, which has been constantly criticized by CNN Watch, honestreporting.com and other pro-Israeli pressure groups."
CNN is far from the only outlet that has trouble identifying Gilo. Media critic Ali Abunimah pointed out in a June 20 letter to NPR that the network's coverage of the recent suicide bombings which killed 26 Israelis incorrectly asserted that the attacks took place in "Jerusalem." In fact, they occurred in the settlements of Gilo and French Hill, both of which are outside of Jerusalem's traditional city limits, on land illegally annexed by Israel. Abunimah explained that "while absolutely nothing can justify such attacks... geographical accuracy in reporting remains supremely important," especially given the emotional intensity of the subject.
A close reading of some of the New York Times' recent coverage of settlements illustrates the politics that may be at work in such cases. In a May 29 article about Palestinian attacks on Israelis, Times correspondent John Kifner reported the Israeli army's efforts to erect fortified barriers between Bethlehem and Gilo, which Kifner described as "a nearby East Jerusalem neighborhood, where a sprawling Jewish area has been built on land seized after the war of 1967." The sentence would have been a lot easier to parse if Kifner had called Gilo what it is: an Israeli settlement.
As Kifner indicated, Gilo is built on land seized by Israel after the 1967 war. What the Times left unsaid, however, is that this seizure is illegal under international law. Gilo, like other Israeli settlements on "seized" land, was built in violation of U.N. Security Council Resolution 446, which states that Israeli settlements built on land occupied since 1967 "have no legal validity and constitute a serious obstruction to achieving a comprehensive, just and lasting peace." Resolution 446 also calls on Israel to observe the Fourth Geneva Convention, which states that an occupying power "shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies." Since 446 was passed in 1979, the U.N. has issued other resolutions "deploring" Israel's failure to comply with it.
Again, Gilo's status as an illegal settlement does not justify the Palestinian killings of civilians there, but it is central to understanding why Gilo is such a hot spot. For news outlets to report on Gilo simply as a Jerusalem neighborhood under attack, without explaining its legal status, is a gross distortion-- especially since the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, which has claimed so many thousands of lives, is at bottom about who should control the land. Settlements have been a central point of contention throughout.
According to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem, the settler population in the West Bank (excluding East Jerusalem) increased almost 100 percent between 1993 and 2000, and there are now 380,000 Israelis living in West Bank settlements (including East Jerusalem). In a May 13 report, "Land Grab," B'Tselem argues that this illegal growth is a result of Israel's policy of de facto annexing Palestinian land through a variety of mechanisms, including economic incentives for settlers so large that in the year 2000, "settlement regional councils received grants averaging 165 percent more than their counterparts in Israel." B'Tselem found that while "the built-up areas of the settlements" constitute only 1.7 percent of the West Bank, the settlements' broad municipal boundaries and their regional councils mean that in fact, settlements control a full 41.9 percent of West Bank land.
Struggles and shrieks
The New York Times certainly isn't the only or worst offender in terms of inaccurate coverage of settlements, but some of its recent articles are instructive in how poor attention to detail on settlements can muddy the waters in an outlet's coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict as a whole. Kifner's May 30 Times article about 6 Israeli civilians killed by Palestinians does consistently use the term "settlement" where appropriate. But the article's lead seems crafted to give the impression that the legality of settlements is simply a matter of perpective. Kifner described one of the people killed as "a 17-year-old yeshiva student in what he believed to be the land of Israel who was killed by a Palestinian gunman who believed the land was his." The question of legality is not clarified elsewhere. The sympathy shown throughout the article for the Israeli victims and their loved ones is perfectly appropriate. What's less appropriate, however, is Kifner's failure to contextualize the complicated and deadly issue of settlements in a framework of international law.
Kifner repeated this "he says, she says" approach in a June 4 article. He described the construction of an Israeli multi-million dollar luxury development on Palestinian land as something that would be "a neighborhood to Jews, a settlement to Arabs." Explaining the enormous growth in the settler population since the 1993 Oslo accords, Kifner noted that settlements have "generated Palestinian anger and frustration." Again, this gives the impression that there's no arbiter in the controversy, only the emotional claims of competing ethnic groups.
The sources cited in the Times article give additional insight into how U.S. cultural affinities may be influencing the slant of American reporting on settlements. Canvassing local perspectives on the luxury development, Kifner spoke with both Jews and Palestinians. Or rather, he spoke with those that he shared a language with.
Jerusalem's mayor is quoted explaining that the new construction is a sign of the positive influence of "diligent private entrepreneurs that know how to make economic considerations," and one of the developers "proudly" extolled the amenities of the "neighborhood" being built. In a striking contrast, the Arabs quoted by Kifner are presented as simply shrieking garbled objections-- because they didn't speak English:
"The Arabs down the slope were less sanguine. In a grocery store, the anger was palpable. 'This land, my father, my cousin,' said the owner, Mohammed Abedat, struggling in limited English. 'Turkey here, Britannia here, Israel no.'
"An old woman, dressed in a traditional embroidered garment, shrieked at a passing bulldozer."
It seems that in the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, a lot can get lost in translation.
Source: http://www.FAIR.org
6/27/02
6:03:29 PM
Palestinian Elections Now
Palestinians have seldom faced a worse, or a more seminal, moment.
by Edward Said
Six distinct calls for Palestinian reform and elections are being uttered now: five of them are, for Palestinian purposes, both useless and irrelevant. Sharon wants reform as a way of further disabling Palestinian national life, that is, as an extension of his failed policy of constant intervention and destruction. He wants to be rid of Yasser Arafat, cut up the West Bank into fenced-in cantons, re-install an occupation authority --preferably with some Palestinians helping out -- carry on with settlement activity, and maintain Israeli security the way he's been doing it. He is too blinded by his own ideological hallucinations and obsessions to see that this will neither bring peace nor security, and will certainly not bring the "quiet" he keeps prattling on about. Palestinian elections in the Sharonian scheme are quite unimportant.
Second, the United States wants reform principally as a way of combating "terrorism," a panacea of a word that takes no account of history, context, society or anything else. George Bush has a visceral dislike for Arafat, and no understanding at all of the Palestinian situation. To say that he and his disheveled administration "want" anything is to dignify a series of spurts, fits, starts, retractions, denunciations, totally contradictory statements, sterile missions by various officials of his administration, and about-faces, with the status of an over-all desire, which of course doesn't exist. Incoherent, except when it comes to the pressures and agendas of the Israeli lobby and the Christian Right whose spiritual head he now is, Bush's policy consists in reality of calls for Arafat to end terrorism, and (when he wants to placate the Arabs) for someone somewhere somehow to produce a Palestinian state and a big conference, and finally, for Israel to go on getting full and unconditional US support including most probably ending Arafat's career. Beyond that, US policy waits to be formulated, by someone, somewhere, somehow. One should always keep in mind though that the Middle East is a domestic, not a foreign, policy issue in America and subject to dynamics within the society that are difficult to predict.
All this perfectly suits the Israeli demand, which wants nothing more than to make Palestinian life collectively more miserable and more unlivable, whether by military incursions or by impossible political conditions that suit Sharon's frenzied obsession with stamping out Palestinians forever. Of course there are other Israelis who want co- existence with a Palestinian state, as there are American Jews who want similar things, but neither group has any determining power now. Sharon and the Bush administration run the show.
Third, is the Arab leaders' demand which as far as I can tell is a combination of several different elements, none of them directly helpful to the Palestinians themselves. First is fear of their own populations who have been witnessing Israel's mass and essentially unopposed destruction of the Palestinian territories without any serious Arab interference or attempt at deterrence. The Beirut summit peace plan offers Israel precisely what Sharon has refused, which is land for peace, and it is a proposal without any teeth, much less one with a timetable. While it may be a good thing to have it on record as a counter-weight to Israel's naked belligerence, we should have no illusions about its real intention which, like the calls for Palestinian reform, are really tokens offered to seething Arab populations who are thoroughly sick with the mediocre inaction of their rulers. Second, of course, is the sheer exasperation of most of the Arab regimes with the whole Palestinian problem. They seem to have no ideological problem with Israel as a Jewish state without any declared boundaries, which has been in illegal military occupation of Jerusalem, Gaza and the West Bank for 35 years, or with Israel's dispossession of the Palestinian people. They are prepared to accommodate nicely those terrible injustices if only Arafat and his people would simply either behave or quietly go away. Third, of course, is the long-standing desire of Arab leaders to ingratiate themselves with the US and, among themselves, to vie for the title of most important US ally. Perhaps they are simply unaware of how contemptuous most Americans are of them, and how little understood or regarded is their cultural and political status in the US.
Fourth, in the chorus of reform are the Europeans. But they only scurry around sending emissaries to see Sharon and Arafat, they make ringing declarations in Brussels, they fund a few projects and more or less leave it at that, so great is the shadow of the US over them.
Fifth, is Yasser Arafat and his circle of associates who have suddenly discovered the virtues (theoretically at least) of democracy and reform. I know that I speak at a great distance from the field of struggle, and I also know all the arguments about the besieged Arafat as a potent symbol of Palestinian resistance against Israeli aggression, but I have come to a point where I think none of that has any meaning anymore. Arafat is simply interested in saving himself. He has had almost ten years of freedom to run a petty kingdom and has succeeded essentially in bringing opprobrium and scorn on himself and most of his team; the Authority became a byword for brutality, autocracy and unimaginable corruption. Why anyone for a moment believes that at this stage he is capable of anything different, or that his new streamlined cabinet (dominated by the same old faces of defeat and incompetence) is going to produce actual reform, defies reason. He is the leader of a long suffering people, whom in the past year he has exposed to unacceptable pain and hardship, all of it based on a combination of his absence of a strategic plan and his unforgivable reliance on the tender mercies of Israel and the US via Oslo. Leaders of independence and liberation movements have no business exposing their unarmed people to the savagery of war criminals like Sharon, against whom there was no real defence or advance preparation. Why then provoke a war whose victims would be mostly innocent people when you have neither the military capacity to fight one nor the diplomatic leverage to end it? Having done this now three times (Jordan, Lebanon, West Bank) Arafat should not be given a chance to bring on a fourth disaster.
He has announced that elections will take place in early 2003, but his real concentration is to reorganise the security services. I have long pointed out in these columns that Arafat's security apparatus was always designed principally to serve him and Israel, since the Oslo accords were based on his having made a deal with Israel's military occupation. Israel cared only about its security, for which it held Arafat responsible (a position, by the way, he willingly accepted as early as 1992). In the meantime Arafat used the 15 or 19 or whatever the right number of groups was to play each off against the other, a tactic he perfected in Fakahani, and which is patently stupid so far as the general good is concerned. He never really reined in Hamas and Islamic Jihad which suited Israel perfectly: it would have a ready-made excuse to use the so-called martyr's (mindless) suicide bombings to further diminish and punish the whole people. If there is one thing along with Arafat's ruinous regime that has done us more harm as a cause it is this calamitous policy of killing Israeli civilians, which further proves to the world that we are indeed terrorists and an immoral movement. For what gain no one has been able to say.
Having therefore made a deal with the occupation through Oslo, Arafat was never really in a position to lead a movement to end it. And ironically, he is trying to make another deal now, both to save himself and prove to the US, Israel and the other Arabs that he deserves another chance. I myself don't care a whit for what Bush, or the Arab leaders, or Sharon says: I am interested in what we as a people think of our leader, and there I believe we must be absolutely clear in rejecting his entire programme of reform, elections, reorganising the government and security services. His record of failure is too dismal and his capacities as a leader too enfeebled and incompetent for him to try yet again to save himself for another try.
Sixth, finally, is the Palestinian people who are now justifiably clamouring both for reform and elections. As far as I am concerned, this clamour is the only legitimate one of the six I have outlined here. It's important to point out that Arafat's present administration as well as the Legislative Council have overstayed their original term, which should have ended with a new round of elections in 1999. Moreover, the whole basis of the 1996 elections were the Oslo accords, which in effect simply licensed Arafat and his people to run bits of the West Bank and Gaza for the Israelis, without true sovereignty or security, since Israel retained control of the borders, security, land (on which it doubled and even tripled the settlements), water and air. In other words, the old basis for elections and reform, which had been Oslo, is now null and void. Any attempt to go forward on that kind of platform is simply a wasteful ploy and will produce neither reform nor real elections. Hence the current confusion which causes every Palestinian everywhere to feel chagrin and bitter frustration.
What then is to be done if the old basis of Palestinian legitimacy no longer really exists? Certainly there can be no return to Oslo, anymore than there can be to Jordanian or Israeli law. As a student of periods of important historical change, I should like to point out that when a major rupture with the past occurred (as during the period after the fall of the monarchy because of the French Revolution, or with the demise of apartheid in South Africa before the elections of 1994 took place), a new basis of legitimacy has to be created by the only and ultimate source of authority, namely, the people itself. The major interests in Palestinian society, those that have kept life going, from the trade unions, to health workers, teachers, farmers, lawyers, doctors, in addition to all the many NGOs must now become the basis on which Palestinian reform -- despite Israel's incursions and the occupation -- is to be constructed. It seems to me useless to wait for Arafat, or Europe, or the US, or the Arabs to do this: it must absolutely be done by Palestinians themselves by way of a Constituent Assembly that contains in it all the major elements of Palestinian society. Only such a group, constructed by the people themselves and not by the remnants of the Oslo dispensation, certainly not by the shabby fragments of Arafat's discredited Authority, can hope to succeed in re- organising society from the ruinous, indeed catastrophically incoherent condition in which it is to be found. The basic job for such an Assembly is to construct an emergency system of order that has two purposes. One, to keep Palestinian life going in an orderly way with full participation for all concerned. Two, to choose an emergency executive committee whose mandate is to end the occupation, not negotiate with it. It is quite obvious that militarily we are no match for Israel. Kalishnikoffs are not effective weapons when the balance of power is so lopsided. What is needed is a creative method of struggle that mobilises all the human resources at our disposal to highlight, isolate and gradually make untenable the main aspects of Israeli occupation e.g., settlements, settlement roads, roadblocks and house demolitions. The present group around Arafat is hopelessly incapable of thinking of, much less implementing, such a strategy: it is too bankrupt, too bound up in corrupt selfish practices, too burdened with the failures of the past.
For such a Palestinian strategy to work there has to be an Israeli component made up of individuals and groups with whom a common basis of struggle against occupation can and indeed must be established. This is the great lesson of the South African struggle: that it proposed the vision of a multi- racial society from which neither individuals nor groups and leaders were ever deflected. The only vision coming out of Israel today is violence, forcible separation and the continued subordination of Palestinians to an idea of Jewish supremacy. Not every Israeli believes in these things of course, but it must be up to us to project the idea of co-existence in two states that have natural relations with each other on the basis of sovereignty and equality. Mainstream Zionism has still not been able to produce such a vision, so it must come from the Palestinian people and their new leaders whose new legitimacy has to be constructed now, at a moment when everything is crashing down and everyone is anxious to re-make Palestine in his own image and according to his own ideas.
We have never faced a worse, or at the same time, a more seminal moment. The Arab order is in total disarray; the US administration is effectively controlled by the Christian Right and the Israeli lobby (within 24 hours, everything that George Bush seems to have agreed with President Mubarak was reversed by Sharon's visit); and our society has been nearly wrecked by poor leadership and the insanity of thinking that suicide bombing will lead directly to an Islamic Palestinian state. There is always hope for the future, but one has to able to look for it and find it in the right place. It is quite clear that in the absence of any serious Palestinian or Arab information policy in the United States (especially in the Congress) we cannot for a moment delude ourselves that Powell and Bush are about to set a real agenda for Palestinian rehabilitation. That's why I keep saying that the effort must come from us, by us, for us. I'm at least trying to suggest a different avenue of approach. Who else but the Palestinian people can construct the legitimacy they need to rule themselves and fight the occupation with weapons that don't kill innocents and lose us more support than ever before? A just cause can easily be subverted by evil or inadequate or corrupt means. The sooner this is realised the better the chance we have to lead ourselves out of the present impasse.
Source: http://www.ahram.org.eg/weekly/2002/590/op2.htm
6/27/02
6:00:18 PM
Top four nations of death penalty executions
1. China
2. Iran
3. Saudi Arabia
4. United States
*Source: Amnesty International
6/27/02
5:58:54 PM
Idea of Olympic cease-fire gains backing of Orthodox leaders
Warsaw (ENI). A movement to revive the ancient Olympic truce under which wars were suspended during the Olympic Games has gained the support of half a dozen Orthodox patriarchs. The Orthodox leaders have added their names to those of 100 other church and government leaders who have signed a formal appeal for a worldwide truce during the games, scheduled for Athens in 2004. "If the Olympic Truce can help us bring about even a brief respite from conflict and strife, it will send a powerful message of hope to the international community," says the appeal, launched in November of last year.
Source: http://www.SoJo.net
6/27/02
5:39:27 PM
Silly Wabbit
The Justice Department took a rabbit and let it loose in the woods. They told the CIA to go find it. After two weeks the CIA returned empty handed and reported the rabbit never existed. The missing rabbit was then turned over to the FBI who burned down the forest and reported back that the rabbit had it coming. Next the L.A. police department was given the assignment. They returned with a beat-up raccoon who was yelling, "I am a rabbit, I am a rabbit!"
6/27/02
5:32:53 PM
The G-8 Can't Keep Out Moral Scrutiny
by Jim Wallis
This week the heads of the Group of 8 - the world's leading industrialized nations - are holding their annual summit in Canada. The richest and most powerful countries will be meeting at a very remote resort deep in the Canadian wilderness. Presumably, it wasn't the spectacular scenery that drew them, but an out-of-the way location, far away from easy access for protesters. They may or may not succeed in keeping the demonstrators away, but they will not be able to keep out the moral scrutiny of their actions. Once again, issues of debt relief, especially for Africa, are on the agenda.
It's only been four years since 70,000 people formed a human chain around the G-8 meeting in Birmingham, England, marking the first major appearance of the Jubilee movement. Much has been accomplished in the years since then. The network of celebrities, faith communities, and millions of people around the world have brought a moral spotlight to the unsustainable indebtedness of the world's poorest countries. And the world has begun to address the problem.
The limited debt relief provided to these poor countries has made some significant changes in living conditions. Jubilee USA reports, for example, that in Uganda, debt savings were used to double elementary school enrollment; in Mozambique half a million were vaccinated against deadly diseases. Tanzania used debt savings to eliminate school fees and 1.5 million children will be able to return to school this year, while in Honduras savings went toward access to junior high school for all young people.
Yet major problems remain with the "Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative" (HIPC) - as the current program is called.
Only 26 of the 42 countries considered to be "heavily indebted poor" have qualified for relief and their annual debt payments only reduced by 1/3. And the relief that is offered takes too long to provide any real benefit. After six years of the HIPC, only five countries have completed the program.
It also provides too little relief. The HIPC defines "debt sustainability" as countries whose outstanding debt is 150% more than its annual exports. Only those countries are eligible for relief. But that definition is already outdated - as prices drop for exports, the relief will end up being too small to reduce the debt for many countries to even that "sustainable" level of 150% of exports. Uganda, for example, has completed the program, but still has an "unsustainable" debt projected by the World Bank at 250% of exports.
More equitable trade practices are also crucial to seriously reduce poverty. Countries who rely on the export of raw materials to the industrialized world are simply at the mercy of market forces that lead to further indebtedness.
This G-8 Summit will have a special focus on Africa. Jubilee notes that half of the countries in Africa pay more on debt service than on health care while 6,000 people a day are dying from AIDS. Estimates are that stopping the epidemic would cost $7-10 billion annually, while Africa pays $13.5 billion annually on debt service. It is past time to label such policies for what they are - unconscionable (not to mention stupid).
African leaders have developed a plan they call the "New Partnership for African Development" that would provide greater aid and investment - a "Marshall Plan for Africa." The plan will be presented to the G-8 leaders with the support of Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan. It includes increased aid along with fairer trade and investment policies.
Definitive debt cancellation coupled with trade justice, rather than flawed, piecemeal programs, is now crucial for addressing global economic inequality and improving the lives of millions of the poorest of the poor around the world. Debt, aid, and trade are the pillars of global poverty reduction, and they are becoming the moral imperatives of a growing popular movement, which has strong support in the faith community. You can run off to the resort, but you can't hide from that moral challenge.
Source: http://www.SoJo.net
6/27/02
12:49:36 AM
Bush Hits the Trifecta, America Hits the Skids
by Radfringe, March 6, 2002
From Reuters:
"He's reminded them this is a very serious matter that when it comes to risking the default of the United States government in the pursuit of politics, that is something the American people will not welcome," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.
"He hopes they will not politicize this issue," Fleischer told reporters as Bush was traveling to North Carolina for a political event.
From the New York Times:
House Republicans are exploring whether a March deadline for raising the federal debt limit can be postponed to delay an election-year showdown that Democrats hope to use to tar the GOP for renewed budget deficits.
It is unclear whether the Bush administration will cooperate. President Bush said Wednesday it would be "inappropriate to play politics with the debt ceiling,'' and the Treasury Department renewed its demand for an immediate debt limit increase.
Meanwhile in North Carolina pResident Bush jokes about hitting the Trifecta:
Remarks by the President to Robin Hayes for Congress and Elizabeth Dole for Senate North Carolina Republican Party Luncheon
"And we've got a job to do at home, as well. You know, I was campaigning in Chicago and somebody asked me, is there ever any time where the budget might have to go into deficit? I said only if we were at war or had a national emergency or were in recession. (Laughter.) Little did I realize we'd get the trifecta. (Laughter.) But we're fine."
Does Bush also find this funny?
THE EMPLOYMENT SITUATION: JANUARY 2002 Employment continued to decline in January.
In January, the number of persons not in the labor force who reported that they currently want a job rose by 163,000 to 4.8 million, seasonally adjusted.
With weekly Terrorist Alerts, apprehension about the economy, and worries about the escalation of military action, do you feel lucky that Bush hit the Trifecta? Bush continues to speak with one lip expressing compassion and concern, while with the other lip he is turning a serious matter into a lounge act - using the economy, September 11, and the War on Terror to raise money for his party.
Do the Americans on unemployment find it amusing and lucky that Bush hit the Trifecta? Do the families that lost loved ones on September 11 find it funny and lucky that Bush hit the Trifecta? Are the Enron employees laughing about how lucky Bush is to hit the Trifecta?
Bush, the Republicans and their corporate friends may find it funny. It may be amusing to turn tragic events and circumstances into fodder for fundraisers. Many checks are being written for these great one liners. Legislation being dictated to the White House in exchange for all those dollars. Isn't that a knee-slapper?
We had eight years of peace, prosperity, and an historical surplus. Within one year under Bush, Republican and corporate leadership we have a war, a recession and a deficit. Our financial security, our safety, and our freedoms are in jeopardy. This is our Trifecta. Do you find it amusing? Do you feel lucky? Well, do you?
Source: http://www.DemocraticUnderground.com
6/27/02
12:37:32 AM
Jet Violates White House Airspace
BBC, Wednesday, April 3, 2002
A passenger jet has violated airspace restrictions above the White House, flying as low as 300 meters (1,000 feet) over the home of the US president.
The two pilots of Frontier Airlines flight 819 have been suspended after reportedly acknowledging errors that took the plane through the most restricted airspace in the United States.
The plane failed to make a steep turn after take-off and flew almost directly over the White House, where President George W Bush was at the time.
There have always been security precautions for government buildings in Washington, but these were tightened after the 11 September attack on the Pentagon - and fighter jets continue to patrol the skies.
The Frontier Boeing 737 plane took off from Reagan National Airport - just across the Potomac River from the Washington landmarks - at 1815 local time (2345 GMT) heading for Denver, Colorado.
A spokeswoman for the US Federal Aviation Administration said the plane's pilot was contacted by air traffic controllers and acknowledged making an error.
Laura Brown said: "The pilot missed the first turning point.
"He did manage to go through part of the restricted airspace."
She said the plane was monitored by "appropriate security agencies".
Pentagon attacks
A spokeswoman for the Denver-based airline, Tracey Kelly, said the pilots had been grounded by the carrier until federal and company investigations were completed.
"We're working with the FAA and the TSA [Transportation Security Administration] to determine what happened and make sure it does not happen again," Ms Kelly said.
Before the 11 September attacks on the Pentagon and New York, flights departing Reagan National Airport followed the Potomac River, bringing planes close to CIA headquarters, the White House, the Capitol and the Pentagon.
White House security officials were reluctant to reopen the airport after the attacks and allowed flights to resume only gradually.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1908000/1908646.stm
6/26/02
5:48:22 PM
WorldCom Says It Hid Expenses, Inflating Cash Flow $3.8 Billion
by Simon Romero and Alex Berenson
After falling as low as 9 cents in pre-market trading on Instinet today, trading in shares of WorldCom, the nation's second-largest long-distance carrier, was halted this morning on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The developments came after the company revealed last night that it had overstated its cash flow by more than $3.8 billion during the last five quarters.
On Tuesday, WorldCom fell 8 cents, or 8.8 percent, to 83 cents and plunged as low as 26 cents in after-hours trading. The problems at WorldCom weighed heavily on the stock market today, dragging each of the major indexes down.
Shortly before 3 p.m., major market indexes were all in negative territory for the session.
The Dow Jones industrial average was down more than 138 points, or more than 1.5 percent, to 8988.33. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down more than 15 points, or more than 1.6 percent, to 960.09. And the Nasdaq composite index was down more than 18 points, or more than 1.3 percent, at 1405.29.
Trading in Worldcom Inc. shares remained suspended on the Nasdaq stock market.
WorldCom, which had a peak value of $115.3 billion in June 1999 when its shares reached a high of $62, is now worth less than $1 billion.
The unfolding WorldCom scandal easily overshadowed the news today from the Federal Reserve Board, which decided to leave a major short-term interest rate unchanged, noting that while the economy is improving the pace of the recovery is not strong enough to warrant an increase in rates.
The Open Market Committee, which wound up a two-day meeting this afternoon, has left the overnight federal funds rate at 1.75 percent, its lowest level in more than 40 years, for the last eight months. Last year the central bank lowered the funds rate 11 times.
The WorldCom story also commanded attention from President Bush who was in Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada, for the opening day of a summit of wealthy nations.
He called the reported problems at WorldCom outrageous and said that the federal government "will fully investigate and hold people accountable."
"There is some concern about the validity of the balance sheet of corporate America and I can understand why," the president said during a photo opportunity with British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
"We've had too many cases of people abusing their responsibilities and people just need to know that the SEC is on it, our government is on it, and Arthur Andersen has been prosecuted. We will pursue, within our laws, those who are irresponsible."
The problems at WorldCom, discovered during an internal audit, throws into doubt the survival of WorldCom and MCI, the long-distance company it acquired in 1998. The company, which was already the subject of a federal investigation into its accounting practices, has been struggling to refinance $30 billion in debt. Its credit was relegated to junk-bond status last month, and even before last night's announcement, the stock price was down more than 94 percent so far this year.
Some analysts now see a bankruptcy filing as a strong possibility, which would follow the pattern of Enron, Global Crossing and other companies laid low by accounting scandals since last fall. In an effort to avoid that fate, WorldCom said last night that it would cut 17,000 employees, or one-fifth of its work force. Analysts had been expecting a job cut of that magnitude for several weeks.
Instead of the profit of $1.4 billion the company reported in 2001 and $130 million in this year's first quarter, WorldCom now says it lost money during those periods, although it did not say how much.
In disclosing the bookkeeping problem, WorldCom said it had fired its chief financial officer, Scott D. Sullivan, the executive widely credited with helping orchestrate the financial strategy during the mid-to-late 1990's that enabled WorldCom to rise from a second-tier telecommunications company to a world giant through a series of acquisitions that included the $30 billion purchase of MCI in 1998.
Mr. Sullivan had been the executive closest to Bernard J. Ebbers, the company's longtime chief executive, who abruptly resigned in April, owing WorldCom more than $366 million for loans and loan guarantees the company had made to him.
WorldCom's board said it had fired Mr. Sullivan after discovering a strategy in which operating costs like basic network maintenance had been booked as capital investments, an accounting gimmick that enabled WorldCom to hide expenses, inflate its cash flow and report profits instead of losses. Until last month, WorldCom's auditor had been Arthur Andersen, the accounting firm that also audited the books of Enron and Global Crossing.
Arthur Andersen issued a statement last night saying that WorldCom's chief financial officer had not told the firm about the accounting techniques now being called into question. "Our work for WorldCom complied with S.E.C. and professional standards at all times," the statement said.
WorldCom replaced Arthur Andersen with KPMG last month and said last night that it had asked KPMG to undertake a comprehensive audit of the company's financial statements for 2001 and 2002.
"Our senior management team is shocked by these discoveries," said John W. Sidgmore, who became WorldCom's chief executive after Mr. Ebbers left in April. "I want to assure our customers and employees that the company remains viable and committed to a long-term future."
But it remains to be seen how WorldCom's customers will react to the disclosure of the massive accounting irregularities. In addition to providing millions of consumers with long-distance service through its MCI unit, WorldCom sells sophisticated data communications services to many of the world's largest companies.
In addition to dismissing Mr. Sullivan, WorldCom's board said it had accepted the resignation of David Myers as senior vice president and financial controller. The company said it had notified the Securities and Exchange Commission, which had already been investigating the company's accounting. WorldCom also said it was hiring William R. McLucas, the former chief of the enforcement division of the S.E.C., to conduct an independent investigation.
Mr. Sullivan was unavailable for comment.
The S.E.C. said in a statement released early today that the disclosures confirmed "accounting improprieties of unprecedented magnitude."
The statement, by Christi Harlan, director of public affairs, said the commission was ordering the company to file, under oath, "a detailed report of the circumstances and specifics of these matters."
The agency also said the events "further demonstrate the need for comprehensive market regulatory reforms that the administration, the Congress and the S.E.C. have been advocating and implementing."
The company said last night that it had informed its main bank lenders of the bookkeeping problems. It is currently in tense negotiations with its banks, a group led by Citigroup, Bank of America and J. P. Morgan Chase, about restructuring lines of credit worth about $5 billion.
Last night's disclosure is expected to add to the problems of telecommunications companies to arrange financing as the industry's long slump continues.
"This is horrible for the industry," said Susan Kalla, senior telecommunications analyst at Friedman, Billings & Ramsey. "If we can't hang our hat on historical numbers, why should we believe in the present figures?"
The size of Worldcom's restatement surprised even hardened short-sellers — investors who profit when stocks fall and generally view corporate America with skepticism. "I'm kind of shaken by that," said James Chanos, a short-seller who played a major role in unearthing Enron's overstated profits and hidden debt. "I'm about as cynical as they come. It's pretty amazing."
Particularly disturbing, Mr. Chanos said, is that WorldCom had manipulated its cash flow statements, not just its reported earnings. Investors used to believe that cash flow was a more reliable indicator of a company's financial health because the number could not be manipulated as easily as earnings, but that assumption now appears to be wrong. WorldCom now joins a list that includes Dynegy, Adelphia Communications and Tyco International as companies that have apparently used financial gimmicks to inflate their cash flow.
"The one touchstone that investors had was that you couldn't fudge cash flow numbers, but apparently you can," Mr. Chanos said. "Like any system, it can be gamed if enough people are looking at something, an unscrupulous management will find a way to game it."
WorldCom's news rattled investors in other companies. In after-hours trading, technology and telecom stocks and broad market indexes plunged after word of the accounting problem, first reported by the financial news cable network CNBC. Stocks had already fallen in regular trading yesterday. The Nasdaq 100 index, composed mainly of big technology stocks, fell almost 3 percent in after-hours trading, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index of major companies dropped more than 1.5 percent.
David Tice, another short-seller, said WorldCom's rise and fall was emblematic of larger problems in Wall Street and corporate America.
When WorldCom's stock was rising, Mr. Tice said, investors cheered its acquisition binge and paid little attention to how the company generated its profits. That attitude, he said, encouraged the company to stretch accounting rules and take ever-bigger risks in an effort to keep its stock rising.
During the late 1990's, "the executives, the money managers, the auditors, the C.F.O.'s, the C.E.O.'s, the ones that got ahead were the most reckless, the least ethical," Mr. Tice said.
"The most reckless guys were the ones that ended up having the most power and the highest market valuations," he said.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/26/business/26CND-TELE.html
6/26/02
5:27:43 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.27
Judge Rules "Unconstitutional" Key Provisions of USA PATRIOT Act
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27A.jge.uspa.uncon.htm
Jennifer Van Bergen | We Have the Right to Be Heard!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27B.jvb.heard.htm
WorldCom Says It Hid Expenses, Inflating Cash Flow $3.8 Billion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27C.worldcom.htm
Bush Promotes Mideast Peace Plan at Summit
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27D.ca.summit.htm
Maureen Dowd | The Age of Acquiescence
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27E.dowd.acqui.htm
NRDC Debunks DOE's Latest Task Force Claims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27F.nrdc.doe.htm
Election Law Coup d'Etat
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27G.election.coup.htm
Switzerland Pays Off Nazi Victims
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.27H.swiss.pay.htm
6/26/02
5:25:22 PM
All Along The Watchtower
by William Rivers Pitt, t r u t h o u t | Opinion, 20 June, 2002
Stanley Hilton, a San Francisco attorney and former aide to Senator Bob Dole, filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3rd. The class-action suit names ten defendants, among whom are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Norman Mineta.
Hilton's suit charges Bush and his administration with allowing the September 11th attacks to take place so as to reap political benefits from the catastrophe. Hilton alleges that Osama bin Laden is being used as a scapegoat by an administration that ignored pressing warnings of the attack and refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand. Hilton alleges the ultimate motivation behind these acts was achieved when the Taliban were replaced by American military forces with a regime friendly to America and its oil interests in the region.
Hilton's plaintiffs in this case are the families of 14 victims of 9/11, numbering 400 people nationwide. These are the same families that rallied in Washington recently to advocate for an independent investigation into the attacks. The current 9/11 hearings are being conducted by Congress behind closed doors, a situation these families find unacceptable.
Mr. Hilton, by filing his lawsuit, has joined the ranks of an ever-increasing body of Americans who subscribe to what they call the LIHOP Theory. LIHOP stands for Let It Happen On Purpose. The LIHOP Theory puts forward the accusation that Bush and his people allowed the September 11th attacks to take place, despite the fact that they had been repeatedly warned of an impending strike.
The LIHOP Theory is straightforward: In the months before 9/11, American intelligence agencies received ominous warnings from the intelligence services of nations like Israel, Russia, Egypt and Germany. These warnings were pointed - an attack involving hijacked aircraft and prominent American landmarks was imminent, our security forces were told. Bush himself was briefed of these warnings weeks before they happened. Instead of responding vigorously to these warnings, the Bush administration and its security apparatus did nothing.
LIHOP is, of course, the purest breed of conspiracy theory, involving high-ranking members of government from both parties, as well as the CIA, FBI and NSA. Like all good conspiracy theories, LIHOP is surrounded by disturbing facts and bits of evidence that are difficult to ignore.
The warnings from all those foreign intelligence services, after all, are quite real. Egypt, Germany, Russia and the Israelis were vociferous in their concerns. The German intelligence service BND told US and Israeli intelligence that Middle East terrorists were "planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture." The BND's information came through Echelon, the American-controlled network of 120 satellites that monitors all worldwide electronic communications.
Egypt voiced similar warnings that same month regarding aircraft attacks. Delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa, Egypt's alert carried such weight that anti-aircraft batteries were placed around Columbus Airport in Italy. The Russians warned the US that same summer of 25 pilots who had been trained for suicide missions, and Putin himself delivered the warning "in the strongest possible terms" to the US government. The Israeli intelligence service Mossad delivered a warning to both the FBI and the CIA detailing "a major assault on the United States" against "a large-scale target" that was "very vulnerable."
The Washington Post has reported that the NSA intercepted two messages on September 10, 2001, warning that something was going to happen the next day. "Tomorrow is zero hour," was one of the messages. The NSA's charter is to intercept, translate and pass on to FBI and CIA operatives important electronic signals from all across the globe. The Echelon satellite network which provided the German BND with their 9/11 information last June is part of that system.
According to the NSA, the September 10th data was not translated until September 12th, but it stands to reason that they were privy to the same electronic data the other foreign services were using as the basis for their warnings. One US intelligence source claims the data provided "no actionable intelligence," a fair claim given the vagueness of the messages and the volume of material NSA must deal with. Yet in combination with the strident foreign intelligence warnings, the words intercepted by our large electronic ears on September 10th add to the growing questions.
Then, there are the threads. A FEMA official told Dan Rather that the disaster agency had been at the World Trade Center on September 10th. Why? Governor Jeb Bush of Florida signed executive order #01-261 on September 7th, putting his state's National Guard on heightened alert status, essentially placing Florida under martial law for no demonstrable reason. Why? Attorney General John Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial aircraft in the weeks before 9/11, something he had commonly done since his entry into the administration. Why?
At the core of the LIHOP Theory lies motivation - what possible purpose could be served by the Bush administration allowing a terrorist attack to take place on American soil? It is flatly inconceivable to most Americans that Bush and his people could demonstrate such callous disregard for American lives, and accusations that they allowed an attack to happen reek of the worst kind of poisonous partisan politics.
LIHOP Theory, however, is not so easily dismissed. Two French intelligence analysts, Jean-Charles Brisard and Guillaume Dasquie, have published an extensively-researched book entitled "Osama bin Laden: The Forbidden Truth." In it, they allege that the Bush administration put energy policy before national security concerns. According to Brisard and Dasquie, a foundering pipeline project aimed at exploiting natural gas reserves along the Caspian Sea in Turkmenistan was revived by the Bush administration when it arrived in Washington in January of 2001.
The pipeline project, which sought to bring oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan to a warm water port, had been the brainchild of American petroleum giant Unocal for much of the 1990s. After the destruction of two American embassies in Africa in 1998 by Osama bin Laden, the Clinton administration forbade any American companies from doing business with the Taliban, which had been sheltering bin Laden in Afghanistan. Unocal's pipeline project was frozen.
After the Bush administration came to power, Brisard and Dasquie allege that reinvigorating the pipeline project became a high-priority matter of policy. Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca was dispatched to Pakistan to discuss the pipeline with Taliban officials in August of 2001. Rocca, a career officer with the CIA, had been deeply involved in Agency activities within Afghanistan. According to documents Brisard and Dasquie claim to hold, the main subject of their discussion was oil. A Pakistani foreign minister was also present at the meeting, and witnessed the exchange.
How does this pipeline relate to September 11th? According to Brisard and Dasquie, the main obstacle to the completion of the pipeline was the fact that it had to pass through Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. The project would receive no international support unless the Afghan government somehow became legitimized. In bargaining for the pipeline, the Bush administration demanded that the Taliban reinstate deposed King Mohammad Zahir Shah as ruler of Afghanistan, and demanded that the Taliban hand over Osama bin Laden for arrest. In return, the Taliban would reap untold billions in profit from the pipeline. According to Brisard and Dasquie, part of the Bush administration's bargaining tactics involved threats of war if these conditions for the legitimization of Afghanistan were not met.
The BBC of London reported on September 18th, 2001 of the existence of war plans on Bush's desk aimed at Afghanistan. Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, stated that the war plans were slated for October of 2001. Conditions set by the Bush administration to avoid war involved the Taliban's handing over of bin Laden and the acceptance of King Zahir Shah. Naik went so far as to doubt that America would hold off on war even if these conditions were met.
The result, according to the French analysts, was total disaster. The Bush administration fundamentally misunderstood the Taliban regime - to bring back the King and hand bin Laden over to the West would have been tantamount to suicide for the Taliban. Instead of acquiescing to the hard-sell tactics of the Bush administration, the Taliban unleashed their pet attack dog, Osama, upon America. They were going to lose everything, and chose to attack first in the hope that all-out war would break out in Central Asia and rally other Muslim nations to their cause.
Motive suddenly becomes far more clear. The Bush administration very much wanted the Unocal pipeline to go through, and put intense pressure on the Taliban to see it happen. As this was happening, American intelligence services were flooded with warnings of an impending attack upon American targets by bin Laden and Al Qaida. The decision was made - let the attack come, and in the ensuing outrage American forces can carve out the guts of the Taliban government like a ripe gourd, replacing them with a 'legitimate' regime more receptive to the pipeline plan.
Did the Bush administration have an inkling of the massive death and destruction that would come on September 11th? Those who espouse the LIHOP Theory disagree on this point. Some believe that FEMAs presence at Ground Zero on the day before the attack, coupled with specific language within the international intelligence warnings pertaining to aircraft and high-profile targets, are prima facie evidence of specific prior knowledge. Others believe that the Bush administration only knew vaguely that an attack would come, but not where or when. They did not foresee the level of destruction, and were caught flat-footed when those planes appeared along the New York skyline.
In the end, LIHOP Theory can encompass either view. Whether they had specific knowledge beforehand, or merely decided to let some attack happen somewhere, the final results were the same. The Taliban were routed and replaced by an interim government headed by a man named Harmid Karzai. Karzai was recently elected President of Afghanistan in his own right, legitimizing the Afghanistan government. Soon after this, Karzai announced the impending construction of a pipeline that would exploit Turkmenistan's natural gas reserves He named Unocal as the lead company for the project. Before becoming President, Karzai was an advisor to Unocal.
For LIHOP Theorists, the evidence is clear. The Bush administration got the pipeline it wanted. Along the way, they used the horrors of 9/11 to place themselves above reproach. In the patriotic fervor that resulted from the attacks, both the press and the Democratic opposition were bracketed by the administration-espoused idea that any questions or criticism were tantamount to treason.
The passage of the PATRIOT Anti-Terror Act has given the US government sweeping abilities to snuff dissent by defining it as terrorism, thanks to the loosely-defined wording of the bill. Bush enjoyed stratospheric approval ratings that persist to this day, and American citizens were given new enemies to hate. The Defense Department, and the weapons contractors who cater to them, received billions from the federal budget to do with as they pleased in order to address the objects of that hate.
Even the most hardened political observer must admit the dismal truth - September 11th was the greatest thing ever to happen to the Bush administration. Attorney Stanley Hilton has brought LIHOP Theory into the federal court system with his class-action suit, and with the families of 9/11 victims he represents. It will be interesting to see what transpires when these two facts collide in an American courtroom. Given the current climate, it does not seem likely that much will come of it. After all, these conspiracy theorists are just a bunch of nuts.
Right?
William Rivers Pitt is a teacher from Boston, MA. His new book, 'The Greatest Sedition is Silence,' will be published soon by Pluto Press.
Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.21A.pitt.watchtower.htm
6/26/02
5:12:41 PM
How Bush Hit The 'Trifecta' On 9/11 -- And The Public Lost Big-Time
It is sickening to contemplate an administration intentionally looking the other way while terrorists scheme so that whatever havoc they wreak can provide cover for the president to raid Social Security.
by Brad Carlton, The Baltimoe Chronicle, June 13, 2002
Bush, in the weeks before September 11, pledged to honor the sanctity of the Social Security lockbox except in the event of recession, war, or a national emergency. But after "everything changed" on 9/11, he reportedly gloated to his budget director, Mitch Daniels, "Lucky me--I hit the trifecta!" At the time, this comment (a variation of which is being recycled for laughs at current GOP fundraisers) seemed merely offensive. But in light of revelations that Bush's August 6 briefing memo was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.," Bush's "luck" and weird prescience are worth more than passing scrutiny.
Whenever someone is suspected of a crime, investigators look for a motive in addition to actual proof of guilt to determine, a posteriori, whether there was malice aforethought. In cases of criminal negligence, motive must also be deduced, a priori, to answer the question: were preventive failures due to craftiness or mere cluelessness?
The serial apologists of the Bush Is Not Stupid crowd are rather incongruously opting for the latter, this in the wake of the scandal about pre-9/11 failures to issue precisely the kinds of public warnings and security directives that accompanied the also "non-specific" Y2K threats. For now, it is difficult to say who knew what when because the administration is not exactly being forthcoming, preferring instead to use the scandal as an excuse to broaden the FBI's snoop powers. However: there was a potential motive for the administration to sit on perceived terrorist threats.
Think back to the days before 9/11. The topic on everyone's lips (Condit aside) was: what will happen when budget realities force Bush to raid Social Security? He had explicitly promised during his campaign to establish a contingency fund for severe emergencies that would keep Social Security untouched. But the economy was tanking and the costs of the tax cut made the raid inevitable. Even Daniels acknowledged that the government would be forced to tap Social Security to the tune of $14 billion to fund pending legislation. Strangely, Bush kept insisting, "We can work together to avoid dipping into Social Security." But, beginning August 24, he gave himself an escape clause: "I've said that the only reason we should use Social Security funds is in case of an economic recession or war." (Three days earlier he had said that there should be "special consideration" in the budget for these contingencies. Otherwise, this was completely new rhetoric.)
September 4: businessman and commentator Ben Cohen ran a mock "help wanted" ad reading, "Serious enemy needed to justify Pentagon budget increase. Defense contractors desperate." Same day: a CBS poll found that 66 percent of Americans did not think a recession (extant, but not yet confirmed) was reason enough to tap Social Security. September 6: Bush invented another exception. "The only time to use Social Security money is in times of war, times of recession, or times of severe emergency." September 11: he had all three. Lucky Bush.
Then, on the morning of September 12, Bush announced his very first post-9/11 policy move. Because the attacks were "more than acts of terror; they were acts of war, this morning I am sending to Congress a request for emergency funding authority." On cue, pundits like Tim Russert chirped, "Suddenly the Social Security lockbox seems so trivial." Since then the trust fund has been strip-mined to subsidize pork barrel and deficit spending with no political fallout for the president.
These extraordinary coincidences have gone unremarked in the media, who have entirely missed that the terms of the "trifecta"--note that the word connotes something you bet on--was never mentioned until two-and-a-half weeks after Bush's August 6 briefing and days before 9/11. (He has since claimed the 'trifecta' was a campaign promise. This is a lie.) It is sickening to contemplate an administration intentionally looking the other way while terrorists scheme so that whatever havoc they wreak can provide cover for the president to raid Social Security. But we journalists are paid to have strong stomachs, and we should be hardy enough to admit that the scenario is conceivable, for three reasons.
First and most obviously, defense contractors contributed more than $8.7 million to Republican campaigns in 2000. They stood to gain billions from the fallout of a successful terrorist strike.
Second, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill advocated the abolition of Social Security and Medicare in a May 20, 2001 interview with the Financial Times. "Able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement, and, for that matter, health and medical needs," he said, adding, "The president is also intrigued about the possibility of fixing this mess."
Third, and by far most importantly, Bush needed to save his presidency, which by August was already in serious danger of sinking into fiscal chaos and one-term ignominy. This is a viable motive. Whether or not Bush or someone in his administration acted on it by winking at hijacking threats remains to be seen.
But it was unsettling, though still inconclusive, to read in the May 17 Washington Post, "Members of congressional committees investigating the pre-Sept. 11 warnings said yesterday that there is far more damaging information that has not yet been disclosed about the government's knowledge of and inaction over events leading up to Sept. 11."
Outrageously, the public is now being told that there aren't sufficient votes in Congress to approve an investigation by a blue ribbon panel. The alternative intelligence committee investigation is only pro forma public anesthesia. It will not do: the committee's oversight role potentially implicates its own members. To clear up all doubts, there must be an independent, public inquiry. It is well past time to insist on a return to open government.
Brad Carlton is an investigative reporter currently living in South Carolina.
Source: http://www.charm.net/~marc/chronicle/archives.html?
6/26/02
2:11:29 PM
"...there is a contemporary form of violence to which the idealist fighting for peace by nonviolent methods most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence. More than that, it is cooperation in violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his or her work for peace. It destroys one's own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of one's own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful."
Thomas Merton
6/26/02
1:36:47 PM
Was The US Government Alerted To September 11 Attack?
Part 1: Warnings In Advance Part 2: Watching the hijackers Part 3: The United States and Mideast terrorism Part 4: The refusal to investigate
by Patrick Martin, January 16, 2002
Part 1: Warnings In Advance
It is not necessary to postulate an all-embracing conspiracy, extending from the White House to the airline security personnel who let the armed hijackers board the planes, to believe that there is much more to the story of the September 11 attacks than the American public has been told so far. Certainly the least likely and least credible explanation of that day’s events is that the vast US national security apparatus was entirely unaware of the activities of the hijackers until the airliners slammed into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
According to this official version, voiced most crudely by FBI Director Robert Mueller immediately after the event, no one in the US government had the slightest idea of the identities of the September 11 hijackers, the methods they would employ, or the targets they would choose. A careful review of the information that has come to light, in bits and pieces, since September 11, demonstrates that these claims are not merely tenuous, but clearly, obviously and knowingly false.
The case of Zacarias Moussaoui [“The strange case of Zacarias Moussaoui: FBI refused to investigate man charged in September 11 attacks”] is only the most glaring evidence that the September 11 terrorist attacks represent, not merely a colossal failure on the part of the FBI and CIA, but a refusal to act that has no legitimate explanation. Not only were there general warnings of the likelihood of suicide hijackings, but several of the hijackers, including the man alleged to be the principal organizer, Mohammed Atta, were under active surveillance by US agents. It is not too much to say that the terrorists were only able to accomplish their murderous and destructive mission because US intelligence agencies ignored repeated warnings, refused to carry out elementary defensive actions and manifested a seeming indifference to the prospect of a major terrorist attack on American soil.
Added to that is the refusal of any branch of the US government to conduct any probe into the circumstances of an attack which killed more American civilians on a single day than any other act of violence in US history. There has been no serious effort in the four months since September 11 to investigate, learn lessons and assign responsibility. This by itself is a demonstration that there are highly placed people in Washington with a great deal to hide.
Warnings from foreign governments
The governments of at least four countries—Germany, Egypt, Russia and Israel—gave specific warnings to the US of an impending terrorist attack in the months preceding September 11. These alerts, while fragmentary, not only combined to foretell the scale of the attack and its main target, but indicated that hijacked commercial aircraft would be the weapon of choice.
According to an article in one of the major daily newspapers in Germany, published just after the destruction of the World Trade Center, the German intelligence service BND told both US and Israeli intelligence agencies in June that Middle East terrorists were “planning to hijack commercial aircraft to use as weapons to attack important symbols of American and Israeli culture.”
The newspaper cited unnamed German intelligence sources, who said that the information came through Echelon, the US-controlled system of 120 satellites which monitors all worldwide electronic communications. Echelon is operated jointly by the United States, Canada, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, although its existence is not officially admitted. (Source: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, September 14, 2001)
The government of Egypt sent an urgent warning to the US June 13, based on a video made by Osama bin Laden. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak told the French newspaper Le Figaro that the warning was originally delivered just before the G-8 summit in Genoa. It was taken seriously enough that antiaircraft batteries were stationed around Christopher Columbus Airport in the Italian city. According to Mubarak, bin Laden “spoke of assassinating President Bush and other heads of state in Genoa. It was a question of an airplane stuffed with explosives. These precautions then had been taken.” (Source: New York Times, September 26, 2001, “2 Leaders Tell of Plot to Kill Bush in Genoa,” by David Sanger)
According to Russian press reports, Russian intelligence notified the CIA during the summer that 25 terrorist pilots had been specifically training for suicide missions. In an interview September 15 with MSNBC, Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed that he had ordered Russian intelligence in August to warn the US government “in the strongest possible terms” of imminent attacks on airports and government buildings. (Source: From The Wilderness web site; MSNBC).
The London-based Sunday Telegraph —an arch-conservative newspaper usually highly supportive of the Bush administration—reported that the Israeli intelligence service Mossad had delivered a warning to the FBI and CIA in August that as many as 200 followers of Osama bin Laden were slipping into the country to prepare “a major assault on the United States.” The advisory spoke of a “large-scale target” in which Americans would be “very vulnerable.” The Los Angeles Times cited unnamed US officials confirming this Mossad warning had been received. (Source: Sunday Telegraph, September 16, 2001, “Israeli security issued urgent warning to CIA of large-scale terror attacks,” by David Wastell and Philip Jacobson; Los Angeles Times, September 20, 2001, “Officials Told of ‘Major Assault’ Plans,” by Richard A. Serrano and John-Thor Dahlburg)
The Independent, a liberal daily in Great Britain, published an article asserting the US government “was warned repeatedly that a devastating attack on the United States was on its way.” The Independent cited an interview given by Osama bin Laden to a London-based Arabic-language newspaper, al-Quds al-Arabi, in late August. About the same time, tighter security measures were ordered at the World Trade Center, for unexplained reasons. (Source: Independent, September 17, 2001, “Bush did not heed several warnings of attack,” by Andrew Gumbel)
Despite this series of alerts, no US intelligence agency issued any warning of a possible attack on a target on US territory in the months leading up to September 11. The CIA and FBI had issued warnings about likely attacks on American military bases or embassies in the Middle East, Europe and Asia. On September 7 the US Department of State issued a worldwide alert about an impending attack by bin Laden followers, although it was focused on US-related targets in east Asia, especially Japan, not within the US itself. As the ranking Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Senator Richard Shelby, admitted, “This obviously was a failure of great dimension. We had no specific warning of the US being attacked.”
Moreover, the FBI’s decision to take no action on Zacarias Moussaoui must be considered in the light of this continuous stream of warnings from overseas. The US government was being repeatedly alerted to the danger of devastating attacks using hijacked commercial aircraft, yet the FBI decided to conduct no serious investigation into a man, believed by French intelligence to be linked to Osama bin Laden, who wanted to learn how to steer a 747 jumbo jet, but not to take off or land. Moussaoui was not even turned over to the FBI by the Immigration and Naturalization Service until after September 11.
US investigations and concerns
Despite claims that US intelligence agencies had not considered the possibility of suicide attacks involving commercial airliners before September 11, there were many indications of such concerns on the part of the American government over a period of eight years.
An expert panel commissioned by the Pentagon in 1993 discussed how an airplane could be used to bomb national landmarks. “It was considered radical thinking, a little too scary for the times,” said retired Air Force Col. Doug Menarchik, who organized the $150,000 study for the Defense Department’s Office of Special Operations and Low-Intensity Conflict. “After I left, it met a quiet death.” The decision not to publish detailed scenarios was made partly out of a fear that it could give terrorists ideas, participants said. A draft was circulated through the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, but senior agency officials ultimately decided against a public release. (Source: Washington Post, October 2, 2001, “Before Attack, U.S. Expected Different Hit, Chemical, Germ Agents Focus of Preparations,” by Jo Warrick and Joe Stephens)
Three incidents of attempted attacks on buildings using airplanes took place during 1994. The first, in April of that year, involved a Federal Express flight engineer who was facing dismissal. He boarded a DC-10 as a passenger and invaded the cockpit, planning to crash the plane into a company building in Memphis, but was overpowered by the crew. The second came that September, when a lone pilot crashed a stolen single-engine Cessna into a tree on the White House grounds just short of the president’s bedroom. The third was the December hijacking of an Air France flight in Algiers by the Armed Islamic Group. The hijackers had the plane land in Marseilles and ordered it loaded with 27 tons of fuel, three times the amount required to reach Paris. Their aim was to crash it into the Eiffel Tower. French special forces stormed the plane on the ground. (Source: New York Times, October 3, 2001, “Earlier Hijackings Offered Signals That Were Missed,” by Matthew Wald)
In January 1995, Philippine police arrested and tortured Abdul Hakim Murad in a Manila apartment where bomb-making equipment was found. He told them of plans to plant timed explosive devices on 11 US airliners simultaneously, and to crash-land an airplane into CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. The preparations were so far advanced that Murad detailed the specific flights targeted, most of them trans-Pacific flights which would explode over the ocean. Murad had attended flying schools in the United States, earned a commercial pilot’s license, and told investigators he was to fly the plane into CIA headquarters. Another Islamic fundamentalist was to fly a second plane into the Pentagon. (Source: Washington Post, September 23, “Borderless Network of Terror, Bin Laden Followers Reach Across Globe,” by Doug Struck, Howard Schneider, Karl Vick and Peter Baker)
Later that year, the alleged organizer of the first World Trade Center bombing, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, was captured in Pakistan, turned over to US agents and flown back to the United States for trial. On the flight, Yousef reportedly boasted to FBI agent Brian Parr and the other agents guarding him that he had narrowly missed several opportunities to blow up a dozen airliners on a single day over the Pacific and to carry out a kamikaze-type suicide attack on CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. Yousef was referring to the same plot for which Abdul Hakim Murad had been arrested in the Philippines. Murad was extradited to the United States, where his testimony played a major role in Yousef’s trial and conviction. (Source: John Cooley, Unholy Wars, New York, NY, 2000, p. 247)
Early in 1996, US officials had identified crop-dusters and suicide flights as potential terrorist weapons, and began taking elaborate steps to prevent an attack from the air during the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. Black Hawk helicopters and US Customs Service jets were deployed to intercept suspicious aircraft in the skies over the Olympic venues. Agents monitored crop-duster flights within hundreds of miles of downtown Atlanta. Law enforcement agents also fanned out to regional airports throughout northern Georgia “to make sure nobody hijacked a small aircraft and tried to attack one of the venues,” said Woody Johnson, the FBI agent in charge of the Atlanta office at the time. From July 6 through the end of the Games on August 11, the FAA banned all aviation within a one-mile radius of the Olympic Village that housed the athletes. It also ordered aircraft to stay at least three miles away from other sites beginning three hours before each event until three hours after each event ended. (Source: Los Angeles Times, November 17, 2001, “Suicide Flights and Crop Dusters Considered Threats at ’96 Olympics,” by Mark Fineman and Judy Pasternak)
As early as 1996 the FBI began investigating the activities of Arab students at US flight schools. Government officials admitted that “law enforcement officials were aware that fewer than a dozen people with links to bin Laden had attended US flight schools.” FBI agents visited two flight schools in 1996 to get information about several Arab pilots who received training there. The two schools were among those attended by Abdul Hakim Murad, who had told Philippine and US police about plans to fly a hijacked plane into CIA headquarters. In 1998 FBI agents questioned officials from Airman Flight School in Norman, Oklahoma about a graduate identified in court testimony as a pilot for Osama bin Laden. This was the school later attended by Zacarias Moussaoui. A Washington Post article concludes: “Since 1996, the FBI had been developing evidence that international terrorists were using US flight schools to learn to fly jumbo jets. A foiled plot in Manila to blow up U.S. airliners and later court testimony by an associate of bin Laden had touched off FBI inquiries at several schools, officials say.” (Source: Washington Post, September 23, 2001, “FBI Knew Terrorists Were Using Flight Schools,” by Steve Fainaru and James V. Grimaldi)
In the run-up to the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, there was active consideration of the danger of “a fully loaded, fuelled airliner crashing into the opening ceremony before a worldwide television audience,” according to former Sydney police superintendent Paul McKinnon. Osama bin Laden was considered the number one threat, he said. IOC officials said plane-crash catastrophes have been incorporated into security planning for every Olympics since 1972. “That was our nightmare scenario,” one IOC official said. There were extensive IOC discussions with the FBI during 2001 in the course of the security planning for the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City. (Source: Sydney Morning Herald, September 20, 2001, “Jet crash on stadium was Olympics nightmare,” by Jacquelin Magnay)
The 2000 edition of the Federal Aviation Administration’s annual report on Criminal Acts Against Aviation, published early in 2001, said that although bin Laden “is not known to have attacked civil aviation, he has both the motivation and the wherewithal to do so,” adding, “Bin Laden’s anti-Western and anti-American attitudes make him and his followers a significant threat to civil aviation, particularly to US civil aviation.” (Source: FAA)
Beginning in early 2001 a trial was held in New York City of four defendants charged with involvement in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The trial revealed that two bin Laden operatives had received pilot training in Texas and Oklahoma and another had been asked to take lessons. L’Houssaine Kherchtou, a bin Laden associate turned government witness, told the court how he was asked to take flying lessons in 1993. Another bin Laden aide, Essam al-Ridi, testified that he had bought a military aircraft for bin Laden and flown it to Sudan. Al-Ridi became a government witness in 1998, giving the FBI inside information about a pilot-training scheme three years before the September 11 attack. While the proceedings of the trial extended from February to July 2001, they did not produce any heightened alert in relation to US commercial aviation. Court transcript available at http://www.cryptome.org
See Also: Was the US government alerted to September 11 attack?
Part 2: Watching the hijackers [18 January 2002] Was the US government alerted to the September 11 attack?
Part 3: The United States and Mideast terrorism [22 January 2002] Was the US government alerted to September 11 attack?
Part 4: The refusal to investigate [24 January 2002]
The strange case of Zacarias Moussaoui: FBI refused to investigate man charged in September 11 attacks [5 January 2002]
US planned war in Afghanistan long before September 11 [20 November 2001]
The US War in Afghanistan [WSWS Full Coverage]
Source: http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/jan2002/sept-j16.shtml
6/26/02
1:19:44 PM
Major 911 Oddities Revealed In NY Firehouse Documentary
On March 11, 6 months after the September 11 destruction of the World Trade Center, CBS aired a film consisting largely of documentary footage on the firefighters of the FDNY\'s Engine 7, Ladder 1. Engine 7\'s firehouse is just several blocks from the WTC.
The footage was taken by a team of two French brothers, Jules and Gedeon Naudet, who\'d begun their documentary on the life and times of these particular firemen some days before.
The firefighters of Engine 7 -- all of whom ended up at ground zero on September 11 -- by incredible grace, and maybe luck, all survived and lived to see another day... And many of their days since September 11 have been spent searching for the bodies of their lost comrades and the many, many other victims at ground zero.
Truly significant -- indeed crucial -- oddities, anomalies and flagrantly irreconcilable contradictions with the \"official\" \"version\" of the staggering WTC devastation are brought forth in this film, which serve to further prove the UTTER FALSITY of the federal government/Bush administration/mass media\'s threadbare official lies on nearly every single important aspect of this tremendous, horrific tragedy.
** First and foremost
Right off the bat, we smell something fishy in the fact that on September 11 at 8:30 AM Engine 7 -- the fire station closest to the World Trade Center -- received what turned out to be a spurious report of an \"odor of gas\" about a half-mile AWAY from the WTC to the north. This potentially serious but false report served to take the 7th Battalion\'s chief Joe Pfeiffer and a crew TRAINED in dealing with explosive/incendiary conditions AWAY from the Trade Center location... at the EXACT TIME the first plane impacted the tower.
However: nearly every member of this crew including filmmaker Jules Naudet, who filmed it, watched from the street with horrifying clarity at 8:46 as the first plane made a dead-on beeline for WTC tower one and smacked right into it.
** Second
Ranking NYC fire official Chief Pfeiffer notified higher authorities WITHIN MOMENTS of the plane\'s impact that the incident was CLEARLY a deliberate attack; an intentional act of mass death and devastation. As the small crew that had eye-witnessed the first plane hit the WTC was racing to the location, Chief Pfeiffer sounded red alerts over the radio and phone; specifically stating that what they witnessed was a \"DIRECT ATTACK,\" that the plane was clearly being directed straight at the building and the incident was definitely NOT any kind of accident.
THUS: If, by some unimaginable combination of sheer stupidity, criminal incompetence, negligence, ineptitude and apparent MASSIVE concurrent near-unilateral failure of a number of (semi-)automatic air defense warning and alert systems, US government/military authorities charged with defending and patrolling the nation\'s airspace had somehow FAILED to have become aware of a SERIOUSLY suspicious and threatening ongoing situation occurring over the skies of the eastern US with a number of large, fully-fueled passenger jets OBVIOUSLY being in serious trouble and/or under hostile control and TOTALLY out of communication with aviation authorities, then they had a DEFINITE official report that this WAS the case once Chief Pfeiffer radioed in his red alert. The intervening TWENTY MINUTES that elapsed before the second plane hit the south WTC tower was MORE than enough time for interceptors to have reached ground zero from Air Guard bases barely TEN minutes away at LESS than maximum! speed.
Now we have solid proof that a NYC fire official who EYE-WITNESSED the first plane hit the WTC DID inform higher authorities that the incident was CLEARLY A HOSTILE ATTACK!!
WHY, THEN, WAS OUR MULTI-TRILLION DOLLAR AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM NOT AT UCH TIME IMMEDIATELY ACTIVATED, if it had somehow NOT been activated SOONER?!
What\'s also worth noting is that even as Pfeiffer and the others were speeding downtown, the main fireball from the exploding jet fuel had almost completely dissipated and the flames had subsided significantly, as is visible in the footage taken then by Jules Naudet.
** Third
When the above-noted fire crew and cameraman Jules Naudet arrived at WTC\'s tower one along with other fire crews and entered the building\'s ground floor lobby, they were to a one completely puzzled -- actually astonished -- to find SIGNIFICANT and widespread damage to the entire lobby area; although NOT of a deep, structural kind. Moreover, NOWHERE was there ANY indication whatsoever of an incendiary-type explosion or ANY kind of fire in this area.
Yet the incredible number of blown-out windows and other extensive though rather superficial damage throughout the lobby area was profoundly perplexing to these EXPERIENCED professional firefighters in relation to the impact of the plane eighty stories above. As one put it: \"The lobby looked like the plane hit the lobby!\"
But it DIDN\'T: it hit EIGHTY STORIES ABOVE. There is NO WAY the impact of the jet caused such widespread damage eighty stories below. In a building which by design had easily withstood an amazing amount of flexing and swaying from high winds, the ground-floor damage witnessed by these men and recorded on camera could not POSSIBLY have been caused by that plane crash. Over and over, these professional firefighters expressed their complete puzzlement over the damage in this area. However, this glaringly anomalous factor was spin-doctored by the narrator, who said fire officials were later informed (OBVIOUSLY by \"certain\" federal officials) that the lobby damage occurred because \"burning jet fuel\" had poured eighty stories down the elevator shafts and then exploded in the lobby. Interesting fable -- but in fact there was not one SINGLE visible indication of ANY kind of burning, fire or incendiary-type explosion in the lobby area. The Feds\' complete and utter fabrication a! bout jet fuel having \"exploded\" in the lobby is thoroughly nullified by the clear visual evidence on the footage of the fire-crews in the tower one lobby.
According to this visual evidence, it is OBVIOUS and irrefutable that OTHER EXPLOSIVES (apparently of a non-incendiary kind such as concussion bombs) HAD ALREADY BEEN DETONATED in the lower levels of tower one at the same time as the plane crash -- before ANY fire crews and rescue workers arrived at the scene!
** Fourth
ALL the hundreds of professional firefighters massing at tower one AND their chiefs and superiors -- a number of whom had eye-witnessed the plane\'s actual impact -- along with other emergency services personnel familiar with and trained to deal with such disasters, were VERY surprised to find that EVERY SINGLE ONE of the north tower\'s elevators was OUT OF COMMISSION. Despite the obvious severity of the impact and the ensuing explosion and fire in parts of the building eighty stories above, these professional firefighters and rescue workers were at a loss to explain how EVERY SINGLE elevator could have been knocked out. Clearly, SOMETHING ELSE besides the plane crash was responsible for this truly dangerous state of affairs, which was a big factor in the large number of fatalities which ensued.
** Fifth
After the attack on the first tower, which had been reported by Chief Pfeiffer and other officials to higher authorities as a DELIBERATE AND HOSTILE ATTACK, the occupants of tower two were in the process of being evacuated. But THEN, obviously issuing from some diabolical source, word was spread throughout tower two\'s communications system that there was NO FURTHER DANGER and that ALL OCCUPANTS should return to their offices! Thus: Although clearly and SUSPICIOUSLY there was a VERY low attendance rate in both WTC towers that day, SOME agency or other took very >deliberate steps to ensure that whoever WAS there that day was almost certain to die.
** Sixth
Clearly heard on the soundtrack of the CBS presentation of the Naudets\' footage is the sound of a TV or radio announcer stating that there were reports of a FIRE and possible explosion having occurred at the Pentagon. Absolutely NOTHING was said about any PLANE having hit the Pentagon in these initial reports!
** Seventh
Explosions of varying loudness can be heard going off repeatedly throughout tower one during the time fire crews had set up their command post there after the first attack. WHAT WAS CAUSING THESE EXPLOSIONS? This is never even commented upon: but what else is there to SAY about this other than OTHER EXPLOSIVE DEVICES were DEFINITELY being detonated throughout the building after the plane had hit?!
** Eighth
ALL firefighters and rescue workers and their superiors and chiefs were FULLY CONFIDENT at ALL TIMES -- even after the attack on the south tower but before its unimaginable and unprecedented collapse -- that the dwindling conflagrations on the upper levels of the twin towers WOULD be fully contained, and that the majority of those people still up there WOULD be brought to safety. These trained and experienced professionals were FULLY aware of the extent and severity of the damage and destruction; yet not ONE of them even remotely envisioned something as catastrophic as the TOTAL, UTTER COLLAPSE of these two behemoth, tremendously solid structures. They knew they had a tough job to do -- and they KNEW -- every one of them -- that they COULD do it.
But then something they could never, ever have imagined DID happen. The buildings -- beginning strangely enough with the far less damaged and last to be struck south tower -- crumbled and sank from the Manhattan skyline in a vast and truly apocalyptic cloud of dust and rubble.
** Ninth
The south tower, which suffered far less damage than tower one, somehow or other crumpled to the ground. Professional fire and rescue workers on-site were in a state of near-total disbelief. THIS COULD NOT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY THE PLANE CRASH!
And THEN the same thing happened to the north tower.
And even MORE unbelievable: other than 3-4 inch thick steel beams jutting out everywhere which showed NO sign at all of having become softened, melted or anything similar, there was literally NOTHING LEFT of these gargantuan structures but DUST.
Moreover: EACH of the Trade Center\'s twin towers had a TWO HUNDRED THOUSAND+ GALLON water tank atop it. That\'s nearly a HALF-MILE gallons of water atop those two buildings. And not a single drop of it reached the ground.
In the words of Engine 7\'s Joe Casaliggi: \"You have two 110-story office buildings. You don\'t find a desk; you don\'t find a chair; you don\'t find a telephone or a computer... . The biggest piece of a telephone was half of a keypad.
\"There was nothing left of those buildings BUT DUST.\"
And we\'re supposed to believe that was caused by burning jet fuel --THAT\'S BASICALLY KEROSENE, folks -- which had LONG SINCE burned off in the initial fireballs.
We don\'t believe it. And neither do MANY, MANY other people, including a large number of New York City firefighters -- may God bless them for their selfless, honorable and heartfelt efforts to save others; all tragically sacrificed to further the demonic and hellish agendas of the mass-murdering within the US government so DEEPLY, deeply complicit in the carnage of 9.11.
THE TRAITORS IN OUR GOVERNMENT WILL PAY FOR THEIR VICIOUS AND INHUMAN TREACHERY ON 9.11.
Source: http://www.thepowerhour.com/postings/911-oddities-revealed.htm
6/26/02
1:12:52 PM
Constant Air Patrols May Be Grounded
Tinker Air Force Base, February 23, 2002
(CBS) The Air Force wants to stop flying continuous anti-terror air patrols over parts of the United States and instead leave fighters on “strip alert,” ready to launch in emergencies.
In an Associated Press interview Friday, Air Force Secretary James Roche said the Air Force is consulting with the commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and with the White House's Office of Homeland Security to determine a long-term plan for domestic air defense.
The air patrols, which responded to the multiple suicide hijackings on Sept. 11, are tying up about 265 airplanes - mostly fighters, tankers and radar planes - and about 12,000 airmen, Roche said.
That compares with 14,000 Air Force personnel committed to the war in Afghanistan, he said, making the Air Force the only service with a large-scale commitment to both fronts in the war on terror.
Pentagon officials made it known last month that the domestic air defense mission had become too burdensome, stealing from necessary air crew training for other missions. But Roche's comments were the first to spell out a potential solution.
Roche said he would prefer an adjustment that would place Air Force fighter jets on “strip alert” at certain bases around the country - ready to respond to indications of threatening aircraft. That would replace the current practice of flying continuous patrols over Washington and New York and patrolling daily over a rotating group of cities elsewhere.
In addition to the combat air patrols, fighters now are on alert at more than two dozen bases.
Roche says he had not submitted a formal recommendation.
“I think eventually we'll move to strip alert” only, Roche said while flying to Tinker Air Force Base from Washington. He visited Tinker to get a firsthand look at operations of Air Force E-3A Sentry aircraft, the AWACS planes that provide airborne radar surveillance in support of fighter air patrols.
“If we're on strip alert, then others can be training, and the wear-and-tear on aircraft goes down,” he added. “If it's strip alert it will lower the burden. It's easier for us to do.”
Retired Air Force General Perry Smith, a CBS News consultant, says such a practice would be a little less safe than having planes in the air at all times, but officials have to weigh the cost of doing so.
Roche stressed that scaling back the mission is not a decision for the Air Force. If the White House decides that 24-hour, 7-day-a-week air patrols remain necessary, he said, then the Air Force will find a way to do them, whatever the cost.
“We're trying to lighten the load,” Roche said later in a pep talk to more than 100 U.S. and NATO AWACS crew members and commanders. He said one step has already been taken: linking military and Federal Aviation Administration radars to lessen the need for AWACS radar coverage.
Roche cited what he called an old Jewish expression: food creates hunger. The fact that you've done this so well makes it hard for national leaders to say, "OK, you don't have to do it anymore," he said.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has not revealed his ideas on whether continuous air patrols should be halted. He said this week the mission was "very stressful on the force."
Roche told the AP the Air Force has 105 to 130 airplanes in the air every day as part of Operation Noble Eagle, code name for the post-Sept. 11 mission of protecting U.S. territory.
He said he hopes the administration would decide by summer what the "steady state" of Air Force air defense will be for the long run.
During his visit to Tinker, Roche met with members of the NATO AWACS crews who fly daily over the United States, the first time in NATO's 53-year history that allies have come directly to the defense of U.S. territory.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/02/23/attack/main330371.shtml
6/26/02
12:53:22 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
WORLDWATCH CHARTS EARTH'S VITAL SIGNS
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - Savvy consumers with environmental protection at heart are having a positive impact on the Earth's "vital signs," according to a new report from the Worldwatch Institute. Pressure on the planet's land, air, and water are still unsustainable, but the Washington based research organization has found some healthy signs in this year's annual survey.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-03.asp
WARMING CLIMATE SPAWNS DISEASE EPIDEMICS
WASHINGTON, DC, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - The changing, warming climate around the globe is triggering unprecedented numbers of disease outbreaks in both land and ocean based wildlife populations in habitats ranging from coral reefs to rainforests. Ecologists and epidemiologists express concern over this rising trend in a new report in the June 21 issue of the journal "Science."
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-06.asp
SLOVAK OFFICIALS IGNORE HAZARDOUS POLLUTION
By Zhanna Bilenko
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - Under a new waste law adopted last year by the Slovak Parliament, producers of waste are responsible for its final disposal. But today illegal dumps are still situated just anywhere, and they are polluting the soil in the Slovak capital Bratislava. In addition, Bratislava is facing the environmental consequences of longstanding contamination with petroleum products.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-02.asp
BRAZIL PASSES SUMMIT TORCH TO SOUTH AFRICA
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, June 25, 2002 (ENS) - At a ceremony at the Modern Art Museum in Rio de Janeiro today, the leaders of Sweden and Brazil passed the torch of the Earth Summit to South Africa, which will host the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg this August.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-01.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 25, 2002
Federal Funds Support New Nuclear Licenses
2,618 Fish Consumption Advisories Issued in 2001
California State Fish Gets Endangered Review
Mining Company Must Get License for Dams
Successful Satellite Programs Monitor Earth
Deep Drilling Monitors for California Earthquakes
Indiana Bats Protected During Airport Expansion
Tiny Nuclear Detector Produced at DOE Lab
Georgia-Pacific Addresses Wisconsin PCBs
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-25-09.asp
6/26/02
12:47:11 PM
Humanity Is Taking More Than Earth Can Give
Researchers Calculate The Planet Is Ecologically Overburdened By 20 Percent
by Carl T. Hall, San Francisco Chronicle Science Writer, June 25, 2002
Nobody doubts that people put a heavy burden on the biosphere. Now, a global team of ecology experts, working under the sponsorship of famed Harvard biologist Edward O. Wilson, has tried to weigh just how heavy the load might be.
The bottom line is a single, sobering number: 120 percent.
Adding up all the farming, fishing, mining, building and fuel consumption, researchers calculated our global ecological demand to be the equivalent of 120 percent of the Earth's capacity to sustain these activities.
Operating 20 percent beyond the break-even point means that "it would require 1.2 Earths, or one Earth for 1.2 years, to regenerate what humanity used in 1999," the researchers conclude in a study appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The analysis is based on 1999 statistics, the most recent available, and generally accepted estimates of the planet's biological productivity.
Our "ecological overshoot" started in the late 1970s and continues to widen,
the researchers added. During an interview Monday, Wilson said the new study offered one of the first impartial methods of keeping tabs on the biosphere.
"This is a very effective measure for telling the world where we are and what the trajectory might be," Wilson said. "We've never really had anything like this before -- a measure we can intuitively understand and that's based on solid data."
The study is also one of the latest attempts by ecology specialists to use some of the standard tools of economics, transforming fisheries, forests and other key elements of the biosphere into so much "natural capital."
The idea is to monitor the ebbs and flows of this form of capital with much the same kind of numerical rigor that economists use in tracking labor, investment and industrial output.
"We need accounts for our use of nature, the same as we use accounts in business," said Mathis Wackernagel, program director at the Oakland-based group Redefining Progress and lead author of the new study.
Co-authors include Norman Myers of Oxford University, Jorgen Randers at the Norwegian School of Management and Richard Norgaard at UC Berkeley.
The authors shied away from any specific policy choices that might reduce the shadow cast by humanity's huge "ecological footprint." But they made it clear that in their view current consumption patterns could not be sustained.
Worldwide, the average amount of productive land needed to satisfy the needs and wants of each man, woman and child is about 2.3 "global hectares" -- the standardized measure of productive acreage used by the study authors. By comparison, the productive capacity of the Earth is estimated at 1.9 hectares per capita.
The imbalance is much more pronounced, of course, in the richest countries: The United States, for instance, consumed about 9.7 global hectares per person for 1999, while the United Kingdom commanded 5.4, and Germany took 4.7.
"We are overspending," Wackernagel said, calling the trend a prescription for "ecological bankruptcy" that is starting to show up already in collapsing commercial fisheries, loss of productive cropland and demise of natural forests.
But conservative critics said the study amounted to little more than fancy guesswork, saying there were no data to justify the implication that human activity was running roughshod over the planet's health.
"I think this is another one of these scare tactics" from environmentalists,
said Thomas Gale Moore of the Hoover Institution in Palo Alto. "They come to the conclusion that mankind is already using 120 percent of the Earth's capacity. But if that were true, I would think we'd be seeing a general degradation of the world, when in fact the environment, certainly in the advanced countries of the world, is getting cleaner and better, not dirtier."
The new study drew mostly from national production and land-use statistics already being prepared by governments around the world. In the new framework, these statistics become fodder for a kind of "ecological GDP" -- a single number to sum up all the best available "biophysical indicators" to track resources and the sustainability of the human economy.
"The purpose of these global accounts is not merely to illustrate a method for measuring human demand on bioproductivity, but to offer a tool for measuring the potential effect of remedial policies," the authors conclude.
Just what form those policies might take is a matter the researchers are leaving to policymakers to decide. They said any such decisions were being made in a vacuum without some fair way to keep score.
"Assessments like the one presented here allow humanity, using existing data, to monitor its performance regarding a necessary ecological condition for sustainability: the need to keep human demand within the amount that nature can supply," the study stated.
email Carl T. Hall at: mailto:chall@sfchronicle.com
Source: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/06/25/MN29684.DTL
6/26/02
12:04:09 PM
SciTech Daily Review
US space agency NASA has grounded its shuttle fleet indefinitely, after finding small cracks in two shuttles' fuel lines
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20020625_1529.html
Got a headache? Maybe it's time to reach for the sweet smell of pain relief
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992424
Astronomers think they have solved the case of the missing comets: the huge frozen dirtballs simply disintegrate
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/comet_missing_020620.html
Human activities are depleting the planet faster than it can recover, according to an international team of scientists ... [more] But not everyone is convinced by their reasoning
http://reason.com/rb/rb062602.shtml
For years we've tolerated buggy, bloated, badly organized computer programs. But soon, we'll innovate, litigate and regulate them into reliability, says Charles C Mann
http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/mann0702.asp
6/26/02
11:59:51 AM
BUSH BAILS ON BONO
How long can U2's Bono sing a song of hope when Bush's paltry AIDS plan for Africa is merely a retreat, rather than a step forward?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13429
6/26/02
11:57:02 AM
Bush Plays Shell Game With African Lives
by Salih Booker, June 24, 2002
On the eve of a meeting of rich country leaders in Canada, President Bush has brought out a "new initiative" promising $500 million to prevent transmission of HIV/AIDS from mothers to children. Intended to stave off the embarrassment of coming empty-handed to a summit trumpeted as focusing on Africa, the White House initiative is in fact a cynical move to derail more effective action against AIDS.
With a bipartisan congressional coalition poised to approve an additional $500 million or more in AIDS funding for fiscal year 2002, President Bush first put the squeeze on Republican senators to cut the total back to $200 million, half of which could go to the Global AIDS Fund and half for bilateral programs to cut mother-to-child transmission. Then he offered his plan, which claims the $200 million as his own while only promising to ask Congress for another $300 million two years from now. His plan would allow no additional money for the Global Fund.
The administration justifies the smaller amounts and the go-slow timetable by the need to first show "results." But, with 8,000 people around the world dying of AIDS daily (some 6,000 of them in sub-Saharan Africa), the results of Bush's stalling action are crystal-clear: more dead people.
Demonstrably successful anti-AIDS programs run by governments, nongovernmental organizations, and mission hospitals are starved for funds. Fewer than 2% of AIDS sufferers in sub-Saharan Africa, including pregnant mothers, have access to anti-retroviral drugs that can save lives. The Global AIDS Fund, which is estimated to require some $10 billion a year, is already out of funds less than halfway through its first year, while the U.S. has supplied less than a tenth of the $3.5 billion a year that would be its fair share.
When the issue is saving African lives, the administration says "Let's wait." In contrast, there is no hesitation in shelling out more than $5 billion a year in new subsidies for rich U.S. farmers, or more than $6 billion a year to pay for suspending the estate taxes on the richest Americans.
President Bush has also recently announced a trip to Africa for next year and $20 million a year for African education (beginning in 2004). But public relations gestures and budget shell games do not save lives. The American public--and Congress--need to tell the President to change course.
Salih Booker is executive director of Africa Action, which is based in Washington, D.C., and is FPIF's policy adviser on U.S.-Africa affairs.
mailto:sbooker@africapolicy.org
Source: http://www.fpif.org
6/26/02
11:47:14 AM
G6B The People's Summit: G8 Counter Conference
On June 26 and 27, 2002, the leaders of the world's most industrialized countries, the G8, will meet in Kananaskis, Alberta. They will make critical decisions that will have global impact. Past G8 Summits have consistently failed to offer an effective means for individuals, civil society or even other states, to provide input to, or engage in, meaningful dialogue with G8 leaders.
We believe, therefore, that an alternative forum, offering a means for the views and concerns of all of the world's peoples to be expressed and considered, is sorely needed. As such, the G6B (Group of 6 Billion -- reflecting the entire global citizenry) will be held in Calgary, offering a forum to generate and discuss ideas and solutions that will promote economic activities that are beneficial to people living in all parts of our world, but that also reflect full respect for human rights and the environment.
The G6B Conference will offer an alternative view of the planet's future; one which is not rooted in increased militarism and poverty, and decreased human and civil rights.
Committed to bridging the divides and inequalities that exist between the developed and developing world, the conference will bring forward recommendations in six theme areas: trade and economy, human security, health, education, environment, democracy and governance.
Importantly the G6B will consider concrete proposals and clear recommendations, which will be presented to G8 governments in the weeks and months leading up to the Summit -- effective, practical solutions, not just a litany of problems and complaints.
The Purposes of the Conference are:
- To figure as part of a long term campaign for global peace, justice and equality
- To pay particular attention to the needs, challenges and aspirations of the peoples of Africa
- To foster public dialogue and participation on the issue of globalization in relation to social, economic and political well being, both individual and collective, from national and international perspectives
- To make recommendations to G8 governments that will ensure equitable trade, protection of human rights and the environment, and sustainable development
The Conference will bring renowned speakers, respected experts, and activists from the frontlines of poverty and conflict, together with an anticipated audience of 500, to explore a number of crucial issues and recommendations within the G6B's six themes. Consistent with the priorities of the G8, all sessions will have a special focus on the issues of Africa.
More details on their website at http://www.g6bpeoplessummit.org/
International Society for Peace and Human Rights: ISPHR Website:
http://www.peaceandhumanrights.org/
6/26/02
11:45:39 AM
The G8 Agenda
In their own words, the priorities at the Kananaskis summit will be to strengthen the global economy, build a partnership for Africa's development, and to fight "terrorism".
Questions arise about the intended means to "strengthen" the economy. In the past, the G8 has relied on international organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank, which caused the economic devastation in Argentina, and sent Colombia's economy into a tailspin. Other questions arise as to whether the G8 will keep any promises they might make, as they failed to do with their 1999 debt-relief pledge.
The Partnership For Africa's Development (NEPAD) being touted by the G8 has come under fire for not gathering the required public input, and for supporting neo-liberal economic policies similar to those of the IMF and World Bank. IMF and World Bank programs have been identified as the original cause of Africa's economic woes. Amnesty international has launched a campaign to draw attention to how the G8's trade in arms and military aid in Africa undermines human rights. Human Rights Watch has voiced similar concerns, arguing that NEPAD does not address the massive human rights violations occurring on the continent.
Concerns have been raised about how the "War On Terrorism" is being used by G8 member countries to further their own domestic agendas. Canada has passed several anti-Terrorism bills aimed at cutting civil liberties, which include the infamous Kananaskis clause. Russia has stepped up aggression in Chechnya, amid flagrant human rights abuses
(see at http://www.hrw.org/un/unchr-chechnya.htm).
The United States was recently condemned by a group of leading artists, writers and academics for what they call a 'War Without Limit'. Others have wondered how it could be a war against "terrorism" when it's leader is itself a leading terrorist state.
Conspicuous by its absence is talk about the Kyoto Protocol, long since killed by Canada and the United States at a past G8 meeting. More information on issues behind the G8 can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/g8.htm
The G8 is an exclusive grouping of the wealthiest advanced industrialized nations - U.S., U.K., Germany, Japan, Italy, France, Canada (otherwise known as the G7) - plus Russia. In the year 2000, the G8 accounted for a net GDP of $21.1 trillion (US$) within a total world GDP of $31.3 trillion, meaning that the G8 controls about 68% of the world's economy (see table below). In contrast, the combined populations of the G8 nations make up less than 14% of the total world population. On the basis of its economic and military strength, the G8 sets a global agenda and advances it via its members and via the various international organizations which they dominate: e.g. the IMF, the World Bank, the G20, the WTO, and so on. The G8 has no general mandate from a more legitimate international institution.
Background
The G8 derives from earlier groupings which were formed to coordinate and to promote the economic and strategic interests of the main capitalist states during the Cold War. The earliest incarnations of the G8 are shrouded in secrecy. The existence of the Brussels Group, for instance, notable primarily for its efforts to undermine early pollution control initiatives (see: Plot to undermine global pollution controls revealed at
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99991734),
only came to light in 2001, 30 years after its formation (1971). Subsequent to the Brussels Group came the Library Group (1973 - U.S., West Germany, France, U.K. - plus Japan a year later), the 'G6' (1975 - U.S., West Germany, France, U.K, Japan, Italy), and then the G7, in which Canada was added at U.S. insistence in order to counterbalance the growing European strength (Canada was chosen for its heavy economic dependence on the U.S., which allows it to be easily manipulated). It is only since 1998 that Russia - having been successfully subdued and coerced into a Western neoliberal economic mode - has been included, thus completing the G8. Russia's role, however, is still limited, and it continues to be excluded from most of the 'ministerials' which take place in the months leading up to the annual summit.
What the G8 does...
The main work of the G8 involves the furtherance of the global neoliberalization program. This means nudging the global economy in directions which reinforce the supremacy of private and corporate interests over democratic and collective ones. In specific terms, it means favoring privatization, deregulation (i.e. reducing or eliminating environmental, health, and labor standards), capital mobility (by removing currency and investment controls), and the erosion of sovereign control over domestic economies. The G7, for instance, played an important role in advancing the Uruguay Round agenda of the General Agreement on Trade and Tariffs (GATT), which led, in turn, to the creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
When there are perceived or anticipated setbacks in the advance of the neoliberal program, the G8 functions as an ad hoc executive committee to formulate corrective policies. The G8 has taken upon itself to deal with international crime, terrorism, and certain forms of financial speculation, for instance, since these types of phenomena represent threats to the steady advance of larger capitalist interests.
The G7/G8 can also be efficient at undermining initiatives which have popular support but might entail sacrifices on the part of the wealthy. The characteristic pattern has been to make promises in the spirit of popular demands, and then to appear to be incapable of reaching any agreement on how to actually realize them. Contradictions like this are made possible thanks to the G8's lack of transparency and clear process, and its lack of accountability. Significant debt repudiation, for instance, has long been promised by the G8, but the group has consistently succeeded in avoiding all but the most meagre commitments.
Kananaskis
On June 26-27, 2002, the G8 will hold their annual summit in Kananaskis, Alberta, a posh resort area tucked away in the Rocky Mountains. The location was chosen by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien in the wake of a massive outpouring of popular resistance at the previous G8 summit in Genoa - an event which was marred by shocking reports of police brutality and the tragic shooting of protester Carlo Giuliani. Determined to keep shows of political dissent in Kananaskis to a minimum, various 'anti-terrorist' bills have been tabled in the Canadian parliament giving security forces broad new powers and making the exercise of civil liberties increasingly risky.
The main items on the Kananaskis agenda are:
- economic recovery,
- terrorism (especially the U.S./Canada border issue), and
- Africa, particularly the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD), and the so-called Africa Trust Fund which Canada initiated by committing $500 million in its December 2001 budget;
and other issues which may be addressed are:
- education (meeting the Millenium development goal of universal primary education by 2015) and
- the Kyoto Protocol
Also, the U.S. may attempt to use the summit to promote the expansion of its 'war against terrorism' into Iraq.
G8 Interest in Africa
CLIP
See also:
G8 Activist Network
Alberta Independent media Center
Peaceful march opens week of protest against G8 agenda
http://alberta.indymedia.org/news/2002/06/2971.php
http://montreal.indymedia.org/archive/features/2002/06/2002-06.html#4083
6/26/02
11:42:40 AM
CANADA PREPS FOR G8 SUMMIT
Jittery heads of state gather this week in some of the most remote and rugged terrain in Canada. Terrorism, anyone? (...) There's also a tremendous financial cost for Canada, which is spending an estimated $500 million to host its G8 brethren for two days -- about as much money as Canada has promised to dedicate to the much-ballyhooed New Partnership for Africa's Development, which has been assigned the awkward acronym NEPAD and is supposed to be the centerpiece of summit discussions.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13446
Chrétien Aims to Aid Africa by Mobilizing Rich Nations
OTTAWA, June 19 - (...) In what analysts call the most ambitious foreign policy proposal of his nine years as Canada's leader, Mr. Chrétien will press the other leaders of the major industrial powers to turn their attentions from terrorism, the Middle East and the India-Pakistan crisis and forge a new strategy to assist Africa. He will argue that the wealthiest nations should increase their aid budgets for education, agriculture and fresh water, as well as helping to restructure government and legal institutions, combat AIDS and malaria, and encourage foreign investment in Africa. He will also argue that they must drop their trade barriers to African textiles, footwear and farm products. CLIP
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/23/international/americas/23CANA.html
6/26/02
11:39:47 AM
TomPaine.com
Independent, Commercial-free
Read our latest Op Ad on the op-ed page of today's New York Times or check it out on line...
MOBILE CHERNOBYL?
MapScience.org Tracks Nuclear Waste Through Everytown, USA
If Yucca Mountain opens as scheduled, 77,000 tons of waste must travel American highways or railroads to get there. The potential for a serious accident has opponents calling the transport plan "Mobile Chernobyl."
http://www.tompaine.com/op_ads/opad.cfm/ID/5883
And read these Op-Ad Features...
RAILROAD TUNNEL FIRE: A SCENARIO
Conditions Ripe For Radioactive Release
by Matthew Lamb and Marvin Resnikoff
Researchers say if last summer's Baltimore railroad tunnel fire had involved a train carrying nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain, the consequences would have been "disastrous."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5878
NUCLEAR SHIPMENTS: UNSAFE AT ANY SPEED
The Documented Failures Of DOE's Transportation Security Division
by The Project on Government Oversight
The Energy Department division responsible for transporting nuclear materials on America's highways failed six out of seven security tests in 1998. Can we trust them with 100,000 waste shipments to Yucca Mountain?
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5885
NUCLEAR WASTE, TERROR AND INTRGUE
The Industry That Promised Energy
by Colin Woodard
No one has solved the nuclear industry's most intractable problem: how to safely dispose of the 40,000 metric tons of highly-radioactive wastes the industry has produced to date, nor the estimated 65,000 tons that will soon come.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/4582
THE SOUTH RISES AGAINST PLUTONIUM
(AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT)
An Interview With SC Reporter Schuyler Kropf
by Steven Rosenfeld
South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges tried to stop the Department of Energy from shipping plutonium to his state. Last week a federal court ruled against him.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5865
BUSH DICTATES 'DEMOCRACY' TO THE PALESTINIANS
An Overdetermined Version Of Self-Determination
by Publicus
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
FUNDING AMTRAK FOR THE TERRORIST ERA
An Interview With National Corridors Initiative President James P. Repass
by Sharon Basco
"This isn't a question of being able to have trains because everybody likes to go ride on choo-choos. [We need a] balanced transportation system."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5882
And from out CHECK IT OUT! department...
PENNIES FOR AFRICA'S TROUBLES
Last week, President Bush responded to the UN's call for $2 billion in bilateral aid to combat AIDS in Africa with what he seemingly percieved to be a generous offer of $500 million over five years (see David Corn's Loyal Opposition column from the week of June 22). He hailed this as an "important new" anti-AIDS program and declared that "America is prepared to lead the way in the global fight against AIDS."
On June 25, British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced that British aid to Africa will be increased to £1bn (nearly $1.5 billion) annually over the next five years; that is an increase from the current £632m, and over 10 times more money than Bush is offering.
Consider this: the British defense budget for next year tops out at £22.6 billion, or about $25 billion, and they're prepared to give African nations a full £1 billion annually; the U.S. defense budget for next year is predicted to be somewhere in the range of $350 billion dollars, and yet the Bushies can only come up with $500 million (and that's not even annual!). Has conservatism ever been so compassionate? Reagan would be proud.
http://www.tompaine.com/check_it_out/
6/26/02
11:34:25 AM
"By deliberately changing the internal image of reality, people can change the world."
Willis Harman
6/26/02
11:31:32 AM
Planet Ark World Environment News
Tourism must respect environment, Pope says - VATICAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16578/story.htm
US House panel backs conservation in spending bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16575/story.htm
Green groups aided spread of US fires - Veneman - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16566/story.htm
Anti-G8 activists bare all in cheeky protest -USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16567/story.htm
EPA says 28 pct of US lakes have contaminated fish - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16569/story.htm
UPDATE - Ariz wildfire rages - Bush declares disaster - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16570/story.htm
Engine makers, refiners can meet US diesel rule - EPA - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16585/story.htm
Analysts see no consensus on California offshore gas - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16573/story.htm
US won't act to protect Seattle-area killer whales - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16565/story.htm
FEATURE - Sun still rising on depleted North Sea oil wealth - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16572/story.htm
UPDATE - Russian eco-journalist Pasko loses spy case appeal - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16576/story.htm
Activists say Japan nuclear fuel shipment at risk - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16580/story.htm
Indonesia says permanent log export ban in place - INDONESIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16581/story.htm
Indian officials shoot killer elephant dead - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16579/story.htm
UPDATE - Mont Blanc tunnel reopens to trucks amid protests - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16571/story.htm
EU to propose five pct cereals price cut - sources - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16577/story.htm
EU ratifies Cartagena GM crop trade treaty - EU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16574/story.htm
China group says dry areas unprepared for floods - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16583/story.htm
Brazil leader says much still needed on environment - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16568/story.htm
Brazil seizes record haul of illegal mahogany - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16584/story.htm
6/26/02
11:26:59 AM
"They that would give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Ben Franklin, 1759
6/26/02
11:22:23 AM
WHAT IS AN "UNLAWFUL COMBATANT," AND WHY IT MATTERS:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29553
Under Bush Government, demonstrators can be "unlawful combatants"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29552
Governments are Fictions
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29527
Common Sense Justice
"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence. It is force, and like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." - George Washington
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29529
White House Overwhelmed - tom.tancredo@mail.house.gov
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29453
CLG 9/11 investigation and "oddities"
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29544
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. TOTAL PAGE HITS THIS MESSAGE BOARD AS OF 6/24/02 - 453,727
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do." - Edward Everett Hale
http://www.apfn.org/old/apfncont.htm
6/25/02
9:54:36 PM
Reducing The Use Of Toxic Chemicals Advances Health And Sustainable Development
by Anne Platt McGinn
WASHINGTON, DC - June 25, 2002 - The 2001 Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) is one of the major achievements growing out of the Earth Summit in Rio in 1992. Signatories agreed to phase out and limit production of 12 POPs, long-lived toxic chemicals that cause biological havoc as they bioaccumulate—collect and concentrate—in the food chain. The treaty outlines key principles for a less toxic world, including the prevention of new toxic, persistent, and bioaccumulative chemicals; reduction of existing ones; and substitution with less dangerous materials. The challenge at Johannesburg and beyond is to further apply the principles of prevention, reduction, and substitution to all toxic chemicals.
At present, the Stockholm Treaty covers only 12 chemicals: nine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and the industrial byproducts dioxins and furans. The problem is that there is very little basic health or environmental information for the majority of 80,000 chemical compounds on the market today. Information about the effects of mixtures of these compounds is even scarcer. And manufacturers are introducing an estimated 1,000 new chemicals each year.
With the Stockholm Convention, authorities and communities have begun to adopt a proactive approach that seeks to avoid using toxic chemicals in the first place. This is a key step to keeping toxic chemicals out of our environment, our food, and our bodies.
Stepping off the toxics treadmill requires a combination of strong, binding laws and commitments; greater public participation; industrial innovation; and increased consumer demand for toxic-free products and processes. To maintain the recent momentum in toxics use reduction, governments, companies, and NGOs must work together to implement treaties, quickly phase out leaded gasoline, address toxic waste, and promote product labeling.
OUR TOXIC LEGACY
We are living with the legacy of several decades' worth of toxic chemical use. Moreover, recent scientific discoveries have heightened concern about the cumulative effects of exposure to toxic chemicals. Scientists have shown that irreversible health effects occur at levels below current “safe” levels. Pesticides and dioxins can impair the body’s immune and reproductive systems, while heavy metals such as lead and mercury impede cognitive and physical development. Toxic chemicals travel the globe and threaten the health of humans and wildlife in some of the world’s most remote regions:
Human breast milk is among the most contaminated foods on Earth. Chlorinated pesticides, PCBs, lead, mercury, and other bioaccumulative toxins have been found in breast milk, which is transferred by the mother to nursing infants.
Millions of people who eat fish worldwide—especially women of childbearing age and children—are at risk from mercury poisoning, which can lead to brain defects, neurological disorders, and loss of cognitive skills. Mercury is emitted from fossil fuel burning, waste disposal, mining, and other industrial practices.
Despite a 64-percent drop in annual global atmospheric emissions of lead since 1983, several million adults and children suffer the adverse health effects of lead poisoning, including impaired mental and physical development. In the U.S. alone, childhood lead poisoning is estimated to cost some $43 billion per year.
Electronic and computer wastes are growing faster than any other type of hazardous waste. The computer industry is the most chemically intense in the world, using 500-1,000 different chemicals, many of them highly toxic, including arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury.
Highly toxic pesticides are routinely used to control disease carrying-pests in agriculture, homes, businesses, and public health campaigns. Improper storage and misuse of such chemicals can create problems ranging from water and soil degradation to human illnesses.
PRIORITIES FOR JOHANNESBURG AND BEYOND
Ratify and implement global toxics and waste treaties.
Prohibiting some of the world’s most toxic chemicals will remove them from the environment and lay the groundwork to phase out similar compounds. The Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants eliminates or severely restricts the production and use of 12 POPs, ensures environmentally sound management of POPs waste, and prevents new POPs from being introduced. The treaty needs to be ratified by 50 countries to enter into force. Eleven parties had ratified the treaty as of 5 June 2002.
Nations need to ratify the Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure (PIC) for Certain Hazardous Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade. The Convention establishes a roster of chemicals that have been banned or restricted by countries. Governments will be able to use this information in making decisions about accepting or refusing shipments of chemicals on the list. The convention needs to be ratified by 50 parties to enter into force. As of 31 May 2002, 22 parties had ratified the convention.
Banning hazardous waste trade is critical to forcing countries to deal with the waste they generate rather than shipping it elsewhere. The 1989 Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was designed to reduce hazardous waste trafficking, to promote disposal close to the site of origin, and to prohibit trade with countries that lack the capacity to manage wastes in an environmentally sound manner. The 1995 Basel Ban Amendment bans the export of hazardous waste from rich to poorer countries. The Convention is already in force, with 151 parties. The Amendment needs 62 parties to enter into force. As of 31 May 2002, 30 parties had ratified the Amendment.
Require companies to report and monitor their use and release of toxic chemicals, and mandate public access to this data.
Information about environmental releases from industrial facilities pinpoints the most affected communities and the most polluting industries, thereby identifying targets for action. Agenda 21 called for nations to adopt national Pollution Release and Transfer Registries (PRTR) to track chemicals. Faced with fierce opposition from manufacturers, fewer than 20 nations have set up PRTRs.
However, in Western and Eastern Europe, 28 countries have agreed to a more far-reaching agreement that provides for greater government accountability, transparency, and responsiveness in providing information about toxics. This regional agreement, the Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice, came into effect in October 2001. This convention grants explicit rights to the public to participate in governmental decision-making and guarantees legal procedures to compel access to information.
Phase out leaded gasoline and begin to reduce lead from other sources by 2005.
Lead poisoning is one of the world’s worst environmental health problems.
Some 20 percent of the gasoline sold today is leaded, the largest source of environmental contamination and human exposure to lead.
The Summit of the Americas Partnership for Pollution Prevention helped accelerate and secure a hemispheric-wide phase out of leaded gasoline. This model can help inform a global campaign.
In addition to phasing out lead, countries should also identify other major sources of environmental lead contamination and reduce them.
Implement take-back legislation for electronic products and develop national recovery plans for toxic metals.
Diverting toxic materials from the waste stream reduces the toxicity of incinerated and land filled wastes and promotes recovery of these toxics elements. The huge increase in electronic wastes is a particularly pressing problem.
Countries should develop plans to address the collection, storage and recycling or recovery of toxic wastes like used lead acid batteries, waste oils, and metal-containing industrial, municipal, and hospital wastes.
In May 2001, the European Parliament approved a proposal requiring producers to take-back electronic waste and to phase-out some of the most toxic chemicals used in electronics manufacturing in the next few years.
Japan approved an electric appliance recycling law which will soon include computers. Several Japanese manufacturers are now designing computers and electronics with safer materials and fewer chemicals so they pose less risk throughout their lifecycle.
Fund research on and increase use of economic incentives for alternative materials and environmentally sound methods of waste disposal.
The Philippines and the Slovak Republic are testing the use of alternative non-incineration technologies to destroy stockpiles of POPs in their countries in ways that do not create and emit toxic byproducts in the process. These pilot programs will set a model for other countries to follow.
Many countries have reduced their consumption of leaded gasoline by taxing it at a higher rate than unleaded gas. Similar taxes have been effective in reducing the use of highly toxic pesticides.
Promote labeling of toxic materials in consumer products.
Product labeling systems can extend the public’s right-to-know about toxic materials used in consumer products, empowering consumers to refuse to buy products containing particular toxics. Labeling systems are already in use for a number of products, including PVC-free toys, mercury-free thermometers, organically grown cotton T-shirts, and chlorine-free bleached paper.
Join Worldwatch researchers Michael Renner and Molly O'Meara Sheehan for a web discussion about the newest Worldwatch release, Vital Signs 2002: The trends that are shaping our future on June 28. Among the more than 50 social, economic and environmental trends Vital Signs covers every year, data in the 2002 edition indicates that the new economy can be just as polluting and toxics-heavy as the old economy. To join in, please visit
http://www.worldwatch.org/live/
on Friday, June 28 from 12:00-1:00 EST (17:00-18:00 GMT)
For more information about Vital Signs, please visit the Worldwatch website at http://www.worldwatch.org/
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Worldwatch Institute
1776 Massachusetts Ave. NW, Suite 800
Washington, DC 20036
telephone: (202) 452-1999
fax: (202) 296-7365
email: mailto:worldsummit@worldwatch.org
website: http://www.worldwatch.org
6/25/02
9:50:26 PM
E-WIRE Environmental Media Distribution
June 25, 2002
World Tree Technologies Launches 'Arizona Reforestation Rescue Project'
PHOENIX, AZ, Jun. 25 -/E-Wire/-- World Tree Technologies, an Arizona basedcompany, launched today the 'Arizona Reforestation Rescue Project,'introducing an environmentally friendly reforestation incentive, concerningthe recent forest fires that have been spreading across the country, andespecially in the state of Arizona
http://www.ewire-news.com/wires/0238E41A-01AE-49A8-821C2A29AC35BE25.htm
Cargill Dow Technology Wins Presidential Green Chemistry Award
MINNETONKA, MN, Jun. 25 -/E-Wire/-- Cargill Dow LLC is the 2002 recipient of the Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge, Alternative Reaction Conditions Award. Honored in a ceremony held at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., on June 24, Cargill Dow was recognized for the development of their revolutionary process to make plastic from corn - NatureWorks(TM) PLA.
http://www.ewire-news.com/wires/123EE020-63EF-44EE-BD59B43A51990FE1.htm
ADVISORY/Paice Corporation's Hybrid Vehicle Powertrain Will Be Described at a Hearing of the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science Committee on June 26
WASHINGTON, DC, USA, Jun. 25 -/E-Wire/Business Wire/-- The unique Hyperdrive(TM)hybrid gas-electric powertrain that can increase the fuel economy of America's total vehicle fleet by more than 50 percent will be described at a hearing of the Energy Subcommittee of the House Science Committee on Wednesday at 10:00 a.m.
http://www.ewire-news.com/wires/621FEF7D-0796-48D8-B8612E1289E6B5AC.htm
Responsibility for the factual accuracy of each press release rests entirely with the individuals or organizations identified on the release.
SEND YOUR PRESS RELEASE OVER E-WIRE
For information on E-Wire's full distribution, low rates and packages
visit http://www.Ewire-News.com or call 1-800-439-5506.
6/25/02
9:44:08 PM
Public Citizen
Files Complaint Against San Bernardino Water Board Member for Failing to Disclose Water Company Ties
June 25, 2002
Complaint Charges Susan Lien - Also a San Bernardino City Council Member - With Failure to Disclose Employment With Cadiz
OAKLAND, Calif. - Consumer watchdog group Public Citizen filed a complaint today against a member of the San Bernardino Regional Water Resources Authority for failing to disclose her relationship with a politically powerful water firm that is at the forefront of efforts to profit from California's water market. The board member is Susan Lien, also a San Bernardino city council member representing the city's Ward 2.
In her financial disclosure form filed with the San Bernardino Regional Water Resources Authority, Lien did not disclose her income from Cadiz, Inc., an agricultural and water development firm in the Mojave area with rights to significant underground water deposits.
Public Citizen filed the complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission (FPPC). The penalty for an FPPC violation is a $5,000 fine as well as civil liability for perjury.
The San Bernardino Regional Water Resources Authority is located in an area where Cadiz has significant operations. Cadiz is pursuing a controversial $500 million contract to deliver water to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) for 50 years. The San Bernardino water authority sets water policy that could affect the MWD, thereby making it possible that Lien would influence the MWD to favorably negotiate with Lien's employer, Cadiz.
Lien is the Inland Empire regional manager for Cadiz and is responsible for corporate operations in the Inland Empire. She also serves as the company's representative to water, civic, environmental, agricultural and governmental entities, providing public outreach and education on the Cadiz Groundwater Storage and Dry-Year Supply Program. That means she is employed to be a liaison to a board on which she serves.
"We are concerned that Susan Lien may vote on matters that impact the company she works for - a blatant conflict of interest," said Jane Kelly, director of Public Citizen's California office. "We are even more concerned that she didn't disclose this conflict as required by law."
State law requires public officeholders to fully reveal the extent of their financial interests to avoid conflicts of interest. Lien is obliged to disclose her salary from Cadiz in the FPPC's Form 700 Statement of Economic Interest. However, on the Form 700 statements she filed with the water authority in 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, she made no mention of her relationship with Cadiz.
Lien was elected to the city council in 1998 and was named to the water board in 1999. She reported her Cadiz income in the 1999-2000 form she filed with the city of San Bernardino in her capacity as a council member. However, in the 2000-2001 and 2001-2002 forms she submitted to the city, she did not report her Cadiz employment. In fact, she affirmatively indicated that she had no reportable interests, event though Cadiz is registered to do business in the city of San Bernardino.
"Susan Lien's omission in disturbing, especially considering that she reported working for Cadiz in years past," Kelly said. "Cadiz is registered to do business in San Bernardino and its operations stand to be impacted by influencing San Bernardino water authority votes. That's a clear conflict."
Having a water board member on the payroll is one more example of how Cadiz is trying to influence California politics, Kelly said. Cadiz is a significant contributor to California Gov. Gray Davis and other elected state and local officials, including state senators, the lieutenant governor and to a Los Angeles mayoral candidate.
Another Cadiz employee, Tim Shaheen, president and chief executive officer of Sun World International (a wholly owned subsidiary of Cadiz), serves on the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (LARWQCB), which also has the potential to render decisions favorable to the MWD, thereby enabling him to influence negotiations between Cadiz and the MWD. Shaheen has disclosed his employment in forms filed with the LARWQCB.
Lien sits on a number of other panels that are influential in recommending water policy for Southern California, including the Southern California Water Committee Water Marketing/Transfers/Wheeling Task Force and the Association of Ground Water Agencies. In many of those bodies, she is described as an employee of Cadiz.
A copy of Public Citizen's complaint is available at
http://www.citizen.org/cmep/Water/groundwater/cadiz/articles.cfm?ID=7881
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C., with offices in Oakland, Calif.
For more information, please visit http://www.Citizen.org
6/25/02
9:40:02 PM
Security Bill Bars Blowing Whistle
by Audrey Hudson, The Washington Times
A provision in the bill seeking to create a Homeland Security Department will exempt its employees from whistleblower protection, the very law that helped expose intelligence-gathering missteps before September 11.
The legislation now before Congress contains a provision allowing the director of the proposed agency to waive all employee protections in Title V, including the Whistleblower Protection Act. The act protects government employees from retaliation or losing employment for speaking out on waste, fraud and abuse.
FBI Agent Coleen Rowley blew the whistle on her agency for mishandling a probe of terrorist suspect Zacarias Moussaoui, who has been indicted by a federal grand jury on six counts of conspiracy in the September 11 attacks. Mrs. Rowley testified before a Senate panel earlier this month that a "climate of fear" prevented an aggressive investigation of the man whom authorities believe was to be the 20th hijacker.
As the 21-year veteran testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee, President Bush proposed the new Cabinet position in a prime-time televised address.
The protection exclusion has concerned members of Congress and civil-liberties activists. "I don't think we want to just let a provision like that sail through without taking a close look at it," says Rep. Bob Barr, Georgia Republican.
"If you look back at recent history, it has been a very, very important aspect of ferreting out the truth regarding government actions. Much of what we know that went wrong in the White House in the '90s was initially highlighted by special agent Aldrich." The reference is to Gary Aldrich, who wrote "Unlimited Access: An FBI Agent Inside the Clinton White House."
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, sent a letter Wednesday to Tom Ridge, White House homeland security adviser, asking that the administration guarantee full application of the act to employees of the proposed department. "Whistleblowers are key to exposing a dysfunctional bureaucracy," Mr. Grassley says.
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center, government agencies have placed a greater emphasis on secrecy and restricted information for security reasons, he says. "With these restrictions come a greater danger of stopping the legitimate disclosure of wrongdoing and mismanagement, especially about public safety and security. Bureaucracies have an instinct to cover up their misdeeds and mistakes, and that temptation is even greater when they can use a potential security issue as an excuse."
The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service last month was required to pay back wages and cancel suspension and demotion orders for two Border Patrol agents who told a newspaper about security problems along the U.S.-Canadian border.
The agents, assigned to the INS field office in Detroit, were recommended for discipline after they told the Detroit Free Press that Michigan's border lacked the resources to adequately protect the country from terrorists. Agents Mark Hall and Robert Lindemann said the 804 miles of shoreline border were guarded by 28 field agents, one working boat, several damaged electronic sensors and one broken remote camera. They were cited for not following instructions not to talk to reporters and recommended for 90-day suspensions and one-year demotions.
The exclusion of the whistleblower law is also opposed by the American Civil Liberties Union, which says protections against retribution for those such as Mrs. Rowley would not exist in the new agency.
"It's very scary. The public needs to know what the government is doing," says Tim Edgar, legislative counsel for the ACLU. "Sometimes, it hurts Democrats; sometimes, it hurts Republicans, but it's always informative and even more necessary to protect whistleblowers in homeland security than any other government agency. It's not just tax dollars spent wisely, but doing what we need to do to keep people safe." Other elements of the plan are long on secrecy and short on accountability, Mr. Edgar says.
The department would not be required to release information under the Freedom of Information Act. This would eliminate the agency's responsibility to answer questions from the public. Advisory committees that normally include public input would be immune, and the Cabinet secretary would have veto power over inspector general audits and investigations.
"We need to know real facts, and not just spin from the agency," he says.
Jerry Seper contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20020622-42082444.htm
6/25/02
9:32:50 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.26
Nat Hentoff | The Sons and Daughters of Liberty, 'All of Us Are in Danger'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26A.hentoff.liberty.htm
White House Security Bill Bars Blowing Whistle
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26B.bar.whistle.htm
Patrick E. Tyler | Clear Terms, Murky Future
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26C.murky.future.htm
Gephardt; Statement on Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26D.gep.PD.htm
Paul Krugman | The Reality Thing
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26E.krug.reality.htm
Nicholas D. Kristof | Let Them Sweat
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26F.kristof.sweat.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 123
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26G.stone.123.htm
United Wants an Additional 2 Billion in Loan Guarantees
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.26H.united.2B.htm
6/25/02
9:24:45 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
UPDATE - Entergy Grand Gulf, Miss. nuke felled by raccoon - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16548/story.htm
UPDATE - Firefighters make first progress against Arizona blaze - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16550/story.htm
Test near of Farm Belt qualms on US homeland agency - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16551/story.htm
Sierra Club to highlight US lawmakers' enviro votes - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16552/story.htm
Arizona blaze so far spares transmission grid - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16553/story.htm
Senators seek documents on pollution rules - report - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16559/story.htm
Blimps could replace phone satellites in 5 years - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16545/story.htm
Techno mountain looms over green and pleasant UK - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16555/story.htm
Experts to examine safety of crisps, French fries - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16556/story.htm
South Africa activists say will defy police on summit - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16557/story.htm
INTERVIEW - UN envoy says Chechen kids run landmine gauntlet - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16547/story.htm
Rampaging elephant kills nine in eastern India - INDIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16558/story.htm
Solar energy firm SES21 seeks 6 mln euros from IPO - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16546/story.htm
Vestas seen winner of Polish wind turbine order - DENMARK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16549/story.htm
Thousands protest peacefully in Canada against G8 - CANADA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16560/story.htm
6/25/02
9:23:43 PM
AlterNet Headlines
CANADA PREPS FOR G8 SUMMIT
Dan Rubinstein, AlterNet
Jittery heads of state gather this week in some of the most remote and rugged terrain in Canada. Terrorism, anyone?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13446
THE MIX IS THE MESSAGE: CREATIVES AND MONGRELS
Don Hazen, AlterNet
Two thinkers make a compelling case for diversity and creativity as the engines that drive economic growth.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13447
ENERGY SCANDALS AND CLIMATE TRAGEDIES
Michel Gelobter, AlterNet
The furor over Enron, the California energy crisis, and Spencer Abraham's secret energy meetings is nothing compared to the upcoming tidal wave from Bush's withdrawal from the Kyoto Protocol.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13450
HOLLERING INTO CYBERSPACE
Allie Gottlieb, Metro Silicon Valley
Are the ever-popular online petitions just a World Wide Waste of time?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13433
SEEKING JUSTICE FOR APARTHEID
Stan Winer, AlterNet
Victims of apartheid are demanding $50 billion in compensation from American and Swiss banks that profited from their misery.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13451
THE GOD OF LITERARY TRENDS
Noy Thrupkaew, AlterNet
Wanted: South Asian beauties to pen delicious tales of kitchen squabbles and sparkly saris, imbued with quirky, food-based exoticism.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13448
BUSH BAILS ON BONO
David Corn, AlterNet
How long can U2's Bono sing a song of hope when Bush's paltry AIDS plan for Africa is merely a retreat, rather than a step forward?
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13429
A PUBLIC VISION FOR GROUND ZERO
Todd Oppenheimer, AlterNet
A new Web site incorporates public opinion into the process of rebuilding the World Trade Center.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13449
Conscientious Consumption
Each day Americans consume their body weight in natural resources. Where does your stuff come from? And who really pays the price of the goods you buy? Find out on Tuesday's Working Assets Radio with Laura Flanders. Listen online from 10-11amPT/1-2pmET, or call in: 866-798-TALK.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com
CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
Jim Lobe, AlterNet
Human rights and death-penalty abolition groups hailed last week's landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court banning the execution of mentally disabled inmates.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13431
PLUCK OFF
Brendan O'Neill, Spiked Online
The Brits think the Irish football team is made up of a bunch of colorful losers who wandered into world-class football by accident.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13434
6/25/02
9:20:53 PM
FAIR - Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
ACTIVISM UPDATE: Post Responds to FAIR Alert, June 24, 2002
On June 17, FAIR issued an action alert about the Washington Post's reporting of President Bush's June 14 commencement address at Ohio State University. Specifically, FAIR pointed out that the paper failed to note an announcement issued over the public address system warning that visible signs of protest would not be tolerated. This was not the first time students were warned about showing signs of dissent, either; according to the Columbus Dispatch (6/15/02), graduates had been warned at a rehearsal that they faced possible arrest for any such action.
FAIR activists sent emails to Washington Post ombudsman Michael Getler, and he responded in his June 23 column: "A media watch group known as FAIR, for Fairness & Accuracy in Media, took off after Milbank and The Post, resulting in some 1,000 similar sounding e-mails from its subscribers, asking why The Post was covering up dissent against Bush."
Although he got FAIR's name wrong, Getler did seem to agree with some of the criticism. "It would have been good to have had something on this," he wrote. But he added that "the FAIR bombardment seems, frankly, unfair. Milbank, part of the press corps traveling with Bush, could not have seen the Dispatch story beforehand."
FAIR agrees that it would have been good for the Post to include some of this background, though we're not sure it would have been as difficult as Getler claims. The threats to arrest protesters were made not only at rehearsal, where they were reported by the Dispatch, but in the stadium itself, when presumably Milbank was present. Such a warning should have been a clue to an alert reporter that there was more to the (relative) absence of protests than "adulation" for Bush.
According to protest organizers, at least 14 people inside the stadium took part in the "Turn Your Back on Bush" demonstration. Contrary to Milbank's report that "if there was a protest in the stadium, it was not visible to reporters," a student journalist from OSU's paper did report on this action (Lantern, 6/14/02).
FAIR is encouraged that Getler took the concerns of so many media activists seriously enough to write about them. We hope the ombudsman will continue to respond to substantive criticism in the future.
6/25/02
9:19:18 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.25
Senator Kerry Criticizes U.S. Tactics
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25A.Kerry.tactics.htm
Court Overturns More Than 150 Judge-Imposed Death Sentences
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25B.150.dth.sen.htm
Bernard Weiner | Talkin' About the F-Word (Redux)
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25C.bw.redux.htm
Maureen Dowd | Hans, Franz & W.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25D.dowd.hans.franz.htm
New York Times Editorial | Striking First
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25E.striking.first.htm
Bob Herbert | How Hot Is Too Hot?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25F.herbert.hot.htm
Wetlands Shrink Before Growing Demands of Industry, Consumers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.25G.wp.glades.htm
6/25/02
9:17:32 PM
Lost it?
Even Albert Einstein had a brain cramp now and then.
One time, for instance, he was taking a train to an out of town engagement. The conductor stopped by to punch his ticket, but the great scientist, preoccupied with his work, explained that he couldn't find his ticket. Not in the coat pockets, not in the briefcase.
The conductor said, "We all know who you are, Dr. Einstein. I'm sure you bought ticket. Don't worry about it."
As the conductor moved along, he looked back to see Einstein on his hands and knees searching under the seats for his ticket. The conductor walked back, "Dr. Einstein, please, don't worry about it. I know who you are."
Exasperated, Einstein looked up and said, "I, too, know who I am. What I don't know is where I'm going."
6/25/02
9:14:15 PM
U.S. Is Icing Our Warming Report
by Bill McKibben, Long Island Newsday, June 6, 2002
The federal government sent a report to the United Nations Friday admitting what every other important institution in the world has long insisted: that global warming will wreak massive damage on every corner of the planet.
On this continent, the Bush administration concluded, entire ecosystems would likely disappear, while heat waves stifled the plains and cities, and disappearing snow packs left the West Coast dry and thirsty. Sea levels would rise quickly, threatening low-lying and storm-raked areas like Long Island. In the mountains of New York and New England, winter would disappear and the forests that make the fall spectacular would wither.
In other words, all the horrors that environmentalists have been warning about for 15 years, and that conservatives and energy lobbyists and bought-off members of Congress have been pooh-poohing, really are true. It's like the Vatican finally admitting that, oops, Galileo was right after all. The change was so blatant that conservatives demanded a retraction and President George W. Bush Tuesday blamed the report on "the bureauracy." Still, it's all there in black and white.
But before you celebrate, read the report carefully. If you do, you'll realize that in fact it's at least as cynical as the denial of reality it replaces. Now, instead of pretending that climate change is an insignificant and unproved irritant, the administration insists that it is so enormous that very little can be done about it, except build seawalls.
This week, the last of the European Union nations and Japan ratified the Kyoto accords and accepted their mandate to reduce fossil-fuel use. The United States, however, is offering nothing. The report repeats Bush's lame plan for voluntary reductions in "greenhouse gas intensity" - that is, coal and oil burned per dollar of gross domestic product - but resists any pledge to actually cut our emissions.
In fact, the most startling figure in the report has nothing to do with snowfall or sea level. Instead, it's the official government prediction that U.S. production of greenhouse gases will rise 43 percent by 2020. We'll pour half again as much carbon dioxide into the planet's atmosphere 18 years from now - that's our promise.
It's as if a drunk had finally hit bottom, announced to friends and family that he accepted the fact that he was an alcoholic and that it was destroying his life - and then said that his plan was to drink three bottles a night from now on instead of two, and see if maybe he could find an artificial kidney.
In Bush's case, though, the new stance has an impeccable internal logic. It allows him to abandon a crumbling redoubt - since virtually every scientist now accepts the reality of climate change, his denials were starting to make him sound like someone communicating with aliens through his braces.
But at the same time it relieves him of the obligation to actually do anything about it, thereby ensuring the continued affection of his home base, the energy industry. In a blink they've gone from arguing that there's no reason to raise mileage standards because global warming is unproven to arguing that there's no reason to do it because the problem is so huge that any action would accomplish next to nothing. As "a senior administration official" explained to reporters, "policies on emissions or international treaties" would not change as a result of the new admissions.
In the long run, this new position will crumble too. The anger and fear of Americans about the consequences of unchecked climate change will eventually give some politicians enough spine to tackle the problem, which so far they have made a bipartisan effort to ignore. And the rest of the world simply won't stand for it - the damage inflicted by our CO2 doesn't end at our borders, though the administration's report to the United Nations concerns only our wetlands, forests and farm fields.
We pour a quarter of the world's greenhouse gases into the atmosphere already, and with each year that passes our stance makes everyone else angrier. Among average Europeans, our hypocrisy on climate change undermines our image more than anything we've done since the end of the war in Vietnam.
But Bush clearly doesn't care about the long run. His spokesmen said last month that the United States might take another look at the Kyoto accords in ...2012. By which time he'll be back on the ranch, having successfully secured another eight years of business as usual for the interests that brought him to power.
Track the progress of Kyoto Protocol ratification on the Climate Action Network Europe scorecard at: http://www.climnet.org/EUenergy/ratification.htm
Source: http://www.Newsday.com
6/25/02
9:09:51 PM
Official TWA 800 Findings Challenged
by Reed Irvine and Cliff Kincaid, June 10, 2002
The TWA Flight 800 Independent Researchers Organization, FIRO, has taken the unusual step of filing a petition with the National Transportation Safety Board, NTSB, asking for reconsideration of the findings on the probable cause of the crash of TWA Flight 800. Such petitions are entertained only if new evidence has been found or a showing that the NTSB findings were erroneous. FIRO claims that some evidence that the NTSB kept secret and which has now become available for public scrutiny is new evidence that shows that the official findings were erroneous.
Their petition cites as one important example metals of "unknown origin" that were found in the bodies of many of those who died in the crash on July 17, 1996. The FBI asked the Brookhaven National Laboratory to analyze pellets found in the bodies. They contained zirconium and barium, indicative of an incendiary device foreign to a Boeing 747airliner. The NTSB acknowledges that the source of these pellets is unknown and that the FBI did not try to determine the source.
The Suffolk County coroner, Dr. Wetli, found shrapnel in 89 of the bodies he examined. The FBI compiled a secret eight-page list describing the metal found in each of the bodies. FIRO has sued under FOIA to obtain this list. The court ordered the FBI to release it, but they are trying to get that reversed on privacy grounds, claiming it invades the privacy of the dead. That is a spurious argument because the dead have no privacy rights, but FIRO is not arguing that point. It says it is not interested in the names of those in whose bodies the shrapnel was found. What it wants is its description of the metal found in each of those bodies. It is believed that a lot of it will be pellets.
Retired Brigadier General Benton Partin, who helped design missiles for the Air Force, has said that the Brookhaven Laboratory's analysis of the composition of the mysterious pellets suggests to him that they came from a missile. The FBI and NTSB never showed Gen. Partin or any other missile experts the Brookhaven analysis. They were content to list the shrapnel as coming from an unknown source. Their throwing a secrecy blanket over this evidence and their failure to determine its source indicates that they knew that sourcing it accurately would undermine their claim that a spontaneous fuel-tank explosion caused the crash.
The penchant of the FBI and NTSB for hiding, altering and finally destroying TWA Flight 800 evidence is very revealing. Last summer the NTSB, headed by a Bush appointee, secretly sold all the TWA 800 wreckage that had been kept at the Calverton hangar as scrap metal to be recycled. The buyer had to promise to keep it secret to get the contract.
The NTSB claims that the reason the buyer was asked not to tell anyone was to keep away scavengers and souvenir hunters. Why should the NTSB care about that once it was no longer their property? We believe they were determined to make sure it was all recycled so that none of it could be used as evidence to challenge their finding of the cause of the crash.
Reed Irvine can be reached at mailto:ri@aim.org
Listen: http://www.aim.org/audio/2002/jun10.html
Source: http://www.aim.org/publications/media_monitor/2002/06/10.html
6/25/02
9:05:53 PM
How Bush hit the 'trifecta' on 9/11 - and the public lost big-time
The Baltimore Chronicle, June 13, 2002
It is sickening to contemplate an administration intentionally looking the other way while terrorists scheme so that whatever havoc they wreak can provide cover for the president to raid Social Security.
by Brad Carlton
Bush, in the weeks before September 11, pledged to honor the sanctity of the Social Security lockbox except in the event of recession, war, or a national emergency. But after "everything changed" on 9/11, he reportedly gloated to his budget director, Mitch Daniels, "Lucky me--I hit the trifecta!" At the time, this comment (a variation of which is being recycled for laughs at current GOP fundraisers) seemed merely offensive. But in light of revelations that Bush's August 6 briefing memo was titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike U.S.," Bush's "luck" and weird prescience are worth more than passing scrutiny.
Whenever someone is suspected of a crime, investigators look for a motive in addition to actual proof of guilt to determine, a posteriori, whether there was malice aforethought. In cases of criminal negligence, motive must also be deduced, a priori, to answer the question: were preventive failures due to craftiness or mere cluelessness?
The serial apologists of the Bush Is Not Stupid crowd are rather incongruously opting for the latter, this in the wake of the scandal about pre-9/11 failures to issue precisely the kinds of public warnings and security directives that accompanied the also "non-specific" Y2K threats. For now, it is difficult to say who knew what when because the administration is not exactly being forthcoming, preferring instead to use the scandal as an excuse to broaden the FBI's snoop powers. However: there was a potential motive for the administration to sit on perceived terrorist threats.
Think back to the days before 9/11. The topic on everyone's lips (Condit aside) was: what will happen when budget realities force Bush to raid Social Security? He had explicitly promised during his campaign to establish a contingency fund for severe emergencies that would keep Social Security untouched. But the economy was tanking and the costs of the tax cut made the raid inevitable. Even Daniels acknowledged that the government would be forced to tap Social Security to the tune of $14 billion to fund pending legislation. Strangely, Bush kept insisting, "We can work together to avoid dipping into Social Security." But, beginning August 24, he gave himself an escape clause: "I've said that the only reason we should use Social Security funds is in case of an economic recession or war." (Three days earlier he had said that there should be "special consideration" in the budget for these contingencies. Otherwise, this was completely new rhetoric.)
September 4: businessman and commentator Ben Cohen ran a mock "help wanted" ad reading, "Serious enemy needed to justify Pentagon budget increase. Defense contractors desperate." Same day: a CBS poll found that 66 percent of Americans did not think a recession (extant, but not yet confirmed) was reason enough to tap Social Security. September 6: Bush invented another exception. "The only time to use Social Security money is in times of war, times of recession, or times of severe emergency." September 11: he had all three. Lucky Bush.
Then, on the morning of September 12, Bush announced his very first post-9/11 policy move. Because the attacks were "more than acts of terror; they were acts of war, this morning I am sending to Congress a request for emergency funding authority." On cue, pundits like Tim Russert chirped, "Suddenly the Social Security lockbox seems so trivial." Since then the trust fund has been strip-mined to subsidize pork barrel and deficit spending with no political fallout for the president.
These extraordinary coincidences have gone unremarked in the media, who have entirely missed that the terms of the "trifecta"--note that the word connotes something you bet on--was never mentioned until two-and-a-half weeks after Bush's August 6 briefing and days before 9/11. (He has since claimed the 'trifecta' was a campaign promise. This is a lie.) It is sickening to contemplate an administration intentionally looking the other way while terrorists scheme so that whatever havoc they wreak can provide cover for the president to raid Social Security. But we journalists are paid to have strong stomachs, and we should be hardy enough to admit that the scenario is conceivable, for three reasons.
First and most obviously, defense contractors contributed more than $8.7 million to Republican campaigns in 2000. They stood to gain billions from the fallout of a successful terrorist strike.
Second, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill advocated the abolition of Social Security and Medicare in a May 20, 2001 interview with the Financial Times. "Able-bodied adults should save enough on a regular basis so that they can provide for their own retirement, and, for that matter, health and medical needs," he said, adding, "The president is also intrigued about the possibility of fixing this mess."
Third, and by far most importantly, Bush needed to save his presidency, which by August was already in serious danger of sinking into fiscal chaos and one-term ignominy. This is a viable motive. Whether or not Bush or someone in his administration acted on it by winking at hijacking threats remains to be seen.
But it was unsettling, though still inconclusive, to read in the May 17 Washington Post, "Members of congressional committees investigating the pre-Sept. 11 warnings said yesterday that there is far more damaging information that has not yet been disclosed about the government's knowledge of and inaction over events leading up to Sept. 11."
Outrageously, the public is now being told that there aren't sufficient votes in Congress to approve an investigation by a blue ribbon panel. The alternative intelligence committee investigation is only pro forma public anesthesia. It will not do: the committee's oversight role potentially implicates its own members. To clear up all doubts, there must be an independent, public inquiry. It is well past time to insist on a return to open government.
See also:
Spy chiefs warned ministers of al-Qaeda attacks
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2482-326457,00.html
6/25/02
9:00:39 PM
The Crops Circles Explained
From: http://www.cropcirclesrevealed.com/
The crop circles are a mystery to human beings. Why are the crop circles here, and what do they mean? The purpose of this transmission is to bring information to the public about the highly mystical and technical aspects of the interpretation of these geometric images. The crop circles are fractal formulas of light and sound frequencies encoded into the third dimension as tools for ascension. They are created by the means of light and sound technology interacting with the collective mind. Starships and the Galactic Federation carefully monitor the project.
These crop circles are present, in part, to activate the cosmic and soul DNA as well as the physical DNA and expand the brain's neurosynapses. This happens when they are viewed through the iris and connected to the brain.
This expansion includes the clearing of old negative thought patterns, activating your soul DNA (just as your genetic body has a DNA, your soul has a DNA) and expanding your consciousness beyond what you as a third-dimensional being of light conceived possible during this long dark age of the human soul - the phase that is known as the separation of the oneness or the age of dichotomy. This polarization was part of the holographic drama enacted by necessity. The ancient prophecies speak of the return to oneness; the age of enlightenment is upon us.
Crop circles are geometric fractal patterns and mathematical formulas. Everything that exists is a fractal of a geometric pattern - the crop circles are those geometric patterns. The star glyphs are a star language of light and codes for these activations. Linking these two images optimizes the activation of the DNA. Allow yourself to take this information in on a cellular level. Do not expect yourself to understand all the aspects and mysteries contained in this transmission. Experience it, emanate it, vibrate with it and ingest it - by doing so, you will serve humanity immeasurably.
Combining meditation with the star glyphs and crop circles will assist in the activation of the divine potential to receive this information and activate the creative consciousness within humanity's collective consciousness. The collective mind is a powerful force that forms the dream field within the third-dimensional reality. The effect of engaging in this process will make quantum evolutionary leaps in the collective mind of the planetary essence.
Opening up your consciousness to the patterns, interpretations and transmissions will spark the collective mind. It is most important to remember to come from your heart in all matters; it is the profound power of unconditional love that is the catalyst for all universal transformations. Each person who reads these interpretations and meditates on the star glyphs and crop circles will be assisting in the evolutionary process of the collective mind-heart. Once activated, it will permit the transmission of the technical data necessary to accomplish these various evolutionary processes. We must seed the collective mind with expanded potential.
As the human species evolves, more and more of you become aware of extraterrestrial assistance. In your third-dimensional minds, you tend to oversimplify the cosmic plan and the intergalactic involvement in the dynamics of this precious planet. Crop circles are messages from your star brothers and sisters, who are assisting this multidimensional, evolutionary journey.
I would like to advise you that there are other valid interpretations of these crop circles. The scientific community often discovers an equation, a scientific theory or what appears to be an answer to a mystery. Unfortunately, they then set it in stone and claim it is the only answer. The universe does not work that way. There are multilevel facets, interpretation and answers to one single equation or scientific explanation.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: See the latest 2002 Crop Circles/Cosmic Glyphs at
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/2002.html
On the night the formation appeared, at about 1.00am, a local boy, aged about 10, reported being woken by an intense bright light coming through his curtains. Looking out, the light source appeared to be coming from above the field in question. His half-sister was also awake and, once alerted, peered out and also saw the light. It lasted for two or three minutes and then went out abruptly. They found the experience rather frightening. The children, interviewed in the formation by Southern Circular Research, seemed reliable and believable. CLIP
From: http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/2002/sompting/sompting2002a.html
6/25/02
8:59:23 PM
New film accuses US of war crimes
A former chairman of Amnesty International yesterday called for an independent investigation into claims that US troops tortured Taliban prisoners and assisted in the disappearance of thousands of others in the war in Afghanistan.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/afghanistan/story/0,1284,736324,00.html
NOT IN OUR NAME project
We are people of conscience who cannot stand silent as our government wages war without limits of time and space. We cannot stand silent as immigrants are rounded up and detained. We cannot stand silent in the face of new police state restrictions threatening the very right to dissent.
http://www.notinourname.net/the_call.html
6/25/02
8:57:45 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
THE DIFFERENCE A DECADE CAN MAKE
by Barbara Krumsiek, GreenMoneyJournal.com
-- The next decade may prove the merits of social investing--both socially and financially.
KISSING E WITH THE HAIR BAND
by Mark Edward Hornish, World Hum
-- Nearly out of gas in rural Wyoming, a desperate young man is rescued by the worst band in the history of rock 'n' roll.
AMERICA'S FRENCH DISEASE
from The Globalist
-- Does "America's favorite snack" cause cancer? A recent study finds that fried starchy foods (read French fries) contain high levels of Acrylamide--a potential carcinogen.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
6/25/02
8:56:34 PM
TRANSPORTING NUCLEAR WASTE
THROUGH FLORIDA
YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO KNOW
Transporting nuclear waste to Nevada does not get rid of nuclear waste in Florida. Instead, shipping high level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain adds new transportation security risks that residents of Florida will have to deal with for the next 38 years.
Florida citizens have a right to know:
n The 3 reactors in Florida will still have 1,330 metric tons of high level nuclear waste on-site when the Yucca Mountain Project is completed.
n When the Yucca Mountain Project is completed there will be roughly the same amount of high level nuclear waste at power plants across the country as there is today.
n The only reactors that will get rid of their waste completely, according to the Department of Energy, are those that are closed today.
Yucca Mountain means thousands of nuclear waste shipments through Florida.
Shipping 77,000 metric tons of high level nuclear waste to Yucca Mountain means thousands of nuclear waste shipments through Florida, many from out of state. The proposed routes move potentially lethal nuclear waste through Florida's major population centers.
In Florida, there would be:
By truck
n 5,223 truck shipments over 38 years or an average of 145 truck shipments a year. (See Appendix J-4).
n 31 percent of the shipments (1,622) will come from outside of Florida.
By rail
n 348 train shipments over 38 years or an average of 10 train shipments a year. (See Appendix J-4).
Millions of Florida residents are at risk of exposure to deadly nuclear radiation is if there is an accident or terrorist attack. In Florida:
n 2,176,380 people live within 1 mile of the Department of Energy's proposed high level nuclear waste transportation routes. 6,235,461 people live within 5 miles.
n 1,035 schools are within 1 mile of the Department of Energy's proposed high level nuclear waste transportation routes. 2,204 schools are within 5 miles.
n 57 hospitals are within 1 mile of the Department of Energy's proposed high level nuclear waste transportation routes. 99 hospitals are within 5 miles.
Nuclear power plant waste is extremely hazardous
n Each nuclear waste container could expose Florida communities to 240-times the long-lived radiation released by the Hiroshima bomb.
n A person standing three feet away from unshielded nuclear waste will receive a lethal dose of radiation in about 2 minutes.
n The state of Nevada estimates as many as 18,000 of deaths within one year of a serious radiation leak from a single rail cask.
Accidents Happen
n There are 60,000 tractor-trailer wrecks on interstates each year, 3,300 of these involve rollovers.
n In Florida there were 1,690 fatal semi-truck wrecks from 1994 through 2001, 358 occurred on interstates.
n There were 1,880 train wrecks in Florida from 1990 through 2001 including 427 derailments and 86 collisions.
First responders face life-threatening risks
n In the event of an accident where radiation is leaking, first responders, local police, fire and hazardous materials response teams could easily be exposed to lethal does of radiation. Independent analysis of the health and economic impacts of an attack with common military demolition devices could cause 300 to 1,800 latent cancer deaths and cleanup and recovery costs of $10 billion or more.
n Three-quarters of all firefighters in the United States are volunteers. These men and women are being offered voluntary radiation training, but it is extremely unlikely that the nations' 2 million first responders will be properly trained and equipped to respond to a serious leak of high level radiation from a transportation wreck or a terrorist incident.
Source: mapscience.org
Dear Friends,
The Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice, Florida Public Interest Research Group, local organizations across the state, and the multi-state Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League will sponsor the Florida Nuclear Waste Roadshow beginning June 24th and continuing through June 28th. Events will include press conferences, rallies, public information meetings, and media programs.
The centerpiece of the roadshow will be a full-size replica of a high-level nuclear waste highway transport cask which is tracing highway and rail routes from nuclear power plants to a proposed dumpsite in Nevada. The Mock Nuclear Waste Cask measures 20 feet long and 10 feet high; when fully loaded with irradiated fuel, this highway cask would weigh 26 tons.
Here's the itinerary::
June 24 Jacksonville - Press conference at Riverside Park at the intersection of I-95 and I-10 off Park Ave at 12:00 pm.
June 24 - 25 Daytona Beach - Community meeting at 6:30 pm on June 24 at UCF Higher Ed Center, Building 140, Room 144. Press Conference at 10:00 am on June 25 at City Island Library parking lot.
June 26 Miami - Press conference at Temple Israel of Greater Miami at 11:00 am
June 27 Gainesville - Press conference at City Hall at 11:00 am and rally on the corner of 13th street and University Ave.
June 28 Tallahassee - Press conference at the Capitol at 12:00 pm and visit to Jeb's mansion
Schedule is subject to change.
Last week, the Conference of Mayors, at their meeting in Wisconsin, overwhelmingly PASSED by voice vote the attached resolution on nuclear waste transportation. You will note that this is certainly a watered down compromise version of the resolution that SLC's Mayor originally introduced, but nonetheless it does point out many of the problems with nuclear waste transportation and we should make use of it. Please bring this resolution to the attention of your city and county officials. See what their position is on high-level nuclear waste transport. Ask them to speak out against the DOE's "Mobile Chernobyl" scheme. These press conferences will be a marvelous opportunity for them to make such public statements of oppostion! If they haven't yet taken a position, perhaps the frightening Florida fact sheet below may peak their interest. Let us know if you have a public official who is interested in speaking.
Thanks to all who have made phone calls and written letters to Nelson and Graham. They are no longer denying that they are hearing constituent opposition. That's because of all of you! Please continue to keep up the pressure for the home stretch. The Congressional switchboard is 202-224-2131.
Hasta la victoria,
David and Carol
6/25/02
8:54:30 PM
SciTech Daily Review
Maths proves that we're doomed to dither. The more the wrong choice will hurt, the harder it is to decide
http://www.nature.com/nsu/020603/020603-13.html
Like the marauding Martians in War of the Worlds, the aggressively invasive weed tropical soda apple can be felled by a common (and otherwise largely harmless) virus
http://unisci.com/stories/20022/0611024.htm
Millions of years ago, leafcutter ants learned to grow fungi. But how? And why? And what do they have to teach us?
http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues02/may02/ants.html
Script kiddies, Web site defacers, chat-room gangsters: Today's digital troublemakers get a bad rap. But they're all right, really, says Dan Verton in The Hacker Diaries
http://www.salon.com/tech/books/2002/06/05/teenage_hackers/index.html
Mind games: If a predictive Alzheimer's test comes to pass, we will inevitably be drawn further into the medical information vortex (registration required)
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/05/magazine/05WWLN.html
6/25/02
8:52:25 PM
Planet Ark World Environment News
EPA issues rule to cut copper smelter pollution - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16533/story.htm
Senate panel to draft utility pollution bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16526/story.htm
New Exxon Valdez trial addresses six cities' claims - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16537/story.htm
United States, Mexico near accord in water dispute - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16530/story.htm
UPDATE - Two massive Arizona fires set to merge - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16525/story.htm
UK Energy Minister to meet MOD over wind turbines - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16528/story.htm
UPDATE - Raging floods in southern Russia kill 28 people - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16532/story.htm
Norway to defy ban, resume whale exports to Iceland - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16539/story.htm
FEATURE - Japan seeks ways to overcome "China envy" - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16527/story.htm
UPDATE - At least 500 die in Iranian mountain quake - IRAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16531/story.htm
German state lifts nitrofen scare restrictions - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16540/story.htm
Portman leaps as new mine work nears - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16534/story.htm
Earthquake fault line found at Sydney nuclear site - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16535/story.htm
Monsanto applies to grow GM canola in Australia - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16536/story.htm
FEATURE - Jellyfish deaths spark hunt for new Australian killer - AUSTRALIA
http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16538/story.htm
US troops in Uzbekistan get clean bill of health - AFGHANISTAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/16529/story.htm
6/25/02
8:49:24 PM
t r u t h o u t | 06.24
Helen Thomas | 30 Years Later, Watergate Endures
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.24A.thomas.wtrgte.htm
Former Officials Say Enron Hid Gains During Crisis in California
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.24B.enron.hid.htm
Al - Qaida Spokesman: Bin Laden is Alive
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.24C.obl.alive.htm
Major Crimes In U.S. Increase 2001 Rise Follows 9 Years of Decline
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.24D.crime.up.htm
Soccer: Not Enough Scoring? Americans Miss the Point
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.24F.us.miss.point.htm
6/25/02
8:47:07 PM
A Christian Response To Terrorism, War, And
by R. Chad Eberhart
Since September 11th increased levels of intolerance among average Americans have become more acceptable. Machismo-saturated taunts and nationalistic zeal expressed by the President, that just a year ago would have made most citizens cringe with warm feelings of embarrassment, are now not only tolerated but accepted as normal. The kind of rhetoric emanating from our President resembles the bravado one might exhibit during a sporting event. This would be fine if it were a sporting event, however…people are dying. In an environment of tough talk, it seems that the reality of mass death associated with acts of war gets lost in verbal and ideological chest beating. Let's be frank, it would be more honest if people talked about America's revenge rather than its "justice".
From local car commercials on the radio to late night hosts taking comical jabs on network television, the level of tolerance for intolerance has risen dramatically. Certainly making fun of terrorists is well within the parameters of acceptable humor. However, a lot of what I've witnessed has attacked a culture and way of life that suffers from poverty, and isn't as inundated with an ideology that sees convenience and freedom as intrinsically intertwined. It seems ironic that a large number of people in the U.S. won't hesitate to tout our benevolence in matters of freedom and tolerance but feel unmotivated to stand up for these freedoms when tested. Understandably, there are overwhelming feelings of pain, anger, and fear associated with the atrocities of September 11th. However, these feelings do not justify an apathetic reaction towards hatred however it's packaged. It is not okay to merely excuse racist and xenophobic jokes as cathartic releases, dismissing them as part of the "healing process". What's more troubling (too bad it's not simply surprising) is that Christians in America are reluctant to stand up against this behavior. Often it seems like the average Christian is even supportive of this climate.
The United States is a nation with a significant number of confessing Christians who generally consider their country to be a symbol of hope and freedom to the world. How do we achieve or make reality these ideals when we pander to the same mentality of violence and revenge that motivates the terrorism against us? As the U.S. military continues to defend our "freedoms" and our "way of life", it perpetuates the same cycle of violence that is the antithesis of peace. As Jesus Christ understood, by retaliating when wronged, instead of "turning the other cheek", we perpetuate the cycle of violence that has plagued humanity since the beginning. Yet so many Christians in the U.S. are unwilling to focus on this teaching from Jesus, and even further, demand this action from themselves or their leaders. Compartmentalizing our faith and politics chips away at the integrity of the very faith that we hold dear. When our politics and self-interest take priority over what we claim are our religious beliefs our faith is dead; Christianity and practicality are not synonyms. Somehow loving one's enemy - as Christ taught - and supporting a bombing campaign against our enemy doesn't seem to make sense. If Christians believe as The Gospel of John reads, "The Word became Flesh and made his dwelling among us" (John 1:14), how can we claim to believe in Christ's absolute divinity and blatantly disobey His teaching on violence? Furthermore, how can we feel morally justified for it? If we believe Christ is God, committing acts of violence against people who have threatened or harmed us is tantamount to saying "No" to God. And for those who believe the phrase "turn the other cheek" is out of context, I challenge them to think of scenarios, both individually and as a collective body of people, where its application would be appropriate. As G.K. Chesterton wrote, "The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."
And so with the above written, what about those who say that there needs to be justice? Is there not a need for justice, not simply to punish the perpetrator of a criminal act, but also to send a deterring message to anyone who might consider doing a similar act in the future? In order to administer proper justice one must be in a position to administer it, which does not mean that the one with the most power is necessarily the most qualified. In the case of America and its attacks on the Al Qaeda and Taliban of Afghanistan, and its possible future attacks on what President Bush calls the "Axis of Evil", we need to examine the history and comparative justness of the United States. A few questions come to mind: How has the U.S., the wealthiest country in the world, contributed to the global economic structure that still can't take care of significant populations of people suffering from hunger, sickness, and poverty? In what way has the U.S. committed its own brand of terrorism, e.g., Vietnam and Nicaragua? How can a country like the U.S., which continues to build stockpiles of weapons of mass environmental destruction and human death find itself in a position of moral superiority? How can the U.S. which delivers sanctions that are responsible for thousands of deaths from starvation each year, due to the belligerence of those peoples' leaders, be considered a just country? How can the U.S. bring justice and peace to other countries when the streets of its own cities are some of the most violent in the "developed" world? Is it just for the U.S. to support ruling families in Arab countries who may not represent the will of the majority of their people nor practice a democratic form of government - especially when our support tends to be for self-interest (how many of the September 11th terrorists came from countries that are our allies?). The list could go on but it seems clear that the United States cannot find itself in a position that would be a suitable dispenser of justice in any remote sense; for that matter what country, on its own, can? Justice can only be as pure as the one who administers it. So what should be done? There should be some way to send a message that terrorism is evil. Ideally, for Christians, seeking revenge by means of war is unacceptable; it repays evil with evil making one no better than the other. How, then, do we protect ourselves from seeking revenge yet send a message to the international community that terrorism is not tolerated and is an evil act?
First we need to illustrate the difference between seeking justice and seeking revenge. Let's use our own justice system. If someone were to break into my home and rob me with a firearm I might go after the perpetrator with my own weapon of choice. However, to do so outside my home would make me subject to laws which would deem my behavior illegal and I'd probably find myself in serious legal trouble. The appropriate action under the law would be to file a report with the police; not take the law into my own hands. We have a justice system in our country which acts as an arbiter. This is to prevent people from settling things in their own way, which may not take into consideration the wisdom of thousands of years of human history, ethics, morality, and law. Having a justice system or arbiter, independent of the parties involved, helps take the responsibility off the victim, or remaining friends and family, to serve justice. It allows for a judicial party, independent of the crime, to hand down a verdict that is hopefully fair and objective. Ideally, this helps prevent a Hatfield and McCoy-type feud of perpetual violence. It also provides (however corrupt and inefficient it may be) a recourse for those who are powerless.
Because we operate on a global scale now, the U.S. could have, and should have, sought justice through an international criminal court. However, the U.S. has consistently opposed an international criminal court because U.S. officials might have to account for their own criminal actions. Consequently, this might undermine U.S. leverage within the international community. This is definite hypocrisy for a country that defines itself as a democracy; democracy depends on a justice system, which as the name suggests has a system of laws that it must adhere to in order to minimize abuse of power. Otherwise, without laws, justice is merely an arbitrary matter dependent solely on the "800 pound gorilla" with the means, subject to nothing but itself. The U.S. government is behaving like that 800 pound gorilla subjecting itself to no authority but its own, trusting itself to dispense justice how it pleases, and ignoring obstacles that impede its "progress". This reality is part of the reason why we were attacked in the first place. How can we market the ideals of this country that we hold dear -freedom and democracy - if we only think it is acceptable within our borders but not outside them? In essence, we are telling the international community that democracy is only an ideal we adhere to when it suits us. We are not willing to defend or even use the democratic process when it challenges our sense of ourselves.
What about our safety? Shouldn't our government be doing everything within its power to protect and defend us from harm? Does it not have a moral duty (justification) to do so, which might require it to act quickly without the consent of the international community? These are very good questions and ones that present profound struggles to Christians and thoughtful people everywhere. The following is specifically Christian, consequently, outside a Christian world view might seem illogical, foolish, and even immoral. As followers of Christ we are not solely under the Law of the Old Testament but follow the One who has fulfilled the Law (Matt. 5:17). In this way we do not act or react in accordance to exterior actions but to intentions, or matters of the heart. Above all we are required to love others as ourselves. Christ says. "You have heard it said, 'An eye for and eye' and 'A tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you not to resist the evildoer; on the contrary, if someone strike thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone would go to law with thee and take thy tunic, let him take thy cloak as well; and whoever forces thee to go for one mile, go with him two. To him who asks of thee, give; and from him who would borrow of thee, do not turn a way" (Matt. 5: 38-42). Christians are required to go beyond justice because justice is not enough for us to escape the judgement of God. Our intentions are still impure when we merely seek justice on our own. Only love in return for wrong purifies us of our wrong intentions. Romano Guardini in his book The Lord writes:
The Old Law used justice as its norm of human behavior. As others treat you, so shall you treat them. Violence may be returned for violence, evil for evil. The justice of the day consisted in not returning more evil than the amount received, and naturally one was allowed to protect oneself from anything that seemed threatening. Christ says: That it not enough. As long as you cling to 'justice' you will never be guilt-less of injustice. As long as you are entangled in wrong and revenge, blow and counter-blow, aggression and defense, you will constantly be drawn into fresh wrong. Passion by its very definition, surpasses measure - quite aside from the fact that the claim to vengeance in itself is wrong because it lies outside our given role of creature. He who takes it upon himself to avenge trampled justice never restores justice. The moment discussion of wrong begins, wrong stirs in one's own heart, and the result is new in-justice (The Lord, 92).
Guardini's explication of Matthew 5: 21-24 begins to look at Christ's teaching seriously. Christ is not asking us to be self-interested, or to be practical; self-preservation is not an excuse for misunderstanding the words of Christ. To do what Christ asks - love your enemy - may cost us our lives. Compartmentalizing our politics and our faith takes no courage. As Christians and voting Americans, we must meditate, pray, and act in accordance to the infinite well of love that is in Christ. Only then can we truly penetrate the political manipulation and surface polemics that create a haze of confusion. It is not only time for Christians to begin taking responsibility for their own personal actions, but to also take responsibility as citizens of a nation that is part of a global community. It's time to look down at our WWJD bracelets and ask if Jesus would buy that detergent, work for that company, spend four hours watching television, fly a bombing run over Afghanistan, and fill up the 30 gallon tank plus the reserve tank without wondering about the consequences. In short, 2000 years after Christ spoke, we need to begin wondering adamantly what it means to love our neighbors as ourselves.
Source: http://www.catholicworker.org/roundtable/essaytext.cfm?Number=182
6/25/02
8:42:02 PM
Israel Now World's 10th Biggest Arms Merchant
Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 20, 2002
(AP) - At an arms trade fair in Paris this week, Israel showed the world's military shoppers fruits of its high-tech arms industry, including its Merkava tank, unmanned spy planes and the planet's most sophisticated missile defense system.
With its tourist industry all but shuttered by a 21-month Palestinian uprising and high-tech in a slump, the Jewish state depends deeply on the foreign currency earnings of its weapons industry, now the world's 10th largest.
Deftly marketed missiles, radar and other products from Israeli companies now compete with those of top-tier arms producers including the United States, reaping about $2 billion of a $27 billion yearly worldwide market, said Kuti Mor, deputy director general of Israel's Ministry of Defense.
In France, Turkey, The Netherlands and Finland, Israeli companies have edged such U.S. firms as Raytheon, Northrop Grumman and General Atomics out of arms deals worth hundreds of millions of dollars in recent years.
The irony, experts say, is that tens of billions of U.S. tax dollars and transfers of American military technology helped create and nurture Israel's industry, in effect subsidizing a foreign competitor.
No other country receives as much U.S. aid or freedom to plow it into its own export industries as Israel, say experts in academia, industry and the U.S. government.
``It's allowed them to advance faster than Lockheed or Boeing or Hughes would have liked,'' said David Lewis, a doctoral candidate at Rutgers University who has researched Israel's defense industry for a forthcoming book.
While the United States gets certain benefits from its 50-year partnership with Israel - political leverage, a proving ground for new weapons and intelligence cooperation among them - critics point to a serious downside.
``It's a new concept for most people.'' said Joel Johnson, a vice president at the Aerospace Industries Association of America, which represents many of the largest U.S. arms producers. ``We give them money to build stuff for themselves and the U.S. taxpayer gets nothing in return.''
The rationale, said Richard Fisher, a defense analyst with the Jamestown Foundation, is that Washington is willing to sacrifice some defense industry competitiveness in order to give Israel incentive to make peace.
Supporters of Israel tend to view the transfers of U.S. technology and funds as good for both countries' economies, akin to post-World War II assistance for Europe and Japan.
``It's true that Israel sometimes competes with the U.S., but so do all those countries,'' said Mark Regev, a spokesman at the Israeli Embassy in Washington D.C. ``Is it that different than American aid to Japan, or the Marshall Plan in western Europe?''
Beyond competing with U.S. armaments, Israeli weapons also flow to countries off-limits to American companies. Its weapons buttress the arsenals of nations such as China that the United States considers strategic competitors, alarming U.S. military planners.
Last year, U.S. surveillance planes flying along China's coast were threatened by Chinese fighter jets armed with Israeli missiles.
During the series of airborne confrontations, a Chinese jet crashed after colliding with a U.S. spy plane, killing the Chinese pilot and disabling the U.S. plane. The incident sparked a bitter diplomatic row as China detained the American crew for 11 days.
Had Chinese fighter pilots been given the order to fire, they could have brought down the U.S. planes with Israeli Python III missiles.
U.S. technology given to the Israelis in the form of the Sidewinder missile was used in the development of the Python, said Larry Wortzel, former U.S. Army attache in Beijing and now a military analyst at the Heritage Foundation.
U.S. defense chiefs say Israel sold China the missiles without informing the United States.
``Generally speaking, we're not in favor of such capable weapons systems being proliferated to a variety of nations around the world,'' Rear Adm. Craig Quigley said in a Pentagon briefing last year. ``That's a good missile, and its capabilities are considerable.''
In 2000, Israel bowed to U.S. pressure and canceled the sale to China of its AWACS-style airborne early warning radar planes. The director general of Israel's finance ministry, Ohad Marani, said Israel typically discusses arms sales with the Americans.
``We don't sell systems that upset the Pentagon,'' Marani said.
Israel's arms industry nevertheless continues to put great emphasis on the Chinese market, hawking its spy planes and radar systems at recent trade shows in Beijing and Singapore.
China may unveil as early as this year its new J-10 jet fighter, which experts say is modeled on Israel's Lavi. The Lavi, now discontinued, was based on the U.S. F-16 and built with $1.3 billion in aid from Washington.
``There's no doubt in my mind that the F-16 is the Lavi and the Lavi is, in substance, the J-10,'' said Wortzel.
In fact, Israel's arms industry now leads America's in areas such as the instruments used for fighter aircraft targeting, Fisher said. ``We're now reaching a point that the U.S. military looks to Israel as a source of advanced technology.''
Even critics of U.S. largesse are quick to note that Israel's weapons industry also owes its success to the country's world-class science education and its urgent security needs. Luring emigres from the former Soviet weapons industry has also helped.
The U.S. role, however, is formidable.
Since 1976, Israel has received more U.S. assistance than any other country, with the largest aid flows beginning after Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979.
Washington currently gives Israel about $3 billion per year, two-thirds of it in military grants, the Congressional Research Service says. As U.S. civilian aid is phased out at Israel's request, military grants are expected to reach $2.4 billion by 2007.
Alone among U.S. aid recipients, Israel is allowed to use about a quarter of its military aid to develop its own arms production rather than for flat-out purchases of U.S. arms, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Other aid recipients wishing the same must seek State Department approval, a difficult process, said a department spokeswoman who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Though Israel is the wealthiest country to receive U.S. aid - with a per capita income higher than Greece or Spain - the largesse triggers little opposition in Congress or among the U.S. electorate. Elsewhere, it can provoke deep resentment. To many of the world's Muslims, it places the U.S. taxpayer on the Israeli side of its conflicts with Arabs.
U.S. foreign policy experts such as Richard Perle, a senior Pentagon official in the Reagan administration, say there's reason behind Washington's generosity.
The aid is an ``inducement to get Israeli concessions in the Middle East,'' said Perle, though he called it ``unfortunate that the Israelis have been so willing to sell to the Chinese.''
Asked about the situation, U.S officials who monitor foreign arms transfers called it too politically charged to discuss publicly.
``There's not a whole lot we can comment on,'' said Jay Greer, spokesman for the State Department's Bureau of Political-Military Affairs. ``It's a sensitive matter.''
In private conversations, however, U.S. officials said there is no doubt Israel is afforded special latitude to develop and export equipment made with U.S. help.
And indeed, American and Israeli companies aren't just competitors. Israeli firms often team with U.S. counterparts, trading technology for lobbying access to the U.S. military, said Barbara Opall-Rome, Tel Aviv-based reporter for Defense News.
The Pentagon has also granted Israel permission to demand so-called ``offsets,'' or contract givebacks, on American hardware bought with U.S. aid.
Offset agreements require U.S. arms companies to spend or invest a portion of the contract's value inside the purchasing country. Other countries, including Egypt, South Korea, Turkey and Greece also get them.
The agreements often transfer part of a production line - and U.S. jobs - to a foreign country.
For instance, in 1999, Lockheed Martin awarded Israel $900 million in offsets on a single $2.5 billion sale of F-16s, even though Israel used U.S. military grants to pay for the planes.
It was just one example, analysts say, of how the combination of U.S. aid, technology and political favors have given Israel an unprecedented leg up on the competition.
``The Israelis wouldn't be where they are today if they didn't have the Americans behind them,'' said Bjorn Hagelin, an arms sales researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
Source: http://www.StarTribune.com
6/25/02
7:32:07 PM
The White Van
Were Israelis Detained As September 11th Spies?
by Chris Isham, John Miller, Glenn Silber and Chris Vlasto, ABCNEWS
June 21 — Millions saw the horrific images of the World Trade Center attacks, and those who saw them won't forget them. But a New Jersey homemaker saw something that morning that prompted an investigation into five young Israelis and their possible connection to Israeli intelligence.
Maria, who asked us not to use her last name, had a view of the World Trade Center from her New Jersey apartment building. She remembers a neighbor calling her shortly after the first plane hit the towers.
She grabbed her binoculars and watched the destruction unfolding in lower Manhattan. But as she watched the disaster, something else caught her eye.
Maria says she saw three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. "They seemed to be taking a movie," Maria said.
The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said. What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. "They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange," she said.
She found the behavior so suspicious that she wrote down the license plate number of the van and called the police. Before long, the FBI was also on the scene, and a statewide bulletin was issued on the van.
The plate number was traced to a van owned by a company called Urban Moving. Around 4 p.m. on Sept. 11, the van was spotted on a service road off Route 3, near New Jersey's Giants Stadium. A police officer pulled the van over, finding five men, between 22 and 27 years old, in the vehicle. The men were taken out of the van at gunpoint and handcuffed by police.
The arresting officers said they saw a lot that aroused their suspicion about the men. One of the passengers had $4,700 in cash hidden in his sock. Another was carrying two foreign passports. A box cutter was found in the van. But perhaps the biggest surprise for the officers came when the five men identified themselves as Israeli citizens.
‘We Are Not Your Problem’
According to the police report, one of the passengers told the officers they had been on the West Side Highway in Manhattan "during the incident" — referring to the World Trade Center attack. The driver of the van, Sivan Kurzberg, told the officers, "We are Israeli. We are not your problem. Your problems are our problems. The Palestinians are the problem." The other passengers were his brother Paul Kurzberg, Yaron Shmuel, Oded Ellner and Omer Marmari.
When the men were transferred to jail, the case was transferred out of the FBI's Criminal Division, and into the bureau's Foreign Counterintelligence Section, which is responsible for espionage cases, ABCNEWS has learned.
One reason for the shift, sources told ABCNEWS, was that the FBI believed Urban Moving may have been providing cover for an Israeli intelligence operation.
After the five men were arrested, the FBI got a warrant and searched Urban Moving's Weehawken, N.J., offices.
The FBI searched Urban Moving's offices for several hours, removing boxes of documents and a dozen computer hard drives. The FBI also questioned Urban Moving's owner. His attorney insists that his client answered all of the FBI's questions. But when FBI agents tried to interview him again a few days later, he was gone.
Three months later 2020's cameras photographed the inside of Urban Moving, and it looked as if the business had been shut down in a big hurry. Cell phones were lying around; office phones were still connected; and the property of dozens of clients remained in the warehouse.
The owner had also cleared out of his New Jersey home, put it up for sale and returned with his family to Israel.
‘A Scary Situation’
Steven Gordon, the attorney for the five Israeli detainees, acknowledged that his clients' actions on Sept. 11 would easily have aroused suspicions. "You got a group of guys that are taking pictures, on top of a roof, of the World Trade Center. They're speaking in a foreign language. They got two passports on 'em. One's got a wad of cash on him, and they got box cutters. Now that's a scary situation."
But Gordon insisted that his clients were just five young men who had come to America for a vacation, ended up working for a moving company, and were taking pictures of the event.
The five Israelis were held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, ostensibly for overstaying their tourist visas and working in the United States illegally. Two weeks after their arrest, an immigration judge ordered them to be deported. But sources told ABCNEWS that FBI and CIA officials in Washington put a hold on the case.
The five men were held in detention for more than two months. Some of them were placed in solitary confinement for 40 days, and some of them were given as many as seven lie-detector tests.
Plenty of Speculation
Since their arrest, plenty of speculation has swirled about the case, and what the five men were doing that morning. Eventually, The Forward, a respected Jewish newspaper in New York, reported the FBI concluded that two of the men were Israeli intelligence operatives.
Vince Cannistraro, a former chief of operations for counterterrorism with the CIA who is now a consultant for ABCNEWS, said federal authorities' interest in the case was heightened when some of the men's names were found in a search of a national intelligence database.
Israeli Intelligence Connection?
According to Cannistraro, many people in the U.S. intelligence community believed that some of the men arrested were working for Israeli intelligence. Cannistraro said there was speculation as to whether Urban Moving had been "set up or exploited for the purpose of launching an intelligence operation against radical Islamists in the area, particularly in the New Jersey-New York area."
Under this scenario, the alleged spying operation was not aimed against the United States, but at penetrating or monitoring radical fund-raising and support networks in Muslim communities like Paterson, N.J., which was one of the places where several of the hijackers lived in the months prior to Sept. 11.
For the FBI, deciphering the truth from the five Israelis proved to be difficult. One of them, Paul Kurzberg, refused to take a lie-detector test for 10 weeks — then failed it, according to his lawyer. Another of his lawyers told us Kurzberg had been reluctant to take the test because he had once worked for Israeli intelligence in another country.
Sources say the Israelis were targeting these fund-raising networks because they were thought to be channeling money to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, groups that are responsible for most of the suicide bombings in Israel. "[The] Israeli government has been very concerned about the activity of radical Islamic groups in the United States that could be a support apparatus to Hamas and Islamic Jihad," Cannistraro said.
The men denied that they had been working for Israeli intelligence out of the New Jersey moving company, and Ram Horvitz, their Israeli attorney, dismissed the allegations as "stupid and ridiculous."
Mark Regev, the spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, goes even further, asserting the issue was never even discussed with U.S. officials.
"These five men were not involved in any intelligence operation in the United States, and the American intelligence authorities have never raised this issue with us," Regev said. "The story is simply false."
No ‘Pre-Knowledge’
Despite the denials, sources tell ABCNEWS there is still debate within the FBI over whether or not the young men were spies. Many U.S. government officials still believe that some of them were on a mission for Israeli intelligence. But the FBI told ABCNEWS, "To date, this investigation has not identified anybody who in this country had pre-knowledge of the events of 9/11."
Sources also said that even if the men were spies, there is no evidence to conclude they had advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. The investigation, at the end of the day, after all the polygraphs, all of the field work, all the cross-checking, the intelligence work, concluded that they probably did not have advance knowledge of 9/11," Cannistraro noted.
As to what they were doing on the van, they say they read about the attack on the Internet, couldn't see it from their offices and went to the parking lot for a better view. But no one has been able to find a good explanation for why they may have been smiling with the towers of the World Trade Center burning in the background. Both the lawyers for the young men and the Israeli Embassy chalk it up to immature conduct.
According to ABCNEWS sources, Israeli and U.S. government officials worked out a deal — and after 71 days, the five Israelis were taken out of jail, put on a plane, and deported back home.
While the former detainees refused to answer ABCNEWS' questions about their detention and what they were doing on Sept. 11, several of the detainees discussed their experience in America on an Israeli talk show after their return home.
Said one of the men, denying that they were laughing or happy on the morning of Sept. 11, "The fact of the matter is we are coming from a country that experiences terror daily. Our purpose was to document the event."
ABCNEWS' Chris Isham, John Miller, Glenn Silber and Chris Vlasto contributed to this report.
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/2020/DailyNews/2020_whitevan_020621.html
6/25/02
7:24:02 PM
White House And Fed Buildings Evacuated
Plane Strays Near Executive Mansion; Bomb Scare Clears Banking The Evil Dick Cheney
http://images.indymedia.org/imc/portland/061502cheneybfo-twist.jpg
[snip] I'm at a loss at what to do about confronting Cheney's evil. I'm not sure essays like this one accomplish much, beyond getting something off my chest and on the record. Congress does not have the guts to impeach Bush, much less Cheney. The mainstream media is too corporate-controlled these days to pull another 1970s Watergate, when the media was a real force, a force that compelled me to jump aboard the profession. How disillusioned can I be?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29364
Cheney called for hunt on leakers from NSA:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29353
ARABIC MESSAGES
U.S. intelligence intercepted two Arabic messages the day before the Sept. 11 attacks that indicated an event was planned the following day, but the communications were not translated until Sept. 12, government sources said Wednesday.
The NSA, which eavesdrops on communications worldwide, intercepted messages that said "tomorrow is zero hour" and "the match begins tomorrow," sources said on condition of anonymity.
Fleischer called the information that the CIA, FBI and National Security Agency are providing to the committee "extraordinarily sensitive." "The selective, inappropriate leaking of snippets of information risks undermining national security, and it risks undermining the promises made to protect this sensitive information," the White House spokesman said. [snip]
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29353
Were Israelis Detained on Sept. 11 Spies? - ABC NEWS
(ABCNEWS.com), June 21, 2002 -- Millions saw the horrific images of the World Trade Center attacks, and those who saw them won't forget them. But a New Jersey homemaker saw something that morning that prompted an investigation into five young Israelis and their possible connection to Israeli intelligence.[snip]
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29359
All Along the Watchtower
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Opinion
Thursday, 20 June, 2002
Stanley Hilton, a San Francisco attorney and former aide to Senator Bob Dole, filed a $7 billion lawsuit in U.S. District Court on June 3rd. The class-action suit names ten defendants, among whom are George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and Norman Mineta.
Hilton's suit charges Bush and his administration with allowing the September 11th attacks to take place so as to reap political benefits from the catastrophe. Hilton alleges that Osama bin Laden is being used as a scapegoat by an administration that ignored pressing warnings of the attack and refused to round up suspected terrorists beforehand. Hilton alleges the ultimate motivation behind these acts was achieved when the Taliban were replaced by American military forces with a regime friendly to America and its oil interests in the region.
Hilton's plaintiffs in this case are the families of 14 victims of 9/11, numbering 400 people nationwide. These are the same families that rallied in Washington recently to advocate for an independent investigation into the attacks. The current 9/11 hearings are being conducted by Congress behind closed doors, a situation these families find unacceptable.
FULL STORY HERE:
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29358
"Bush needed war" says suspended Air Force officer
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29361
9/11 - Carefully Planned Intelligence Operation - Michel Chossudovsky
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29286
HOW MUCH LONGER CAN WE IGNORE WHAT IS BEING DONE TO US?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29301
POST THE JUNE 29 CALL TO ACTION WIDELY!
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=29284
"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do."
- Edward Everett Hale
http://www.apfn.org/old/apfncont.htmgency
6/25/02
6:41:19 PM
President Was Not Told About Approaching Plane
by The Associated Press, June 21, 2002
WASHINGTON -- President Bush and his wife were not moved -- or even informed -- when many others in the White House were evacuated because of an approaching wayward airplane, his spokesman disclosed Thursday.
FBI officials concluded that the pilot made an innocent navigational error when he flew his small plane into restricted airspace Wednesday night, prompting a partial evacuation of the presidential mansion and the scrambling of two F-16s from Andrews Air Force Base.
"It never did reach the point, however, where it was either necessary to either move or even inform the president. He found out this morning," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer told reporters.
Journalists working in the West Wing were among those ordered to evacuate by Secret Service officers. Fleischer, struggling to explain why one safety standard applied to personnel and another to the president, said Secret Service officers stationed in the West Wing exercised their own discretion when they hustled people out.
"I think it's obvious the president is always kept the most secure person in the White House," Fleischer said. "And again, there was never a threat to the president."
The plane, a single-engine Cessna 182, got as close as four miles from the executive mansion, violating an expanded no-fly zone established after Sept. 11.
The F-16s scrambled to intercept the pilot, who officials said changed course to avoid bad weather Wednesday during a twilight trip from Massachusetts to Raleigh, N.C. The fighter jets did not catch up to him until 11 minutes after he had left the restricted space on his own.
By then, he was near Fredericksburg, Va., and the fighter pilots instructed the Cessna to land in Richmond, Va., according to a time line compiled by government officials.
A defense official said the plane never made any threatening maneuvers.
Dozens of similar White House airspace violations have occurred in recent weeks, officials said, without any noticeable consequence on the ground.
The difference in Wednesday's episode was that the pilot was nonresponsive when air traffic controllers tried to contact him on emergency frequencies he apparently was not monitoring, said Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin. That was when some security officers decided to start moving people toward the White House gates, he said.
As for the president, "certainly had that flight taken a different path or changed its path, additional procedures would have been activated," Mackin said. "But it didn't come to that."
The pilot and his one passenger were questioned by authorities in Richmond.
"It turned out to be navigational error," said FBI chief division counsel Lawrence Barry of Richmond. "Both the pilot and the passenger were very cooperative. They were not placed in custody."
Source: http://www.AP.org
6/25/02
6:40:38 PM
Plane Flew Close To The White House
Bush Not Endangered, but Incident Shows Threat to D.C. Targets, Officials Say
by Steve Vogel and Allan Lengel, Washington Post, June 21, 2002; Page B01
The small plane that violated Washington airspace and prompted the evacuation of the White House on Wednesday evening was not intercepted by military jets until after it had flown within a few miles of the presidential home, defense officials said yesterday.
While stressing that the White House was not endangered, the military officials acknowledged that the incident shows aircraft have the potential to reach targets in Washington before they can be intercepted.
Twenty-four-hour combat air patrols were put in place over Washington and New York after the Sept. 11 attacks, but they were cut back this spring because of Pentagon concerns about the cost and strain on aircraft and flight crews. The patrols are still flown intermittently, but no fighter jets were aloft over Washington at the time of Wednesday night's incident, officials said.
Instead, F-16s on alert at Andrews Air Force Base were scrambled, but the order came about the time that the Cessna 182 was passing within four miles of the White House. By the time the fighter jets were aloft, the Cessna had flown out of the restricted airspace.
The plane, piloted by a civilian apparently unaware he was violating restricted airspace, came within a mile of prohibited airspace over the White House, the U.S. Capitol and memorials on the Mall. The identify of the pilot could not be learned yesterday. The jets did not establish contact with the pilot, who did not respond to radio communications, until the plane was over Fredericksburg, Va., officials said.
Defense officials said the problem was not the response time, but that the existing restricted buffer zone allows little time to react if fighters are not in the air.
"The fighter aircraft were there in the designated time," a senior defense official said. "The real policy question is: Do you put the buffer out further, or change the defense posture?"
The White House was evacuated for about 15 minutes Wednesday night, but President Bush was kept in the building, a decision officials defended yesterday.
A senior administration official said White House concern about the fighter jets' inability to reach the intruding plane was lessened by the fact that other security measures are in place to protect against aerial attacks on the White House.
"Suffice it to say there are multiple levels of protection for the president," said spokesman Ari Fleischer, who said Bush was not told of the incident until yesterday morning.
"It didn't rise to his level," Fleischer said. "The president could be watching the news, and he could hear that there was a fence-jumper at the White House. That happens."
No staff members were evacuated, the White House said.
A military official said, "Yeah, we couldn't get there in time, but the defense of the White House is not solely based on the ability to scramble jets. There's a whole lot more at play here."
Some officials suggested that the U.S. Secret Service agents who ordered the White House evacuation may have overreacted.
"The Secret Service is looking at the whole incident," the senior administration official said. "The Secret Service automatically goes into its precautionary modes, and different people have discretion to do some things within that mode. They want to make certain that the right judgments were made involving that discretion.
The Cessna, carrying the pilot and one passenger, took off from Gardner, Mass., Wednesday en route to Raleigh, N.C., but ran into bad weather over New Jersey. Approaching Washington, the pilot made a navigational change that brought him into restricted airspace.
A "temporary flight restriction" established by the Federal Aviation Administration after Sept. 11 bars private planes from flying below 18,000 feet within a 15-mile radius of the Washington Monument.
The Cessna, flying at a speed of about 150 miles per hour and an altitude of 10,500 feet, was spotted four miles from the White House at 8:01 p.m., authorities said.
"The aircraft was exhibiting no other threatening behavior," said a military official. At no time did the plane enter even more restrictive airspace near the White House, which has been closed for decades to air traffic.
After trying unsuccessfully to establish communication with the plane, controllers at Reagan National Airport notified the Secret Service.
About a minute later, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, which oversees military aircraft protecting the nation, also was notified. Three minutes later, at 8:06 p.m., NORAD relayed word for Andrews Air Force Base to scramble jets, according to a timeline first reported by CNN yesterday and confirmed by military officials.
"What prompted the scramble was the fact the violation had already occurred," a military official said.
At Andrews, about 10 miles from the White House, pilots with the D.C. Air National Guard's 121st Fighter Squadron were on "strip alert," a posture adopted this spring after round-the-clock combat air patrols ended.
The posture requires the squadron to launch two F-16s within 15 minutes of receiving an order. On-call pilots stand at the ready in the squadron headquarters or in a nearby trailer. Fully fueled F-16 jets sit in nearby hangars, already armed with air-to-air missiles.
The F-16s were airborne at 8:17 p.m., within 11 minutes of notification, officials said. "These guys weren't loitering," said an Air Force official. "It was executed pretty well."
By the time they were airborne, the Cessna had passed out of the restricted zone after being in violation for 12 minutes, according to the FAA.
"The process worked as intended," said Army Maj. Barry Venable, a spokesman for NORAD. "We'll certainly review our role in this incident and see if there's anything we need to adjust, but there's been no decision that anything needs to change."
After the Cessna landed at Richmond International Airport, police escorted the pilot and passenger into the terminal, where they were interviewed by the FBI and Secret Service.
The Cessna is owned by Michael Donlon, 44, co-owner of Mohawk Valley Skydiving in Scotia, N.Y. Donlon said last night that two pilots were flying the plane to North Carolina for some modifications so it could be used for skydiving.
One of the pilots called him at 12:30 a.m. to tell him what happened, Donlon said. "I thought these guys were playing a joke on me," he said. But after talking to a Secret Service agent, then turning on the television, he thought, "Oh boy, this might not be good." He said both pilots were from New England, but he declined to give their names.
The pilot had no idea he had violated the airspace, said Jim Mackin, a spokesman for the Secret Service. He said no criminal charges are expected to be filed. But FAA spokesman William Shumann said that if the pilot is found guilty of violating regulations, he could be reprimanded or his license could be suspended or revoked.
The plane was searched and nothing dangerous was found, officials said. A four-seater Cessna 182 has an 88-gallon fuel tank, compared with a 63,705-gallon tank for a 747 plane, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
The plane left Richmond about 9 a.m. yesterday, heading for Raleigh-Durham Airport.
Mackin said that there have been about a dozen violations of airspace near the White House since Sept. 11. He said the other planes were either in constant radio communication with the FAA or momentarily skirted over the line.
Adding to post-Sept. 11 jitters, police yesterday cordoned off some downtown streets for the second consecutive day, snarling traffic as they checked suspicious packages that wound up being false alarms. The latest scare occurred during lunchtime near 15th and K streets NW, police said. The area was closed from 11:05 a.m. to about 1:45 p.m., causing traffic backups.
It followed a massive rush-hour jam Wednesday caused by a similar incident at the Federal Reserve.
Staff writers Mike Allen, David A. Fahrenthold, Don Phillips and Michael Shear contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20572-2002Jun20.html
Washington D.C. Restricted Air Space Graphic
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/daily/graphics/airspace_062102.html
6/25/02
6:38:59 PM
White House And Fed Buildings Evacuated
Plane Strays Near Executive Mansion; Bomb Scare Clears Banking Agency
by Petula Dvorak, Washington Post Staff Writer, June 20, 2002; Page B05
The White House was evacuated and fighter jets were scrambled last night after a pilot accidentally flew his single-engine Cessna into restricted airspace near the Capitol, officials said.
Two F-16 fighter jets escorted the Cessna 182 to Richmond International Airport, law enforcement officials said. The White House evacuation was called off about 15 minutes after the pilot came within four miles of the executive mansion, then made contact with the Federal Aviation Administration's Leesburg flight service station for a weather update.
The emergency occurred a few hours after a bomb scare outside two Federal Reserve buildings in Northwest Washington prompted D.C. and federal authorities to evacuate about 1,300 federal workers. That incident forced the closure of several streets just as the evening commute began.
The errant plane was spotted about 8 p.m. crossing the temporarily restricted airspace at 10,500 feet -- about 8,000 feet lower than allowed -- and did not respond to radio communications from flight control towers, said Secret Service spokesman Brian Marr.
The Secret Service set an emergency procedure into motion, moving staff members and visitors away from the White House, Marr said.
President Bush had returned to the White House from a Republican fundraiser about 20 minutes before the emergency and remained inside, a law enforcement source said.
The pilot, who was flying from Massachusetts to Raleigh, N.C., crossed an airspace restriction imposed after Sept. 11 and skirted the permanently restricted area directly above the White House, said Laura Brown, an FAA spokeswoman.
The restrictions -- called Notices to Airmen, or NOTAMs -- are updated by the FAA daily. Pilots are required to check their flight paths for NOTAMs, Marr said.
The Cessna landed in Richmond about 8:50 p.m., and the pilot and his passenger waited on the taxiway until federal agents interviewed them, airport officials said.
The pilot could face fines, a letter of reprimand or license revocation, Brown said.
The earlier evacuation occurred about 3:20 p.m., when a custodian working for the Federal Reserve noticed a suspicious object in a trash bin just outside the reserve's two buildings on 20th Street, between Constitution Avenue and C Street NW.
Authorities sent in a robot to defuse the object, then realized it was a false alarm, officials said. Roads were closed from about 3:30 p.m. to 6:40 p.m., snarling traffic.
Staff writer Michael Vasquez contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14915-2002Jun20.html
6/25/02
6:23:20 PM
NSA Intercepts On Eve Of 9/11 Sent A Warning
Messages Translated After Attacks
by Walter Pincus and Dana Priest, Washington Post, June 20, 2002; Page A01
The National Security Agency intercepted two messages on the eve of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon warning that something was going to happen the next day, but the messages were not translated until Sept. 12, senior U.S. intelligence officials said yesterday.
The Arabic-language messages said, "The match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour." They were discussed Tuesday before the House-Senate intelligence committee during closed-door questioning of Lt. Gen. Michael V. Hayden, director of the NSA, the agency responsible for intercepting and analyzing electronic messages.
Intelligence officials said the two messages -- even if translated on Sept. 10 -- would not have provided enough information to prevent the attacks. But their disclosure put the NSA in the spotlight for the first time since reports of intelligence failures began to emerge this spring and seemed likely to sharpen the focus of the congressional investigation -- which has been dominated by concerns about the performance of the FBI and the CIA -- on problems at the nation's premier eavesdropping agency.
U.S. intelligence sources said NSA analysts are not certain who was speaking on the Sept. 10 intercepts. They came from sources -- a location or phone number -- that were of high-enough priority to translate them within two days but were not put in the top priority category, which included communications from Osama bin Laden or his senior al Qaeda assistants.
"There had been a lot of chatter up there indicating something was up," a senior administration official said. "But it does not say where, what and how reliable."
The official said the messages appear dramatic in hindsight but added: "If you had it on September 10th, what does it tell you that is actionable?"
The NSA declined to comment on the intercepts. "I have no information to provide," NSA spokeswoman Judy Emmel said.
The agency provided classified information to the joint intelligence committee more than a month ago about the messages and the failure to get them translated until after Sept. 11. The messages, and the translating delay, became the subject of discussions between the congressional staff and intelligence officials before Tuesday's hearing, which in addition to Hayden included testimony by CIA Director George J. Tenet and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III, according to congressional and administration sources. The three men appeared before the panel again yesterday.
CNN first reported on the committee's discussion of the messages yesterday.
The NSA, based at Fort Meade, is one of the government's most secretive intelligence agencies. It intercepts more than 2 million electronic communications an hour -- telephone conversations, e-mails, Internet traffic --from satellites and listening posts around the world.
Although the NSA consumes an estimated $6 billion of the $30 billion the government budgets for intelligence each year, and spends most of it on high-tech interception equipment, the agency does not have adequate means to filter out the millions of bits of irrelevant information it scoops up each day. Intelligence budgets are classified.
Without such filters, human translators must sort through mountains of data, and only a fraction of the foreign-language material is translated promptly. Much is never analyzed.
Analysts said the fate of the Sept. 10 intercepts points to a broader aspect of the effort to improve intelligence gathering: technology vs. humans. More than the CIA, the NSA has been criticized for failing to put sufficient emphasis on employing enough skilled translators and analysts to decipher what it collects.
Many observers of the intelligence system credit Hayden, who was appointed director of the agency in March 1999, with recognizing the problem and trying to fix it.
Over the past several years, the House and Senate intelligence panels have criticized the NSA's failure to modernize its operations as communications technologies have become more sophisticated. Computers that over the past decade were used to scan messages for certain key words have proved much less effective as targets have changed from official Russian military and intelligence transmissions to those of individual terrorists and terrorist groups around the world.
Congress has added money to the NSA budget in recent years, and Hayden has assembled a major renovation plan for the agency, but Congress has questioned whether it is satisfactory.
Since Oct. 4, when British Prime Minister Tony Blair announced in a speech before the House of Commons that "a range of people were warned to return back to Afghanistan because of action on or around September 11th," stories have appeared in the media that a warning message had not been taken seriously or translated by the NSA.
A senior intelligence official said yesterday it was still unclear what information Blair was referring to. There have been references in published reports to a message to bin Laden's mother shortly before Sept. 11 that she should return to her home in Saudi Arabia, but U.S. intelligence officials denied having evidence that it existed.
This month, after material was sent to the congressional intelligence panels, several stories appeared, including one that said the chief hijacker on Sept. 11, Mohamed Atta, was overheard talking to a senior bin Laden figure before boarding an airplane. NSA and other intelligence officials denied that report but never indicated there were less precise messages that had not been translated.
The House-Senate panel apparently has decided to delay hearing in an open session testimony by Mueller, Tenet and Hayden, originally set for next week. "We want to make sure when we go public that the right people are there and we're prepared so we don't look like we're flying by the seat of our pants," said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), a member of the panel.
Staff writer Juliet Eilperin contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12712-2002Jun19.html
6/25/02
5:54:48 PM
t r u t h o u t
John Dingell | Radio Address; Prescription Drugs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.23A.dingell.radio.htm
BBC | Israel Tightens Grip in West Bank
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.23B.il.w.bank.htm
R.J. Reynolds to Pay $15 Million in Smoker Case
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.23C.rjr.15M.htm
Frank Rich | Sacrifice Is for Losers
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.23D.rich.losers.htm
Promise of Ventura Era Disappears Into Oblivion
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.23E.ventura.era.htm
6/25/02
5:53:23 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
"We Cover the Earth For You"
SOUTH CAROLINA LOSING FIGHT AGAINST NUKE SHIPMENTS
RICHMOND, Virginia, June 21, 2002 (ENS) - A federal appeals court has denied South Carolina Governor Jim Hodges' request to bar plutonium shipments from other states, dealing another blow to the state's suit against plans to send tons of surplus nuclear materials to South Carolina for reprocessing. The court agreed to fast track Hodge's appeal, but the Energy Department has said the shipments could begin as early as Saturday.
For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-21-06.asp
LAST OWNERS TO BE LIABLE FOR UK's SCRAP CARS
LONDON, UK, June 21, 2002 (ENS) - Final owners, and not manufacturers, of cars put on the market before July 1 will have to pay for their disposal until 2007, the UK government confirmed today.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-21-01.asp
EUROPE SETS UP CHEMICAL TERRORISM ALERT SYSTEM
COPENHAGEN, Denmark, June 21, 2002 (ENS) - Representatives of governments in the World Health Organization's European Region and international organizations are establishing a chemical incident alert system to meet any deliberate use of chemical agents by terrorists in Europe.
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-21-02.asp
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: JUNE 21, 2002
North Carolina Restricts Power Plant Emissions
Activists Jailed for Montana Logging Protest
Colorado Fire May Have Been Set Deliberately
UV Radiation Linked to Deformed Amphibians
Glacier Threatens to Block Alaskan Fiord
GMOs Could Wipe Out Natural Species
Fungi Bring Calcium to Acid Rain Damaged Trees
Critical Habitat Proposed for Two Larkspurs
http://ens-news.com/ens/jun2002/2002-06-21-09.asp
6/25/02
5:51:44 PM
Greenpeace Action Alert June 22, 2002
Amendments to Current Legislation Could Rollback U.S. Fish Conservation Efforts
Many of the nation's ocean fisheries are being over-exploited and unless we take immediate action to ensure fish populations are at sustainable levels, we risk losing a way of life. A recent report by the National Marine Fisheries Service on the status of fish populations in the U.S. revealed that 30% of the nation's fish stocks (where information is available) are overfished, experiencing overfishing, or both.
To make matters worse, certain fishing industry interests are working hard to rollback key conservation provisions in the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, that would further devastate fish populations and critical fish habitat.
On June 26th, the House Resources Committee will be marking up amendments to H.R. 4749, legislation that was meant to protect U.S. fisheries, not put them in danger. Urge the committee to oppose all amendments that will weaken the small steps already taken to protect our fisheries:
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/bin/actionframe.pl?action_id=137
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