5/12/02
4:39:05 PM
Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack
By Brian McWilliams, Newsbytes, September 27, 2001
Officials at instant-messaging firm Odigo confirmed today that two employees received text messages warning of an attack on the World Trade Center two hours before terrorists crashed planes into the New York landmarks.
Citing a pending investigation by law enforcement, the company declined to reveal the exact contents of the message or to identify the sender.
But Alex Diamandis, vice president of sales and marketing, confirmed that workers in Odigo's research and development and international sales office in Israel received a warning from another Odigo user approximately two hours prior to the first attack.
Diamandis said the sender of the instant message was not personally known to the Odigo employees. Even though the company usually protects the privacy of users, the employees recorded the Internet protocol address of the message's sender to facilitate his or her identification.
Soon after the terrorist attacks on New York, the Odigo employees notified their management, who contacted Israeli security services. In turn, the FBI was informed of the instant message warning. FBI officials were not immediately available for comment today.
The Odigo service includes a feature called People Finder that allows users to seek out and contact others based on certain interests or demographics. Diamandis said it was possible that the attack warning was broadcast to other Odigo members, but the company has not received reports of other recipients of the message.
In addition to operating its own messaging service network, Odigo has licensed its technology to over 100 service providers, portals, wireless carriers, and corporations, according to the company.
Odigo is online at http://www.odigo.com
Reported by Newsbytes, http://www.newsbytes.com
5/12/02
4:35:14 PM
Mr. O'Neill, Dir of Security, WTC Sat May 11 22:57:03 2002 207.192.218.30
Mr. O'Neill was an FBI agent for 25 years; suddenly FIRED in April 2001. He got the job with the WTC and started to work on September 11, 2001. He had tried for the last week to get some one, anyone to listen. There was to be an attack on the WTC. Few listened, except for the hundreds of workers who did NOT show for work on 9-11.
Both the governments of France and Germany had tried to contact US officials about the coming attack. Bombings in both Berlin and Paris were stopped by those governments. Documents seized there gave flight numbers and departure times from Boston's airport for September 11.
7 of the 19 suicide bombers who crashed planes on September 11, had received pardons from Bill Clinton. These were Hamas members from the early 90's attack on the WTC.
Mr. O'Neill should be made an American HERO, not just a forgotten statistic. Even though he couldn't get anyone
to listen, he showed up for work and died there trying to lead more people to safety. He was inside when the building went down!
5/12/02
3:48:14 PM
Kill The Messenger
Public Reaction to Rep. McKinney's Call for 9-11 Investigation Quashes Intended Media Massacre
by Michael Davidson, FTW Staff Writer
May 6, 2002, 12:00 PM PDT (FTW)
-- It's not a good idea to go up against the powers that be with an idea that calls into question generally accepted wisdom. Galileo contradicted the Roman Catholic Church when he said the Earth revolved around the sun. He was put in jail, and it took a few hundred years for the church to exonerate him and admit he was correct.
Hopefully, a fate similar to Galileo's will not befall Cynthia McKinney.
McKinney is the representative from the 4th district of Georgia. The district includes Decatur, just outside Atlanta.
McKinney is a Democrat, black, and, obviously, a woman. Three strikes in an area that has sent the likes of Newt Gingrich and Bob Barr to Congress.
On March 25 McKinney was interviewed by telephone on Flashpoints, an independent radio program produced and hosted by Dennis Bernstein and broadcast on Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. The congresswoman read a roughly 10-minute statement, then answered questions and chatted with Bernstein for another 16 or so minutes. A major portion of McKinney's statement concerned U.S. actions in Africa, and contained stinging attacks of the Clinton administration, particularly former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. She also discussed the high incarceration rate of blacks, their treatment by the police, and the actual mechanics of the massive voter fraud in Florida that benefited George W. Bush during the 2000 presidential election. Rep. McKinney also pointed out how the current administration has created a climate in which elected officials need to censor themselves lest their patriotism be questioned. Only a few sentences in the almost 30-minute segment were her comments about the need for an investigation into what the Bush Administration knew prior to the events of 9-11. Two-and-a-half weeks later on April 12, an article appeared in the Washington Post about McKinney's appearance on Flashpoints. The article was written by Juliet Eilperin, a Post staff writer who says a colleague received the show's transcript in an anonymous e-mail, and passed it along to her. Eilperin's article was headlined, "Democrat Implies Sept. 11 Administration Plot."
What McKinney actually said was the American people deserve a full, complete and no-holds-barred investigation of the events involving 9-11, and what the Bush administration knew and when they knew it. Every single question McKinney raised was based on information readily available from mainstream media sources. Among the issues McKinney raised regarding 9-11 were: - The warnings from several foreign governments to the highest levels of the U.S. government that were ignored; - The huge profits made in sophisticated stock transactions involving several airlines, brokerages and insurance firms whose stock prices were affected dramatically by 9-11; -The relationship between the oil company Unocal and the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan; - The relationship between the administration and the Carlyle Group, an investment firm with major defense holdings for whom the president's father works; - The requests by both the president and vice president that any congressional investigations into 9-11 not be particularly intense or lengthy; - The huge profits persons close to the administration will make thanks to increased defense spending.
Let the games begin
Almost immediately after the Washington Post article, the administration, the mainstream media and its pundits shifted into overdrive, floored the pedal, and wound the smear engine right to the redline. Interestingly, no one has challenged the accuracy of a single word McKinney said. What has been said, in a variety of ways, is that her call for a complete investigation is an indication that McKinney is either "crazy" or "treacherous."
In the original Washington Post article, Bush spokesman Scott McLellan was quoted as saying "The American people know the facts, and they dismiss such ludicrous, baseless views." Carlyle Group spokesman Chris Ullman posed the question "Did she say these things while standing on a grassy knoll in Roswell, New Mexico?"
That same day, April 12, "Representative Awful" was posted on National Review Online by Jonah Goldberg, son of Lucianne Goldberg -- literary agent, Linda Tripp crony, and former Nixon dirty trickster. National Review was founded by William F. Buckley, whose family fortune was made in the oil business. Goldberg dismissed McKinney's suggestion for an investigation, saying "I am not aware of any evidence that Ms. McKinney has murdered several children or that she personally profited from sleeping with the entire defensive squad of the Atlanta Falcons." He then goes on to say that the congresswoman is suffering "paranoid, America-hating, crypto-Marxist conspiratorial delusions."
Anyone who remembers the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings will remember Anita Hill was described as "a little bit nutty, a little bit slutty." Apparently, Goldberg has learned some big words to repeat the easy smear used against any black woman to the left of Condoleezza Rice. Keep in mind that in an Oct. 29 attack piece on McKinney Goldberg wrote, "Taking black politicians seriously pays them a compliment." Next, McKinney's hometown newspaper took up the charge. An April 13 Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) article by staff writer Melanie Eversley reported that Democratic Georgia Sen. Zell Miller issued a "bristling" statement saying her on-air comments were "dangerous and irresponsible."
Not being content to dismiss the legitimate, American ideas of dissent and question, Miller made a sarcastic comment about McKinney attempting to get kissed by President Bush. Bush's press secretary, Ari Fleischer, is quoted: "All I can tell you is the congresswoman must be running for the hall of fame of the Grassy Knoll Society." Interesting that the "grassy knoll" allusion was made twice by people connected to the administration, yet they will not dispute her facts. The AJC article also quotes Emory University political scientist Merle Black: "It reinforces the view among serious people in her district that she's a very ineffective representative if this is how she chooses to spend her political capital." Apparently there are very few "serious" people Black will be able to "reinforce" with his totally "unscientific" opinion, as McKinney has won five elections in a row, with her lowest margin of victory being 58 percent.
Along with Eversley's article, AJC put up a poll on its website asking the question, "Are you satisfied the Bush administration had no advance warning of the Sept. 11 attacks?" A visitor could vote "Yes," "No, I think officials knew it was coming" or "I'm not sure. Congress should investigate."
Big mistake
Within hours, the "No, I think officials knew it was coming" vote led the "Yes" vote 51 percent to 47 percent, with two percent "Not sure." The ultra-conservative website FreeRepublic.com alerted its viewers and encouraged them to vote against McKinney, to no avail. The vote seesawed back and forth across the 50 percent mark, each side holding a slim lead at various points throughout the day. By mid-afternoon 23,145 people had voted. "Yes" (anti-McKinney) had 52 percent, "No" (pro-McKinney) had 46 percent, and "Not sure" had one percent. Forty-seven percent of voters do not believe the story the world has been told by the Bush Administration. Then, the poll vanished. Gone. Disappeared. Not there.
People signed on to vote, but there was no poll to vote at. The article was there, but the poll was gone. There was no explanation. On April 21, AJC columnist Mike King explained what happened.
"The responses broke down the tabulator we use to keep track of the votes." So can we assume, then, when Mr. King gets a flat tire he throws the entire car away and abandons his trip?
King goes on at great length to inform the reader that even if the poll had not been taken down due to "mechanical problems," the poll was meaningless anyway because "groups and people who believe there is evidence of a conspiracy in the attacks urged friends to vote on ajc.com to send Congress a message of the need to investigate."
This undoubtedly occurred, as did urging from the other side which King makes no mention of. He also says that voters were not "scientifically" chosen to represent a broad cross-section of views and that "most online polls are really just opportunities to register an opinion." How registering an opinion differs from a vote will be left for Noah Webster to explain. Another online poll has been running regarding McKinney's call for a thorough investigation. This one is at truthout.com, an online digest of articles being published in the mainstream media. While truthout readers are undoubtedly more open to McKinney's ideas than the general public, at press time, the poll shows 5,616 supporting the congresswoman versus 80 opposing her. Truthout also reports McKinney's call for a 9-11 investigation is supported by two additional members of the House --Democrats Loretta Sanchez of California and Major Owens of New York.
Interestingly, while truthout is a non-profit organization entirely dependent on donations, it has had no problems keeping its poll functioning, while the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a major for-profit entity, claims they could not.
WHERE ARE THE CLOWNS?
With the AJC poll having turned into a debacle, the forces arrayed against McKinney became desperate, and the smear became vicious. On April 16, the Southeastern Legal Foundation (SLF) released a report claiming 21 percent of McKinney's 1999-2000 campaign contributions of over $101 came from Arab or Middle-Eastern-connected individuals and organizations. The report states among the organizations donating to McKinney's campaign are "the American-Muslim Council and the Council on American/Islamic Relations, both of which maintain ties or have expressed support for terrorist organizations."
Phil Kent, SLF president, is quoted in the report: "If we are to give any credence to her baseless claims, the American people deserve to know that McKinney's financial 'relationships' -- her campaign contributors -- are heavily represented by Arab and Middle Eastern-connected individuals, as well as organizations which have expressed sympathy for terrorist organizations." Here we have examples of how McKinney's call for an investigation morphs into "claims," and how an investigation into her is acceptable, while one into the Bush Administration is not. The SLF report flew around the Internet, and was posted on several conservative websites. It was generally headlined to the effect, "McKinney Supported by Terrorists."
SLF was founded in 1976 and has received major financial support from Richard Mellon Scaife, the billionaire reactionary who funded the 10-year effort to destroy President Bill Clinton. In 2000 the Democratic National Committee accused the SLF of sending a quarter-million deceptive pieces of mail designed to interfere with that year's census and result in inaccurate congressional representation. In issue after issue during its 26 years, SLF has consistently taken vehement anti-black, anti-environment, anti-worker, anti-gay, and anti-public education positions. They are currently preparing litigation to invalidate portions of the Bush-signed McCain-Feingold/Shays-Meehan campaign reform legislation. Some in the Atlanta area believe SLF's long-range goal is overturning the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
SLF describes itself as "an Atlanta-based public interest law firm which advocates limited government, individual economic freedom, and the free enterprise system in the courts of law and public opinion." SLF's website includes links to other reactionary groups including the Heritage Foundation, the Hudson Institute, Federalist Society, and the Conservative Caucus Foundation. Along with links to expected conservative media outlets such as WorldNetDaily, Drudge, and the Conservative News Service, SLF links itself to Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, C-SPAN, and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Matthew Glavin was SLF president and chief executive from 1994 to 2000, and devoted a tremendous amount of energy, and Scaife's money, trying to get Bill Clinton disbarred in Arkansas for his alleged perjury in the Paula Jones sexual harassment case. Glavin, however, was forced to abandon these efforts, and resign after he was arrested for fondling himself in public. According to an Oct. 4, 2000 report on CNSNEWS.com, an affiliate of the above-mentioned Conservative News Service, an undercover federal officer found Glavin masturbating near a parking lot in the Chattahoochee National River Park in Atlanta, an area said to be popular with homosexual cruisers. The arresting officer says that he, himself, was fondled lewdly when he spoke to Glavin on Oct. 13, 2000. The AJC reported Glavin had pled guilty and was sentenced to a year's probation.
On April 22 SLF sent a letter to House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt demanding McKinney be removed from her seats on both the House Armed Services and International Relations committees, citing the above-mentioned campaign donations from Middle Eastern contributors. That same day, an identical request using virtually identical language was made by the African-American Republican Leadership Council (AARLC). Like SLF, AARLC also requested an ethics investigation of McKinney. Additionally, AARLC has also asked the chairwoman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Eddie Bernie Johnson, D-Texas, to suspend McKinney from that group. This is a transparent ploy to intimidate and divide black members of Congress, lest their patriotism be questioned.
Also on April 22, an article was posted on the website of Human Events, the National Conservative Weekly. Written by David Freddoso, it's headlined "Feds Searched Offices of Seven McKinney Donors." Many Arab names are listed as well as several organizations, some of which have names with Arab or Islamic references. Going into excruciating detail, Freddoso lists names of individuals, organizations, dollar amounts, dates of search warrants, judges signing search warrants (interestingly, copies of search warrants were allegedly obtained by Human Events), and the connections between all these details. Then, Freddoso writes, "None of the McKinney contributors has been charged with any crime, a Customs spokesman said." Apparently, Freddoso finds not being charged with a crime to be news.
HYSTERICAL BLINDNESS
Britain's The Guardian reported March 25 on a recent FBI raid. The Republican Party was accepting sizeable donations to a political action committee called The Islamic Institute from an alleged terrorist support group, the Safa Trust. It seems that the Safa Trust had been sending money to both the Republican Party and to terrorist groups at the same time. This reported direct linkage between terrorist funding and the Republican Party was conveniently ignored, while McKinney was attacked with much weaker allegations. These backfired too.
SLF's report, AARLC's letter, and Freddoso's article all specifically discuss donations to McKinney from Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder and executive director of the American Muslim Council (AMC). According to an April 24 article at onlinejournal.com, AMC supported George W. Bush in the 2000 campaign and donated money to him. Bush also invited Alamoudi to the Sept. 14 prayer service for the 9-11 victims at the National Cathedral. Additionally, long-time Bush associate Grover Norquist has been doing business with Alamoudi, and is a registered lobbyist for the Islamic Institute. According to the Oct. 4 issue of the Boston Phoenix, Norquist's firm, Janus-Merritt Strategies LLC, has been paid over $20,000 by Alamoudi.
Despite Alamoudi's Republican connections, his donation to McKinney is used as the "smoking gun" in the April 22 column by nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker. Parker has been one of the most prolific members of the "get McKinney" team, jumping into the smear campaign with all four paws. Parker wrote about McKinney's radio comments on April 17 and 22. She's very upset. In the April 17 column, Parker dreams of inaugurating "The McKinney Award -- for people too stupid to serve in public office." Further on, Parker, like everyone participating in the smear campaign, claims that McKinney said Bush knew of the impending 9-11 attacks, and accused the president of mass murder. She also picks up Jonah Goldberg's pathetic attempt at sarcasm, writing "A complete investigation also might prove that McKinney has been dropping acid and living with cross-dressing dental hygienists under the Brooklyn Bridge." What is it about outspoken black women that makes right-wing nut jobs attribute unusual sexual behavior to them?
In her April 22 column, Parker reiterates her lie as to what McKinney actually said. She goes on: "She's black, which means people give her a pass lest they be perceived racist." Parker quotes an unnamed "e-mailer" who quotes a friend in Ramallah: "If you see 'Cynth,' kindly tell her that Arab TV networks appreciate her comments for they now have the needed 'proof' that their paranoia is rational." Parker closes: "None of which is to suggest that Cynthia McKinney is a terrorist, or a terrorist sympathizer, or even a socialist rabble-rouser who despises her own country. On the other hand, using McKinney's own talent for inferential dot-connecting, she just might be."
Despite finding nice ways to call McKinney a terrorist and traitor, Parker strenuously defends her independence and complete lack of bias. In her April 24 column, which is about so-called "conspiracy theories," Parker wrote, "I'm told, for instance, that I'm paid by the right-wing propaganda machine, given my support of most Bush policies in the wake of 9-11 and my rejection of current conspiracy theories.'You're being paid to lie to the American people,' wrote one of my new friends. Here's the truth: I know of no reporter, editor or columnist in the Western hemisphere who wouldn't sell his mother's honeymoon pictures for a good story, no matter whose life gets ruined.
No one, especially a president, is off limits when truth is at stake, not to mention Pulitzers." Perhaps Parker found a new dedication to Truth after writing two consecutive columns filled with lies, innuendo and character assassination. The story about McKinney's comments on the Flashpoints radio show traveled around the media for about 12 days, then just petered out. Several newspapers ran editorials condemning her, including the AJC and the New York Post. Comments and asides were made about her on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Generally, she was described as crazy, pro-Iraqi, a conspiracy theorist, irresponsible or dangerous, but it didn't seem to work. The public wasn't responding with the sense of outrage the media is used to being able to create.
On April 17 ABCNews.com ran a piece by Dean Schabner headed, "What Consensus? Conspiracy Theorist Immune to the Widespread Support For War on Terror." First line: "When the government said evidence pointed to Islamic fundamentalist terrorists, other voices wondered why investigators weren't looking in other directions." The article, about three pages, lays out many of the beliefs that, apparently, a lot of people have, and discusses them in a calm, measured manner. While Schabner does eventually get around to dismissing everything but the official story as "conspiracy theories," his words and the words of the "experts" he quotes don't have the wild-eyed hatred and anger that the stories about McKinney generally do. Schabner comes close to giving the "non-believers" a degree of respect.
TRUE GRIT
The acceptability of alternate explanations for 9-11 may be growing for a very simple reason. According to a poll taken in late-April by Scott Rasmussen Public Opinion Research, 36 percent of Americans believe Al Gore won the 2000 presidential election. Over a third of America's citizens believe the man occupying the White House to be a fraud! With such a large portion of the country believing George W. Bush is not really the president, it's not hard to understand why almost half of the voters in the AJC poll indicated they do not believe the Bush Administration's story about 9-11, and support McKinney's call for a full investigation. Whenever Bush allies try to impose new police-state tactics on Americans, such as warrantless searches, random drug tests, racial profiling, or stop-and-frisk laws, they always say, "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to worry about. It's just a minor inconvenience for the public good."
If the Bush Administration keeps repeating that mantra, then they should have no trouble supporting McKinney's call for a full and complete investigation into 9-11.
http://www.fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/050702_killthe.html
xoxox
THE STORY OF THE CENTURY AND THE EFFORT TO DERAIL IT - egarris@antiwar.com THE McKINNEY CONSPIRACY THEORY
http://etherzone.com/2002/raim051702.shtml
Intended Rep. McKinney's Call for 9-11 Investigation
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=26029
911- What Did They Know and When Did They Know It?
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=26009
Instant Messages To Israel Warned Of WTC Attack - Brian McWilliams
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=26010
Proclamation of Liberty
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=25952
POWERFUL SPEECH BY REP. RON PAUL
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=24626
5th Annual Sovereignty & Your Rights Seminar - Jay Walley
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=25962
THE POSSE COMITATUS ACT: A PRINCIPLE IN NEED OF RENEWAL
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=25994
My implant is guarnteed for life! - APFN
http://disc.server.com/discussion.cgi?id=149495&article=25804
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. Find elected officials, including the president, members of Congress, governors, state legislators, local officials, and more.
http://disc.server.com/Indices/149495.html
5/12/02
3:41:56 PM
WildAlert
Thousands of folks within the WildAlert community have taken action to help keep Yellowstone free of snowmobiles. Your letters are enormously helpful. If you haven't yet participated in this campaign, it's not too late. You can send a letter to the Park Service, urging a phase out of snowmobiles, at:
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=1092
or, ask your Representative to support long-lasting protection by co-sponsoring the Yellowstone Protection Act:
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=1429
This issue of WildAlert contains news and updates on:
-- California Wild Heritage Act
-- Energy legislation and Arctic Refuge drilling
-- Powder River Basin
CALIFORNIA WILD HERITAGE ACT
Next week, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is expected to introduce the "California Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2002," designating 2.5 million acres of Wilderness and 400 miles of Wild & Scenic Rivers.
During the past several years The California Wild Heritage Campaign, a statewide coalition of over 200 organizations and businesses, have inventoried the state's unprotected wilderness and wild rivers and have been building support from local, state and federal elected officials and within rural communities.
Among the special areas that would gain permanent protection:
--The King Range of Northern California, the longest undisturbed coastline in the country.
--The Ventana Wilderness Additions, home to the California Condor.
--The White Mountains of the Eastern Sierra, the 2nd largest roadless area in the US and home to the oldest living trees in the world.
--The Avawatz Mountains in the California Desert, a spring-watered stronghold for desert bighorn sheep.
--The Upper San Diego River, one of the most remote areas in Southern California, and key to protecting water quality for San Diego.
Future WildAlerts will keep you posted about how you can help advance this campaign. In the meantime, learn more about the California Wild Heritage Campaign at:
http://www.californiawild.org/coalition.html
ENERGY BILL AND ARCTIC REFUGE DRILLING
Citizens' outcry helped to keep the Senate Energy Bill (passed a few weeks ago) free of measures to open the Arctic Wildlife Refuge and other wild and sensitive areas in the lower 48 to oil drilling. But the House bill **did** include such measures, so threats remain to both the Arctic and places like the Rocky Mountain Front in the American West. (For more on threats to the lower 48 states, see: Big Oil's Energy Plan, a report by The Wilderness Society, at:
http://www.wilderness.org/eyewash/energy/index.htm)
The Senate and House bills now must be "reconciled" in Conference Committee. House Conference Committee members have not yet been announced, but Senate Conference Committee members are:
Sens. Baucus (D-MT); Bingaman (D-NM); Breaux (D-LA); Craig (R-ID); Domenici (R-NM); Grassley (R-IN); Hollings (D-SC); Jeffords (I-VT); Kerry (D-MA); Lieberman (D-CT); Lott (R-MS); Murkowski (R-AK); Nickles (R-OR); Reid (D-NV); Rockefeller (D-VA) and Thomas (R-WY).
The Conference Committee is unlikely to meet until after the Memorial Day recess. A future WildAlert will have a call to action urging conferees to keep energy legislation clear of drilling within America's special wild places, so stay tuned.
Powder River Basin
Your comments on the Bureau of Land Management's proposals to dramatically increase oil and natural gas drilling in the spectacular Powder River Basin of Wyoming and Montana are making a huge difference. To date, at least 17,000 comments have been sent regarding the Wyoming environmental impact statement, and well over 11,000 have been sent regarding the Montana impact statement.
Due to this outpouring, BLM was forced to extend the comment deadline on the Wyoming EIS by a month, to May 15. Another factor in BLM's decision to extend the comment deadline was the fact that EPA has preliminarily given the Wyoming impact statement its worst possible rating, which may delay -- and hopefully will modify -- this destructive project. Since the Senate rejected oil drilling in the arctic wilderness, attention has shifted to the Rockies, and places like the Powder River Basin has become ground zero in the energy debate.
You can still take action on this at:
http://www.wilderness.org/takeaction/?step=2&item=1375
For if one link in nature's chain might be lost, another might be lost, until the whole of things will vanish by piecemeal. -Thomas Jefferson
For a full list of Action Items, visit
http://www.wilderness.org/whatcan/takeaction.htm
5/12/02
3:24:06 PM
The Solution Is The Problem
The US Presents Itself as the Peace-Broker in the Middle East. The Reality is Different.
by Noam Chomsky, May 11, 2002
A year ago, the Hebrew University sociologist Baruch Kimmerling observed that "what we feared has come true - War appears an unavoidable fate", an "evil colonial" war. His colleague Ze'ev Sternhell noted that the Israeli leadership was now engaged in "colonial policing, which recalls the takeover by the white police of the poor neighborhoods of the blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era". Both stress the obvious: there is no symmetry between the "ethno-national groups" in this conflict, which is centered in territories that have been under harsh military occupation for 35 years.
The Oslo "peace process", begun in 1993, changed the modalities of the occupation, but not the basic concept. Shortly before joining the Ehud Barak government, historian Shlomo Ben-Ami wrote that "the Oslo agreements were founded on a neo-colonialist basis, on a life of dependence of one on the other forever". He soon became an architect of the US-Israel proposals at Camp David in 2000, which kept to this condition. At the time, West Bank Palestinians were confined to 200 scattered areas. Bill Clinton and Israeli prime minister Barak did propose an improvement: consolidation to three cantons, under Israeli control, virtually separated from one another and from the fourth enclave, a small area of East Jerusalem, the center of Palestinian communications. The fifth canton was Gaza. It is understandable that maps are not to be found in the US mainstream. Nor is their prototype, the Bantustan "homelands" of apartheid South Africa, ever mentioned.
No one can seriously doubt that the US role will continue to be decisive. It is crucial to understand what that role has been, and how it is internally perceived. The version of the doves is presented by the editors of the New York Times, praising President Bush's "path-breaking speech" and the "emerging vision" he articulated. Its first element is "ending Palestinian terrorism" immediately. Some time later comes "freezing, then rolling back, Jewish settlements and negotiating new borders" to allow the establishment of a Palestinian state. If Palestinian terror ends, Israelis will be encouraged to "take the Arab League's historic offer of full peace and recognition in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal more seriously". But first Palestinian leaders must demonstrate that they are "legitimate diplomatic partners".
The real world has little resemblance to this self-serving portrayal - virtually copied from the 1980s, when the US and Israel were desperately seeking to evade PLO offers of negotiation and political settlement. In the real world, the primary barrier to the "emerging vision" has been, and remains, unilateral US rejectionism. There is little new in the current "Arab League's historic offer".
It repeats the basic terms of a security council resolution of January 1976 which called for a political settlement on the internationally recognized borders "with appropriate arrangements ... to guarantee ... the sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political independence of all states in the area". This was backed by virtually the entire world, including the Arab states and the PLO but opposed by Israel and vetoed by the US, thereby vetoing it from history. Similar initiatives have since been blocked by the US and mostly suppressed in public commentary.
Not surprisingly, the guiding principle of the occupation has been incessant humiliation. Israeli plans for Palestinians have followed the guidelines formulated by Moshe Dayan, one of the Labour leaders more sympathetic to the Palestinian plight. Thirty years ago Dayan advised the cabinet that Israel should make it clear to refugees that "we have no solution, you shall continue to live like dogs, and whoever wishes may leave". When challenged, he responded by citing Ben-Gurion, who said that "whoever approaches the Zionist problem from a moral aspect is not a Zionist". He could have also cited Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel, who held that the fate of the "several hundred thousand negroes" in the Jewish homeland "is a matter of no consequence".
The Palestinians have long suffered torture, terror, destruction of property, displacement and settlement, and takeover of basic resources, crucially water. These policies have relied on decisive US support and European acquiescence. "The Barak government is leaving Sharon's government a surprising legacy," the Israeli press reported as the transition took place: "the highest number of housing starts in the territories since Ariel Sharon was minister of construction and settlement in 1992 before the Oslo agreements" -funding provided by the American taxpayer.
It is regularly claimed that all peace proposals have been undermined by Arab refusal to accept the existence of Israel (the facts are quite different), and by terrorists like Arafat who have forfeited "our trust". How that trust may be regained is explained by Edward Walker, a Clinton Middle East adviser: Arafat must announce that "we put our future and fate in the hands of the US" - which has led the campaign to undermine Palestinian rights for 30 years.
The basic problem then, as now, traces back to Washington, which has persistently backed Israel's rejection of a political settlement in terms of the broad international consensus. Current modifications of US rejectionism are tactical. With plans for an attack on Iraq endangered, the US permitted a UN resolution calling for Israeli withdrawal from the newly-invaded territories "without delay" - meaning "as soon as possible", secretary of state Colin Powell explained at once. Powell's arrival in Israel was delayed to allow the Israeli Defense Force to continue its destructive operations, facts hard to miss and confirmed by US officials.
When the current intifada broke out, Israel used US helicopters to attack civilian targets, killing and wounding dozens of Palestinians, hardly in self-defense. Clinton responded by arranging what the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz called "the largest purchase of military helicopters by the Israeli Air Force in a decade", along with spare parts for Apache attack helicopters. A few weeks later, Israel began to use US helicopters for assassinations. These extended last August to the first assassination of a political leader: Abu Ali Mustafa. That passed in silence, but the reaction was quite different when Israeli cabinet minister Rehavam Ze'evi was killed in retaliation. Bush is now praised for arranging the release of Arafat from his dungeon in return for US-UK supervision of the accused assassins of Ze'evi. It is inconceivable that there should be any effort to punish those responsible for the Mustafa assassination.
Further contributions to enhancing terror took place last December, when Washington again vetoed a security council resolution calling for dispatch of international monitors. Ten days earlier, the US boycotted an international conference in Geneva that once again concluded that the fourth Geneva convention applies to the occupied territories, so that many US-Israeli actions there are "grave breaches", hence serious war crimes. As a "high contracting party", the US is obligated by solemn treaty to prosecute those responsible for such crimes, including its own leadership. Accordingly, all of this passes in silence.
But the US has not officially withdrawn its recognition that the conventions apply to the occupied territories, or its censure of Israeli violations as the "occupying power". In October 2000 the security council reaffirmed the consensus, "call[ing] on Israel, the occupying power, to abide scrupulously by its legal obligations..." The vote was 14-0. Clinton abstained.
Until such matters are permitted to enter mainstream discussion in the US, and their implications understood, it is meaningless to call for "US engagement in the peace process", and prospects for constructive action will remain grim.
chomsky@MIT.edu
Source: http://www.Guardian.co.uk
5/11/02
6:08:21 PM
t r u t h o u t | 05.12
Blair Says No Attack on Iraq Without UN Assent
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12A.Blair.Iraq.htm
Israel Postpones Gaza Operation
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12B.Israel.Gaza.htm
White House Attempts to Prevent Questioning of Cheney Aide
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12C.Lundquist.Qs.htm
Bernard Weiner | Why Is America Behaving This Way?: A Letter to European Friends
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12D.BW.EU.Friends.htm
Daschle Hands Bush Recommendation for Election Commission Post
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12E.Daschle.Weintraub.htm
Senators Debbie Stabenow And Jean Carnahan | Deliver The Weekly Democratic Radio Address
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12F.Stabenow.Carnahan.htm
Paul Krugman | Smoking Fat Boy
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12G.PK.Fat.Boy.htm
Governor of Maryland Declares Moratorium on Executions
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12H.MD.Executions.htm
Famine Sweeps Southern Africa. Millions Suffering in Crisis Created by Nature, Exacerbated by Man
http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/05.12I.Africa.Famine.htm
5/11/02
6:06:39 PM
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE
UN: POLLUTION KILLS THOUSANDS OF CHILDREN
NEW YORK, New York, May 10, 2002 (ENS) - About 5,500 children die each day around the world from diseases caused by polluted air, water and food, concludes a new study released Thursday by three United Nations agencies. The report details the deadly threat that environmental degradation poses to the Earth's most vulnerable citizens.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-10-06.html
ENVIRONMENTAL PROSECUTOR WINS CASE AGAINST JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
By Jim Crabtree
CLEVELAND, Ohio, May 10, 2002 (ENS) - For the first time a federal prosecutor has won a case against the Department of Justice for harassment stemming from attempts to prosecute environmental crimes. In a decision Thursday, a U.S. Department of Labor court ruled that the Department of Justice (DOJ) cannot retaliate against its own prosecutors for investigating crimes.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-10-05.html
SPECIAL PLACES, SPECIAL BIRDS HIGHLIGHT A SPECIAL DAY
By Cat Lazaroff
WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2002 (ENS) - Doppler radar, nets as fine as spider's webs, and experienced eyes and ears are just some of the tools that biologists and bird enthusiasts will employ this weekend in the study and celebration of migratory birds. This Saturday is International Migratory Bird Day, and both private groups and public institutions will be offering educational programs on these international ambassadors.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-10-07.html
MADAGASCAR REVEALS NEW SPECIES OF FISH, CORALS
WASHINGTON, DC, May 10, 2002 (ENS) - Three new species of fish and nine species of coral new to science have been discovered in the waters around the African island country of Madagascar.
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-10-02.html
ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: MAY 10, 2002
DOE Delays Plutonium Shipments to South Carolina
U.S. - Russia Task Force Tackles Dirty Bombs
House Defense Bill Approves Environmental Exemptions
10 Miles of California Coastline Protected
Ship Pollution Treaty Headed for Ratification
Fishing Buybacks Fail to Help Fisheries
DEET Linked to Neurological Damage
Week Long Survey Targets Davidson Seamount
Cleaning Air Could Cost Just Pennies
New York Bans Lead Sinker Sales
http://ens-news.com/ens/may2002/2002L-05-10-09.html
5/11/02
6:04:58 PM
AlterNet proudly presents an exclusive report by Stephen Pizzo, longtime investigative journalist and best-selling author of "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans."
In a five-part series, Pizzo takes an in-depth look at House Majority Whip Tom Delay, reviewing a political career filled with contradictions and questionable relationships. From his deep ties to Enron to South Pacific sweatshops, Tom DeLay has built a well-financed and ruthless axis of influence.
"Tom DeLay has become the Teflon Don of the radical right of his party," Pizzo writes. "Undamaged by criticism, legal challenges and ethical complaints, DeLay has only grown bolder over the years. While few in Congress respect Tom DeLay, most fear him -- and with good reason. Anyone who crosses Tom DeLay quickly learns there is a price to pay."
Tom DeLay on the well-documented abuses in sweatshops on the Mariana Islands: "I saw some of those factories. They were air-conditioned. I didn't see anyone sweating."
Tom DeLay on the separation of church and state: "I don't believe there is a separation of church and state. I think the Constitution is very clear. The only separation is that there will not be a government church."
Tom DeLay on Darwin: "Give me one example that proves evolution. One example! You can't."
Visit http://www.alternet.org on Monday, May 13 for the first installment.
Stephen Pizzo's book "Inside Job," is now available in ebook format. "Inside Job" chronicles the savings and loans debacle from beginning to end and features a familiar cast of characters, including Arthur Andersen, doing for the S&Ls what it later did for Enron. Available for $8.50 at: http://www.fictionwise.com/eBooks/eBook2072.htm
5/11/02
5:58:40 PM
TAKE ACTION: PROTEST THE ICC PULL-OUT
On Monday, the Bush Administration decided to pull out of the International Criminal Court. If it weren't such a heavy blow against the enforcement of human rights and international justice, it would be ironic. In the midst of the most sweeping campaign against war criminals in world history, the US is undermining the only international body whose sole mission is to bring these people to justice. As the Executive Director of Human Rights Watch said, "The administration is putting itself on the wrong side of history."
Please help to spread the word about this grievous mistake by writing a letter to the editor of your local newspaper.
Sample letters, talking points, and some newspaper addresses can be found at:
5/11/02
5:57:30 PM
SOME HISTORICAL EXAMPLES OF US INVOLVEMENT IN DIRTY WARS
Over the years, the US government has supported coups that brought a number of repressive and brutal regimes to power, as well as the dirty wars which followed. Chile, Djakarta, El Salvador, Iran - the list goes on. In many cases military regimes replaced democratically elected leaders, and the killing sprees which followed were justified by the US government as necessary to wipe out communism--while being quietly covered up. The following links are meant to provide an introduction to the many notorious incidents that occurred from the 60's to the 80's. This list is by no means exhaustive, but it should begin to shed some light on the long history of questionable US foreign policies.
A CIA-backed coup and massacre in Indonesia in the 1960's may have taken the lives of up to a million people.
http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/54b/032.html
Thousands of declassified CIA documents reveal that the CIA aided in the overthrow of democratically elected Chilean President Salvador Allende in the 70's, thus putting Augusto Pinochet into power. You may have heard Pinochet's name before: his infamously brutal regime saw thousands killed, tortured, and "disappeared."
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=194
Henry Kissinger played a key role in the overthrow of Allende. This article explains his involvement (which he denies in his memoirs), and details the many instances of direct US and CIA involvement in the situation, such as setting up a fascist organization run by a former PR person for the Ford Motor Company.
http://www.wsws.org/news/1998/oct1998/kis-o21.shtml
This article on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Argentina's dirty war describes how it began with a coup and led to the disappearance of thousands of people during the 70's.
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=195
Evidence shows that US approval was also expressed for Argentina's dirty war, again through the influence of Henry Kissinger.
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=196
Reagan-era support for brutal counterinsurgency operations in Guatemala and Nicaragua has generally not received the coverage in the States that it deserves. This article details the former President's complicity in Guatemala, in order to make the argument that the US must face up to its own history.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/1999/052699a1.html
This article lives up to its title, "What everyone should know about Nicaragua." The author provides a clear and concise explanation of how the US used brutal contras (rebel groups) to try to overthrow the democratically elected Nicaraguan government in the 80's, including how this history led to the adamant US support for one candidate rather than the other in the post-Sept. 11 Nicaraguan elections.
http://www.zmag.org/sustainers/content/2001-11/09weisbrot.cfm
Senator Jesse Helms has praised Pinochet and a former military officer who ran death squads in El Salvador, and was involved in supporting anti-communism actions during the Cold War. In fact, his efforts to eliminate communism led Senator Helms to support a Nicaraguan rebel group that has turned out to be one of the contra groups most heavily involved in narcotrafficking.
http://www.parascope.com/articles/0797/helm01.htm
US support of groups in Colombia have helped contribute to deaths and human rights violations there.
http://www.zmag.org/crisescurevts/colombia/tdeath.htm
5/11/02
5:54:26 PM
THE 1995 SREBENICA MASSACRE
This is a brief and informative case study of the notorious massacre that resulted in the deaths of thousands of male Bosnian Muslims, despite the fact that the area had been designated a UN "safe haven." It is enriched with maps, pictures, and quotes. Learn what happened, why, and who was to blame.
http://www.gendercide.org/case_srebrenica.html
The horror of this massacre is perhaps best expressed through the grief of those who lost their husbands, sons, and fathers. This article gives voice to some of the survivors, such as a mother who shares her memories of losing her husband and her son. It also details the grim work being done to examine and identify the bodies of the victims, both through DNA evidence and the "Book of the Missing," a collection of photographs of the articles of clothing found along with the bodies.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,2763,684450,00.html
In April, the entire Dutch Parliament resigned over the conduct of Dutch peacekeeping troops in Srebenica.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/yugo/article/0,2763,685635,00.html
According to the Guardian, the Dutch report that prompted the resignation of the parliament also describes how the US used Islamists to arm the Bosnian Muslims: "In the 1980s Washington's secret services had assisted Saddam Hussein in his war against Iran. Then, in 1990, the US fought him in the Gulf. In both Afghanistan and the Gulf, the Pentagon had incurred debts to Islamist groups and their Middle Eastern sponsors. By 1993 these groups, many supported by Iran and Saudi Arabia, were anxious to help Bosnian Muslims fighting in the former Yugoslavia and called in their debts with the Americans. Bill Clinton and the Pentagon were keen to be seen as creditworthy and repaid in the form of an Iran-Contra style operation - in flagrant violation of the UN security council arms embargo against all combatants in the former Yugoslavia. The result was a vast secret conduit of weapons smuggling though Croatia." The government, however, seems unwilling to address American complicity in the issue.
5/11/02
5:52:01 PM
THE VENEZUELAN "VICTORY FOR DEMOCRACY"
Shortly after it occurred, President Bush praised the coup in Venezuela as a "victory for democracy." Shortly thereafter, the people of Venezuela returned the elected President to power -- a real victory for democracy.
Before the coup in Venezuela, John Pilger noted that a coup seemed likely, and wondered whether Venezuela would become the next Chile.
http://www.zmag.org/content/MainstreamMedia/PilgerVenezuela.cfm
The mainstream press in America reported that Venezuela's President Chavez was "unpopular" and "resigned," which was simply not true.
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=192
This article from Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) gives very specific examples of how the coup was treated in the American media.
http://www.fair.org/press-releases/venezuela-editorials.html
President Bush's response to the coup has been criticized by Latin Americans, who say that the US ignored democratic ideals.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0417-01.htm
President Bush's administration has been implicated in the coup.
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=193
The US Navy is also alleged to have assisted with the coup.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0429-01.htm
William Blum, an expert on CIA military interventions, provides a list of reasons that the US would have a vested interest in getting rid of Chavez, including the fact that Chavez criticized the war on Afghanistan as "fighting terrorism with terrorism" and condemned the deaths of civilians.
http://www.counterpunch.org/blum0414.html
This article, also written before the coup actually happened, notes: "The spark . . . might have been Sept. 11, but the dark clouds gathering over Venezuela have much more to do with enduring matters--like oil, land and power--than current issues like terrorism. The Chavez government is presently trying to change the 60-year old agreement with foreign oil companies that charges them as little as 1 percent in royalties, plus hands out huge tax breaks. There is a lot at stake here. Venezuela has 77 billion barrels of proven reserves, and is US's third biggest source of oil. It is also a major cash cow for the likes of Phillips Petroleum and ExxonMobil. If the new law goes through, U.S. and French oil companies will have to pony up a bigger slice of their take."
http://www.zmag.org/content/Colombia/hallinanchavez.cfm
Otto Reich, who is notorious for his part in the dirty wars of the Reagan era, is also known to have advised the businessman who seized the Presidency in the Venezuelan coup. Reich has now been appointed to the Board of Visitors at WHISC (formerly the School of the Americas, and an institution widely discounted by human rights groups for the methods it teaches).
http://www.counterpunch.org/reich0503.html
5/11/02
5:48:25 PM
"More dangerous by far than US isolationism is the unilateral demolition of the world's agreements, forcing every nation to live by its own rules."
This excellent article summarizes the events that demonstrate the recent US tendency to destroy international cooperation, and hypothesizes that these actions could be meant to pave the way for war in Iraq.
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0423-05.htm
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Dr. Robert Watson was voted out of the chair of the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and will be replaced by one of the current vice-chairs, Dr. Rajendra Pachauri. Environmentalists fear that Dr. Pachauri will not take the same strong stance on global warming that Watson did.
http://9-11peace.org/r.php3?r=191
Although it was written before Watson was actually ousted, this excellent article describes the possible reasons for the US wanting the chair of the IPCC removed, including a connection to ExxonMobil. The bulk of the article is an interview with Watson himself.
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/04/05/global_warming/?x
An ExxonMobil memo targeted Watson for removal: "It's bad enough that ExxonMobil controls White House energy and climate policies," said Daniel Lashof, science director of the NRDC Climate Center. "Now they want to control the science too."
http://www.corpwatch.org/bulletins/PBD.jsp?articleid=2192
Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW)
The US led a successful effort to depose Jose Bustani, the man in charge of ridding the world of chemical weapons. Bustani advocated inviting Iraq into the OPCW (which would entail serious weapons inspections), and such a move would jeopardize the supposed basis for the US' campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. Bustani apparently had an excellent record--US Secretary of State Colin Powell called his work "very impressive" in a letter last year--but he was still targeted in what the Guardian calls a "chemical coup d'etat."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,685155,00.html
This coup marks the first time that the Director General of a United Nations agency has been fired midterm. This fact, coupled with the firing of the aforementioned UN scientist, is raising concerns in the international community about the US' ability to silence any opposition.
http://www.theexperiment.org/articles.php?news_id=1761
Bustani's ouster is an example of the brutish nature of US politics: "This is how thugs operate. If you don't play ball, don't toe the line, if you give them any lip, they cut you off at the knees. Bare fists, brass knuckles, cold steel, hot lead -- it doesn't matter, they'll get you sooner or later. It's all about power: brute, blustering, rapacious power. The way apes do it. The way dogs do it. The way hyenas sort out the pack."
http://www.tmtmetropolis.ru/stories/2002/04/26/120.html
UN Human Rights Commission
The US was ousted from the UN Human Rights Commission last year. It has now regained its seat in the human rights body by pressuring other countries to withdraw their candidates.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0430-01.htm
Human Rights Watch has stated that the Human Rights Commission now counts many abusers as its members. These countries are more concerned with protecting themselves than with protecting human rights, compromising the abilities of the commission to "name and shame" offenders. The US is specifically mentioned for undermining efforts to protect human rights in the "war on terrorism."
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/04/unhchrfinal.htm
The International Criminal Court (ICC)
The ICC also bears mentioning since the US has not only refused to ratify it, but is has also unsigned the treaty that makes the court possible. The court has received all of the ratifications it needs to come into existence, and will gain jurisdiction in July, but the historic unsigning could set a dangerous precedent for multilateral treaties in general. If other countries follow the precedent and begin to unsign, international law could be threatened across the board. The unsigning also raises doubts about the validity of any future American signatures to new treaties. Amnesty International calls this action a historic low point in America's human rights history.
http://www.amnesty-usa.org/news/2002/usa05062002.html
5/11/02
5:42:58 PM
Greenpeace's Positive Energy Newsletter May 5 - 12, 2002
Time for Greenpeace's CLEAN ENERGY NOW! campaign's weekly good news update!!!
Inside this edition:
- Stop the CPUC from Killing the Renewable Energy Industry
- Use Auto Lobby's Own Free Service to Curb Global Warming
- G8 Gathering: What's Going on Behind the Closed Door?
xoxox
Stop the CPUC from Killing the Renewable Energy Industry
Help stop the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) from killing the renewable energy industry in California! The CPUC is currently discussing the possibility of charging "exit fees" to "departing load" customers. This means that the CPUC are debating whether or not to charge people who invest in renewable energy systems for their homes and businesses an extra $0.04-$0.06 per kilowatt hour. These extra charges would derail the renewable energy market at the retail level in California, which is just now starting to boom.
Send a fax now to the commissioners telling them not to kill renewable energy in California, by going to:
http://www.cleanenergynow.org/bin/takeaction.fpl?action_id=127
xoxox
Use Auto Lobby's Own Free Service to Curb Global Warming!
The auto industry's smear campaign of deception has reached a new low. Bill AB1058, which passed the Senate and is now headed back to the Assembly for concurrence, will require California's Air Resources Board to adopt regulations that achieve maximum feasible reduction of global warming emissions by passenger vehicles. But not if the auto industry lobby has its way!
Recently, there has been a full-page advertisement running in major newspapers featuring auto dealer, Cal Worthington, claiming he is scared to death of the bill. The ad makes completely false claims about bill AB1058. But we can turn the tables and use their dirty tactics against them. Simply call their toll-free number, 1-800-988-2588, and follow the automated instructions or bypass them by saying your assembly member's name. You will be connected to your legislator's office, whereby you can tell the person answering the phone that you want your assembly member to vote for AB 1058. You can also call back and ask to be connected to Governor Davis' office to ask him to support the bill. Remember that this is the auto lobby's toll-free number, so they will thank you for calling to oppose the bill, but really, thanks should go to them for supplying an easy way for supporters of the bill to communicate that support to their local representatives.
To learn more about bill AB1058, visit:
http://www.bluewaternetwork.org
xoxox
G8 Gathering: What's Going on Behind the Closed Door?
Energy ministers from the G8 nations - the Group of Eight: Japan, France, the United States, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Canada and Russia -- convened last week during a two-day summit with a focus on energy policies. This gathering took place in Detroit, the home base of auto giant General Motors. Although, Loyola de Palacio, the European Commissioner for Energy, urged all the policy-makers to ratify the Kyoto Protocol, G8 members continued to ignore a report issued by its own task force last year to be more aggressive in developing non-polluting renewable energy sources. Rather than investing heavily in clean energy now, he agreed with other members that along with other renewable energy sources, there's a need to use more nuclear energy in order to enhance the security and stability of our energy supply. Ironically, even though he stated that "we cannot simply drill our way out of oil dependency," in a separate statement, G8 members were urged to refill their nations' emergency supply. On a better note, the G8 members emphasized the need to make the latest "clean and efficient" energy technologies available to developing nations.
To sign the global petition asking governments to choose clean energy over nuclear energy and the mining, drilling, damming and pillaging of the Earth's resources, go to:
Articles on this summit can be found at http://www.washtimes.com
The "Positive Energy" newsletter and our website, http://www.cleanenergynow.org, will give you good news about ways to achieve clean air, climate justice, and renewable energy solutions to our ongoing energy crisis.
5/11/02
5:31:26 PM
Settlement With Predatory Lender Cheats Borrowers A Second Time
Public Citizen, May 10, 2002
Class Members Would Be Worse Off Under Settlement Than If Lawsuit Had Not Been Filed, Public Citizen Tells Court
WASHINGTON, D.C. - A proposed class action settlement with the notorious predatory lender Delta Funding Corporation would release the company and its brokers from responsibility for years of fraudulent and deceptive practices through which thousands of homeowners were bilked into illegal mortgages and foreclosures, Public Citizen argued in an objection filed today with a U.S. District Court in New York. The settlement is subject to court approval and should be rejected, Public Citizen said.
Delta and its brokers allegedly targeted low-income and minority neighborhoods and pressured homeowners to take loans that they could not afford, writing illegal fees and penalties and high interest rates into the loans, according to lawsuits filed in 1999 and 2000 by the New York Attorney General's office and the U.S. Department of Justice. When borrowers were unable to keep up with payments, the company often foreclosed on their homes. Delta settled those lawsuits, denying wrongdoing but agreeing to close scrutiny from the agencies.
The class action settlement would award the approximately 10,000 class members an average of $50, although the vast majority could expect only between $5 and $20. Although it provides more significant awards to certain class members, that category is so narrowly defined as to be almost empty.
The settlement also would bar class members from suing over predatory lending practices in future foreclosure proceedings - effectively releasing Delta from responsibility for its illegal actions. This is particularly damaging because so many low-income and elderly class members are at serious risk of foreclosure.
"This settlement is appalling. It puts class members in an even worse position than if the lawsuit had never been brought," said Public Citizen Litigation Group attorney Amanda Frost, who wrote the objection. "These people were victimized already by Delta's illegal mortgages. They should not be victimized again through this unfair settlement."
Public Citizen filed the objection to the lawsuit on behalf of several class members who have chosen to opt out of the settlement, including Lucille Hardin, an 84-year-old widow who entered into a series of mortgages with Delta and was unable to keep up her loan payments, and the New York Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), many of whose members are class members who would be harmed by the settlement.
Another serious flaw with the settlement is that it lets Delta decide what type of relief each class member deserves, the objection said. For example, Delta can choose whether class members' awards should be paid out of two different funds, one of which is capped at $1.15 million and a second that is not capped. It is in Delta's financial interest to categorize as many class members as possible under the capped fund.
The class counsel did the borrowers a disservice in agreeing to the settlement, in part by arguing that the borrowers would not have done well in court litigation against Delta. But the U.S. District Court found in 1998 that the plaintiffs' case was strong, and Delta's illegal practices have been well-documented by advocacy groups such as South Brooklyn Legal Services that work in the low-income communities the company targets.
"If the court allows this settlement, the only winners are Delta and its brokers," Frost said. "They've made millions by deceiving borrowers, and this lets them off with barely a slap on the wrist."
A copy of the filing is available at
http://www.citizen.org/documents/DeltaObjections.pdf
Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.
For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org
5/11/02
5:19:52 PM
FAIR Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting
Media analysis, critiques and activism
MEDIA ADVISORY: What Happened in Jenin? May 10, 2002
As violence continues in Israel and Palestine, so does debate over what exactly happened during Israel's invasion of the Jenin refugee camp. Israel barred journalists and aid workers alike from the camp during the invasions, but as access restrictions have eased, human rights groups have issued graphic reports detailing evidence of human rights violations by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and possible war crimes.
Some media accounts, too, have vividly described the damage across the West Bank: One New York Times story (4/11/02) reported that "it is safe to say that the infrastructure of life itself and of any future Palestinian state-- roads, schools, electricity pylons, water pipes, telephone lines--has been devastated." Lately, however, much U.S. coverage and commentary has passed over investigations of whether the IDF committed widespread rights abuses in favor of narrower-- and less meaningful-- wrangling over whether or not the IDF committed a "massacre."
Amnesty International has emphasized that "there is no legal definition in international law of the word 'massacre'," and that using the term in reference to Jenin "is not helpful" for determining whether the IDF violated human rights there (AI press release, 4/29/02). Nevertheless, the "massacre" question has become central to many journalists' approach to the story-- even when they don't have a working definition of the word.
One illustration of how poorly media have thought through the concept came when CNBC's Chris Matthews (Hardball, 4/16/02) asked chief PLO representative to the U.S. Hasan Abdel Rahman whether he had evidence of a massacre in Jenin. Rahman turned the tables, asking, "Well, first of all, what's a massacre?" With disquieting vagueness, Matthews replied, "Oh, a couple hundred people or civilians or ten or 20 civilians."
Most early estimates in the U.S. press of the number of Palestinians killed in Jenin ranged from 100 to 200. Media were caught up in the implications for Israel's image, declaring Jenin a "diplomatic and public relations minefield" (CBS Evening News, 4/24/02). As initial excavation work got underway, however, those original figures were downgraded, and the question for many news outlets became whether Palestinians had manufactured "massacre" claims. In fact, many of those early casualty figures had been provided by Israeli officials. "The Israeli army estimates that it killed 100 to 200 people in eight days of fighting," reported CBS Evening News on April 12. On ABC's Nightline (4/11/02), Dave Marash reported that Israeli defense forces "estimate 100 Palestinian fighters were killed there, but refused to say where the bodies are, and they continue to bar news people from the camp."
Once Human Rights Watch (HRW) gained access to the camp, the group was able to document 52 people killed by the IDF, including 22 civilians, many of whom "were killed willfully or unlawfully" (press release, 5/3/02). HRW's report on Jenin didn't focus on the sheer numbers of dead, however. Instead, the bulk of the report catalogued a pattern of serious human rights violations in Jenin, some of which the group says may be war crimes. The abuses include attacking and killing medical personnel, using civilians as human shields, failing to distinguish between military targets and civilian homes, and causing "extensive and disproportionate destruction of the civilian infrastructure"-- so much so that more than a quarter of Jenin's population is now homeless.
Amnesty International announced similar findings in a May 4 report, "The Heavy Price of Israeli Incursions," which condemned the IDF invasions of the Occupied Territories as collective punishment of Palestinians. The report documents "unlawful killings, destruction of property and arbitrary detention [and] torture and ill-treatment" by the IDF, and states that many of these actions violated human rights and international law.
The HRW and Amnesty reports were very direct in their conclusions, but some journalists nonetheless managed to miss the point. On NPR's May 4 "Weekend Edition," anchor Scott Simon asked NPR analyst Daniel Schorr to explain what the newly released reports said about Jenin. Schorr said:
"Human Rights Watch has found that there was no massacre as such. Yes, there were a couple of things that were not very nice. They found Israelis destroyed more buildings than they absolutely had to. The Israelis say they had to 'cause they thought they were booby trapped, but Human Rights Watch says sometimes human beings were used as human shields. Maybe. Some things happened which were not terribly, terribly nice, and I'm sure they happened a lot. But if the question is raised that 'Was there a deliberate massacre of civilians in Jenin?' the answer seems to come out no. "
It's hard to imagine a mainstream U.S. commentator characterizing civilians being "killed willfully or unlawfully" as "a couple of things that were not very nice"-- if the perpetrators were an official U.S. enemy, like Serbia or Iraq. And, of course, in large part it's up to Schorr and his media colleagues to decide which questions are raised about Jenin.
Some of those colleagues gave up even on the narrow question of a massacre, taking the troubling stance that the facts may never be known, or might not even matter. As CBS Evening correspondent Mark Phillips put it on April 18, "Did a wholesale massacre take place here? In terms of the hostility between Palestinians and Israelis, it almost doesn't matter. Perceptions are what count, and Jenin has already become another reason for mistrust, hatred and revenge."
The following night, CNN's Christiane Amanpour reached a similar conclusion: "Jenin will remain for the Palestinians a place of myth and legend and perhaps even a place of revenge." The same day, NPR's Julie McCarthy commented that "The story of Jenin is set to live on in memory and myth." On April 20, CBS's Phillips still didn't know who to trust: "What happened in Jenin depends on who you believe."
Of course, the job of a journalist is to separate myth from fact, and to investigate conflicting claims to see which are true. Even when journalists did try to report what happened at Jenin, however, that reporting was sometimes sanitized beyond recognition. Consider this description from the New York Times on April 21: "As Israeli forces pursued militants, civilians continued getting in the way and dying as a result."
Source: http://www.FAIR.org
5/10/02
4:12:59 PM
Do you care about
Human Rights Civil Rights Ecology World Peace
Do you wish you had more time to write to our leaders?
Visit: http://www.ProgressiveSecretary.org
To see the modern efficient way to make your opinions known.
With Progressive Secretary, you receive well written letters for your consideration. Each letter is addressed to your legislators and will detail a progressive stance on a current issue.
It is easy. With just a couple of clicks of your mouse, you can send persuasive letters to the policymakers that matter.
EASIER, FASTER! If you request it, Progressive Secretary's computer will write and send the letters for you. Each letter will be individually written and sent with your return email address.
Click reply or visit http://www.ProgressiveSecretary.org to learn more about the modern way to let the government know how you feel, or reply to me and I'll forward your name.
There is no cost, no advertisement, no catch and no obligation. Your personal information is never given out.
Sincerely
Mike Smith
5/10/02
4:07:59 PM
Big Sur Deal Will Save Nearly 10,000 Acres Coast:
Conservation groups arrange $38-million purchase of wildlife corridor.
by Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times
A pair of conservation groups on Thursday announced they had bought nearly 10,000 acres in northern Big Sur to preserve the 10-mile stretch of mountains, old-growth redwood forest, oak woodlands and coastal terraces.
The Nature Conservancy and the Big Sur Land Trust amassed enough interim financing to buy the land from cellular telephone pioneer Craig McCaw for about $38 million. The plan is to sell it to the state and a regional park district, which will maintain it as parkland and protected wilderness.
"We are going to buy this land and manage it for wildlife and for people," said Mary Nichols, secretary of the California Resources Agency. "It was the missing link to create a 70-mile-long wildlife corridor from the Carmel River in the north to San Luis Obispo County in the south," she added. The deal was announced Thursday at a news conference on the northern tip of the property, attended by a group of state officials including actor Clint Eastwood, a newly appointed state parks commissioner.
"This is the northern gateway to Big Sur," said Bill Leahy, director of the Nature Conservancy's Monterey project. "It's the first thing you see when you drive down from Carmel. It continues for another 10 miles."
Much of the 9,898 acres rests high in the Santa Lucia Mountains that drop into the Pacific Ocean, creating possibly the most dramatic section of the state's signature coastline.
This jigsaw-puzzle-shaped parcel, assembled one piece at time by McCaw and named the Palo Corona Ranch, will link 13 wilderness areas and parks including Point Lobos State Reserve, Garrapata State Park and the Ventana Wilderness of the Los Padres National Forest.
As a conduit to existing parklands, conservationists said the former ranch will preserve a valuable wildlife corridor for mountain lions, bobcats and other animals.
McCaw, who founded McCaw Cellular and is a primary shareholder of Nextel Communications, has long been involved in conservation efforts. He has bought timber concessions and retired them to protect forests from logging. In 1998, he and his ex-wife, Wendy, paid to fly Keiko the killer whale to Iceland to prepare the star of the movie "Free Willy" for release into the wild.
When McCaw bought the first piece of the ranch in Big Sur in 1996 from the heirs of Stuyvesant Fish, he promised to safeguard the stands of old-growth redwoods. The Fish Ranch has its own storied history. It was the location for the movie adaptation of John Steinbeck's "Flight," a story about a fugitive in Big Sur.
McCaw subsequently bought seven other parcels to build his ranch, with an idea that the land would eventually end up in public hands, said his spokesman, Bob Ratliffe.
"Nothing is more satisfying than to see majestic and important pieces of our country like this one preserved for generations," McCaw said through Ratliffe.
Part of the property had been a working cattle ranch. It includes a barn and tack shed that will be preserved. "It's in beautiful shape," said Corey Brown, executive director of the Big Sur Land Trust. "We find very few properties in this pristine condition."
Gov. Gray Davis on Thursday pledged $32 million toward the purchase from Proposition 40, the bond measure approved by voters in March. The Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District has committed $5 million to help buy the ranch.
The two nonprofit conservation groups said they will mount a fund-raising campaign to make up any financial shortfall and will establish an endowment to maintain the land.
Money from the state must be approved by the Legislature as part of the budget, and is subject to state-approved appraisals of the land. The final disposition of the property has not been decided. Nichols said the plan is to carve up the ranch and add parts of it to adjacent state parks.
Some of the land is likely to end up in the hands of the Monterey Peninsula park district.
Nichols said the purchase will ensure that most of the Big Sur coastline, which attracts millions of tourists a year, will never be developed.
Source: http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-000033057may10.story?coll=la%2Dnews%2Dscience
5/10/02
4:04:10 PM
DAILY GRIST
<http://www.gristmagazine.com>
DUTCH TREAT
Confess: You've played more than one hand of solitaire on company time. Maybe it's time to look for work with the Dutch Ministry of the Environment, where playing computer games could be part of your job description. The Netherlands is home to intense agriculture and industry, and is -- not coincidentally -- one of the world's hot spots for nitrogen pollution. A couple of Dutch enviro-heads decided the solution to the problem was to design a computer game that brought together policy-makers, farmers, industry reps, and plain old civilians to tackle the problem of nitrogen pollution. The result, NitroGenius, was unveiled last fall at the Second International Nitrogen Conference in Washington, D.C. Grist correspondent Erik Ness plays, wins, and tells all, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: The Netherlands tackles nitrogen pollution with a game -- in our Main Dish section <http://www.gristmagazine.com/maindish/ness051002.asp?source=daily>
GO EAST, YOUNG CONSUMER
In 1989, the Berlin Wall came down and the Iron Curtain came up, signaling the end of the Cold War, the fall of communism -- and a new era for the environment in Central and Eastern Europe. Popular belief holds that the curtain rose to reveal a bleak landscape of environmental degradation wrought by unchecked industrial activity. In many cases, that was true. On the other hand, the constraints of communism -- limited freedom of motion, economic stagnation, and the chronic lack of goods -- kept certain environmental problems at bay. In the last decade or so, that's all changed: Although air and water quality have dramatically improved in the former communist bloc, a rapid rise in consumerism now threatens the environment. Environmentalists in the region are watching in dismay as malls, sprawling housing developments, and SUVs become ever more common. They say preaching sustainable lifestyles and anti-consumer messages to a people long deprived of basic goods is proving to be an uphill battle.
straight to the source: MSNBC.com, Heather Maher, 09 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=89>
only in Grist: The Cold War shifts to the living room -- a cartoon by Suzy Becker <http://www.gristmagazine.com/ha/ha071999.stm?source=daily>
FIRE WALK WITH ME
Fires being deliberately set all across Africa are having a dire effect on the continent's ecosystems, a wildlife expert warned during a recent U.N. Environment Programme conference on African mountains. Many different groups are responsible for setting the fires, said Kenya Wildlife Service warden Bongo Woodley. These include arsonists hoping the government will give them the scorched land; squatters seeking to clear vegetation for grazing; honey-gatherers trying to smoke bees from the trees; and people who believe that starting fires will bring rain. The fires destroy forests that are critical to soaking up water from Africa's mountainous regions; without them, rivers can flood in the rainy season and stop flowing entirely in the dry season.
straight to the source: BBC News, Alex Kirby, 10 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=90>
do good: Take action to protect forests and people in Kenya <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dogood/forests.asp?source=daily#ogiek>
PAPER TIGER
Todd Paglia might not have agreed to be a diarist for Grist if it weren't an online magazine. As a campaign director at ForestEthics, Paglia spends much of his time battling something you probably seldom think twice about: paper. If the thought of old-growth trees being cut down all over the world isn't bad enough for you, consider that the paper industry also uses more energy than almost any other in the U.S. -- not to mention tons of bleach. And a whole lot of greenwash: Paper companies love to tout their recycled products, but these often include as little as 10 percent recycled fiber, meaning the other 90 percent is virgin. ForestEthics is taking on the industry with market campaigns, designed to get corporate attention by targeting the bottom line. Might not sound as thrilling as, say, chaining yourself to a tree, but Paglia's line of work has him running undercover missions into Staples and rubbing shoulders with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe. Read about these and other adventures, only on the Grist Magazine website.
only in Grist: The making of a radical environmentalist -- a week in the life of Todd Paglia, ForestEthics <http://www.gristmagazine.com/dearme/paglia050602.asp?source=daily>
SUR PRIZE
Almost 10,000 acres of California's Big Sur, encompassing mountains, old-growth redwood forests, and dramatic vistas on the coast, will be protected in perpetuity thanks to a land purchase sealed yesterday by the Nature Conservancy and the Big Sur Land Trust. The land connects 13 wilderness areas and parks, and was the missing link in a 70-mile-long wildlife corridor for mountain lions, bobcats, and other animals. The two organizations paid about $38 million to buy the land from Craig McCaw, founder of McCaw Cellular, primary shareholder of Nextel Communications, and a long-time conservationist. (In 1998, he and his then-wife paid to fly "Free Willy" star Keiko to Iceland for his release.) The land will be sold to the state and a regional park district; Gov. Gray Davis (D) pledged $32 million toward the purchase from a parks bond measure approved by voters in March.
straight to the source: Los Angeles Times, Kenneth R. Weiss, 10 May 2002 <http://www.gristmagazine.com/forward.pl?forward_id=91>
5/10/02
4:01:08 PM
The Big Guns
by Holly Bailey
May 09, 2002 | In recent years, some of the Defense Department's biggest wars haven't been fought on the battlefield, but rather inside secluded conference rooms at the Pentagon or on Capitol Hill, where the nation's annual defense budget is crafted.
It's an annual rite of passage that has often prompted military brass to butt heads with members of Congress and the administration and, in some cases, with each other, as different branches of the nation's defense fight to preserve budget dollars that in turn pay for big-ticket weapons.
Even in the aftermath of Sept. 11, this year has been no exception. After weeks of speculation, the Pentagon on Wednesday formally notified Congress of its plans to cancel the Crusader, an $11.1 billion, 70-ton artillery gun system that has been in development for the Army since 1994.
Almost since its inception, the Crusader has been in trouble at the Pentagon. Some critics say the massive high-tech cannon is too heavy and cannot be easily deployed, while others balk at its price tag. The Army, in response, has argued the Crusader is essential to its future. That doesn't seem to have changed the mind of one of its major critics: President Bush, who spoke on the campaign trail in 2000 of a military noted "not by mass or size, but by mobility and swiftness."
But as the battle over the Crusader shifts to Congress, the lobbying dynamic is certain to change. Lawmakers with a vested interest in keeping the program alive have vowed to preserve the Crusader program, but even those efforts could pale in comparison to the potential lobbying prowess of the Carlyle Group, the Washington-based investment firm that owns United Defense—the defense contractor building the Crusader. After all, the firm has been working to save its prized program for years.
Who's on the payroll at Carlyle? President Bush's father, for starters. Secretary of State James Baker, who represented Bush during the Florida recount, is a managing director. William Kennard, who recently headed the Federal Communications Commission, recently joined Carlyle, as did Arthur Levitt, a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. And that's just a few of the dozens of former Cabinet secretaries and other administration officials that are listed as employees of the firm. Their boss is Frank Carlucci, the former Secretary of Defense whose best friend and former college roommate, Donald Rumsfeld, now runs the Pentagon.
While it is not unusual in Washington to see former public officials take their connections and insight to the private sector, the Carlyle Group appears to have unprecedented access to the current administration. According to the New York Times, Carlucci met with Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Cheney last year to talk about military matters—at the same time Carlyle was in contention for several billion dollars worth of defense projects, including the Crusader.
Carlyle officials have been particularly sensitive to reports about potential conflicts of interest, insisting that none of their employees lobby the federal government. "I have never mentioned the word 'Crusader' in (Rumsfeld's) presence," Carlucci told Fortune magazine last month. Indeed, the Carlyle Group is not registered as a lobbying agent in Washington, though according to records filed with the U.S. Senate, many of its subsidiaries, including United Defense, boast lobbyist payrolls of more than $1 million annually.
At the same time, Carlyle has been a prolific contributor to federal campaigns during the last two election cycles. During the 1999-2000 campaign, Carlyle and its employees contributed roughly $800,000 in soft money, PAC and individual contributions to federal parties and candidates, 62 percent to Republicans. (Of that total, more than $20,000 went to the Bush-Cheney ticket, not including the several thousand dollars Carlucci and others contributed to the Bush’s Florida recount expenses.) So far in 2001-02, the group has contributed $265,000, more than two-thirds to Republicans.
Of course, that money is peanuts compared to the dollars Carlyle stands to lose if the Crusader program is ultimately nixed. Prior to this week's announcement, the administration had requested $475 million for the program during the 2003 budget year.
Source: http://www.capitaleye.org/inside.asp?ID=18
5/10/02
3:56:21 PM
Jamming Citigroup's PR Message
An Interview With Ilyse Hogue Of Rainforest Action Network
Jennifer Bauduy is the associate editor at TomPaine.com
In mid-April, Citigroup launched a $100 million global ad campaign titled "This is Citigroup." Using images of elderly people, and people from Hong Kong to Brazil, the ads portray a caring bank, committed to local communities. But environmental group Rainforest Action Network (RAN), which has waged a boycott against Citigroup for the past two years, says the bank completely ignores environmental and social concerns and is one of the biggest contributors to global warming. RAN recently launched a counter campaign featuring photos that document destructive Citigroup-funded projects. Jennifer Bauduy interviewed RAN's Ilyse Hogue for TomPaine.com.
TomPaine.com: What spurred RAN to launch the counter ad campaign?
Hogue: Citi's objective with their ad campaign was to put a positive spin on their global presence around the world. They use individuals from different countries, in different geographical settings, holding the happy red umbrella. They are trying to position themselves as the warm fuzzy bank that cares about people.
They promote themselves as leaders -- as economic, environmental, and social leaders. What RAN is saying is: if you want to be a leader, then the progressive financial institutions are the ones that are getting out of environmentally destructive investments like deforestation and other activities that promote climate change.
If they are going to talk about their presence in South America or in Asia without talking about their profiting off of eco-system destruction, species extinction and deforestation, that is irresponsible.
TP.c: How exactly are they profiting from that?
Hogue: Citigroup is the number one lender to the fossil fuel industry, and it's in the top three lending directly to logging industries, number one to mining. All of these activities have disastrous impact on the natural world.
A lot of people don't understand that the capital investment that's provided by Citibank is the fuel for the machine of destruction [around the world]. The oil companies, the logging companies, they can't function without the massive influx of investments that they receive from Citibank and other big banks.
TP.c: Can you give us a specific example?
Hogue: In California, Citi underwrote the bonds for Maxxam Corporation, which was responsible for logging the Headwaters Forest. Headwaters was California's last big private stand of old-growth redwoods. The thing that was unique about the Headwaters project is that Citi underwrote the bonds using the trees as collateral. So, in order to pay back the loan, the company had to log. It was a viscous circle of environmental destruction.
TP.c: What banks or financial institutions do you hold up as a positive model?
Hogue: The one that we hold up is ABN/AMRO, which is the leading Dutch Bank. They came out with a groundbreaking policy last year committing to cease funding for all extractive industries in high-conservation-value forests. It's the right thing to do. It's what we hold up to Citi as the example that they must follow. It's also the economically wise thing to do. Banks like ABN/AMRO are getting ahead of the curve in terms of shifting their investments to sustainable alternatives.
The vast majority of Americans consider themselves environmentalists and they want to know that the companies that they are doing business with uphold those values rather than under cut them.
TP.c: Citigroup might argue that changing their policies would hurt them financially. Do you know if the Dutch company has suffered any consequences?
Hogue: As we talk to Citi and other leading investment banks, we need to point out that this is an investment in the long-term future of the planet and people. And so, to look at quarterly returns is disingenuous in terms of the environmental and social profit we will reap next year, five years from now, and seven generations from now.
I think that the ABN/AMRO commitment represents what consumers are increasingly pressing for. As we say to Citi, "it's not if you change your practices, but when." And we have to do it sooner rather than later because we are still losing acres of forests at an unprecedented rate, and we are still heating up the planet at an unprecedented rate.
TP.c: How successful has your boycott been?
Hogue: Now, in the second year of the campaign, I think we've built awareness and we are seeing that awareness translates into credit card cut-ups and students switching their loans and bigger [demonstrations]. I think we are getting more attention and more awareness about Citibank as the leading bank in destruction.
TP.c: What will a credit card cut-up accomplish?
Hogue: One of the slogans that's emerged from the campaign is people saying, "Hey Citi, not with my money." More and more people understand that it's their credit card balances, their savings accounts, and their student loans that often go towards these types of destructive activities. So cutting up your Citibank card is a symbolic act to let Citibank know, 'I will not continue to do business with you because I don't agree with your destructive environmental record.'
TP.c: What has Citigroup's response been?
Hogue: They say that they are interested in what we are putting forward to them, that they are interested in being social and environmental leaders. And we continue to dialogue and negotiate. But as we have told Citibank, we are interested in action, rather than words.
The Rainforest Action Network: http://www.RAN.org
The Multinational Monitor: http://www.MultinationalMonitor.org
Source: http://www.TomPaine.com
5/10/02
3:47:24 PM
TomPaine.com on C-SPAN!
Don't miss TP.c Editor John Moyers on C-SPAN
Monday, May 13, from 9-10am, EDT
He'll share the hour with ultra-conservative lip-flapper
Laura Ingraham, and the flying sparks will be moderated
by C-SPAN's Peter Slen. Tune in, call in.
TomPaine.com
ANOTHER REASON TO HATE SUVs
Driving Up Insurance Rates For Every Driver
by James Welborn
"When a Ford Expedition runs a light and turns a Geo Metro into an interestingly-shaped cocktail table, everybody pays."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5624
The Loyal Opposition
TALKING IRAQ WITH THE 'PRINCE OF DARKNESS'
Our Columnist Imagines A Talk With Richard Perle
by David Corn
"Perle, full of confidence and hubris, makes it sound as if Mission Iraq could be a breeze. I wonder if anyone in the Pentagon is listening when the Prince of Darkness says, 'Trust me.'"
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5631
PARADISE LOST?
High-Risk Island Ecosystems
by Duane Silverstein
Although islands conjure up images of pristine tropical paradises, they are actually among the world's most threatened ecosystems -- endangering half of our planet's marine biodiversity and one in 10 people.
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5585
MAKE THE PLANET SAFE FOR WALL STREET
A Satire In Song
by Peter Kastner
"Dumbed down schools, our kids can't read, and don't get sick, no national health... Make the world more safe for Wall Street."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5590
JAMMING CITIGROUP'S PR MESSAGE
An Interview With Ilyse Hogue Of Rainforest Action Network
by Jennifer Bauduy
"Citigroup is the number one lender to the fossil fuel industry, and it's in the top three lending directly to logging industries, number one to mining. All of these activities have disastrous impact on the natural world."
http://www.tompaine.com/feature.cfm/ID/5613
CAPITAL EYE ON THE PRIZE
The non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics has launched a new Web site dedicated to news and analysis of money-in-politics issues –
For nine years, the Center's "Capital Eye" newsletter has educated its readers about the role of money in our political system. Now Capital Eye is on the Web and will be updated regularly with original news stories that closely examine fundraising by politicians and parties and the special interests that are funding U.S. elections.
5/10/02
3:32:09 PM
UTNE WEB WATCH
The Best of the Alternative Web
UNDERMINING EFFECTIVE REPORTING: NEW FCC PROPOSALS
by Jeffrey Chester, Media Alliance
-- The 9/11 attacks may also change journalism as we know it, if the FCC sympathizes with major media companies' pleas for deregulation.
IS TAKING PSYCHEDELICS AN ACT OF SEDITION?
by Charles Hayes, Tikkun Magazine
-- Imagining world peace might be a little easier if clinical use of psychedelics were an option.
PROTESTERS DETAINED IN MILWAUKEE
by Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive
-- Are you on the no-fly list? If you're a peace activist, non-U.S. citizen, or just have a "foreign-sounding" last name, you could find yourself missing a flight. Matthew Rothschild probes the secrecy and mystery surrounding "The List," and finds out that recent fears about a return to McCarthyism might not be misplaced.
Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch
5/10/02
3:30:36 PM
D0 It Anyway
People are unreasonable, illogical and self-centred; love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives; do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies; succeed anyway.
The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow; do good anyway.
Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable; be honest and frank anyway.
People favour underdogs but follow only top dogs; fight for some underdogs anyway.
What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight; build anyway.
People really need help but may attack you if you help them; help anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth; give the world the best you have anyway.
Author Unknown
5/10/02
3:28:57 PM
U.S. Renounces International Criminal Court
Globe and Mail, May 6, 2002
Washington - The United States, flouting the advice of major allies and enraging human-rights organizations, renounced Monday legal obligations toward the treaty that set up the International Criminal Court.
The decision, made formal in a letter to the United Nations, means the United States reserves the right to ignore the orders of the court, the first permanent world tribunal to prosecute people for war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
Canada and the European Union expressed disappointment and regret over the decision by the administration, which had already angered some allies by walking out on the Kyoto climate accord and the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.
In Ottawa, Foreign Minister Bill Graham took a swipe at the United States for refusing to allow its troops to come before the court while at the same time feeling free to unilaterally apply its own laws around the world.
But Ottawa said it does not believe the U.S withdrawal has dealt a death blow to the court.
"I wouldn't hide from you that I'm extremely disappointed," Mr. Graham said. "One can always hope that, in the future, they will see things differently. ... I didn't see the international criminal court as a threat to the United States."
Speaking to reporters outside the Commons, he said: "I think there's a certain irony in the fact that the United States - which tends to extraterritorially apply its laws and jurisdictions rather widely - is not willing to participate in a truly international consensus for (the World Criminal) court.
"So I'll continue to argue with (U.S. Secretary of State Colin) Powell or with anybody I can, whether in the Senate or anywhere else in the United States, that ultimately this is an important institution for global governance ... which both needs the United States and which (will ultimately) benefit."
The administration of former president Bill Clinton signed the treaty in 2000 so that the United States could take part in talks on the setting up of the court.
But both the Clinton administration and George W. Bush's administration said they did not intend to ask the Senate the ratify the treaty, for fear it could be used for politically motivated prosecutions of U.S. officials or military personnel.
"The United States has no legal obligations arising from its signature on Dec. 31, 2000," U.S. undersecretary of state John Bolton said in the letter delivered at UN headquarters in New York on Monday.
"The United States requests that its intention not to become a party, as expressed in this letter, be reflected in the depositary's status lists relating to this treaty," added the letter, addressed to UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
UN spokesman Fred Eckhard said it is up to the countries that ratified the treaty to decide how to deal with the U.S. move. The court will be independent of the United Nations.
Deputy Prime Minister John Manley earlier rejected the idea that Washington had dealt a death blow to the court.
"We've recently passed the 60 countries required for the (court) coming into force and I think we move forward with that," Mr. Manley said. "It doesn't absolutely have to have the United States in it to be an important contributor to the global judicial dynamic."
Pierre-Richard Prosper, U.S. ambassador-at-large for war-crimes issues, said the letter to the United Nations makes clear that "we are not going to be a party to the process."
"It neutralizes the signature. ... It frees us from some of the obligations that are incurred by signature. When you sign, you have an obligation not to take actions that would defeat the object or purpose of the treaty," he added.
For example, the United States could reject an extradition request from the international court and decide to send the suspect back to his or her home country, he said.
"That could be construed as inconsistent with the objects and purpose of the treaty, since you are not co-operating. What we are saying is we have no obligations," he added.
Under Secretary of State Marc Grossman, in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday, restated the U.S. objections about the treaty and the court.
"The ICC (International Criminal Court) could have a chilling effect on the willingness of states to project power in defence of their moral and security interests," he added.
Most of Washington's major allies, including Canada and 14 of the 15 nations of the European Union, have signed and ratified the 1998 treaty and are strong supporters of the campaign for a system of international justice.
The United States says it prefers to rely on ad-hoc arrangements for particular conflicts, such as the international tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia.
But the issue that dominated domestic debate in the United States was that the c