3/31/02
2:39:19 PM
Major 911 Oddities Revealed In NY Firehouse Documentary
From Top View, mailto:top_viewer@yahoo.com
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 SUCH 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 about 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.
3/31/02
2:09:30 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.31
BREAKING NEWS SPECIAL | Israel and Palestine in Mortal Conflict
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31.BK.IDFvArafat.htm
Weak Leaders Hinder Middle East Peace
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31A.Weak.Leaders.htm
Enron and Bush: the Mystery Deepens, Energy Papers Yield More Questions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31B.Bush.Enron.htm
Scott Galindez | Dear George, New Nuclear Weapons Will Not Make the World a Safer Place
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31C.SG.George.htm
Bush Hard - Liners See End of N.Korea Accord
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31D.Bush.End.htm
Fund Raising: How Bush Plays the Game
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31E.Bush.Game.htm
Donna E. Shalala | Loss to Medical Privacy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31F.DS.Loss.htm
Pentagon Seeks Exemption From Environmental Laws
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31G.Exemption.htm
Protesters Help Refugees Escape
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31H.Help.Escape.htm
Bush Vows to Seek Conservative Judges
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.31I.Bush.Vows.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/30/02
3:46:47 PM
Nuclear Terror Near Toledo
Atomic Apocalypse Barely Averted at the Davis-Besse Reactor
by Harvey Wasserman
Ohio is looking down the barrel of a nuclear apocalypse. Its name is Davis-Besse. Reopening it---as its owner wants to do---can be viewed as nothing more than an act of terrorism.
The 900-megawatt atomic reactor near Toledo has shocked even the industry's staunchest supporters. An unexpected leak of boric acid has eaten through nearly six full inches of solid high-grade metal in a critical internal component. Only 3/8 of an inch of carbon steel protection was left in tact when the hole was discovered in February. Soon thereafter a second hole was discovered, raising widespread fears that the reactor could be riddled with untold other seriously deriorated sites.
Boric acid is laced throughout the water that circulates through all Pressurized Water Reactors. Similar structural problems have long been known in the much-vaunted French nuclear industry, whose 55-plus PWRs suffer from a syndrome known as Vessel Head Penetration Cracking, which threatens the entire industry.
As it always does, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which is supposed to protect the public, says there is no real danger. But in the same releases it pointed out that the acid has compromised an extremely important safety feature common to all pressurized water reactors, the world's most widespread model. There are 68 other reactors with similar designs in the US alone.
The NRC gets its funding from the industry it regulates, and has long been viewed as little more than a lapdog giving public relations cover to a corrupt, decayed plutocracy. Critics generally refer to it as "No Real Chance" and "Nobody Really Cares." Its chairman, Richard Meserve, recently launched a vicious personal attack against one critic who dared point out that America's reactors are still vulnerable to a terrorist attack from the air.
In the wake of September 11, a global debate led the industry itself to concede that no reactor containment on any commercial nuclear plant could withstand the crash of a jet the size of the ones that brought down the World Trade Center. But while ground security has been increased at most reactor sites, there has been no significant upgrade in the ability of any commercial reactor to survive an attack from the air. When Paul Leventhal of the Nuclear Control Institute, among others, pointed this out, Meserve went over the deep end.
Which is where all of Lake Erie and northern Ohio would go in the event of an attack or an accident at Davis-Besse. FirstEnergy's aging atomic clunker has been likened to a radioactive jalopy, patched together with twine, hurtling down a steep hill. At the bottom is the prospect of a literal apocalypse, whose radioactive releases could permanently destroy all of northern Ohio and the Great Lakes, the world's largest single reserve of fresh water. A melt-down or terrorist-prompted explosion could kill millions, including much of the populations of Cleveland, Toledo and Detroit.
Davis-Besse is a deteriorating Three Mile Island-style relic which in the 1980s ate millions in funky patches just to keep it on line. Its latest safety shutdown has caused no blackouts or other noticeable strains on the grid that supplies northern Ohio with electricity. FirstEnergy is now buying power from other sources, which are readily available.
The company is also demanding the right to slap in still more cheap fixes and throw Davis-Besse back on line as fast as possible. FirstEnergy has its financial reasons. But even the NRC has started to balk at the profound irresponsiblity of pasting on a few bandaids and then re-firing such an infernal machine. There is talk of replacing some large internal components altogether. But that would take FirstEnergy until 2004, by which time much of the public will have figured out there's no need for this radioactive Rube Goldberg contraption.
Last year nearly 1700 megawatts of windpower were installed in the US alone, more than twice as much capacity as is theoretically provided by Davis-Besse. By 2004 far more capacity could be provided cheaply, cleanly and safely by natural gas or Great Lakes wind machines than by a reopened nuke.
Safety experts have now called for a thorough x-ray examination of every component of Davis-Besse and the scores of other reactors with similar designs. But the attitude of the Bush Administration and the NRC has been that if this might cost FirstEnergy and other reactor owners a few extra dollars, then they won't do it, even if it endangers the future of the planet.
This is a profoundly important moment in this nation's history. This kind grotesque risk being taken with the public safety cannot be tolerated. Davis-Besse must stay shut and the alternatives put in place. To do otherwise would be an unparalleled act of terrorism, pure and simple.
Source: http://www.ColumbusAlive.com
3/30/02
3:34:46 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.30
Sharon Declares Arafat an 'Enemy' And Troops Enter His Compound
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30A.Troops.Enter.htm
Senator Lieberman Seeks Enron Contacts from White House, Energy Task Force
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30B.Lieberman.Seeks.htm
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) | Peace And Nuclear Disarmamant: A Call To Action
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30C.Kucinich.Peace.htm
G.O.P. Lawmakers and White House Cite a Growing Rift
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30D.GOP.Rift.htm
Andersen Plans a Split, as U.S. Signals Continued Prosecution
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30E.Split.Prosecution.htm
White House Stonewall: Day 35
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30F.Stonewall.htm
John W. Dean | Campaign Finance Reform Goes To Court
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30G.JWD.Court.htm
Bush Diplomacy Yields Few Promising Signs
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30H.Bush.Few.htm
Army Sec. White Under Investigation at Pentagon
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.30I.White.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/30/02
3:32:21 PM
EASTER AND PLANET EARTH
Easter provides a great opportunity. Get attention for the following, and help lead the world into a better future.
EARTH'S RESURRECTION: We know America and the world are facing terrible problems. Easter provides the solution!
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth and the life." and embodied the meaning of truth. The understanding of the importance of truth and its connection with God has led to the wise policies and actions that have fostered past periods of peaceful progress -- in America and abroad.
But in recent years secularism (trying to do good without any belief in God) has corrupted society -- teaching that there is no absolute truth. Everything is relative and no need for a belief in God. Cynicism and corruption are the result.
We need a miracle. Let us join in heartfelt repentance and prayer -- with a new commitment to peace, justice and the care of Earth. On Easter we can deepen our commitment to think and act as Earth Trustees as we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, "Agree with your enemy." The Earth Trustee agenda appeals to people of every creed and culture and provides the way. With this common cause we can work together and leave room for our differences.
God will hear our prayer and aid our efforts. We will see a miraculous change for the better in America and all over the world.
God is love, not hate. God is life, not death. God is good, not evil.
Anyone who thinks God guides to do harm is gravely deluded.
God is love.
Carmen Columbo 2002 http://www.wowzone.com
The first view of Earth from Space inspired the idea of Earth Day. "We set out to explore Space and discovered Earth." From this came the idea we should all think and act as Trustees of Earth.
In a prelude that pointed the way to a better future, on March 20, 1998, outriders of Planet Earth celebrated the annual Earth Day in Space. At the Mir Space Station there was a brief ceremony that included the special moment when the Peace Bell at the United Nations was rung as Spring began. Astronauts, Cosmonauts and people on Earth joined at that time in a brief dedication to be responsible trustees of Earth.
The Earth Trustee idea of Earth Day appeals to people of every creed and culture. It is very simple and powerful. All that is needed is for every individual and institution to think and act as a trustee of Earth, seeking in their own way to:
"Make choices in ecology, economics and ethics that will eliminate pollution, poverty and violence, awaken the wonder of life and nurture people and planet."
We can now halt the awful record of history with its injustice, wars and violence. Napoleon once said, "Imagination rules the world." Internet opens new opportunities to capture the imagination of the world with a solution that can appeal to all. Projects and efforts that are achieving Earth Trustee goals can be posted and verified by experts on the web. Here is a chance for people of religious faith to prove their faith by their works.
Let every person who receives this message deepen their commitment and take action – personally and with any group you belong to. Forward this to a few friends and suggest they do the same. Let's circle the world now with a positive Earth Trustee vision
Sincerely,
John McConnell Earth Day Founder http://www.earthsite.org
To one and all. Spread the word. Let's demonstrate the faith that works by love. Help get global attention for the opportunity to make this Easter a Resurrection Day for the whole world. Let's come together to reanimate our planet. This can appeal to people of all religions.
3/30/02
3:29:52 PM
Pentagon Seeks Exemption From Environmental Laws
by Katharine Q. Seelye,March 30, 2002
WASHINGTON, March 29 — Concerned that several environmental laws are interfering with the military's ability to train soldiers and develop weapons, the Pentagon is seeking a Congressional exemption from an array of measures that have protected endangered species and their habitats for years.
A draft of the exemption bill, circulating in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill, seeks exemptions on national security grounds for bombing ranges, air bases and training grounds from sections of the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Marine Mammal Protection Act, Noise Control Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Endangered Species Act.
The Defense Department controls about 25 million acres for training grounds, about 90 percent of which is undeveloped buffer. It spends about $4 billion a year to comply with environmental laws, money that Pentagon officials say could be better spent preparing the military for combat, especially in light of the Sept. 11 attacks.
For example, the Navy spends $2.4 million per year to protect a bird called the loggerhead shrike, an endangered species on San Clemente Island, off California. It also closes its bombing range there four days a week during the shrike's breeding season, and since the Navy has been doing that, the shrike population has grown to 160 birds, from 13.
"This environmental success has necessitated reducing one of the two firing ranges in size by 90 percent and the other by 50 percent" at certain times, Representative Joel Hefley, a Colorado Republican who is chairman of the subcommittee on military readiness, said recently at hearings on the subject.
But, Mr. Hefley wondered, where will it end? "How many shrikes must be reintroduced into the wild and maintained on San Clemente Island before we can say that the Navy can once again devote its complete attention and dollars to its primary mission of preparing our military forces to ensure national security?" he asked.
The legislation that the Pentagon is preparing, which would be introduced as part of the defense spending bill after the Easter recess, would protect the military from lawsuits for violating rules like the ones protecting the shrike, officials said.
A draft of the bill says, "Federal departments and agencies shall not place the conservation of public lands, or the preservation or recovery of endangered, threatened or other protected species found on military lands, above the need to ensure that soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines receive the greatest possible preparation for, and protection from, the hazards and rigor of combat through realistic training on military lands and in military airspace."
Environmental organizations are beginning to rally in opposition.
"The forces are gathering," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit group representing civil servants who work on military bases and in environmental agencies. "This is seen as a major threat, and there's a growing cast of thousands meeting next week to plan to counter it."
If the environmental laws are breached, Mr. Ruch said, the military will be free to contaminate public drinking water with munitions, discharge air pollutants in bombings and exceed noise limits as well as test weapons that could harm whales and other marine life.
He said that few members of Congress were aware of the proposal, but he noted Congress's overwhelming support for the administration's efforts to respond to terrorism.
"Sept. 11 has given them a lot more political currency to do a broad-brush kind of thing," he said.
In his hearings two weeks ago, Mr. Hefley highlighted protections that some people might easily consider extreme and trivial when weighed against military needs.
He said that at Fort Hood, Tex., one of the Army's top training installations, 84 percent of the 200,000 acres devoted to training were subject to limits to protect two endangered species and cultural artifacts.
At Camp Pendleton, Calif., protections of tidal estuaries and rare plants and of mud puddles housing two species of microscopic shrimp produce what he called "an impossibly truncated mishmash of the land available for combat training."
Paul W. Mayberry, deputy under secretary of defense, told the subcommittee, "Both the room to maneuver and the ability to fire live ordnance are essential."
In Kosovo, it was evident that soldiers without live ordnance training were less effective than those with such training, Mr. Mayberry said.
Environmental laws prohibit or restrict flights over certain public lands and restrict the landing of amphibious craft on beaches. Simulated exercises are no substitute, he said, adding, "Our troops' first exposure to live fire cannot come as they land on a hostile beach in combat."
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has authority to invoke exemptions from environmental laws, but he has not done so.
A spokeswoman for the Pentagon, Lt. Col. Cynthia Colin, would not comment on any aspect of the proposed legislation, except to say that discussion with other agencies on how to respond to the environmental limitations were under way.
In a statement, Colonel Colin said, "We are always concerned by anything that might adversely impact the training needed to protect our military people, our nation and our way of life."
Sourve: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/30/politics/30ENVI.html
3/29/02
7:06:27 PM
Bush Tapped Solar Energy Funds To Print Energy Plan
by Tom Doggett, March 29, 2002
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - While environmentalists have slammed the White House national energy plan for not doing enough to promote renewable energy, the Bush administration found those government research programs useful in paying the bill for printing copies of the 170-page plan.
The administration took money from the Energy Department's solar and renewable energy and energy conservation budgets to pay for the cost of printing its national energy plan.
Documents released under court order by the Energy Department this week revealed that $135,615 was spent from the DOE's solar, renewables and energy conservation budget to produce 10,000 copies of the White House energy plan released last May.
Another $1,317.39 was spent for producing 16 "briefing boards" used by administration officials to illustrate and explain the White House energy plan.
The newly released documents also show that $176.40 was taken from the energy conservation program to pay for an Alaska trip by Andrew Lundquist, the White House energy task force's staff director, to promote the energy plan.
The administration's energy policy called for drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a proposal strongly opposed by environmentalists.
At the same time the White House tapped the renewable budget for funds to print the energy plan, administration was urging Congress to cut the renewable and energy efficiency research budgets by more than 50 percent.
Vice President Dick Cheney, who headed the White House energy task force, criticized environmentalists for relying too much on renewables and conservation to solve the nation's energy problems. "Conservation may be a sign of personal virtue, but it is not a sufficient basis for a sound, comprehensive energy policy," Cheney said two weeks before the energy plan was released last May.
The administration did try to spread around the cost of producing the energy plan.
It dipped into the DOE's fossil energy program, which covers primarily oil research, to pay $100.92 for a hotel room near the Government Printing Office where the policy publication was being produced.
The documents did not name the official or if the hotel offered a government rate.
Source: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020329_150.html
3/29/02
7:02:06 PM
Businesses are called to account: CORPORATE DISCLOSURE: A new initiative should make it possible to compare companies' impact on society and the environment
by Alison Maitland: Financial Times; Mar 28, 2002
Next week in New York an extraordinary coalition of companies, governments and pressure groups will launch an ambitious attempt to harmonise the way businesses report their impact on society and the environment.
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) hopes to break through the fog surrounding "green" and ethical accounting and bring transparency and comparability to this fledgling form of corporate disclosure. If it works, it could become the international standard for non-financial reporting.
Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, who led Royal Dutch/Shell's pioneering efforts to rebuild stakeholder trust following the Brent Spar and Nigeria disasters, believes that the GRI's reporting guidelines stand a good chance of being accepted as the global standard by governments. They will also make life easier for companies, he maintains, rather than adding to existing reporting burdens.
"All sorts of people - ethical investors, NGOs and governments - are asking companies for information and they all want it in their own format," says the former Shell chairman, now one of the GRI's 14 directors. "If companies can say: 'We'll give you the information but in the GRI's standard format', hopefully everyone will accept (that)."
Following the voluntary guidelines is not, however, a simple matter. They cover more than 90 indicators of environmental, social and economic performance, which include greenhouse gas emissions and waste management, human rights and child labour, corruption and political contributions, customer data protection and supplier contracts. Companies are asked to report on their progress at least annually.
Next Thursday's inauguration of the GRI as a global institution follows five years of collaboration by companies, pressure groups, unions, accountants, academics and governments in drawing up the guidelines. Already they are being tested by more than 100 companies worldwide, including multinationals such as General Motors, Nokia, Procter & Gamble and South African Breweries.
In the case of Siemens, which is following the guidelines for its first "sustainability" report, the process involves collecting data from several hundred sites in 190 countries employing nearly half a million people. Ralph Thurm, chairman of Siemens' sustainability strategy council and a GRI working group member, says it will be early next year before the results come in. Time and effort notwithstanding, the guidelines are "a remarkable milestone", he says.
Set up in 1997 by the US-based Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (Ceres), the GRI's aim was to pool best practice from scores of competing schemes for social and environmental reporting. "There was a lot of noise out there, a lot of chaos," says Allen White, GRI secretariat director.
The pressure on companies to report on these issues cannot be ignored, says Mr White. It comes not just from activists but also from investors, accounting bodies and governments. The Japanese government has published environmental reporting guidelines; and France requires public companies to provide social and environmental information in their financial reports.
He says the GRI should avoid the inconsistencies between national jurisdictions that have hampered agreement on international financial accounting standards.
Post-Enron, this new approach to disclosure may even gain greater credibility than traditional financial reporting, argues Robert Massie, a GRI board member and executive director of Ceres.
"We used to say we hoped that sustainability reporting would one day reach the level of rigour of financial reporting. Now I can say that many parts of sustainability reporting are more rigorous. For example, the world will not tolerate the dumping of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere for ever. There will be a cost assigned to it. Knowing which companies produce more is directly relevant to the likely burden on their future revenue stream."
Will the new guidelines live up to their ambitions? To do so, they must attract enough of a following to enable meaningful comparison between companies and sectors.
Above all, they must demonstrate measurable improvements in performance and not be mere window-dressing. Environmental and social reporting generates scepticism.
The GRI has already made strides in gaining adherents. "I have never seen such a fast take-up of awareness of any standard anywhere," says Simon Zadek, chief executive of AccountAbility, a UK-based professional institute specialising in social and ethical accounting.
"I am amazed at how deeply GRI has already nested itself into parts of the business community, whether in Australia, South Africa, the US or Brazil."
Some large companies have misgivings, viewing the approach as too prescriptive. Others, such as BP, argue that aggregating data from across the company, as proposed by the GRI, can miss important impacts at regional or local level. BP is therefore not using the guidelines. But it recognises the importance of comparability and has mapped its own report against the GRI indicators on its website.
Mr Massie stresses the evolutionary nature of the GRI. "We're in year five of a 30-year process," he says. The guidelines will be regularly revised. There will be sector-specific versions, starting with financial services, mining and the car industry. There may also be slimmed-down guidelines suitable for small companies. "The GRI is most useful for the companies that are not leaders in the field and have not done this sort of thing before," says Mr Zadek, who has worked closely with the GRI.
But there is a risk that the stakeholders at whom the reports are aimed will not bother to read them. "Once the information is released, many NGOs turn away and take very little notice," he says. "One reason is that they don't believe it."
This is why reports need independent checking, he argues. Verification is also pretty new territory, so in June his organisation plans to publish AA1000, a guide to external auditing designed to complement the GRI. "We all recognise that you need both," he says.
The voluntary nature of the GRI guidelines is also a problem for some campaigners. "It doesn't pick up those companies unwilling or unable to measure up (to the guidelines)," says Jeremy Hobbs, executive director of Oxfam International. "We think there need to be minimum standards."
Oxfam has decided to support the guidelines because it saw other organisations such as Amnesty International taking part and found the GRI open to the idea that governments might use the framework as a basis for legislation. "We have come in on the proviso that we'll bang the table pretty hard about our concerns. If we don't like it, we will pull out."
The consensus achieved by the GRI is bound to come under pressure as the guidelines move off the drawing board and into the world's boardrooms. But there is no doubting the institution's determination to preserve its "multi-stakeholder" consensus.
Next week's ceremony at United Nations headquarters will be its first and last big public event in the US. It will soon move to Europe, probably the Netherlands, having concluded that the US is not the right country to site a "globally inclusive" organisation, says Mr Massie.
"The US . . . right now doesn't seem to be showing any particular awareness of the rest of the world," he says. Although there are only two US members of the GRI board, "people were associating our actions with the actions of other Americans whose policies we may not necessarily agree with. Being in a place where it was routine to speak many languages and to take other people's views into account was (thought to be) useful."
http://www.globalreporting.org
3/29/02
6:59:11 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
RIGHT IN THE SOLAR PLEXUS
From the believe-it-or-not department: To cover the costs of printing its 170-page energy plan last May, the Bush administration tapped into the Department of Energy's solar and renewable energy and energy conservation budgets. Documents released under court order by the DOE on Monday night indicate that $135,615 of the renewables and conservation budget was spent to print 10,000 copies of the drill-mine-burn plan, which, needless to say, is much reviled by enviros. Another $1,317.39 went toward printing "briefing boards" used by administration officials to explain the plan, and $176.40 helped send one lucky member of Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force to Alaska to promote the plan. At the same time that it was spending the renewables budget and keeping the copiers humming, the administration was busy lobbying Congress to cut funding for renewables and energy-efficiency research by more than 50 percent. Somehow, it's cold comfort that the administration also took $100.92 from the DOE's fossil energy program to pay for a hotel room near the Government Printing Office.
straight to the source: ABCNews.com, Reuters, Tom Doggett, 29 Mar 2002 <http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/reuters20020329_150.html>
MUSTARD GREENS
In a hard-won triumph for environmentalists, the Pentagon announced yesterday that it will use a water-neutralization process, rather than incineration, to destroy 2,600 tons of mustard gas stored at Colorado's Pueblo Chemical Depot and other sites. The Chemical Weapons Working Group, a watchdog organization, applauded the decision, calling neutralization safe and effective. But in Oregon, Gov. John Kitzhaber (D) expressed concerns yesterday about the proposed neutralization of 2,440 tons of mustard gas stockpiled at the Umatilla Chemical Depot, questioning whether arid eastern Oregon could afford to divert so much water. Kitzhaber also noted that the neutralization process would yield 27 million gallons of contaminated water, and questioned the "eleventh hour" nature of the plan. Defense Undersecretary E.C. Aldridge said the Army is working quickly to destroy chemical weapons so they do not become terrorist targets. The U.S. is also hustling to dispose of some 30,000 tons of such weapons by 2007, as mandated by international treaty, although the Pentagon has said it will miss that deadline.
straight to the source: Denver Post, Theo Stein, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1002,53%7E490906,00.html>
straight to the source: Salem Statesman Journal, Associated Press, Brad Cain, 29 Mar 2002 <http://news.statesmanjournal.com/article.cfm?i=39516>
straight to the source: San Francisco Chronicle, Associated Press, Robert Gehrke, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2002/03/28/state1222EST7586.DTL>
WORLD CERES
Could this be the end of greenwashing? After five years of work, an innovative coalition of businesses, advocacy groups, unions, accountants, academics, and government representatives is preparing to unveil standardized guidelines for how businesses report their impact on society and the environment. The Global Reporting Initiative standards, which are the brainchild of the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, include more than 90 indicators of environmental, social, and economic performance -- from greenhouse gas emissions and waste management to human rights and child labor records. The GRI standards could meet the growing demand from investors, activists, accounting bodies, and governments for thorough information about business practices, while streamlining the reporting process for companies.
only in Grist: A week in the life of Bob Massie, Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies <http://www.gristmagazine.com/week/massie091800.stm?source=daily>
do good: Take action to crush capitalism with your pen <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/consumption.asp?source=daily#capitalism>
FOOT-IN-MOUTH DISEASE?
Dealing a blow to advocates of natural resource extraction in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, biologists working for the U.S. Geological Survey have produced a report finding that oil and gas drilling in the refuge could substantially threaten caribou, musk oxen, polar bears, migrating birds, and other wildlife. Although the report acknowledges that the risk could be mitigated by careful management, it nonetheless belies the repeated assertions of Interior Secretary Gale Norton that drilling would not pose any threat to wildlife in the refuge. "Once again the administration has released a report undermining its own case," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.). To prepare the 78-page report, the biologists examined 12 years of research into the ecology of the area targeted for development, the Arctic Refuge's 1.5 million-acre coastal plain.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, 29 Mar 2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/731219.asp>
do good: Take action to save the Arctic Refuge <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/mining.asp?source=daily#arctic>
DUNE BUGGING
Almost 50,000 acres of dunes in California's Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area would be re-opened to off-road vehicles (ORVs) under a Bureau of Land Management proposal. The area has been off-limits to the vehicles since November of 2000, when the BLM, ORV groups, and environmentalists negotiated a settlement that closed the area to protect endangered species. The BLM now appears prepared to retract that agreement, saying the area could provide a "world-class recreation opportunity." But Terry Weiner, coordinator of the Desert Protective Council, said, "You cannot appreciate the dunes if you're raging across them at 40 miles an hour with smoke in your face and deafening noise." The new plan calls for regulated use and careful policing -- as much for the human inhabitants as for wildlife. Up to 200,000 people flock to the dunes on the weekends, and last Thanksgiving alone, there was one homicide, two stabbings, two fatal accidents, and innumerable brawls.
straight to the source: New York Times, Nick Madigan, 29 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/29/national/29DUNE.html>
DEEP DU DU
Three years after NATO's 78-day air campaign against Yugoslavia, depleted uranium (DU) has been found at five of six sites investigated by scientists from the U.N. Environment Programme. The sites, in Serbia and Montenegro, had "widespread but low-level" contamination. Although the scientists did not report any current direct threat to humans or the environment, they expressed concern about the possibility of future groundwater contamination from corroding munitions. UNEP also cautioned civilians to avoid touching any remaining pieces of DU and warned against disturbing the sites, thereby releasing DU particles into the air. The agency has begun work to decontaminate the areas.
straight to the source: BBC News, 27 Mar 2002 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_1896000/1896898.stm>
3/29/02
6:44:27 PM
Greenpeace's CLEAN ENERGY NOW! Campaign weekly update.
GREENEST SCHOOL . . . IN SCOTLAND!
Lunnasting Primary in Scotland was named as the winner of the WWF Our World Schools Challenger.
After winning this environmental care contest, Lunnasting Primary in Shetland, Scotland, will become the greenest school in Scotland. With solar panels already in place, the prize from the contest will provide funding to install a wind generator enabling the school to produce 90% of its electricity needs through sustainable energy. The wind turbine and solar panels will be connected to the local grid, enabling the school to sell electricity to the generating company outside school hours. Linda Cracknell, WWF education officer stated, "winning ideas like wind generator at Lunnasting Primary show us how schools can play an essential part in shaping a better world through a fresh approach to education . . . pupils at Lunnasting are learning about their roles as citizens. . . " If they can do it in Scotland imagine what we can do here!!?
You can learn more about WWF's education for sustainable development at:
http://www.wwflearning.co.uk/welcome
SEC FORCES EXXONMOBILE BOARD TO OVERSEE COMPANY'S POSITION ON ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
There was a victory for shareholders this week, as the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued letters supporting the inclusion of two environmental shareholder resolutions in the company's 2002 proxy statement. One of which aims to push the company to take global warming more seriously. ExxonMobil tried to challenge the resolutions, which call for a report on its efforts to develop clean energy and ask for executive compensation to be linked to environmental and social performance, but the SEC refused their request to cut off the debate and omit them from the annual proxy. The primary filer of a resolution on executive compensation is a nun, Sister Patricia A. Daly of the Dominican Sisters of Caldwell New Jersey. She stated, "Just as Enron's board members failed to properly oversee their company's financial dealings, ExxonMobil's board is failing to oversee their company's position on vital environmental issues. These issues must be examined." We will be bring you more news about ExxonMobil over coming months.
For more information contact Peter Altman (512) 479-0335 or Sister Patricia Daly (973) 579-1732.
SOLAR-CELL TECHNOLOGY GETS A BOOST IN JAPAN
Mitsubishi Electric Corp. announced that it has developed a way to manufacture solar cells with an energy conversion efficiency of more than 20%, the highest-ever ratio achieved for a production line. Although efficiency rates of 30% and higher has been reached in laboratory settings, most production solar cell works with efficiency around 15%. With better cost-performance, Mitsubishi Electric intends to take this opportunity to double its production of solar cells in fiscal 2002. This is the kind of production we want to see in the United States or else we will get left behind in the next energy revolution. For more on the US' performanace to date see Greenpeace USA's report "Losing the Race" at
http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/climate/
Finally please don't forget to send a fax to Edison Mission Energy's CEO Willy Heller to ask him to divest from the proposed coal-fired power plant in Thailand that the company could not build here.
To send a fax, just go to:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/actioncenter.pl
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website,
will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
3/29/02
6:38:05 PM
Europe's Fury
By David S. Broder, The Washington Post, Wednesday, March 27, 2002
ROME -- The United States has been fighting a war in Afghanistan. It has troops in the field in the Philippines and in Colombia. It is trying to mediate the bloody Arab-Israeli conflict in the Middle East. The last thing it needs is a quarrel with Europe.
But that is exactly what has developed, as I was repeatedly reminded during a brief stay here for an international conference last week.
The immediate irritant is steel. The looming and larger point of conflict is Iraq. And the underlying complaint is that the Bush administration, whose leadership has gained significantly in standing since my last transatlantic visit 11 months ago, has reverted to an earlier and unsettling pattern of behavior. From the European perspective, Washington looks unpredictable, erratic and impulsive -- all the things that jar the allies' nerves.
It is easy to dismiss their mutterings as the nattering of nervous Nellies. But when the questioning comes not only from chronic critics such as the French but also from such friends as Germany and even Britain, it may behoove Washington to take heed.
The Europeans are not without power, as they demonstrated last week with their response to President Bush's surprise decision this month to impose tariffs as high as 30 percent on steel imports from Europe and Asia. Americans living here or visiting Rome for the conference I attended were hard-pressed to explain the glaring contradiction between Bush's professed support for free trade and his action to protect declining steelmakers in such political swing states as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Many did not even try.
It does not matter, because the Europeans are not interested in excuses. They are furious. And they are ready to fight back. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the European Union is planning to target Florida orange juice and Wisconsin-made motorcycles -- hitting two states that were virtual ties in the last presidential election. Their target list also includes steel exports from Pennsylvania and West Virginia and textiles from the Republican political strongholds of North and South Carolina.
By hitting electoral college battlegrounds and states with key Senate and House races in November, the Journal said, the EU will strike Bush "where it could hurt the worst at the ballot box."
The steel tariff decision -- denounced by Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill in candid private comments that quickly became public -- looks more and more like one of the worst of the Bush presidency. Another Wall Street Journal article last week reported that the Commerce Department has been inundated by more than 1,000 requests for tariff exemptions from U.S. manufacturers who claim they cannot get the specialty steel they need from domestic steelmakers. Government officials are struggling to determine the merits of each case -- exactly the kind of heavy-handed bureaucratic interference with the marketplace that Republicans and conservatives are supposed to find abhorrent.
But all this is minor compared to European angst about Iraq.
The "axis of evil" section of the State of the Union Address came as a shock to countries that had offered Washington strong support for the first phase of the post-Sept. 11 war on terrorism.
The linkage of Iraq, Iran and North Korea made no sense to them, and subsequent assurances that Bush had no immediate intention to take military action against the last two simply heightened fears that he planned to bomb or invade Iraq.
Americans are being asked: What has happened in the past few months that makes it so imperative to remove Saddam Hussein? Is there any evidence that Iraq was implicated in the 9-11 attacks? With whom do you plan to replace Saddam? And what will a war with Iraq mean for Israel, Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia? If removing Saddam is vital to America's national interest, how are the interests of the neighboring countries to be protected?
There may be answers to all these questions, but the Europeans would like to hear them. And they would like to believe that Washington is interested in hearing from them. The lack of consultation is a chronic complaint, but rarely has it reached this level of anxiety.
Some Europeans believe Bush is on a mission of personal revenge against Saddam, determined to finish the work his father left incomplete at the end of the Gulf War. That trivializes his purpose. But the mere fact that such suspicions are being voiced is a warning that the slide in Euro-American relations needs to be addressed.
3/29/02
6:34:37 PM
Mother Of All Lies About 9/11
Barbara Olson's "Phone Call" From Flight 77
by Joe Vialls, 27 March 2002
This is a story about a little white lie that bred dozens of other little white lies, then hundreds of bigger white lies and so on, to the point where the first little white lie must be credited as the “Mother of All Lies” about events on 11 September 2001. For this was the little white lie that first activated the American psyche, generated mass loathing, and enabled media manipulation of the global population.
Without this little white lie there would have been no Arab Hijackers, no Osama Bin Laden directing operations from afar, and no “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine. Clearly the lie was so clever and diabolical in nature, it must have been generated by the “Power Elite” in one of its more earthly manifestations. Perhaps it was the work of the Council on Foreign Relations, or the Trilateral Commission?
No, it was not. Though at the time the little white lie was flagged with a powerful political name, there was and remains no evidence to support the connection. Just like the corrupt and premature Lee Harvey Oswald story in 1963, there are verifiable fatal errors which ultimately prove the little white lie was solely the work of members of the media. Only they had access, and only they had the methods and means.
The little white lie was about Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator for CNN and wife of US Solicitor General Ted Olson. Now deceased, Mrs Olson is alleged to have twice called her husband from an American Airlines Flight 77 seat-telephone, before the aircraft slammed into the Pentagon. This unsubstantiated claim, reported by CNN remarkably quickly at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT] on September 12, was the solitary foundation on which the spurious “Hijacker” story was built.
Without the “eminent” Barbara Olson and her alleged emotional telephone calls, there would never be any proof that humans played a role in the hijack and destruction of the four aircraft that day. Lookalike claims surfaced several days later on September 16 about passenger Todd Beamer and others, but it is critically important to remember here that the Barbara Olson story was the only one on September 11 and. 12. It was beyond question the artificial “seed” that started the media snowball rolling down the hill.
And once the snowball started rolling down the hill, it artfully picked up Osama Bin Laden and a host of other “terrorists” on the way. By noon on September 12, every paid glassy-eyed media commentator in America was either spilling his guts about those “Terrible Muslim hijackers”, or liberating hitherto classified information about Osama Bin Laden. “Oh sure, it was Bin Laden,” they said blithely, oblivious to anything apart from their television appearance fees.
The deliberate little white lie was essential. Ask yourself: What would most Americans have been thinking about on September 12, if CNN had not provided this timely fiction? Would anyone anywhere have really believed the insane government story about failed Cessna pilots with box cutters taking over heavy jets, then hurling them expertly around the sky like polished Top Guns from the film of the same name? Of course not! As previously stated there would have been no Osama Bin Laden, and no “War on Terror” in Afghanistan and occupied Palestine.
This report is designed to examine the sequence of the Olson events and lay them bare for public examination. Dates and times are of crucial importance here, so if this report seems tedious try to bear with me. Before moving on to discuss the impossibility of the alleged calls, we first need to examine how CNN managed to “find out” about them, reported here in the September 12 CNN story at 2.06 am EDT:
“Barbara Olson, a conservative commentator and attorney, alerted her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, that the plane she was on was being hijacked Tuesday morning, Ted Olson told CNN. Shortly afterwards Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon” … “Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel, including the pilots, were herded to the back of the plane by armed hijackers. The only weapons she mentioned were knives and cardboard cutters. She felt nobody was in charge and asked her husband to tell the pilot what to do.”
At no point in the above report does CNN quote Ted Olson directly. If the report was authentic and 100% attributable, it would have been phrased quite differently. Instead of “Ted Olson told CNN that his wife said all passengers and flight personnel…”, the passage would read approximately:- Mr Olson told CNN, “My wife said all passengers and flight personnel…” Whoever wrote this story was certainly not in direct contact with US Solicitor General Ted Olson.
Think about it, people! If you knew or suspected your spouse’s aircraft had just fireballed inside the Pentagon building, how would you spend the rest of the day? Initially you would certainly be in deep shock and unwilling to believe the reports. Then you would start to gather your wits together, a slow process in itself. After that and depending on individual personality, you might drive over to the Pentagon on the off chance your spouse survived the horrific crash, or you might go home and wait for emergency services to bring you the inevitable bad news. As a matter of record, Ted Olson did not return to work until six days later.
About the last thing on your mind [especially if you happened to be the US Solicitor General], would be to pick up a telephone and call the CNN Atlanta news desk in order to give them a “scoop”. As a seasoned politician you would already know that all matters involving national security must first be vetted by the National Security Council. Under the extraordinary circumstances and security overkill existing on September 11, this vetting process would have taken a minimum of two days, and more likely three.
The timing of the CNN news release about Barbara Olson, is therefore as impossible as the New Zealand press release back in 1963 about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. As reported independently by Colonel Fletcher Prouty USAF (Retired), whoever set Kennedy up, accidentally launched a full international newswire biography on obscure “killer” Lee Harvey Oswald, without first taking the trouble to check his world clock.
It was still “yesterday” in New Zealand on the other side of the International Date Line when the biography was wired from New York, enabling the Christchurch Star newspaper was able to print a story about Oswald as the prime suspect in its morning edition, several hours before he was first accused of the crime by Dallas police.
If the CNN story about Ted Olson had been correct, and he really had called them about Barbara on September 11, then he would most surely have followed the telephone call up a few days later with a tasteful “one-on-one” television interview, telling the hushed and respectful interviewer about how badly he missed his wife, and about the sheer horror of it all.
There is no record of any such interview in the CNN or other archives. Indeed, if you key “Barbara Olson” into the CNN search engine, it returns only two related articles. The first is the creative invention on September 12 at 2.06 am EDT [0606 GMT], and the second is on December 12, about President Bush, who led a White House memorial that began at 8:46 a.m. EST, the moment the first hijacked plane hit the World Trade Center three months before. CNN includes this comment about Ted Olson:
“In a poignant remembrance at the Justice Department, U.S. Solicitor General Theodore Olson referred to "the sufferings we have all experienced." He made no direct reference to the death of his wife, Barbara Olson, who was a passenger aboard the American Airlines flight that crashed into the Pentagon…”
Regarding the same event, Fox News reports that, extraordinarily, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson then said Barbara Olson's call, made "in the midst of terrible danger and turmoil swirling around her," was a "clarion call that awakened our nation's leaders to the true nature of the events of Sept. 11."
So Ted Olson avoided making any direct personal reference to the death of his wife. Clearly this was not good enough for someone somewhere. By the sixth month anniversary of the attack, Ted Olson was allegedly interviewed by London Telegraph reporter Toby Harnden, with his exclusive story “She Asked Me How To Stop The Plane” appearing in that London newspaper on March 5, thereafter renamed and syndicated around dozens of western countries as “Revenge Of The Spitfire”, finally appearing in the West Australian newspaper on Saturday March 23, 2002.
I have diligently tried to find a copy of this story in an American newspaper but have so far failed. The reasons for this rather perverse “external” publication of Ted Olson’s story are not yet clear, but it seems fair to observe that if he is ever challenged by a Senate Select Committee about the veracity of his claims, the story could not be used against him because it was published outside American sovereign territory.
Regardless of the real reason or reasons for its publication, the story seems to have matured a lot since the first decoy news release by CNN early on September 12, 2001. Here we have considerably more detail, some of which is frankly impossible. In the alleged words of US Solicitor General Theodore Olson:
“She [Barbara] had trouble getting through, because she wasn’t using her cell phone – she was using the phone in the passengers’ seats,” said Mr Olson. “I guess she didn’t have her purse, because she was calling collect, and she was trying to get through to the Department of Justice, which is never very easy.” … “She wanted to know ‘What can I tell the pilot? What can I do? How can I stop this?’”
"What Can I tell the pilot?" Yes indeed! The forged Barbara Olson telephone call claims that the flight deck crew were with her at the back of the aircraft, presumably politely ushered down there by the box cutter-wielding Muslim maniacs, who for some bizarre reason decided not to cut their throats on the flight deck. Have you ever heard anything quite so ridiculous?
But it is at this juncture that we finally have the terminal error. Though the American Airlines Boeing 757 is fitted with individual telephones at each seat position, they are not of the variety where you can simply pick up the handset and ask for an operator. On many aircraft you can talk from one seat to another in the aircraft free of charge, but if you wish to access the outside world you must first swipe your credit card through the telephone. By Ted Olson’s own admission, Barbara did not have a credit card with her.
It gets worse. On American Airlines there is a telephone "setup" charge of US$2.50 which can only be paid by credit card, then a US$2.50 (sometimes US$5.00) charge per minute of speech thereafter. The setup charge is the crucial element. Without paying it in advance by swiping your credit card you cannot access the external telephone network. Under these circumstances the passengers’ seat phone on a Boeing 757 is a much use as a plastic toy.
Perhaps Ted Olson made a mistake and Barbara managed to borrow a credit card from a fellow passenger? Not a chance. If Barbara had done so, once swiped through the phone, the credit card would have enabled her to call whoever she wanted to for as long as she liked, negating any requirement to call collect.
Sadly perhaps, the Olson telephone call claim is proved untrue. Any American official wishing to challenge this has only to subpoena the telephone company and Justice Department records. There will be no charge originating from American Airlines 77 to the US Solicitor General.
Even without this hard proof, the chances of meaningfully using a seat-telephone on Flight 77 were nil. We know from the intermittent glimpses of the aircraft the air traffic controllers had on the radar scopes, that Flight 77 was travelling at extreme speed at very low level, pulling high “G’ turns in the process.
Under these circumstances it would be difficult even reaching a phone, much less using it. Finally, the phones on the Boeing 757 rely on either ground cell phone towers or satellite bounce in order to maintain a stable connection. At very low altitude and extreme speed, the violent changes in aircraft attitude would render the normal telephone links completely unusable.
Exactly the same applies with United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed before reaching any targets. The aircraft was all over the place at extreme speed on radar, but as with Flight 77 we are asked to believe that the “hijackers” allowed a passenger called Todd Beamer to place a thirteen minute telephone call. Very considerate of them. The Pittsburg Channel put it this way in a story first posted at 1.38 pm EDT on September 16, 2001:
“Todd Beamer placed a call on one of the Boeing 757's on-board telephones and spoke for 13 minutes with GTE operator Lisa D. Jefferson, Beamer's wife said. He provided detailed information about the hijacking and -- after the operator told him about the morning's World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks - said he and others on the plane were planning to act against the terrorists aboard.” Note here that Mrs Lisa Beamer did not receive a telephone call from Todd personally, but was later “told” by an operator that her husband had allegedly called. Just another unfortunate media con job for the trash can.
As previously stated it is the Barbara Olson story that really counts, a view reinforced by the recent antics of the London print media. The photo at the top of this page is a copy of that printed in the West Australian newspaper. You only have to study it closely for a second to realize its full subliminal potential.
Here is a studious and obviously very honest man. The US Solicitor General sits in front of a wall lined with leather-bound volumes of Supreme Court Arguments, with a photo of his dead wife displayed prominently in front of him. Does anyone out there seriously believe that this man, a bastion of US law, would tell even a minor lie on a matter as grave as national security?
Theodore Olson’s own words indicate that he would be prepared to do rather more than that On March 21, 2002 on its page A35, the Washington Post newspaper printed an article titled “The Limits of Lying” by Jim Hoagland, who writes that a statement by Solicitor General Theodore Olson in the Supreme Court has the ring of perverse honesty.
Addressing the Supreme Court of the United States of America, US Solicitor General Theodore Olson said it is "easy to imagine an infinite number of situations . . . where government officials might quite legitimately have reasons to give false information out."
Source: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/steveseymour/lies911/lies.htm
3/29/02
6:34:11 PM
TomPaine.com
"Independent, commercial-free public affairs reporting and commentary."
AN OIL COMPANY PROVES BUSH WRONG ON CLIMATE CHANGE
CEO John Browne Demands Government Help
by Seth Dunn
BP has exceeded its emissions reduction target eight years ahead of schedule, and at no net cost. That undermines Bush's claim that the Kyoto Protocol would be too expensive.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5334
SCENES FROM CHILDHOOD
My Favorite Jesuit Is Among The Accused
by Michael Ryan
My Jesuit heroes... taught that there is a sanctity inherent in being an agent for social change; I admired them. I learned a lot from them. That's why the newspaper photograph took my breath away.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5351
Book Excerpt
SPOILING FOR A FIGHT:
HARBINGERS OF CHANGE
Is The Moment Ripe For A Third-Party Challenge?
by Micah L. Sifry
"The political duopoly -- two parties tacitly agreeing to divide the market up and not seriously challenge each other 90 percent of the time -- is producing a special kind of civic paralysis. In order to move in a different direction, we need to be able to see an alternative path."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5357
WHAT DO FINANCIAL ADVISORS REALLY KNOW?
A General Lack Of Respect For Logic And Arithmetic
by Mark Weisbrot
So few of the professionals seem to care whether their advice is consistent with what they know about the economy.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5355
Book Excerpt
FLUSHING THE COASTS
Pollution Endangers Our Seas
by David Helvarg
Every day, 32 billion gallons of runoff washes into waterways, suffocating bays and estuaries, and causing 7,000 beach closures a year. Yet lessons from the 1992 Clean Water Act show that there's hope.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/4122
3/29/02
6:26:43 PM
PEACE AND NUCLEAR DISARMAMENT: A CALL TO ACTION
by U.S. Rep Dennis Kucinich
". . . Come my friends, 'tis not too late to seek a newer world,"
Alfred Lord Tennyson
If you believe that humanity has a higher destiny, if you believe we can evolve, and become better than we are; if you believe we can overcome the scourge of war and someday fulfill the dream of harmony and peace earth, let us begin the conversation today. Let us exchange our ideas. Let us plan together, act together and create peace together. This is a call for common sense, for peaceful, non-violent citizen action to protect our precious world from widening war and from stumbling into a nuclear catastrophe.
The climate for conflict has intensified, with the struggle between Pakistan and India, the China-Taiwan tug of war, and the increased bloodshed between Israel and the Palestinians. United States' troop deployments in the Philippines, Yemen, Georgia, Columbia and Indonesia create new possibilities for expanded war. An invasion of Iraq is planned. The recent disclosure that Russia, China, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, and Libya are considered by the United States as possible targets for nuclear attack catalyzes potential conflicts everywhere.
These crucial political decisions promoting increased military actions, plus a new nuclear first-use policy, are occurring without the consent of the American people, without public debate, without public hearings, without public votes. The President is taking Congress's approval of responding to the Sept. 11 terrorists as a license to flirt with nuclear war.
"Politics ought to stay out of fighting a war," the President has been quoted as saying on March 13th 2002. Yet Article 1, Section 8 of the United States Constitution explicitly requires that Congress take responsibility when it comes to declaring war. This President is very popular, according to the polls. But polls are not a substitute for democratic process. Attributing a negative connotation here to politics or dismissing constitutionally mandated congressional oversight belies reality: Spending $400 billion a year for defense is a political decision. Committing troops abroad is a political decision. War is a political decision. When men and women die on the battlefield that is the result of a political decision. The use of nuclear weapons, which can end the lives of millions, is a profound political decision. In a monarchy there need be no political decisions. In a democracy, all decisions are political, in that the derive from the consent of the governed.
In a democracy, budgetary, military and national objectives must be subordinate to the political process. Before we celebrate an imperial presidency, let it be said that the lack of free and open political process, the lack of free and open political debate, and the lack of free and open political dissent can be fatal in a democracy.
We have reached a moment in our country's history where it is urgent that people everywhere speak out as president of his or her own life, to protect the peace of the nation and world within and without. We should speak out and caution leaders who generate fear through talk of the endless war or the final conflict. We should appeal to our leaders to consider that their own bellicose thoughts, words and deeds are reshaping consciousness and can have an adverse effect on our nation. Because when one person thinks: fight! he or she finds a fight. One faction thinks: war! and starts a war. One nation thinks: nuclear! and approaches the abyss. And what of one nation which thinks peace, and seeks peace?
Neither individuals nor nations exist in a vacuum, which is why we have a serious responsibility for each other in this world. It is also urgent that we find those places of war in our own lives, and begin healing the world through healing ourselves. Each of us is a citizen of a common planet, bound to a common destiny. So connected are we, that each of us has the power to be the eyes of the world, the voice of the world, the conscience of the world, or the end of the world. And as each one of us chooses, so becomes the world.
Each of us is architect of this world. Our thoughts, the concepts. Our words, the designs. Our deeds, the bricks and mortar of our daily lives. Which is why we should always take care to regard the power of our thoughts and words, and the commands they send into action through time and space.
Some of our leaders have been thinking and talking about nuclear war. In the past week there has been much news about a planning document which describes how and when America might wage nuclear war. The Nuclear Posture Review recently released to the media by the government:
1. Assumes that the United States has the right to launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike.
2. Equates nuclear weapons with conventional weapons.
3. Attempts to minimize the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons.
4. Promotes nuclear response to a chemical or biological attack.
Some dismiss this review as routine government planning. But it becomes ominous when taken in the context of a war on terrorism which keeps expanding its boundaries, rhetorically and literally. The President equates the "war on terrorism" with World War II. He expresses a desire to have the nuclear option "on the table." He unilaterally withdraws from the ABM treaty. He seeks $8.9 billion to fund deployment of a missile shield. He institutes, without congressional knowledge, a shadow government in a bunker outside our nation's Capitol. He tries to pass off as arms reduction, the storage of, instead of the elimination of, nuclear weapons.
Two generations ago we lived with nuclear nightmares. We feared and hated the Russians who feared and hated us. We feared and hated the "godless, atheistic" communists. In our schools, we dutifully put our head between our legs and practiced duck-and-cover drills. In our nightmares, we saw the long, slow arc of a Soviet missile flash into our very neighborhood. We got down on our knees and prayed for peace. We surveyed, wide eyed, pictures of the destruction of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. We supported the elimination of all nuclear weapons. We knew that if you "nuked" others you "nuked" yourself.
The splitting of the atom for destructive purposes admits a split consciousness, the compartmentalized thinking of Us vs. Them, the dichotomized thinking, which spawns polarity and leads to war. The proposed use of nuclear weapons, pollutes the psyche with the arrogance of infinite power. It creates delusions of domination of matter and space. It is dehumanizing through its calculations of mass casualties. We must overcome doomthinkers and sayers who invite a world descending, disintegrating into a nuclear disaster. With a world at risk, we must find the bombs in our own lives and disarm them. We must listen to that quiet inner voice which counsels that the survival of all is achieved through the unity of all.
We must overcome our fear of each other, by seeking out the humanity within each of us. The human heart contains every possibility of race, creed, language, religion, and politics. We are one in our commonalities. Must we always fear our differences? We can overcome our fears by not feeding our fears with more war and nuclear confrontations. We must ask our leaders to unify us in courage.
We need to create a new, clear vision of a world as one. A new, clear vision of people working out their differences peacefully. A new, clear vision with the teaching of nonviolence, nonviolent intervention, and mediation. A new, clear vision where people can live in harmony within their families, their communities and within themselves. A new clear vision of peaceful coexistence in a world of tolerance.
At this moment peril we must move away from fear's paralysis. This is a call to action: to replace expanded war with expanded peace. This is a call for action to place the very survival of this planet on the agenda of all people, everywhere. As citizens of a common planet, we have an obligation to ourselves and our posterity. We must demand that our nation and all nations put down the nuclear sword. We must demand that our nation and all nations:
Abide by the principles of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Stop the development of new nuclear weapons.
Take all nuclear weapons systems off alert.
Persist towards total, worldwide elimination of all nuclear weapons.
Our nation must:
Revive the Anti Ballistic Missile treaty.
Sign and enforce the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty.
Abandon plans to build a so-called missile shield.
Prohibit the introduction of weapons into outer space.
We are in a climate where people expect debate within our two party system to produce policy alternatives. However both major political parties have fallen short. People who ask "Where is the Democratic Party?" and expect to hear debate may be disappointed. When peace is not on the agenda of our political parties or our governments then it must be the work and the duty of each citizen of the world. This is the time to organize for peace. This is the time for new thinking. This is the time to conceive of peace as not simply being the absence of violence, but the active presence of the capacity for a higher evolution of human awareness. This is the time to concieve of peace as respect, trust, and integrity. This is the time to tap the infinite capabilities of humanity to transform consciousness which compels violence at a personal, group, national or international levels. This is the time to develop a new compassion for others and ourselves.
When terrorists threaten our security, we must enforce the law and bring terrorists to justice within our system of constitutional justice, without undermining the very civil liberties which permits our democracy to breathe. Our own instinct for life, which inspires our breath and informs our pulse, excites our capacity to reason. Which is why we must pay attention when we sense a threat to survival.
That is why we must speak out now to protect this nation, all nations, and the entire planet and:
Challenge those who believe that war is inevitable.
Challenge those who believe in a nuclear right.
Challenge those who would build new nuclear weapons.
Challenge those who seek nuclear re-armament.
Challenge those who seek nuclear escalation.
Challenge those who would make of any nation a nuclear target.
Challenge those who would threaten to use nuclear weapons against civilian populations.
Challenge those who would break nuclear treaties.
Challenge those who think and think about nuclear weapons, to think about peace.
It is practical to work for peace. I speak of peace and diplomacy not just for the sake of peace itself. But, for practical reasons, we must work for peace as a means of achieving permanent security. It is similarly practical to work for total nuclear disarmament, particularly when nuclear arms do not even come close to addressing the real security problems which confront our nation, witness the events of September 11, 2001.
We can make war archaic. Skeptics may dismiss the possibility that a nation which spends $400 billion a year for military purposes can somehow convert swords into plowshares. Yet the very founding and the history of this country demonstrates the creative possibilities of America. We are a nation which is known for realizing impossible dreams. Ours is a nation which in its second century abolished slavery, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation where women won the right to vote, which many at the time considered impossible. Ours is a nation which institutionalized the civil rights movement, which many at the time considered impossible. If we have the courage to claim peace, with the passion, the emotion and the integrity with which we have claimed independence, freedom and, equality we can become that nation which makes non-violence an organizing principle in our society, and in doing so change the world.
That is the purpose of HR 2459. It is a bill to create a Department of Peace. It envisions new structures to help create peace in our homes, in our families, in our schools, in our neighborhoods, in our cities, and in our nation. It aspires to create conditions for peace within and to create conditions for peace worldwide. It considers the conditions which cause people to become the terrorists of the future, issues of poverty, scarcity and exploitation. It is practical to make outer space safe from weapons, so that humanity can continue to pursue a destiny among the stars. HR 3616 seeks to ban weapons in space, to keep the stars a place of dreams, of new possibilities, of transcendence.
We can achieve this practical vision of peace, if we are ready to work for it. People worldwide need to be meet with likeminded people, about peace and nuclear disarmament, now. People worldwide need to gather in peace, now. People worldwide need to march and to pray for peace, now. People worldwide need to be connecting with each other on the web, for peace, now. We are in a new era of electronic democracy, where the world wide web, numerous web sites and bulletin boards enable new organizations, exercising freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of association, to spring into being instantly. Thespiritoffreedom.com is such a web site. It is dedicated to becoming an electronic forum for peace, for sustainability, for renewal and for revitalization. It is a forum which strives for the restoration of a sense of community through the empowerment of self, through commitment of self to the lives of others, to the life of the community, to the life of the nation, to the life of the world.
Where war making is profoundly uncreative in its destruction, peacemaking can be deeply creative. We need to communicate with each other the ways in which we work in our communities to make this a more peaceful world. I welcome your ideas at dkucinich@aol.com or at www.thespiritoffreedom.com. We can share our thoughts and discuss ways in which we have brought or will bring them into action.
Now is the time to think, to take action and use our talents and abilities to create peace:
in our families.
in our block clubs.
in our neighborhoods.
in our places of worship.
in our schools and universities.
in our labor halls.
in our parent-teacher organizations.
Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize and take action to create peace as a social imperative, as an economic imperative, and as a political imperative. Now is the time to think, speak, write, organize, march, rally, hold vigils and take other nonviolent action to create peace in our cities, in our nation and in the world. And as the hymn says, "Let there be peace on earth and let it begin with me."
This is the work of the human family, of people all over the world demanding that governments and non-governmental actors alike put down their nuclear weapons. This is the work of the human family, responding in this moment of crisis to protect our nation, this planet and all life within it. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. As we understand that all people of the world are interconnected, we can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace. We can accomplish this through upholding an holistic vision where the claims of all living beings to the right of survival are recognized. We can achieve both nuclear disarmament and peace through being a living testament to a Human Rights Covenant where each person on this planet is entitled to a life where he or she may consciously evolve in mind, body and spirit.
Nuclear disarmament and peace are the signposts toward the uplit path of an even brighter human condition wherein we can through our conscious efforts evolve and reestablish the context of our existence from peril to peace, from revolution to evolution. Think peace. Speak peace. Act peace. Peace.
email: mailto:info@thespiritoffreedom.com or mailto:Dkucinich@aol.com
"Forgiveness is the answer to the child's dream of a miracle by which what is broken is made whole again, what is soiled is made clean again."
Dag Hammarskjold
3/29/02
6:25:42 PM
AlterNet Headlines
Calling All Young Writers!!
Have you ever been censored, silenced or told that your opinion doesn't count? Do you have a statement to make about freedom of expression? If so, and you're 23 or under, you should enter the "Say What?" contest. Your work will seen by celebrity judges and you could win $300 and other cool prizes. More details at:
http://www.wiretapmag.org/contest.html
THE REBIRTH OF MARVIN GAYE
Tai Moses, AlterNet
With the anniversary of his birth (April 2) and death (April 1) upon us, Marvin Gaye is suddenly everywhere, with tribute albums popping up and A-list stars honoring his influence.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12613
ANOTHER BLOODY PASSOVER
Joel Beinin, AlterNet
As Jews around the world celebrate Passover, they should remember that the holiday's universal message of liberation applies to all -- even Palestinians.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12711
IF MURDEROUS MOMS SHOCK US, WHY IGNORE HOMICIDAL DADS?
Julie Ostrowski, Women's Enews
While the case of Andrea Yates became a media feeding frenzy, similar cases of dads murdering their children almost never garner national media attention.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12708
BUSH FINDS HIS VIETNAM
Marc Cooper, LA Weekly
With the Bush White House asking Congress to remove all restrictions on aid to Colombia, the United States is poised on the brink of a decisive slide into endless war.
* In Global Affairs: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=31
AN EASTER PLAGUED BY SCANDAL
Laura Flanders, WorkingForChange.com
There's another shoe about to drop in the Catholic priest molestation scandals, as politicians and taxpayers awaken to their own piece in this ugly picture.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12729
--> Letters: In Defense of Starbucks <--
The president of a fair trade group and a Starbucks spokesperson defend the company's socially responsible record in our Letters to the Editor section.
http://www.alternet.org/letters_ed.html?BulletinID=19
RACIAL PROFILING OR RECKLESS DRIVING?
Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet
Some New Jersey state troopers were gleeful at the results of a study that purports to show that blacks are twice as likely as whites to speed down their state's highways.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12712
MAXIM OVERDRIVE
Dan Rubinstein, Vue Weekly
The April issue of ultra-popular men's magazine Maxim pulled off a marketing coup that is so simple it's brilliant, and shows how easily the mainstream media can be manipulated.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12707
--> From DC to Davey D <--
with Host Laura Flanders
Is Louis Rukeyser too old? Is the Pope Catholic? Is Bush "president"? Media types on the stories of the week on Working Assets Radio's Friday media roundtable.
http://www.workingassetsradio.com/alternet/
SOLOMON: 37 REPORTERS KILLED, AND COUNTING
Norman Solomon, AlterNet
Despite serious, even deadly hazards in many parts of the world, a lot of journalists keep setting aside fear to do their jobs with integrity.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12731
FRAMING THE FLAG
Michael Scherer, Columbia Journalism Review
The Media Research Center, a right-wing media thinktank, is rating the patriotic credentials of top broadcast news reporters. And getting a lot of press for it.
* In MediaCulture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19
POETS MAY LEAD THE PUBLISHING REVOLUTION
Dennis Loy Johnson, MobyLives
The mega-corporations atop the book industry are learning that bigger isn't always better. Small publishing houses are finding unexpected success, with poetry leading the pack.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12710
FOOD OF THE FUTURE
Jim Slama, Conscious Choice
When regional, fair-trade organic farms can rake in hundreds of millions of dollars for their products, it's obvious that the future of food is sustainable and organic.
* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18
HUFFINGTON: HOLLYWOOD TO BUSH -- SIGN THE LANDMINE BAN
Arianna Huffington, AlterNet
This week, Tinsel Town has turned the spotlight on the importance of banning landmines, a move that would win foreign friends and save countless lives.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=12713
3/29/02
6:25:11 PM
Bush Wants Navajo Ruling Reversed
The Bush administration has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a landmark $600 million trust fund claim won by the Navajo Nation for fear other tribes will file similar challenges.
Charging that "significant" resources are at stake, the Department of Justice this month called on the nation's highest court to throw out an August 2001 ruling made in the tribe's favor. Unless the lower decision is reversed, the Bush administration says the government could face "adverse consequences."
"The decision below will encourage the filing of damages claims against the United States for breach of trust," Solicitor General Ted Olson writes in his March 15 brief. "At a minimum, such a development will subject the United States to costly litigation."
At issue are Navajo tribal leases with Peabody Coal, which has mined Navajo and Hopi lands since the 1960s. All sides in the dispute, including the Department of Interior, agree a 12.5 percent royalty rate contained in the agreements is far below accepted market value for the coal.
But the Bush administration disputes the notion that it has a trust responsibility to ensure better returns. The Navajo Nation cannot point to any specific law which imposes such a higher duty, Olson claims.
In arguing the case in the lower courts, the tribe has countered that underhanded dealings of the Reagan administration show the government has violated its obligations. Specifically, the tribe points out then-Secretary Paul Hodel in 1985 held secret meetings with a Peabody lobbyist, Stanley Hulett, who happened to be a personal friend.
Without knowledge of the discussions, the tribe was subsequently encouraged to work with the company to come to a resolution. Additionally, it was never disclosed that the Bureau of Indian Affairs approved more favorable 37.5 percent rate after a standard internal appeals process.
As a result of the "suppressing and concealing" by government officials, the tribe was forced to accept the lower rate "facing economic pressure," wrote the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision. The appeals panel said a lower court must determine exactly how much the tribe is owed.
A dissenting voice, however, said the tribe could only be awarded limited damages. Unlike Olson, all three judges agreed a trust relationship existed but U.S. District Judge Lawrence M. Baskir said it doesn't "mandate monetary relief."
Coupled with a case involving the White Mountain Apache Tribe, the request for the Supreme Court's intervention represents the Bush administration's attempt clarify what it considers the federal circuit's departure from trust law. The appeals court has issued decisions which could force payouts in addition to the Cobell class action affecting individual Indians.
For the Navajo Nation, the case has represented victory after nearly a decade of litigation, including an initial negative decision by a federal judge. With the presence of former Reagan appointees, including Ross Swimmer and Deputy Secretary J. Steven Griles, in the current administration, the dispute has gained added fire among tribal officials who have vehemently opposed Secretary Gale Norton's proposal to reorganize Indian trust duties.
The Navajo Nation's attorney will be filing a response, due April 18, to the government's petition for writ of certiorari.
Relevant Documents:
DOJ Brief (March 15, 2002) | NAVAJO NATION v. US, No 00-5086 (Fed Cir. August 10, 2001)
Relevant Links:
The Navajo Nation
Peabody Energy
Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.28F.Anti.Navajo.htm
3/29/02
6:24:47 PM
t r u t h o u t | 03.29
David Broder | Europe's Anger at U.S. Reaches Boiling Point
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29A.Boiling.Point.htm
Andersen CEO Got Warning On Enron
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29B.Enron.Warning.htm
Arab Delegates Endorse Saudi's Mideast Peace Plan
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29C.Peace.Plan.htm
Passover Seder a Scene of Horror
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29D.Horror.Scene.htm
Energy Industry's Recommendations to Bush Became National Policy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29E.Energy.Bush.htm
Federal Government vs The Last American Wild Buffalo Herd | Update 03.28.2002
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29F.BFC.Update.htm
Congresswoman Cynthia A. McKinney | Thoughts On Our War Against Terrorism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29G.McKinney.War.htm
Bush's Crony Capitalism
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29H.Bush.Crony.htm
How IBM Helped Automate the Nazi Death Machine in Poland Final Solutions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/03.29I.IBM.Nazi.htm
t r u t h o u t, is a non-profit independent news source.
3/29/02
6:24:25 PM
The Nation
"If left-labor-liberal progressives had the cohesion and muscle of their right-wing opposites, they would be articulating a simple-to-understand litmus test for the Democratic Party--no "Enron Democrats" on the presidential ticket in 2004. That precondition would eliminate a number of presidential wannabes now mentioned by the Washington media's Great Mentioner. Scratch Senator Joe Lieberman. Forget the happy talk about Senate majority leader Tom Daschle's running for the White House. And Senator Joe Biden can stop daydreaming. These men--and perhaps some other would-be candidates--do not pass the Enron smell test."
For the rest of William Greider's excoriation of "Enron Democrats," from the April 8, 2002 issue of The Nation, go to:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20020408&s=greider
3/29/02
6:23:48 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
NUKE SECURITY: BAR NONE?
Two hours after planes crashed into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, guards at Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania were still struggling to close a gate designed to stop terrorists from entering. Security problems don't stop at the front gate at nuclear plants -- but the evidence suggests that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission doesn't have safety foremost on its mind. The commission is considering a measure, backed by industry, that would allow utilities to design, administer, and grade their own security tests. Moreover, it has consistently thwarted efforts by citizens groups to mandate additional security measures, such as reinforced barriers around radioactive materials and contingency plans for attacks by land and air. In the second part of a two-part series on nuclear security, Shelley Smithson takes a look at the NRC's relationship with citizens groups and the nuclear lobby, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: Safety dance -- is the U.S. nuclear industry writing its own ticket on security? -- Part II of two-part series, in our Main Dish Section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/smithson032802.asp?source=daily>
FORD: TIGHT TURNING RADIUS
Henry Ford might be proud, but enviros are disappointed: William Clay Ford, Jr., great-grandson of the automobile pioneer, used to be known as the greenest person in the auto industry. But since taking the reins of Ford Motor Company last October, Ford has muted -- and sometimes changed -- his tune. The man who once jokingly called his company's 19-foot-long Excursion the "Ford Valdez" has promoted sport utility vehicles and lobbied against increased fuel-efficiency standards. Still, the company says it will stand by pledges to improve SUV fuel economy, sell hybrid versions of the oversized vehicles, and redesign one of its plants to be more eco-friendly. Environmentalists, however, fear Ford is showing his true stripes and say that so far, the company's record under his leadership is indistinguishable from those of other major automakers.
straight to the source: New York Times, Danny Hakim, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/28/business/28FORD.html>
only in Grist: Putt-putting green -- the comic adventures of Zed, last of his species <http://www.gristmagazine.com/zed/zed113001.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action and pledge to buy an eco-friendly car <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/autos.asp?source=daily#pledge>
WARM AIR GIVES US COLD HANDS
Relatively minor increases in global temperatures are already dramatically affecting plants and animals, according to an article appearing in the current issue of Nature. The Earth has warmed by just 0.6 degrees in the past century (mostly in the last 30 years), but scientists from Europe, the U.S., and Australia have found serious consequences -- from massive coral deaths to expanded malarial regions. Biologist Eric Post said the team was surprised by "not only the magnitude of response to the slight increase in temperatures ... but also by the incredibly wide diversity of species" affected. In the most comprehensive report to date, the team reviewed almost 100 recent studies and found that nearly ever major habitat zone from the tropics to the polar regions was undergoing systemic changes due to warmer temperatures. Climate change models predict that if greenhouse gas emissions continue apace, average global temperatures will rise anywhere from 1.4 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century.
only in Grist: This just in -- the latest climate change news -- in our Heat Beat section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/heatbeat/thisjustin030802.asp?source=daily>
do good: Take action on climate issues <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/climate.asp?source=daily>
PARROTY, NOT PARODY
In the latest disheartening news about the energy task force, documents released Monday night by the Energy Department show that an executive order on energy policy released by President Bush last May was copied nearly verbatim from the energy policy proposed to the administration by oil lobbyists. On March 20, representatives from the American Petroleum Institute sent the Energy Department an email containing "a suggested executive order" requiring agencies to examine whether environmental regulations would lead to "inordinate complications in energy production and supply." As the May 19 order shows, their wish was Bush's command. Sharon Buccino, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council (which identified the similarity between the memo and the order), said, "The oil companies seem to be putting words in our president's mouth."
straight to the source: Washington Post, Dana Milbank, 28 Mar 2002 <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28281-2002Mar27.html>
YOU GOT TO KNOW WHEN TO HOLD 'EM
Betting comes naturally to Nevadans, but the stakes are high and the odds are poor for a last-ditch effort to keep 77,000 tons of nuclear waste out of a proposed high-level radioactive waste facility in Yucca Mountain. The state's U.S. senators are about to unveil a multi-million dollar media blitz aimed at swaying the votes of key Republican lawmakers -- largely by showing them the potentially uncomfortable consequences to their job security when constituents find out that the nuclear waste will be shipped through their states en route to Nevada. The senators are throwing their weight behind a state-funded campaign to spend up to $10 million to air anti-Yucca television and radio ads, especially in New England states. Some Nevada lawmakers, however, are skeptical that the ads will be enough to stop the Yucca juggernaut.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Miguel Llanos, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.msnbc.com/news/729225.asp>
straight to the source: Las Vegas Sun, Erin Neff and Cy Ryan, 27 Mar 2002 <http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2002/mar/27/513230631.html>
only in Grist: Yucky Mountain -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha030402.asp?source=daily>
3/28/02
5:22:52 PM
Thoughts On Our War Against Terrorism
by Congresswoman Cynthia A. McKinney
Authorities tell us that the world changed on September 11. As a result, university professors must watch what they say in class or be turned in to the "speech" police. Elected officials must censor themselves or be
censured by the media. Citizens now report behavior of suspicious-looking people to the police. Laws now exist that erode our civil liberties. Americans now accept these infringements as necessary to win America's New War.
America, the world's only superpower, is stifled in its ability to defend human rights and democracy abroad because it has failed the fundamental test at home. Our combination of money and military might, and our willingness to use them, did not make us a superpower. We are the most powerful nation on the face of the planet because we have combined raw power with American ideals such as dignity, freedom, justice, and peace. These ideas and ideals are admired around the world and are more important, in my view, to our position of global strength than our ability to shoot a missile down a chimney. We might be feared because of our military, but we are loved because of our ideals.
Sadly, we have put American goodwill at risk around the world because of an imbalance in our foreign policy that is palpable to even the most disinterested observer. In 1994, after an act of terrorism killed two sitting presidents, the Clinton Administration purposely failed to prevent the genocide of one million Rwandans in order to install favorable regimes in the region. In 1999 Madeleine Albright OK'd a Sierra Leone peace plan that positioned Foday Sankoh as Chairman of the Commission for the Management of Strategic Resources, a position that placed him answerable only to the President despit