10/14/01
6:04:46 PM

The Best Enemies Money Can Buy From Hitler To Saddam Hussein to Osama bin Laden - Insider Connections and the Bush Family's Partnership with Killers of Americans: Brown Brothers, Harriman - BNL- and the Carlyle Group

by Michael C. Ruppert

FTW, Oct. 9, 2001 - Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, major media powerhouses and the increasingly influential alternative media alike have begun to focus attention on Bush family connections and a long history of arming and financing America's attackers in the months and years prior to the outbreak of war. Recent stories in the Wall Street Journal (Sept. 27 & 28, 2001), ABC News (Oct. 1, 2001), as well as a host of reports from so-called alternative news sources have begun to focus attention on the Bush family's profit-making role in creating and arming our enemies.

The following is a more comprehensive look at the documented history of these relationships that will also open some new avenues of inquiry for the press, Congress and the American people.

In a world now filled with biowarfare agents, backpack nuclear devices, and chemical weapons like Sarin gas -- where there are people in many countries with reasons to oppose the United States -- the Bush Administration is following predictable strategies in a way that redefines the concept of brinksmanship. Human survival may depend upon the will and the ability of both the Congress and the press to focus on these relationships and to take appropriate action. Moreover - and I am not the first to say this - if a national security priority is to seize the financial assets of those who support terrorists, then perhaps we should start right here at home.

Adolph Hitler

Meticulous research, including U.S. government records from the era, along with contemporaneous news stories from the New York Times and other papers are presented in the 1992 book entitled, "George Bush, The Unauthorized Biography" by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Published by The Executive Intelligence Review and located at http://www.tarpley.net/bushb.htm. The following is sourced entirely from Chapter II of this essential work. [Note: Although FTW does not always agree with conclusions reached by the Executive Intelligence Review, or its founder Lyndon La Rouche, we have never found a single flaw in any of their factual research. History is history, no matter who presents it. And this history is essential to understanding our era.]

George W. Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush, was the Managing Director of the investment bank Brown Brothers, Harriman from the 1920s through the 1940s. It was Brown Brothers, in conjunction with Averell Harriman, the Rockefeller family, Standard Oil, the DuPonts, the Morgans and the Fords which served as the principal funding arm in helping to finance Adolph Hitler's rise to power starting in 1923. This included direct funding for the SS and SA channeled through a variety of German firms. Through associations with the Hamburg-Amerika Steamship line, Nazi Banker Fritz Thyssen (pronounced Tee-sen), Standard Oil of Germany, The German Steel Trust (founded by Dillon Read founder, Clarence Dillon), and I.G. Farben, Prescott Bush used the Union Bank Corporation to funnel vast quantities of money to the Nazis and to manage their American interests. The profits from those investments came back to Bush allies on Wall Street. Thyssen is universally regarded as having been Hitler's private banker and ultimate owner of the Union Bank Corporation.

Early support for Hitler came from Prescott Bush through the Hamburg-Amerika line -- also funded by Brown Bothers -- that funneled large sums of money and weapons to Hitler's storm troopers in the 1920s.

"In May 1933, just after the Hitler regime was consolidated, an agreement was reached in Berlin for the coordination of all Nazi commerce with the U.S.A. The Harriman International Company. was to head a syndicate of 150 firms and individuals, to conduct all exports from Hitler Germany to the United States."

According to Tarpley and Chaitkin a 1942 U.S. government investigative report that surfaced during 1945 Senate hearings found that the Union Bank, with Prescott Bush on the board, was an "interlocking concern" with the German Steel Trust that had produced:

50.8% of Nazi Germany's pig iron 41.4% of Nazi Germany's universal plate 36% of Nazi Germany's heavy plate 38.5% of Nazi Germany's galvanized sheet 45.5% of Nazi Germany's pipes and tubes 22.1% of Nazi Germany's wire 35% of Nazi Germany's explosives

The business relationships established by Bush in 1923 continued even after the war started until they became so offensive and overt as to warrant seizure by the U.S. government under the Trading with the Enemy Act in 1942.

In 1942, "Under the Trading with the Enemy Act, the government took over Union Banking Corporation, in which Bush was a director. The U.S. Alien Property Custodian seized Union Banking Corp.'s stock shares.

". all of which shares are held for the benefit of. members of the Thyssen family, [and] is property of nationals. of a designated enemy country."

"On October 28, the government issued orders seizing two Nazi front organizations run by the Bush-Harriman bank: the Holland-American Trading Corporation and the Seamless Steel Equipment Corporation."

"Nazi interests in the Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his father in law George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act on Nov. 17, 1942." These seizures of Bush businesses were reported in a number of American papers including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

Prescott Bush went on to become an influential Republican Senator from Connecticut who went on to be a regular golfing partner of President Dwight Eisenhower. His attorneys were the lawyers John Foster and Allen Dulles, the later became the CIA Director under Eisenhower.

Saddam Hussein

After becoming President in January 1989, Prescott Bush's son, George Herbert Walker Bush - father of our current President - authorized a series of programs which not only armed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein but also provided him with technology that assisted in his development of chemical weapons like Sarin gas, and biological weapons, which he still possesses. Apologists for Bush (the elder) say that, after the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s left the region unstable, he was just trying to establish a new balance of power. Not so. Bush directives and policies, including relationships with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), the Banca Nacional del Lavoro (BNL) were directly and deliberately responsible for creating the army the U.S. fought in 1991.

In its March/April issue the Colombia Journalism Review (CJR), in a story by Russ W. Baker, published the most compelling overview of Iraqgate.

"ABC News Nightline opened last June 9 with words to make the heart stop 'It is becoming increasingly clear,' said a grave Ted Koppel, 'that George Bush, operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence, and military help that built Saddam's Iraq into the aggressive power that the United States ultimately had to destroy..."

"Why, then, have some of our top papers provided so little coverage?."

" The result: readers who neither grasp nor care about the facts behind facile imagery like The Butcher of Baghdad and Operation Desert Storm. In particular, readers who do not follow the story of the Banca Nacional del Lavoro, which apparently served as a paymaster for Saddam's arms buildup, and thus became a player in the largest bank-fraud case in U.S. history.

"Complex, challenging, mind-boggling stories (from Iran-Contra to the S&L crisis to BCCI) increasingly define our times: yet we don't appear to be getting any better at telling them."

"Much of what Saddam received from the West was not arms per se, but so-called dual-use technology -- ultra sophisticated computers, armored ambulances, helicopters, chemicals, and the like, with potential civilian uses as well as military applications. We've learned that a vast network of companies, based in the U.S. and abroad, eagerly fed the Iraqi war machine right up until August 1990, when Saddam invaded Kuwait.

"And we've learned that the obscure Atlanta Branch of Italy's largest bank, Banca Nacional del Lavoro, relying partly on U.S. taxpayer-guaranteed loans, funneled $5 billion to Iraq from 1985 to 1989. Some government-backed loans were supposed to be for agricultural purposes, but were used to facilitate the purchase of stronger stuff than wheat. Federal Reserve and Agriculture department memos warned of suspected abuses by Iraq, which apparently took advantage of the loans to free up funds for munitions. U.S. taxpayers have been left holding the bag for what looks like $2 billion in defaulted loans to Iraq."

". In fact, we now know that in February 1990, then Attorney General Dick Thornburgh [appointed by George H.W. Bush] blocked U.S. investigators from traveling to Rome and Istanbul to pursue the case."

". As New York Times columnist William Safire argued last December 7, 'Iraqgate is uniquely horrendous: a scandal about the Systematic abuse of power by misguided leaders of three democratic nations [The U.S., Britain, and Italy] to secretly finance the arms buildup of a dictator."

As Democrat Henry Gonzales, Chairman of the House Banking Committee during the period, stood as the lone voice from the wilderness in raising alarms about Bush's obvious corruption, the rest of the Congress sheepishly ignored all the signs demanding immediate action. Gonzales' voice reportedly fell silent after his empty car was machine-gunned in a Washington suburb in what passed for a drive-by shooting.

The CJR continues: "Meanwhile, The Village Voice published a major investigation by free-lancer Murray Waas in its December 18, 1990 issue. "That American troops could be killed or maimed because of a covert decision to arm Iraq,' Waas wrote, "is the most serious consequence of a U.S. foreign policy formulated and executed in secret, without the advice and consent of the American public."

The L.A. Times, on Feb 23, 1992, dug deep enough to find secret National Security Decision Directives by the Bush Administration in 1989 ordering closer ties with Baghdad and paving the way for $1 billion in new aid. The Times' series, co-authored with Waas, emphasized that, "buried deep in a 1991 Washington Press piece - that Secretary of State James Baker, after meeting with Iraqi foreign minister Tariq Aziz in October 1989, intervened personally to support U.S. government loans guarantees to Iraq."

The CJR report also noted, "On October 3, the [Wall Street] Journal reported [BNL official Christopher] Drogoul's assertion that the director general of Iraq's Ministry of Industry and Military Production had told him, 'We are all in this together. The intelligence service of the U.S. government works very closely with the intelligence service of the Iraqi government.' Three weeks later, the Journal reported that [Henry] Gonzales 'produced a phone-book- sized packet of documents' showing the involvement of U.S. exporting firms. The documents mentioned one. which designed parts for Iraq's howitzers and was financed through BNL."

In the wake of highly suspicious anthrax outbreaks in Florida, just miles form where several of the WTC suicides pilots trained, we add one final note. In his 1998 book "Bringing the War Home" author William Thomas writes, " Under that same [weapons transfer] program, 19 containers of Anthrax bacteria were supplied to Iraq in 1988 by the American Type Culture Collection company, located near Fort Detrick, MD, the site of the US Army's high security germ warfare labs."

The Carlyle Group, the Bushes and bin Laden

The warnings about Carlyle Group, the nation's 11th largest defense contractor, and the Bushes came long before the World Trade Center attacks. The Carlyle Group is a closely held corporation, exempt from reporting its affairs to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Little is known of what it actually does except that it buys and sells defense contractors. As of October 4, 2001, it has removed its corporate web site from the World Wide Web making further investigation through that channel impossible. Its Directors include Frank Carlucci, former Reagan Secretary of Defense; James Baker, former Bush Secretary of State; and Richard Darman, a former White House aide to Ronald Reagan and Republican Party operative.

On March 3, 2001, just weeks after George W Bush's inauguration, the conservative Washington lobbying group Judicial Watch issued a press release. It said:

(Washington, D.C.) Judicial Watch, the public interest law firm that investigates and prosecutes government abuse and corruption, called on former President George Herbert Walker Bush to resign immediately from the Carlyle Group, a private investment firm, while his son President George W. Bush is in office. Today's New York Times reported that the elder Bush is an "ambassador" for the $12 billion private investment firm and last year traveled to the Middle East on its behalf. The former president also helped the firm in South Korea.

The New York Times reported that as compensation, the elder Bush is allowed to buy a stake in the Carlyle Group's investments, which include ownership in at least 164 companies throughout the world (thereby by giving the current president an indirect benefit). James Baker, the former Secretary of State who served as President George W. Bush's point man in Florida's election dispute, is a partner in the firm. The firm also gave George W. Bush help in the early 1990's when it placed him on one of its subsidiary's board of directors.

"This is simply inappropriate. Former President Bush should immediately resign from the Carlyle Group because it is an obvious conflict of interest. Any foreign government or foreign investor trying to curry favor with the current Bush Administration is sure to throw business to the Carlyle Group. And with the former President Bush promoting the firm's investments abroad, foreign nationals could understandably confuse the Carlyle Group's interests with the interests of the United States government," stated Larry Klayman, Judicial Watch Chairman and General Counsel.

"Questions are now bound to be raised if the recent Bush Administration change in policy towards Iraq has the fingerprints of the Carlyle Group, which is trying to gain investments from other Arab countries who [sic] would presumably benefit from the new policy," stated Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Judicial Watch noted that "even the Clinton Administration called on the Rodham brothers to stop their business dealings in [The former Soviet Republic of] Georgia because those dealings started to destabilize that country."

Since the WTC attacks the Wall Street Journal has reported (Sept. 28, 2001) that, "George H.W. Bush, the father of President Bush, works for the bin Laden family business in Saudi Arabia through the Carlyle Group, an international consulting firm." The senior Bush had met with the bin Laden family at least twice in the last three years - 1998 and 2000 -- as a representative of Carlyle, seeking to expand business dealings with one of the wealthiest Saudi families, which some experts argue, has never fully severed its ties with black sheep Osama in spite of current reports in a mainstream press that is afraid of offending the current administration.

The Nation, on March 27, 2000 - in a story co-authored by David Corn and Paul Lashmar - wrote, "In January former President George Bush and former British Prime Minister John Major paid a social call on Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah." This story confirms at least one meeting between the elder Bush and Saudi leaders, including the bin Ladens. That the bin Ladens attended this meeting was confirmed in a subsequent September 27, 2001 Wall Street Journal (WSJ) story. The January 2000 meeting with the bin Ladens was also later confirmed by Bush (the elder's) Chief of Staff Jean Becker, only after the WSJ presented her with a thank you note sent by Bush to the bin Ladens after that meeting.

James Baker visited the bin Ladens in 1998 and 1999 with Carlyle CEO Frank Carlucci.

The WSJ story went on to note, "A Carlyle executive said that the bin Laden family committed $2 million through a London investment arm in 1995 in Carlyle Partners II Fund, which raised $1.3 billion overall. The fund has purchased several aerospace companies among 29 deals. So far, the family has received $1.3 million back in completed investments and should ultimately realize a 40% annualized rate of return, the Carlyle executive said.

"But a foreign financier with ties to the bin Laden family says the family's overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger."

In other words, Osama bin Laden's attacks on the WTC and Pentagon, with the resulting massive increase in the U.S. defense budget have just made his family a great big pile of money.

More Bush connections appear in relation to the bin Ladens. The WSJ story also notes that, "During the past several years, the [bin Laden] family's close ties to the Saudi royal family prompted executives and staff from closely held New York publisher Forbes, Inc. to make two trips to the family headquarters, according to Forbes Chairman Caspar Weinberger, a former U.S. Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration. 'We would call on them to get their view of the country and what would be of interest to investors.'"

President G.H.W. Bush pardoned Weinberger for his criminal conduct in the Iran-Contra scandal in 1989.

Our current President, George W. Bush has also had -- at minimum -- indirect dealings with Carlyle and the bin Ladens. In 1976 his firm Arbusto Energy was funded with $50,000 from Texas investment banker James R. Bath who was also the U.S. investment counselor for the bin Laden family. In his watershed 1992 book, "The Mafia, The CIA and George Bush," award winning Texas investigative journalist Pete Brewton dug deeply into Bath's background, revealing connections with the CIA and major fraudulent activities connected with the Savings & Loan scandal that took $500 billion out of the pockets of American taxpayers. A long-time friend of George W. Bush, Bath was connected to a number of covert financing operations in the Iran-Contra scandal, which also linked to bin Laden friend Adnan Khashoggi, one of the richest men in the world and the arms merchant who was at the center of the whole Iran-Contra scandal. Khashoggi, whose connections to the bin Ladens is more than superficial, got his first business break by acting as middle-man for a large truck purchase by Osama bin Laden's older brother, Salem.

Another key player in the Bush Administration, Deputy Secretary of Defense Richard Armitage, left his post as an Assistant Secretary of Defense in the Reagan Administration after a series of scandals connected to CIA operatives Ed Wilson, Ted Shackley, Richard Secord and Tom Clines placed him at the brink of criminal indictment and jail. Shackley and Secord are veterans of Vietnam operations and have long been linked to opium/heroin smuggling. The Armitage scandals all focused on the illegal provision of weapons and war materiel to potential or actual enemies of the U.S. and to the Contras in Central America.

Armitage, a former Navy SEAL, who reportedly enjoyed combat missions and killing during covert operations in Laos during the Vietnam War, has never been far from the Bush family's side. Throughout his career, both in and out of government, he has been perpetually connected to CIA drug smuggling operations. Secretary of State Colin Powell, in a 1995 Washington Post story, called Armitage, "my white son." In 1990, then President Bush dispatched Armitage to Russia to aid in its "transition" to capitalism. Armitage's Russian work for Bush has been frequently connected to the explosion of drug trafficking under the Russian Mafias, which became virtual rulers of the nation afterwards. In the early 1990s Armitage had extensive involvement in Albania at the same time that the Albanian ally, Kosovo Liberation Army was coming to power and consolidating its grip, according to The Christian Science Monitor, on 70% of the world's opium trade. [See FTW Vol. II, No 2 - April 24, 1999]

Armitage and Carlucci are both Board Members of the influential Washington think tank, the Middle East Policy Council.

The connections continue with Vice President Dick Cheney. Amongst the multitude of oil pipelines construction running through the new war zone is one project - according to a Sept. 19, 2001 Wall Street Journal story - a joint venture in which the bin Laden family joined with the construction firm H.C. Price. Price subsequently changed its name to Bredero Shaw, Inc. and is now owned by a subsidiary of the Halliburton Corporation, Dresser Industries. It was Dresser industries that gave George H.W. Bush his first post war job in 1948.

Vice President Dick Cheney, who served as Secretary of Defense during Desert Storm, directing the campaign against Saddam Hussein, was Halliburton's CEO until last year's election.

And, according to a 2000 story from Harper's Magazine, in 1990 our current President, through a position as a corporate director of Caterair, owned by the Carlyle Group - at a time when the bin Laden's were invested in Carlyle - had additional connections to the bin Laden family. In addition, on March 1, 1995, when George W. Bush was Texas governor and a senior Trustee of the university, the University of Texas Endowment voted to place $10 million in investments with the Carlyle Group. As to how much of that money went to the bin Ladens we can only guess. But we do know that there is a long tradition in the Bush family of giving money to those who kill Americans.

Now, as the people of America are beginning to awaken to what is really being unleashed upon them, as a few brave souls are asking who's going to get all the money the Bush Administration is "borrowing" from government coffers and who's going to pay for it - the above history is more than ominous.

Considering that during the 1980s, under the pretext of fighting a Sandinista regime in Nicaragua that never once launched an attack on the U.S., these same people oversaw an explosion in U.S. cocaine consumption that went from 80 metric tons in 1979 to 600 metric tons in 1989 - considering that the CIA trained and equipped death squads that tortured and murdered hundreds of thousands of people from Guatemala to Panama - considering that these same people have brutalized Iraq, leaving portions of it radioactively contaminated by depleted uranium for the next 4 billion years and causing a fivefold increase in the number of childhood leukemia cases amidst a starving population, one can only wonder what they will produce for the world now given the context of the World Trade Center attacks.

Mike Ruppert

"From The Wilderness" http://www.copvcia.com

10/14/01
5:56:48 PM

Letter To The FBI Concerning The Anyibiotic Cipro

by Leonard G. Horowitz

Mr. Kevin Dunton Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 250 Northwest Blvd. Ste 200 Coeur D'Alene, Idaho 83814 October 1, 2001 fax: 208-665-2525

Dear Mr. Dunton:

I am reaching out to you as a patriotic American, a loving human being seeking world peace, and a Harvard graduate independent investigator with expertise in the fields of behavioral science, biological warfare, and biochemical terrorism. I relay this information in the hope that it will prompt you, and other FBI officials, to critically examine what I believe is legitimate intelligence bearing on global efforts to fight terrorism. May what I share herein lead to important discoveries regarding the recent terrorist attacks on America, prevent future attacks, and deter escalating global warfare.

I understand that the FBI is currently investigating terrorist group financing, and the likelihood that individuals and organizations with advanced knowledge concerning the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America "shorted" certain stocks and commodities for profit, akin to "inside trading." You are likely familiar with the concept of "wagging the dog" to advance political policies and gain profit. I also know that you are familiar with neo-Nazi organizations operating in the United States, particularly in the northern Idaho area, and their possible involvements in acts of domestic, and international, terrorism. Given this introduction, what follows is evidence strongly suggesting the urgent need to investigate three organizations for leads concerning the funding of global terrorists. The primary suspect is the Bayer Corporation.

Last week, based on a report by ABC News, and previous unprecedented actions by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that were likely influenced by industry lobbyists, ABC was caught "wagging the dog" for Bayer engaged in price gouging panicked American's seeking protection against anthrax. Besides this being of relevance to the FBI's ongoing terrorism investigation as I explain below, this should be investigated as a conspiracy to commit fraud against the U.S. Government and the hundreds of thousands of Americans induced to buy the antibiotic Cipro through such manipulative methods.

According to ABC News (Thursday, Sept. 27), sales of Bayer's antibiotic Cipro have skyrocketed 1,000 percent from fears of anthrax retaliations in "America's New War." Anchorman Peter Jennings reported anxious consumers spending an outrageous $700 per person for a mere two-month supply. Two month supplies of other antibiotics regarded safe and effective against anthrax, and traditionally recommended by experts, are available for as little as $20 at farm feed stores.

Black's Law Dictionary includes within its definition of fraud, "a concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her injury." Peter Jennings heralded ABC's special story the preceding evening by saying, "Preparing for a possible anthrax attack. We're going through these fears, one by one, day by day. Good night." In this context, ABC's special segment on anthrax and Cipro sales may be seen as a form of "white collar bioterrorism." Through this savvy and fraudulent form of drug promotion, consumers are being disadvantaged, over-charged, and placed at risk of injury from the potentially dangerous side effects of an antibiotic that offers no significant advantage over less costly alternatives for anthrax.

The Bayer Corporation maintains several serious skeletons in its corporate closet. In my thirteenth book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare (Tetrahedron Publishing Group; 1-888-508-4787), released in June, 2001, I examine a small number of multinational corporations, including Bayer, that have historically sponsored fear, espionage, and even terrorist campaigns for profit and global domination. Besides being found guilty of transmitting the AIDS-virus, HIV, through contaminated blood products to thousands of trusting consumers during the early 1980s, Bayer was blacklisted by the U.S.Government during, and shortly after, World War II. The OSS and CIA learned that Bayer maintained intimate ties to the German chemical/pharmaceutical cartel known as I.G. Farben. This consortium produced the earliest pesticides, drugs, and war gasses, including Zyclone B used in concentration camp gas chambers. According to the first CIA director Allen W. Dulles, as reported by CBS News war correspondent Paul Manning, the Farben cartel provided the chief economic and industrial engines behind the rise of the Third Reich and Hitler.

The Bayer Company evaded U.S. Government controls during and following the holocaust in which millions of mostly Jewish people were used as experimental subjects in medical atrocities overseen by I.G. Farben's president Hermann Schmitz, who also directed the German-multinational Bayer A.G.

Of urgent pertinence to the FBI's current investigation into terrorism's money trail, a recent investigation into terrorist group funding, issued by The Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee (OBIC) directed by Representative Charles Key, found "Neo-Nazi figures have actually been implicated in Middle Eastern special weapons procurement and terrorist activity." For example, the group reported, "since the 1960s, an old Swiss Nazi named Francois Genaud has reportedly masterminded several airplane hijackings for the PLO." The now defunct "Odessa" organization, the post-war successor to Hitler's S.S., according to OBIC, "had numerous documented meetings with representatives of various Arab organizations; and, during the early 1980s, a Neo-Nazi named Odfried Hepp attacked several U.S. military installations in Germany with bombs. Hepp was later found to have been financed by Al Fatah." Hepp, OBIC reported, did his Ph.D. on "Neo-Nazi/PLO bombings of U.S. housing, cars and military facilities in Germany." Given these facts alone, an FBI investigation into this matter is critical.

I am also contacting congressional leaders at this time urging an immediate U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) investigation into the FDA's "advisory committee" that sponsored the unprecedented sole endorsement of Bayer's Cipro for anthrax. Nowhere in the Physician's Desk Reference (2000) is it claimed that Cipro is especially indicated for anthrax. In fact, Bacillus anthracis is not even mentioned. What is mentioned is that, "although effective in clinical trials, ciprofloxacin is not a drug of first choice in the treatment of presumed or confirmed pneumonia secondary to Streptococcus pneumoniae." This organism, like anthrax, is an aerobic gram-positive microbe. (Likewise, Bacillus anthracis causes pneumonia in the form of commonly terminal hemorrhagic bronchopneumonia.) Furthermore the PDR states: "WARNINGS-THE SAFETY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF CIPROFLOXACIN IN PEDIATRIC PATIENTS AND ADOLESCENTS (LESS THAN 18 YEARS OF AGE), PREGNANT WOMEN, AND LACTATING WOMEN HAVE NOT BEEN ESTABLISHED." Alternatively, numerous bioweapons experts have consistently recommended far less costly and time-tested antibiotics to fight anthrax, including the natural and synthetic penicillins, erythromycin, cephalosporins, and the tetracyclines.

This knowledge is consistent with the published works of pharmacist and attorney, Dr. Lawrence J. Joyce, also an expert in biological warfare with training at the U.S. Army's Dugway Proving Grounds. Dr. Joyce advised that in the event of a required emergency response to anthrax, "the choice of therapy should simply depend on the availability of each antibiotic." He also advised consumers, in advance of an emergency, to spend as little as $20 to purchase such antibiotics at their nearest farm feed and veterinary stores. A complete list of alternative antibiotics and instructions for the general public for anthrax preparedness is currently listed on my affiliated website at http://www.tetrahedron.org.

Any advantages Bayer's product could conceivable offer over these other trusted antibiotics, could not be worth Cipro's extraordinary $700 cost. The U.S. government, in stockpiling this drug following the advisory committee's report, and consumers nationwide obviously frightened into a drug-demanding frenzy, have been royally bilked by this historically untrustworthy multinational company.

Given our current urgent concerns regarding terrorism, drug industry officials whose economic motives clearly conflict with U.S. national security interests, and the health and safety of all Americans, should be investigated forthwith. Given the Bayer Company's infamy and possible financial links to contemporary neo-Nazi and terrorist organizations, ABC, Bayer, and the FDA's "advisory committee" should be investigated by the FBI along with other leads regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks. For all we know, inside traders in these organizations may be funding contemporary terrorist groups in support of industrial espionage operations and global conflict.

This would be textbook Machiavellian theory in practice. That is, create the political problems, fear, and associated financial opportunities, and create the solutions-costly and risky products and services for profit, regardless of the lives lost.

Please provide me with a written response to this urgent request and shared intelligence as soon as possible.

Yours in the Spirit of health and world peace,

Leonard G. Horowitz, D.M.D., M.A., M.P.H. President, Tetrahedron Publishing Group

Cc: Members of the U.S. Congress, Allied peace organizations and the news media.

Source: http://www.tetrahedron.org/articles/anthrax/letter_to_fbi.html

10/14/01
5:38:59 PM

Terrorism Prevention And Treatment Starts With Accurate Diagnosis

by Leonard G. Horowitz

If you are as stunned as most Americans by the horrifying social, economic, and political realities currently unfolding in the aftermath of the "terrorist" attacks on America's icons-the World Trade Center and the Pentagon-don't be fooled. This is history repeating. These events were predictable and predicted by a careful study of history, science, and economics. Much like the ghastly attack on Pearl Harbor that initiated America's involvement in World War II, the September 11, 2001 "Attack on America," and news coverage of its aftermath, is fueling a new world war mentality, global economy, and calls for unprecedented social controls. These controls are reminiscent of the fascist controls of Nazi Germany, and consistent with a long developing globalistic agenda.

Obviously, this could not have been the intended result of suspected Islamic fundamentalists. Are we to believe that such sophisticated intelligence operators, capable of hijacking four planes within minutes of one another, from different airports, and precisely flying these airborne menaces directly into America's most populated and powerful economic and military icons, would have missed predicting what was so predictable?

That is, the outcomes of this day's catastrophes run strikingly contrary to what experts have presumed terrorists typically intend. That is, to win international political favor for their assorted causes.

Recall that in the days and weeks prior to the "Attack on America," world opinion of America and Israel had been seriously degraded. Internationally, leaders voiced outrage over Israel's position concerning the Palestinians. The fallout from the United Nations World Summit on Racism was seriously anti-American and pro-Palestinian. The global community rallied to the side of the Arab world. The American-Israeli alliance was globally condemned.

Would intelligent Islamic military leaders, cunning enough to evade all security enroute to pulling off the greatest and gravest civilian attack in world history, have jeopardized the substantial political concessions they gain during the weeks preceding the attacks? Could these attacks have been authorized simply for the Satanic satisfaction of seeing American civilians bleed, or gaining revenge in a "Holy War" as media spin directors want us to believe?

One could rationalize such an attack against the Pentagon. But against thousands of innocent civilians? Many, if not most of these victims were foreign speaking and born. Many of Islamic or Black. Have you been to New York recently? There are certainly more foreigners driving taxis, working in stores, and running concessions, than stereotypic white Americans.

This simply does not add up.

In order to effectively treat this terrorism problem, or prevent this type of devastation in the future, we need to accurately diagnose the root cause of the problem.

And if Arab world leaders are denying their involvement in these attacks, and other suspects need to be considered, who else remains suspect in this tragic conspiracy.

"The ends justify the means" This phrase is well known. So is the edict, "All is fair in love and war." Aldous Huxley broached these related topics when he wrote, "The nature of the universe is such that ends can never justify the means. On the contrary, the means always determine the end."

Ask yourself, "What social, political, and economic outcomes have resulted from this gravest tragedy?"

Officials and legislators are insisting on levying greater social controls over all people across America. The military and security industries are getting a heavy infusion of support for corporate and investor profits. Global meltdown of U.S. and allied currency markets are prompting calls for the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and leading bankers to establish greater economic controls. Oil prices are soaring.

Who wins by all of this? Islamic fundamentalists? Not particularly. Especially since OPEC was established and continues to be largely controlled by the British and American petrochemical consortium. The Islamic people in general certainly don't win. But key globalists absolutely and entirely do.

In a book published a few months ago entitled, "Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare" (Tetrahedron Publishing Group, 2001; 1-888-508-4787) I precisely identified certain "white collar terrorists" fully capable of such attacks. I critically examined historic records linking petrochemical industrialists, leaders in the globalistic transition, to contemporary terrorist groups.

I conclude, EVEN IF radical Islamic groups orchestrated these horrific attacks, it is urgent that we, as a nation and world, consider the economic and political powers behind such groups. It is apparent and unnerving that certain petrochemical global industrialists, who manipulated the markets and politicians leading up to World War II; whose families and industries profited then from such managed chaos, are the only ones clearly profiting in the aftermath of this "Attack on America."

Who Am I To Make Such Claims? Let me briefly summarize my training. In 1977, I received my doctorate in medical dentistry from Tufts University in Boston. I later received several advanced degrees... One in public health from Harvard University. I joined the faculties at Tufts University and Harvard. I directed an alternative health center for more than a decade. In the early 1980s, the Associated Press featured my work as a trendsetter. My clinic integrated dentistry with general medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic, nutrition, massage, homeopathy, and other "alternative" methods of healing.

In 1999, I won the prestigious "Author of the Year Award" from the World Natural Health Organization for my tenth book. This became my first best-seller, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola-Nature, Accident or Intentional? This book is said, by government health officials, to be largely responsible for America's growing anti-vaccination movement.

Suffice it to say, I have been extremely critical of petrochemical / pharmaceutical industrialists for suppressing more information than they have been telling... Including potentially lifesaving information that could stem the rising epidemics of cancer, autoimmune diseases, and much, much more.

Economic and Political Motives for "Managed Chaos" Over the years I have gathered and published documented evidence that the military, medical, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical industries are intimately linked-economically and administratively-by a virtual cartel of special interests. These, might best be called "white collar terrorists." The threat they pose is adequately demonstrated by the recent "Attack on America." This day may seem like an extreme aberration. In fact, it is more rationally diagnosed as a symptom of global politics. Like World War II, those who funded Hilter's rise to power, those insulated corporate collaborators, simply MANAGED CHAOS.

This political diagnosis and prescription is, after all, written in Latin on the back of every U.S. dollar bill--"Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum." Literally translated this means, "Announcing the Birth of the New World Order Without God," or "Announcing the Birth of a New World Order Out of Chaos."

This seemingly outrageous explanation and conclusion in not simply a "conspiracy theory." As a journalist with dozens of scientific peer reviewed publications to my credit, my conclusions are based on meticulously documented intensive investigations. I've identified organizations, institutions, and individuals instigating, and profiting from, such globally managed chaos. I'll cite some examples.

Your Reality Check into Terrorism Did you know that our government's and media's greatest perceived nemesis, said to be responsible for most terrorist attacks against the United States-Osama bin Laden-took his direction and money from the CIA. This implicates also the British Oligarchy's MI6.

See story at: http://www.msnbc.com/news/190144.asp#BODY

Likewise, did you know that the George H.W. Bush administration supplied Sadam Hussein with the majority of his military armaments, chemical weapons, and biological warfare agents, just weeks prior to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait? Included in this war-making arsenal was the West Nile virus. This bioweapon was shipped by, the Congressional Record reported, Rockefeller University President, Dr. Joshua Lederberg. He is also the curator of the American Type Cell Culture Collection. This is among the world's leading bioweapons suppliers. Oddly, this virus too, struck New Yorkers first.

If you didn't know the above facts, you might be additionally dismayed to learn that the British Secret Service's top-secret alphanumeric (letter/number) code translates the name "New York" into the number "666!" Here's a reality check for you.... The MI6 uses the Pythagorean-based code transcribing the multiples of six (6) where A=6, B=12, C=18, and so on through Z=156. Do the math. The sum of "New York's" letters total "666." That is the Bible's prophesied "Mark of the Beast."

Knowledge is power and ignorance is no longer bliss. Today ignorance is deadly! For instance, based on the above knowledge, three years ago, I moved my family from Boston and New York where I used to work. We moved to a place I felt my children could grow in peace and safety. During the past three years, I have consistently lectured audiences nationwide during television and radio interviews, and live presentations, about the urgent need to "move away from Metropolis"-that is, the corridor between Washington, D.C. and Boston. Obviously, my advice still holds.

You remain at greatest risk by remaining in denial about these facts. Elizabeth Kubler Ross's "Death and Dying" model predicts this risk in reaction to a horrific threat or loss. A normal first reaction is denial. Thus, it is natural for you to want to dismiss my writings and warnings as "foolish conspiracy theory," "religious fanaticism," or even random coincidence. But, believe me, this terrorism is no such thing.

Personal Prayers For Victims and Our Families Our hearts and prayers go out now to the thousands of people who were sacrificed, as I insist, for economics and political advantage in this new world war against humanity. Millions of people now pray for the victims, their families, our great nation, our deceived and deceptive political leaders, and our rapidly changing world. Whether you want to admit it or not, our global family has been attacked. Other forms of "white collar terrorism" continue to threaten, maim, and kill us. The death toll resulting from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks simply pales by comparison to the historic and ongoing atrocities.

A True Story To Learn From the Past Let me explain how my family, and likely yours as well, has been victimized by these same global conspirators. This is a true story. It should make my counsel to you very clear and urgent. . . It should also demonstrate that this message is about saving lives. . . Your loved ones included.

At Nazi gunpoint, in 1938, my mother scrubbed the streets of Vienna. She, like other holocaust victims, became slave labor. How? The petrochemical company largely directing the Third Reich had a labor shortage. This company was called I.G. Farben. To solve their problem, they simply forced white European Jews and political prisoners to labor.

Massive killings occurred in "showers" under the guise of "PUBLIC HEALTH" and "DISINFECTION."

This story reflects what is secretly happening today in our country pertaining to contemporary acts of "terrorism." Keep reading...

By sheer miracle, my mother escaped. She fled to America and settled in Boston. I was reared in America's medical Mecca.

In 1993, my mother died of cancer. Initially, she was struck down by a simple flu shot. She developed a common vaccine injury. Surprisingly, viral proteins in vaccines often cause immune cells to attack and destroy nerves. My mother became weaker. Then paralyzed. With her immune guard down, she developed cervical cancer. A few months later, after a few radiation treatments, she died.

The sad thing is, had my mother integrated this lesson, it's likely she would be alive today to watch my children play.

The critical deadly fact that my mother failed to learn, and we are all at risk for learning "the hard way" is . . .

TODAY'S BIOCHEMICAL WEAPONS, VACCINE, AND DRUG INDUSTRY IS PART OF THE SAME GLOBAL PETROCHEMICAL-PHARMACEUTICAL CARTEL THAT HAS SPONSORED NUMEROUS ACTS OF TERRORISM. THIS LIKELY INCLUDES THE MOST RECENT DEBACLES IN THE UNITED STATES. THIS CARTEL IS A DIRECT DESCENDANT OF THE ROCKEFELLER/I.G. FARBEN MONOPOLY THAT INSTIGATED THE HOLOCAUST.

Please stop what you are doing, and link to my publisher's website at http://www.tetrahedron.org. Review the articles, news stories, and intelligence reports I have posted to share potentially lifesaving knowledge. You will see that I am not making this up.

The Vast and Silent Threat Continues The threat my mother escaped by miracle in 1938 apparently killed her in 1993. She entrusted medical deities for their knowledge and vaccine prescriptions. She trusted mainstream media's messages. This was a great and grave mistake.

I, like other doctors, trained under certain academic standards. The question is, who set these standards? Documents prove that "scientific" organizations, individuals, and pharmaceutical interests, heavily influenced by Rockefeller relatives, set these standards. Conduct a simple library investigation. You will learn this family, and its British cohorts, largely control the news media and entertainment industry as well.

With such varied resources for committing, concealing, and profiting from "white collar terrorism," its no wonder so many are being intoxicated and killed today. With millions of people in hospitals, and thousands now in emergency rooms... Today's physicians' offices, public health units, and hospitals, are effectively like the killing camps of yesteryear. Millions of Americans will go to their early graves this year, like my mother. Members of your family could be struck down similarly. This, as the result of doing what millions of holocaust victims did during World War II. They simply followed authoritative and coercive direction. The direction was given under the guise of "PUBLIC HEALTH," "PUBLIC SAFETY," "RACIAL DISPARITY," and even "DISINFECTION!"

The AIDS and Cancer Terrorists In case you don't know, the Rockefeller family created the cancer industry in the 1920s. Today, the world's leading AIDS research facility is the Aaron Diamond Research Center affiliated with Rockefeller University. AIDS, in fact, is a very bizarre form of cancer. The AIDS virus (HIV) is a cancer virus associated with immune suppression. It leads to three types of cancer: leukemia, lymphoma, and sarcoma. In Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola, I exposed for the first time that these types of viruses were man-made during the 1960s. That's before the modern age of gene splicing! Another Rockefeller-linked company, Litton Industries, directed this research and development through their medical subsidiary, Bionetics. Contaminated hepatitis B vaccines, given to gay men in NYC, and central African Blacks, in 1974, best explains the first AIDS cases. This vaccine was partially prepared by growing hepatitis B viruses in contaminated chimpanzees shipped by Bionetics to New York. There, the Merck Pharmaceutical Company, also financially tied to staggeringly large Rockefeller investments, produced the vaccine that apparently triggered AIDS. Today, the pandemic and profit-making continues.

The Choice to Diagnose and Treat a Horrifying Reality We have a choice to correctly diagnose, and because of this, successfully treat, a horrifying reality, or be killed by it. Much like the undermining of American "public health," drug-based medicine, and U.S. National Security, our country is being attacked by multinational corporate profiteers. These people alone have prospered, and should be blamed, for the recent "Attack on America."

Indeed, knowledge is powerful. But ignorance, or inaccurate intelligence, is deadly. Before we blame the Arab nations and people, retaliate against perceived Islamic threats, and declare World War III, I believe we need to carefully diagnose what ails our planet. Diagnosis means to "see through." It is a requirement for correct and successful treatment of every disorder. It requires accurate intelligence.

I believe we have the intelligence to make an accurate diagnosis to guide treatment. What's missing, by political and economic design, and by effect of the media, is widespread awareness of this intelligence. Without this, the will of the people cannot be exercised to correct what ails us.

If I am right, the thorn in America's side is a symptom of what's on our dollar bill--"Annuit Coeptis Novus Ordo Seclorum." We are being managed through chaos to birth a New World Order. I believe that people around the world want to live in peace. Everyone wants a new world order as opposed to an old world of managed chaos.

"This aggression will not stand," President Bush and the past two American presidents have periodically warned. Proudly, our dollar bill also declairs, "In God we trust." The Bible predicts a new world order too, heralding a thousand years of world peace. I just don't think a planet being "peacefully" managed by multinational corporate fascist population controllers who earn vast revenues from humanity's suffering is what God has in mind. I believe this Father of all nations will ultimately make good on our presidents' repeated warnings. "This aggression will not stand."

About the author: Dr. Leonard G. Horowitz is an internationally recognized authority in public health education. One of healthcare's most captivating speakers, Dr. Horowitz's tenth book, Emerging Viruses: AIDS & Ebola--Nature, Accident or Intentional? became a national bestseller in 1998. His latest book, Death in the Air: Globalism, Terrorism and Toxic Warfare, released in June 2001, by the non-profit Tetrahedron Publishing Group, is previewed at

http://www.Tetrahedron.org

More information may be obtained by calling 1-888-508-4787

10/14/01
4:45:10 PM

VIRGINIA TECH STUDENTS DISCOVERIES CAN HELP PREVENT WATER-BORNE DISEASES

A Virginia Tech engineering graduate student has made discoveries that may help prevent outbreaks of water-borne diseases in the future.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011008065941.htm

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSIOLOGY OR MEDICINE GOES TO DISCOVERS OF KEY REGULATORS OF THE CELL CYCLE

This year's Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine have made seminal discoveries concerning the control of the cell cycle. They have identified key molecules that regulate the cell cycle in all eukaryotic organisms, including yeasts, plants, animals and human. These fundamental discoveries have a great impact on all aspects of cell growth. Defects in cell cycle control may lead to the type of chromosome alterations seen in cancer cells. This may in the long term open new possibilities for cancer treatment.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011008114147.htm

NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS GOES TO DISCOVERS OF NEW STATE OF MATTER: BOSE-EINSTEIN CONDENSATE

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physics for 2001 jointly to Eric A. Cornell, of JILA and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in Boulder, Colorado; Wolfgang Ketterle, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts; and Carl E. Wieman, of JILA and the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado, "for the achievement of Bose-Einstein condensation in dilute gases of alkali atoms, and for early fundamental studies of the properties of the condensates."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011009070037.htm

STABLE POWER SUPPLY THANKS TO WIND TURBINES

Wind turbines can help keep the voltage in the electricity network at a constant level. The power electronics in the turbines can effectively correct peaks and dips in the mains voltage. This is the conclusion reached by NWO-funded researchers.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011009070518.htm

CRAYFISH RESEARCH ILLUSTRATES ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Crayfish boils may be the delicacy of choice at some Southern dinner parties, but environmental studies indicate there's something else cooking in the lobster-like crustacean's future. And understanding the ecological recipe may help researchers predict the health of our nation's streams.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011010073136.htm

KEEPING COOL: MODELING MICROCHIPS INCREASES RELIABILITY

Responding to demands, the microelectronics industry is producing devices that weigh less and do more, faster. But the faster microchips in these devices produce more heat, which can cause the chip to fail. University of Arkansas wind engineering expert Panneer Selvam, a professor of civil engineering, has developed a method to accurately identify areas of chip overheating, the most common cause of chip failure.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011009071231.htm

SCIENTISTS SHARE NOBEL PRIZE IN CHEMISTRY FOR THEIR DEVELOPMENT OF CATALYTIC ASYMMETRIC SYNTHESIS

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has decided to award the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2001 for the development of catalytic asymmetric synthesis, with one half jointly to William S. Knowles of St Louis, Missouri, and Ryoji Noyori of Nagoya University in Japan, "for their work on chirally catalysed hydrogenation reactions" and the other half to K. Barry Sharpless of the the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, "for his work on chirally catalysed oxidation reactions."

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011010073855.htm

MATTER WAVES ON A MICROCHIP: MUNICH MAX-PLANCK RESEARCHERS REACHED "QUANTUM LEAP" TO MINIATURIZE ATOM LASERS

A few years ago, the first atom lasers were built, devices that produce a beam of atoms with many of the properties of a laser beam. Now physicists at the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics and the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet in Munich have demonstrated that atom lasers can be integrated on a microchip (Nature, 4 Oct. 2001).

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011010074437.htm

OREGANO OIL MAY PROTECT AGAINST DRUG-RESISTANT BACTERIA, GEORGETOWN RESEARCHER FINDS

Oil from the common herb oregano may be an effective treatment against dangerous, and sometimes drug-resistant bacteria, a Georgetown researcher has found. Two studies have shown that oregano oiland, in particular, carvacrol, one of oreganos chemical componentsappear to reduce infection as effectively as traditional antibiotics.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011011065609.htm

TERRORIST THREATS TO AGRICULTURE STUDIED

Researchers at the Texas Agricultural Experiment Station say prevention, detection and clean up methods for bioterrorism at the farm level must be found now to avoid human harm and economic devastation of the food and fiber supply.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011012073420.htm

ACCUMULATED CHANGE COURTS ECOSYSTEM CATASTROPHE

Subjected to decades of gradual change by humans, many of the world's natural ecosystems - from coral reefs and tropical forests to northern lakes and forests - appear susceptible to sudden catastrophic ecological change, an international consortium of scientists reports today, Oct. 11, in the journal Nature.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2001/10/011011065827.htm

10/14/01
4:27:02 PM

Journalism Groups Critique Security

by Joel Eskovitz, Associated Press Writer

MILWAUKEE (AP) - Heightened security measures implemented in reaction to the terrorist attacks are limiting the ability of news media to give people the information they need to stay safe, the leaders of 21 journalism groups said Saturday.

While the government must take ``unusual measures'' in time of war, the restrictions ``pose dangers to American democracy,'' according to the statement released at the annual Associated Press Managing Editors conference.

Al Cross, president of the Society of Professional Journalists, said the restrictions on military coverage are understandable. But he said journalists covering other topics, such as the environment and health care, also are facing unnecessary burdens.

``They're finding it increasingly difficult to fulfill their role as watchdogs,'' he said. ``It just seems like things have been done willy-nilly.''

Andrew Holtz, a free-lance reporter in Portland, Ore., said he was told in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks that he could not interview a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention researcher because the Department of Health and Human Services banned all interviews related to terrorism or disasters.

The researcher, who had investigated the long-term mental health effects of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, would have provided crucial information for the public's well-being, he said.

``How could there possibly be any harm in discussing the mental health results of a terrorist attack?'' said Holtz, president of the Association of Health Care Journalists. ``It does seem irrational and overreaching.''

Tony Jewell, a spokesman for Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson, did not return messages left by The Associated Press seeking comment.

Barbara Cochran, president of the 3,200-member Radio-Television News Directors Association, said news crews have had problems because the Federal Aviation Administration grounded news helicopters in major cities following the attacks. Restrictions were recently lifted for 15 of the 30 major metropolitan areas, but any bans seem excessive, she said.

``People are very edgy, and if something untoward happens, they want and deserve the factual information as soon as possible,'' Cochran said. ``Helicopters are often the fastest way to get to the story.''

Messages left at the FAA headquarters in Washington seeking comment were not returned.

Brant Houston, executive director of Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc., said the public should be concerned about restrictions.

``We require more vigilance in our government activities now since they have let us down,'' said Houston, whose Columbia, Mo.-based nonprofit organization compiles information from several databases for more than 100 news outlets.

Houston said information about airport security, bridges and dams, among other things, has been removed from a number of federal Web sites ``without explanation.''

``I think it's outrageous that we're seeing the government remove databases meant to protect the public,'' he said. ``It's really easy to get caught up in the national cause. But in getting caught up, we lose some of the freedoms that the cause is all about.''

On the Net:

SPJ: http://www.spj.org

FAA: http://www.faa.gov

APME: http://www.apme.com

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/htx/ap/20011013/us/security_journalists_1.html

10/14/01
4:15:33 PM

The Inner Truth

by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Riverside Church, New York City, April 4th, 1967

"A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing as they often do in the case of dreadful conflict, we are always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on."

"Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. For we are deeply in need of a new way beyond the darkness that seems so close around us."

"We are called to speak for the weak, for the voiceless, for the victims of our nation, for those it calls "enemy," for no document from human hands can make these humans any less our brothers. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know them and hear their broken cries."

"I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered."

"A true revolution of values will lay hand on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." A nation that continues year and year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

"America, the richest and most powerful nation in the world, can well lead the way in this revolution of values. There is nothing except a tragic death wish to prevent us from reordering our priorities over the pursuit of war."

"This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing and unconditional love for all mankind. We can no longer afford to worship the God of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursed this self-defeating path of hate."

"We still have a choice today: nonviolent coexistence or violent coannihilation. We must move past indecision to action. If we do not act, we shall surely be dragged down the long, dark, and shameful corridors of time reserved for those who posses power without compassion, might without morality, and strength without sight."

"Now let us begin. Now let us rededicate ourselves in the long and bitter, but beautiful struggle for a new world. If we will but make the right choice, we will be able to speed up the day, all over America and all over the world, when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream." "May our country, on the brink of war, take to heart the final refrain of "America, the Beautiful": "America! America! God mend thine ev'ry flaw, Confirm thy soul in self-control, Thy liberty in law."

10/14/01
4:13:44 PM

Declaration Of Humanity

by Michael Brownlee

Since the shocking events of September 11, and the cascade of reactions and responses that have followed, people everywhere have been asking, "What can I do? How can I possibly make a difference in this complex and volatile situation?"

Perhaps what we can do - as a beginning - is to join together on behalf of humanity in a simple Declaration:

* We shall peacefully and lovingly bring to an end human want, violence, war, hatred, crime, hunger, poverty, disease, and inequitable distribution of prosperity.

* We shall accept responsibility for the evolution of life and consciousness on our planet.

* We shall restore, protect, and nurture Earth's ecosystems.

* We shall meet our material and energy requirements without diminishing natural or human resources.

* We shall heal our hearts, our minds, and our bodies - individually and collectively.

* We shall heal our relationships with one another, with the Earth, and with the Cosmos.

* We shall be one united people, the sovereign people of Earth.

* We shall live in harmony with one another and with all other species of intelligent life that we encounter.

* We shall learn to balance within ourselves the material and the spiritual realms.

* We shall consciously evolve as a species, continually enhancing our intelligence, our creativity, our ethics, our compassion, our love, our wisdom, and our Knowledge.

* We shall successfully pass through our current evolutionary threshold and those that await us in the future.

* We shall vigorously protect, defend, and nurture the sovereignty and freedom of our people and our world.

* We shall respect, honor, and support the sovereignty and freedom of all sentient species we encounter.

* We shall responsibly venture beyond our home planet.

* We shall be conscientious participants in and generous contributors to the Greater Community of the Universe.

Michael Brownlee mailto:t@mindspring.com

10/14/01
4:09:14 PM

The Perplexing Puzzle Of The Published Passenger Lists

By Gary North

Maybe you like puzzles. I hope so. I don't like them. I regard them as a challenge, not a game. I avoid them because, when I cannot find a solution, my mind won't stop working on them. Then I get very frustrated. So, I avoid magic shows, crossword puzzles, and similar brain- twisters.

Yet I am also a historian with a Ph.D. Historians are trained to solve puzzles with insufficient pieces. Historians never have all of the evidence that they would like in order to come up with a coherent explanation of what happened. They always want another piece in the puzzle before they go into print. (Of course, once they go into print, they will tend to reject any newly discovered piece that messes up their version of the completed puzzle.) At some point, they are supposed to come to a conclusion. They are supposed to make a judgment about what happened.

I am presently stuck. So, I am sending out this report. Maybe there is someone my list who can get me unstuck.

Years ago, I saw a movie, "My Cousin Vinnie." Vinnie was studying to be a lawyer. He wasn't a good classroom student, but he had a unique ability. He could figure out how things fit together. Show him a magic trick, and he could tell you how the magician did it. Tell him a story with a missing link, and he could identify where the missing link was, and maybe what it was. He could solve puzzles.

I am trying to locate Vinnie.

This puzzle is no game. The United States has gone to war on the basis of one solution to this puzzle. We have not yet been told what this solution is.

The puzzle begins with the crash of four airliners. We must work our way backward from this.

To do this, I decided to begin with official information that was published 16 days after the attack. To work my way backwards, I first leaped forward.

ALLEGED HIJACKERS

On September 27, the Associated Press released a story about the hijackers. The version that I read, published in the ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION, referred to these men as alleged hijackers. I shall do the same.

I located this article by using www.daypop.com. Daypop is the most complete archive of recent news stories on the Web. Daypop allows you to search for stories that are up to four weeks old.

I searched for "passenger list" and "hijackers." Daypop produced three pages of links -- not that many. Almost all of these links were to the same AP story, which was published by numerous on-line news sources. Here is the version I used.

< FONT SIZE=+1>http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/terrorism/nation/0927hijackerlist.html< /FONT>

The headline reads: "FBI releases updated list of alleged hijackers." Above the headline is a link that says, "Click here to see 19 suspected hijackers." I clicked it. A large box popped up. It took a while for the photos to appear. There are 19 photos, along with names. The names appear to be Middle Eastern -- Arabs. Most of the men look like Arabs, although a few might pass as Mexicans. Only one of them looked vaguely like a European.

They are divided into four lists, according to which flight they are said to have boarded. There were five men on American Airlines Flight 77, five on AA Flight 11, five on United Airlines Flight 175, and four on UA Flight 93 -- the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

Let's return to the AP story itself. We read the following:

As Attorney General John Ashcroft launched a "national neighborhood watch" with the release of the photos, FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged that questions remained about whether an accompanying list contained the true names of the 19.

"What we are currently doing is determining whether, when these individuals came to the United States, these were their real names or they changed their names for use with false identification in the United States," Mueller said.

The FBI director said there was evidence that one or more of the hijackers had had contacts with al-Qaida, the network associated with Osama bin Laden, the exiled Saudi millionaire who is the Bush administration's top suspect in the attacks.

This story indicates that, as of September 27, the FBI was not certain whether these suspects had used their real names. The remainder of the story listed each of their names, along with possible aliases. The aliases all look like Arab names.

I have discovered no additional information released to the general public regarding these suspects.

I now backtrack to the morning of September 11. The issue that I am trying to deal with is airline security. To draw rational conclusions about how the alleged hijackers accomplished their acts of terrorism, we must begin with airline security.

The United States has now gone to war because of a breakdown somewhere in airline security procedures. Yet nobody in government is blaming the specific airlines. They are blaming the procedures. This is why I want you mentally to go through the procedures with me. I have hit a brick wall. I am asking you to help me knock it down. I will show you how I went through the procedures mentally. See if you can figure out which step I missed.

Step One is check-in.

STEP ONE: CHECK-IN

On September 11, airline check-in counters were the only places in the United States that required travellers to present a photo ID in order to travel. A photo ID meant (and still means) a card issued by some branch of civil government. Years ago, the United States government took the first step toward a national ID card when it mandated the requirement that all passengers present a photo ID card before being allowed to get on a commercial airplane.

This means that the tightest security that the typical American ever confronts is airport security. This is the model for all other security systems governing the general public.

Let's go through the check-in routine together. Pretend that it's September 11, and you are a check-in agent at either a United Airlines counter or an American Airlines counter. It is your job to ask the standard questions. "Did you pack your own luggage? Have you had it in your possession at all times?" Then you ask for a photo ID. The name on the ID must match the name on the ticket. The photo must match the person presenting the card.

I began with American Airlines, Flight 11. This was the plane that crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. I began with the list of passengers. This was not difficult. The passenger lists for all four planes are posted on CNN's Website.

Click on the link. This is a long link for the formatting of my newsletter. If it is broken on your screen, you will have to paste it into your Web browser's address box. This will take two steps.

< FONT SIZE=+1>http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA11.victims.html< /FONT>

The CNN page says that there were 92 people on board. I suggest that you print out the list. Part of my exercise was to count the names of the passengers. Besides, you never know when a Web page will disappear.

Do you have the print-out in front of you? Count the names. I get 86 names, including the crew. But the CNN page says 92 people were on board.

None of the 86 names is an Arab name. This is very, very strange. First, how did the CNN list-compiler know that there were 92 people on board? Five of them are not listed. Second, how did anyone get on board who was not on the list of ticketed passengers?

To get onto the flight legally, each passenger had to have a ticket with his or her name on it. Each passenger had to present a photo ID to the check-in agent. The check-in agent was supposed to look at the picture and the person, and then make a judgment. Was it the same person? If the mandated procedure was followed, the check-in agent decided that the ticket's name, the photo ID's name, the photo, and the ID-holder's face all matched. If there was any doubt, the check-in agent was supposed to ask for some other form of identification. If there was none, the person was not allowed to board the plane.

We are told by the United States government that five Arabs somehow got through this initial screening procedure. How did they do this? This is puzzle number one regarding Flight 11. Puzzle number two has to do with the incomplete passenger list.

Airlines keep a list of passengers on board. This is for insurance purposes, should there be a crash. It is also for the purpose of notifying relatives after a crash. It is also for the purpose of in-cabin screening. "Has everyone paid who is on the plane?" And, finally, is there a hijacker on board?

On American Airlines Flight 11, there were no Arab names on the passenger list. So, how does the government know who the hijackers were?

Why does CNN's Web page list 92 dead, when there are only 86 name listed? Who was the non-Arab?

I have seen nothing about government accusations against American Airlines for substandard check-in security procedures. In fact, I have seen nothing about the discrepancy between the published names and the published numbers regarding how many people were on board.

Let's go to American Airlines Flight 77. This plane crashed into the Pentagon.

< FONT SIZE=+1>http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/AA77.victims.html< /FONT>

We are told that 64 people were on board. I count 56, including 6 crew members. There is no explanation offered for the absence of 8 names. There is no Arab name on this list.

Something is definitely wrong here.

What about United Airlines? Did the company's employees follow the same check-in procedure? Presumably, they did. I checked Flight 175, which crashed into the south tower.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua175.victims.html

There were 56 people on board, according to CNN's summation. I printed out the list. I counted the names. Once again, they don't add up. The summation says there were 2 pilots, 7 flight attendants, and 56 passengers. I counted the names. The total is 56 -- the number attributed to the passengers. Nine names are missing. None of the listed names is Arab.

This leaves United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. It had 45 people on board, according to the summation.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/victims/ua93.victims.html< /FONT>

Again, there is a discrepancy. Only 33 names appear on the list. A dozen names are missing. Among the missing names are the four Arabs who allegedly hijacked the plane.

So, the published names in no instance match the total listed for the number of people on board. CNN really should offer an explanation for this discrepancy.

In no case does an Arab name appear on a list, let alone one of the alleged hijackers.

How did CNN fail to count the names accurately? Did the airlines not provide the full list of each flight's names? Perhaps so.

This raises the next question. How did the airlines know how many people were on each of these flights? The airlines must have had a list for each flight. What possible reason could they have had for not releasing the full lists? Finally, why are there no Arabs listed on any of these lists, let alone the specific Arabs identified by the Attorney General and the head of the FBI in an Associated Press story?

I do not understand how 19 Arabs could have evaded the check-in procedures. I also do not understand why every passenger's name is not on the published lists.

I have seen no other source of the passenger lists. (Another search word: "manifests.") It has now been over a month since the attack. Where is a complete list? I don't know. Where is a complete list of all four flights that has the alleged hijackers' names on it? I don't know.

Finally, where is some enterprising reporter who is trying to get answers? I don't know.

What about Step Two?

STEP TWO: ON-BOARD SEATING

There were multiple terrorists in the cabin of each plane when the plane left the ground. They did not get there through the ticket-screening system. Or did they? If they did, then how?

I assume here -- again, maybe I am wrong -- that they got there through another entrance. Maybe they were part of the food service team.

These were all cross-country flights. The planes were loaded with lots of fuel, which is why they were selected: flying bombs. On cross-country flights, passengers still are given meals, not just pretzels and soft drinks. The number of meals is supposed to match the number of people on board, or at least come close.

Flight attendants have a list of passengers and their assigned seats. This is to enable them to identify passengers who have requested special meals, such as kosher meals. It is also to enable them to identify people who have not bought a ticket. Flight attendants are supposed to know who has been assigned to which seat.

It is September 11. Here is the situation: there are an extra five men on three flights, and four extra men on Flight 93.

You have already seen the photos of these men. If I had been a flight attendant, and I saw five extra men who looked like they did -- young, Arabic, and without tickets -- I would have asked them to explain why they were on board. I would not have assumed that they belonged there.

Are we to assume that on four separate flights, none of the flight attendants noticed that something was wrong? Are we to believe that they failed to notice that five or four extra passengers were on board who were not on the passenger list? Furthermore, these men looked as though they were of one ethnic group. They all had Arabic accents, I presume.

Why did the flight attendants ignore all this? There is no indication from the government that these men took over all four planes while the planes were still on the ground. Even if they had, the pilots would not have taken off if there were hijackers on board. They would have waited to hear the demands, and the demand to "take off now" would have been refused by at least one flight crew -- and I believe all four.

We need a theory of the co-ordinated hijacking that rests on a plausible cause-and-effect sequence that does not assume the complete failure of both the check-in procedures and the on-board seating procedures on four separate flights on two separate airlines. If the explanation does rely on a theory of check-in procedural breakdown, where is the evidence?

I have heard no such theory from the government. I have heard no such theory from the news media. In fact, I have heard neither the government nor the mainstream media even mention these perplexing problems. Perhaps you have. If so, I would like to see the Web link or a reference to the newspaper or other source where these matters have been discussed.

I don't mean this or that discussion forum devoted to conspiracy theories. I mean the mainstream press. It is very peculiar that the mainstream media and the government have not offered a detailed theory of how the hijackers evaded both the check-in procedures and the pre-takeoff seating procedures.

Perhaps some airline industry publication has dealt with this. If so, I would like to see the document.

I would also like to see passenger lists that include every passenger's name. I want to see 19 Arab names on these complete lists.

If these updated lists are ever released, I want to see that they match the original lists that were not released immediately. I want to know that any new names have not been added retroactively. I want evidence -- from travel agencies' records and credit card records -- that everyone on each plane's updated passenger list actually bought a ticket.

Is this to much to ask? So far, apparently it is.

CONSPIRACY THEORIES

Conspiracy theories are a dime a dozen. Well, not all of them. We have gone to war based on one of them. But I don't see how anyone can make an accurate judgment about who was behind the attacks until he has a plausible explanation of how the hijackers got onto the planes and were not removed.

I am not interested in any theory about who did it until I have a plausible explanation for how he did it.

The key to discovering who planned this attack is inescapably tied to the procedures used by his agents to do it.

I don't see how they did it, yet I know that three planes crashed into highly visible targets. A fourth plane had veered off course, and it seems plausible that it was part of a co-ordinated attack. This has yet to be proven, but it seems plausible.

We keep hearing about plastic knives and box cutters. But we hear nothing about how these 19 men took plastic knives and box cutters onto four planes, and no one noticed that anything was amiss until the planes were in the air.

So, you tell me. How did 19 Arabs get onto these planes and then remain inconspicuous until the planes were aloft?

CONCLUSION

I have no conclusion. I told you this at the beginning. I am stuck.

I am looking for Vinnie. Maybe you're Vinnie. After you have drawn your own conclusion, and it seems reasonable, let me know.

But before you do, please run your theory by someone whose judgment you trust. See if that person thinks your theory is plausible. See if he or she can pick holes in it. Don't make me your first guinea pig. I want to be at least second. Third would be even better.

We need to get the division of intellectual labor working here. As the Bible says, "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up" (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10).

If you have no logical explanation, join the club. Maybe you know a potential Vinnie. Use your FORWARD button to send him or her a copy of this report. Ask for feedback.

Notice to all would-be Vinnies: with each forwarding, e-mail software adds either a carrot -- this is a carrot: -- or a vertical line. This pushes the text to the right. If you have received this after several forwardings, the text may be difficult to read. You can get a fresh copy by sending an e-mail to puzzle@kbot.com, or click this link and then click SEND:

mailto:puzzle@kbot.com

Somewhere out there is a person who can solve this puzzle. There has to be a solution. I just don't know what it is.

In future issues of this newsletter, I will report on any conclusions that look plausible to me.

If you're not yet a subscriber, and you want to read what some of these conclusions are, you can subscribe for free. Send an e-mail to this address: unstuck@kbot.com, or click on the link and then click the SEND button:

mailto:unstuck@kbot.com

You will receive a welcome letter from me within a few seconds. It will explain what my newsletter is all about.

P.S. Send your proposed solution to solution@kbot.com You will receive a short autoresponder-generated letter telling you that I have received it. This way, you will know that your solution got through to me.

To subscribe to Reality Check go to:

http://www.dailyreckoning.com/GetReality.cfm

Source: http://www.rense.com/general15/perplexingpuzzle.htm

10/14/01
3:54:19 PM

It Would Be Worse Than Chernobyl

The Sellafield reprocessing plant - on a busy air corridor just 50 miles from Lockerbie - could be the &#8216;perfect&#8217; target for terrorists in a hijacked aircraft.

by Kate Foster (kfoster@scotsman.com) http://www.scotsman.com

IF A hijacked airliner plunged into Sellafield&#8217;s nuclear reprocessing complex, the radiation that followed could cause more than two million cancer cases and make some places uninhabitable, scientists have warned.

Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the impact would "almost certainly" break open some of the tanks containing high-level radioactive liquid waste, and the accompanying explosion would fling a plume of radioactivity into the atmosphere.

He said: "The explosion and the fire would just be the beginning. The burning fuel would continue to pump radioactivity into the air.

"Putting this fire out wouldn&#8217;t be easy. Fire crews struggled to damp down the fire after the Pentagon crash on 11 September, and they didn&#8217;t have deadly radiation to contend with.

"A crash of such magnitude would probably destroy the cooling systems, too," he added. "Tanks that survived the initial impact would heat up and start to spew out more radioactivity within hours."

The warning comes after fears were voiced that Britain&#8217;s emergency services are under-equipped and under-resourced to cope with terror attacks and not properly trained to deal with the casualties of chemical or nuclear warfare.

Ministers responded to demands from firemasters with a £200 million package for emergency services, but fire sources have insisted that the biggest risk from terrorist attacks are nuclear or chemical installations.

Contingency plans are currently being reviewed but, according to the Fire Brigades Union in Scotland, resources for such specialist training have not been made available.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, an exclusion zone was set up around the plant and more than a quarter of a million people were resettled. Radiation spread so far that sheep in Wales still have to be tested to check they are safe to eat.

So far, 11,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been reported in the Ukraine and Belarus.

According to Mr Thompson, who has been investigating the high-level waste tanks for local authorities in Britain for the past five years, if a passenger jet were to plough into building B215 at Sellafield, which contains 21 concrete and steel waste tanks, as much as half of its 2,400kg of caesium-137 could escape into the air.

Reprocessing involves dissolving old fuel rods in acid and extracting the plutonium. The leftover liquid, which contains a mixture of wastes including caesium-137, is stored in the tanks in B215. It is so radioactive the tanks have to be cooled constantly to prevent their contents from boiling and leaking out.

Mr Thompson said: "The amount of caesium-137 that would be escape into the atmosphere is 44 times more than was released by Chernobyl ."

He added: "Immediately after the attack, there would be widespread chaos as authorities tried to organise mass evacuations. In years to come, the death toll might be terrible."

In a statement, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) said: "Major nuclear facilities, including reactors and highly active waste stores, are constructed to extremely robust engineering standards and incorporate large quantities of reinforced concrete as an integral part of the construction.

"These facilities are resistant to many terrorist threats, including aircraft impact. Safety cases and contingency plans take these events into account."

But according to a safety report published last year, the 21 high-level waste tanks in B215 have not been constructed to withstand crashing planes.

It states: "There has been no specific design provision to protect against crashing aircraft."

John Large, an independent nuclear engineer, has identified seven potential terrorist targets at Sellafield, including the high-level waste tanks and a store containing 70 tonnes of plutonium. He said all their radioactive inventories are published, and aerial photographs showing their precise locations are easy to get hold of.

Mr Thompson says he is "disturbed" that Sellafield is storing so much high-level waste in such a dangerous form.

He said: "BNFL is meant to solidify the liquid waste into blocks of glass to make it safer, but technical problems are holding up the process."

Meanwhile, according to New Scientist, aviation sources have pointed out that every year thousands of large passenger jets fly along the coast near Sellafield, on their way from European airports to the west coast of the US.

Lockerbie, where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in 1988, is less than 50 miles away.

But, according to Mr Thompson, Sellafield is not the only possible target for a terror attack. There are similar storage facilities in several countries, including the US and Russia.

Kate Foster

mailto:kfoster@scotsman.com

Source: http://www.scotsman.com

10/14/01
2:43:21 PM

Anthrax Confirmed in 3rd State Letter From Malaysia Tests Positive in Nevada; 2nd NBC Case Possible

By Michael Powell and Justin Blum Washington Post Staff Writers

Federal officials confirmed yesterday that they had found anthrax in a third state, as law enforcement and health officials scrambled to investigate a growing number of illnesses and letters carrying the deadly bacterium.

Nevada officials said that a letter postmarked in Malaysia had tested positive for anthrax spores, and New York physicians were investigating a possible new case of anthrax infection at NBC.

In Florida, American Media Inc. officials reported five new cases of anthrax exposure at their office building, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said test results were too preliminary to make that statement. If additional analysis, which is expected to be completed in a week, shows that the five were exposed, that would bring the number of infected employees to eight. One man has died. Authorities said that none of the new people identified in preliminary tests had displayed any symptoms, and all were being treated with antibiotics.

In New York City, health officials reported that a second employee had shown symptoms of skin anthrax exposure. A personal assistant to NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw already is known to be infected with a form of anthrax, apparently after she handled a letter postmarked in Trenton, N.J., on Sept. 18.

And in Edison, N.J., a man who works at a Ford Motor Co. plant had an ambiguous test result for anthrax and is undergoing additional tests. The man, 58, had a rash on his body similar to the type associated with cutaneous anthrax, and he went to a hospital, where a nurse notified the FBI, according to the FBI's Newark Field Office.

The letters, test results and instances of powder found on commercial airliners raise new questions about a possible concerted attempt to spread the rare and often deadly disease. The letter to Nevada was postmarked in Malaysia and the letter to NBC was postmarked in Trenton. Both places are believed to have relatively heavy concentrations of operatives and supporters of Osama bin Laden, intelligence experts said.

Jersey City was the cradle of the plot to bomb the World Trade Center in 1993. And bin Laden associates met in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's largest city, in January 2000 to help plan the bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen later that year.

FBI officials are pursuing a possible link between the anthrax cases and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington. But they emphasized that it was too soon to gauge the importance of the postmarks.

"These cases are all at different stages," one FBI official said. "It's really too early for us to make any judgments yet."

Bard O'Neill, a Middle East terrorism expert at the National Defense University, cautioned against quick conclusions but added that the letters suggested a pattern.

"What's more likely in my mind is this is somehow being encouraged or instigated by bin Laden's people," O'Neill said. "If this was just a bunch of nuts doing this from around the world, the letters probably wouldn't fall in the same time frame."

In Nevada, Gov. Kenny Guinn (R) confirmed that a suspicious letter sent to a Microsoft subsidiary in Reno had tested positive for anthrax. The state epidemiologist said that investigators had performed three tests on the letter and its contents and that they had found anthrax bacteria.

At least six employees of Microsoft Licensing Inc. apparently handled the letter or its contents, but examinations of their skin, noses and throats found no trace of anthrax.

The letter included several pages of pornographic pictures, apparently ripped out of a magazine. It had sat unopened in the Microsoft subsidiary for several weeks.

"We want everyone to know that all our laboratory microbiologists feel this is a very, very low risk for public health," Guinn said at an afternoon news conference in Carson City. He said the letter did not contain powders likely to become airborne. The disease is far more lethal when the spores enter the lungs.

In New York, the investigation took a new turn as city health officials found a second female NBC employee with signs of anthrax infection. She had a low-grade fever, headaches and lesions, which a spokesman defined as sores that did not appear to be healing.

This woman was the NBC employee who first opened the letter from Trenton on Sept. 19 or 20 and found a brown granular substance inside.

"At the time she opened this, some brown stuff spilled out," said Neal Shapiro, president of NBC News. "She thought nothing of it at the time. It was long before Florida, the anthrax scare. It was placed with some of the hate mail."

The letter was passed on to Brokaw's assistant, Erin O'Connor. A few days later a different letter arrived from St. Petersburg, Fla., containing a white substance. Then NBC news staffers began trying to track down any other letters with white substances.

At that point, the second woman recalled opening a letter with a brown substance.

"This person helped us close the loop, solve the mystery," Shapiro said.

O'Connor, meanwhile, had fallen ill, as what she had thought was a mosquito bite near her collarbone spread into an inch-and-a-half black rash. "It was more than a rash," said her father, John O'Connor. "It looked like something had gouged it out."

City and federal health officials described her symptoms as mild. But her father said his daughter became quite ill the weekend of Sept. 29. "She had a very high fever," he said. "She got a little delirious from it."

On Monday, Oct. 1, she visited a specialist, Richard Fried. He suspected anthrax and placed her on Cipro, which has stanched the infection. Fried said he notified the city health department, but some authorities said the case revealed holes in the public health system. Fried said he was surprised to find that the city knew nothing of the NBC incident when he called.

The network had turned the letter over to the FBI almost a week earlier.

"I was surprised to learn on October 1st that they had no prior knowledge of this," Fried said.

The reports of potential new anthrax cases in Florida came one day after the FBI announced that only one of the nearly 1,000 nasal swabs of company employees, contractors, messengers and relatives had tested positive for the disease. Now, more sensitive blood tests, which measure a body's response to an infection, have found five new cases, AMI officials said. AMI advised its employees yesterday to continue taking antibiotics, said AMI general counsel Michael B. Kahane.

"Five people have tested positive for anthrax antibodies, which would indicate that at some point in their lives, they have had exposure," said Kahane, who said he arranged with Florida officials to provide antibiotics for as long as necessary. He said he was afraid that employees had interpreted Friday's FBI news as a reason to stop taking the medicine.

Lisa Swenarski, a CDC spokeswoman, said last night that the blood analysis completed so far is inconclusive. "We do not have final results. . . . Once we get the second part of this test, that will show us whether they have been exposed."

Two of the five whose blood tested positive work for the National Enquirer, according to an Enquirer employee who was briefed by an editor and spoke on the condition of anonymity. One employee has a fever, but it is unclear whether the fever is connected to anthrax.

AMI owns the Enquirer and the Sun.

Three of the employees found to be infected do not handle mail and sit in a separate section of the third floor, far from Bob Stevens, the Sun photo editor who died Oct. 5 from anthrax. They work down a hall and around the corner from the Sun.

News of the new infections rattled employees.

"It's like what does this mean? The infestation is more widespread than we thought and it came a different way," the Enquirer staffer said. "It's scary."

Public health officials in Florida urged caution about the newest reports of anthrax exposure. AMI employees so far have given one of two required blood samples, Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the Palm Beach County Health Department, said last night. "It's going to take a second test to get any confirmation. Nobody's ready right now to say there has been any exposure," he said.

The FBI, meanwhile, continues to pursue its criminal investigation, and agents have questioned several AMI employees. The FBI asked basic questions at first, employees said, and began follow-up interviews late this past week. Investigators are asking employees if anyone in their families has worked as a biologist, or is familiar with chemicals.

Investigators also have been asking about disgruntled former employees.

"They were interested in pretty much anything we had to tell them, the mail we received, if we received anything unusual," said Edith Schorah, a senior editorial assistant at the National Enquirer, one of the AMI tabloids.

Schorah said FBI agents on Thursday went to her house and asked if Stevens had any enemies who worked in the building.

"I said that was not possible," said Schorah, a long-time friend of Stevens, who said he was widely liked.

The reports of new cases of anthrax, coupled with repeated federal warnings that a terrorist attack could be imminent, have rattled many Americans. Police report that thousands of people have visited emergency rooms requesting antibiotics. In New York, subways have periodically been slowed, as officials check false reports of problems.

US Airways Flight 121 from Charlotte, N.C., to Denver, which was carrying 60 passengers, was diverted yesterday to Indianapolis after a flight attendant found a powdery substance on the plane. Tests found that the substance was not hazardous, and it was believed to be a packing powder used to separate plastic bags.

Seventeen people aboard United Airlines Flight 1 were checked by a hazardous materials unit after the plane arrived at Dulles International Airport yesterday afternoon following the discovery of a white powder in a lavatory while the plane was en route from London, authorities said.

United's Boeing 777, with 216 passengers, landed safely at 3:50 p.m., and the crew and passengers who were checked were permitted to leave at 5:30 p.m., a Dulles spokeswoman said. She said the powder, which reportedly was found by a passenger, was turned over to the FBI for testing at Fort Detrick, Md.

In California, 80 passengers and five crew members aboard United Flight 1669 from Chicago to San Jose were held on the jetliner for three hours after it landed because a passenger said a man had dispersed a powdery substance in the ventilation system. FBI spokesman Andrew Black told the Associated Press the substance was confetti from a greeting card that a longtime San Francisco Bay area resident had accidentally spilled.

Staff writers William Booth, Dan Eggen, Tom Jackman, John Mintz, Dale Russakoff and Peter Slevin and special correspondent Christine Haughney in New York contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0677.Afghan.Day.7.htm

10/14/01
2:41:06 PM

Saturday, 13 October, 2001, 22:45 GMT 23:45 UK BBC | Al-Qaeda threatens US and UK

Bin Laden: Prime suspect for the 11 September attacks

The al-Qaeda organisation of Islamic militant Osama Bin Laden has threatened fresh terror attacks against both the United States and the United Kingdom.

The truth shows that Bush is an agent of Israel and sacrifices his people and his country's economy for those, and helps them occupy the Muslims' land and persecute their sons

Al-Qaeda spokesman Spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith said there would be strikes in retaliation for the military action being taken against Afghanistan by US and British forces.

He advised Muslims in the US and UK not to travel by plane and not to live in skyscrapers - a clear reference to the 11 September suicide attacks on New York's World Trade Center using hijacked aircraft.

White House spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise described the al-Qaeda statement as "just more propaganda".

The World Trade Center was destroyed by hijacked aircraft

Ghaith warned the US and UK to leave the Arabian peninsula or else "the land will be set on fire under their feet".

Ghaith added: "The storm will not calm as long as you [the United States and Britain] do not end your support for the Jews in Palestine, lift your embargo from around the Iraqi people, and have left the Arabian peninsula."

He threatened US President George W Bush and his father, former President Bill Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for their "terrible crimes and the worst crimes".

"Millions of Muslims, men, women and children, have died without doing anything," he said.

The message came as the US-led air strikes on Afghanistan continued and fears grew over the anthrax outbreak in the US.

The al-Qaeda statement was made in a recorded message broadcast on the Qatari satellite TV network al-Jazeera.

The US networks did not broadcast the message following requests by the government, amid fears that Bin Ladin was using them to send coded messages to supporters.

Al-Jazeera was also asked not to broadcast anything which incited Muslims to violence.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0677.Afghan.Day.7.htm

10/14/01
2:36:29 PM

Fresh US raids follow bombing error

The US says the air strikes are succeeding

The United States has carried out a seventh night of air strikes on Afghanistan after Pentagon officials admitted a targeting mistake led to a bomb being dropped on a residential area of the capital, Kabul.

The bomb was meant to hit a helicopter at Kabul airport, but a wrongly entered digit in the bomb's global positioning system meant it missed its target by a mile.

The Defence Department regretted any loss of life.

"We have no accurate way of estimating the number of casualties, but reports from the ground indicate there may have been four deaths and eight injured," a Pentagon statement said.

In the latest air raids, Kabul airport, the military academy and an artillery base were among the reported targets.

Witnesses said warplanes dropped three bombs on Kabul, rocking the city with huge explosions and creating a fireball over the airport.

Military positions around the city of Jalalabad and a Taleban military camp in Kandahar also came under attack, and strikes were reported on an airport near the western city of Herat.

Reuters news agency quotes US military officials as saying that pilots are increasingly going after "targets of opportunity" that they spot from the air, such as parked aircraft or troop convoys.

The ruling Taleban in Afghanistan - who are sheltering Osama Bin Laden, accused of masterminding last month's devastating terror attacks on the US - say at least 300 civilians have been killed in the strikes, but only five deaths have been independently confirmed so far.

The rebel Northern Alliance in Afghanistan say the US strikes have crippled the Taleban's fighting ability.

"They have lost their capacity to launch counter-offensives," said the Alliance's Foreign Minister, Abdullah Abdullah.

But the BBC's Afghanistan correspondent, Kate Clark, reports that in practice, Alliance commanders admit they need America to attack Taleban front-line positions if they are to have any hope of capturing Kabul, which they lost to the Taleban six years ago.

In his weekly radio address, President George W Bush declared the first phase of the military campaign against Bin Laden a success, saying a week of bombing had disrupted "the terrorist network inside Afghanistan".

"American forces dominate the skies over Afghanistan and we will use that dominance to make sure terrorists can no longer freely use Afghanistan as a base of operations," President Bush said.

The Taleban have rejected a "last chance" to surrender Bin Laden that was offered by President Bush at a White House news conference on Thursday.

The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press (AIP) reported the reclusive Taleban leader Mullah Omar as saying in a message: "Our sin is that we have imposed an Islamic system in our country and have given protection to a homeless Muslim, oppressed, who cannot even find a place in any part of the world to sit for an hour."

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0677.Afghan.Day.7.htm

10/14/01
2:28:46 PM

Bush's Volatile Coalition

The Islamic Conference Snubbed the Taleban

by Bridget Kendall BBC Diplomatic Correspondent

From President George W Bush downwards, United States officials continue to remind us that this is an unconventional war, like no military conflict that has gone before it.

But so far, on a superficial level, the echo of Nato's conflict with Yugoslavia is unmistakable.

The same nightly sorties by state-of-the-art fighter planes from airbases and aircraft carriers many miles away, the same sophisticated and powerful bombs, launched at high altitude.

And the following day, inevitable pictures from inside Afghanistan of craters and shattered buildings, and worrying reports, impossible to verify, of civilian casualties.

It is undoubtedly true that the longer air strikes continue, the harder it will be for the US and its allies to keep global support solid.

Initial reassurance

When the first bombs were dropped on Sunday night, the initial response must have reassured the US and its partners.

There was immediate support from close allies in Europe and beyond, including President Vladimir Putin in Russia.

Further afield, only a few countries issued swift denunciations.

Iraq, of course, lambasted the US; Iran called the action unacceptable.

But elsewhere, governments that had previously signalled misgivings were, for the most part, silent or non-committal.

As the US and its allies take stock nearly one week into the campaign, they have reason to feel both relieved and worried.

Taleban snubbed

Perhaps most reassuring for Washington is that, despite widespread disquiet in the Muslim world about the idea of US strikes against another Muslim nation, the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers in Qatar on Wednesday did not call for an end to military action in Afghanistan - a direct snub to the Taleban who had appealed to the conference to do so.

What's more, in the course of the week, important allies have signalled they will co-operate.

President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt broke several days of silence to indicate his acceptance, noting that Egypt had had its fair share of terrorist attacks.

Under orders from Yasser Arafat, Palestinian police have moved to curb pro-Osama Bin Laden demonstrations in the West Bank and Gaza.

It has emerged that Uzbekistan, one of Afghanistan's neighbours, has signed a new security pact with the US.

Pakistan co-operation

And another vital player in this drama, President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, has acted swiftly to mute the influence of Taleban sympathisers in his country.

He has reshuffled his military top brass, put several clerics under house arrest, issued stern warnings against rowdy protests and announced two airbases would be made available to the US for what is euphemistically described as "logistics".

This means they will be available for refuelling, humanitarian or search and rescue operations but not, say Pakistani officials, for launching combat missions.

Nonetheless the global coalition that has so carefully been put in place is fragile. Any miscalculation by the US could have serious consequences.

Fragile coalition

Already a warning from hawks in Mr Bush's administration that the war on terrorism might need to be extended to other targets, like Iraq, has drawn a stern warning from the Arab world.

Their message is simple: the coalition will fracture if another Arab nation is targeted.

And though the demonstrations after Friday prayers in many Muslim countries were less violent and drew smaller crowds than some had anticipated, they represented a protest movement that could grow, and, in time, force governments to distance themselves from Washington.

Already, apparently in response to public opinion, the prime minister of Malaysia has said he thinks the air strikes should stop.

And in Indonesia, the parliament has called on the president to rethink relations with Washington.

Volatile public opinion

Besides this, there are signs that public opinion elsewhere may also be volatile.

In the US, UK, and many other European allies, opinion polls have shown solid support for the military campaign.

One poll in the UK even suggested support had increased as the week continued.

But that picture is not mirrored everywhere.

In Norway a recent poll suggested public opinion was divided.

Opinion polls in Greece suggest less than half the population backed US action.

And in Russia, despite Mr Putin's readiness to collaborate with the US, a recent poll in Moscow suggested many Muscovites were wary of what they saw as a show of force by the Americans, which threatened the lives of civilians.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0676.Coalition.htm

10/13/01
5:34:39 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

ANTHRAX SCARE

NEW YORK, New York, October 12, 2001 (ENS) - Information that mail contaminated with the anthrax bacteria had been received at two media organizations in New York was released today. An employee at the NBC News center at Rockefeller Plaza and another at the "New York Times" received or handled the infectious mail. Another envelope contaminated with anthrax was discovered today in Reno, Nevada.

For full text and graphics visit: http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-12-03.html

INTERIOR BILL CARRIES ANTI-ENVIRONMENTAL RIDERS

WASHINGTON, DC, October 12, 2001 (ENS) - Several anti-environmental riders have been attached to the 2002 Interior Appropriations bill this week, threatening national forests, parks and other public lands. Environmentalists are encouraged, however, by the funding levels outlined in the bill, which would significantly boost federal spending for land and wildlife conservation and other environmental programs.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-12-06.html

INVESTIGATORS EXPOSE SMUGGLING OF OZONE DEPLETING CHEMICALS

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 12, 2001 (ENS) - There is evidence of a thriving illegal trade in CFCs and other ozone depleting substances across Asia, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) revealed today. This has been identified as part of a "dramatic increase" in smuggling across developing countries, by the independent, international campaigning organization that investigates and exposes environmental crime.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-12-02.html

U.S. NOT LIKELY TO RELENT ON GLOBAL WARMING

ZURICH, Switzerland, October 12, 2001 (ENS) - Last month's terrorist attacks on the United States have taught the Bush administration the importance of multilateral responses to global threats but are unlikely to alter its rejection of the Kyoto climate protocol, former climate policy chief Frank Loy said yesterday. As former under secretary of state for global affairs, Loy led the U.S. delegations at climate talks during the Clinton administration.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-12-01.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 12, 2001

BLM Reviews Environmental Impacts on All Western Lands

NRC Shuts Down Entire Website

$3.5 Million Supports Invasive Species Research

House Committee Holds Marine Mammal Hearing

New Catalysts Could Turn Grain into Chemicals

Judge Bars Timber Sale in Cibola National Forest

California Passes Laws Protecting Water Resources

Memorial Grants Support Ocean Research

Iowa State Examines Building Energy Efficiency

Celebrate National Wildlife Refuge Week Across the Nation

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-12-09.html

10/13/01
5:17:03 PM

Are We Wusses Or Freedom-Loving Americans?

By Bev Conover

Yes, what happened on September 11 was horrifying, but it was a criminal act and not an act of war.

Nations declare and wage wars on other nations. Tribes declare and wage wars on other tribes. Neither nations nor tribes declare and wage wars on bands of criminals. Dealing with criminals is what criminal justice systems are for.

Yet, in the wake of September 11, with the major media beating the war drum and sucking up every fanciful tale and lie that comes out of the White House, the Bush administration wants us to wage war on we know not whom and give up our civil rights in the process.

We even are expected to rally to the illegitimate administration that occupies the White House, forgetting that George W. Bush stole the election and five members of the U.S. Supreme Court blessed his theft. Not to do so is to be called un-American, un-patriotic or worse.

Have we forgotten that patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels? And there are no greater scoundrels loose in this country today than George W. Bush, the people he has surrounded himself with, the corporate media who continue to brainwash a jittery people with war and the need for more security propaganda, and the likes of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson.

Where was the White House admonition when Falwell blamed the September 11 horrors on liberals, gays, the American Civil Liberties Union, feminists and abortion rights supporters, and Robertson, despite his later denials, concurred with him? Yet, the White House has admonished Bill Maher of "Politically Incorrect" for calling our previous acts of raining terror down on people from a safe distance "cowardly." Falwell and Robertson are in no danger of losing their jobs for their behavior, yet the Disney-owned ABC may cancel Maher's program. Sears and Federal Express have already pulled their commercials from Politically Incorrect.Three ABC affiliates, including the one in Washington, DC, have already cancelled the show.

We were chilled to our very core as we listened to George W. Bush's speech before a joint session of Congress on September 20 and heard the thunderous applause coming from both sides of the aisle. The man was proposing to set off a war without end, at the least, or World War III, at the worst, plus turning the United States of America into a police state. Are Americans so ready to follow an illegitimate leader who more than likely didn't even know where Afghanistan was before he decided his former financier, Osama bin Laden, was the culprit?

The corporate media cheered and sickeningly likened him to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. How easy it is to forget that when FDR took office in the midst of the Great Depression many in government, including Roosevelt himself, were concerned that conditions were ripe for a communist takeover. Yet, FDR told the people,"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

No truer words were ever spoken.

The Bush administration and the corporate media are playing upon people's fears, instead of working to quell them. Karl Rove, Bush's political adviser, personally called selected reporters, as Bush was flying around the country looking for a place to hide on September 11, and told them that Air Force One also was a target of terrorists. When that didn't quite wash, Rove then told them the White House was a target. And when that story fell apart, it, like all the other tales of impending attacks, was blamed on "misinterpreted" information.

Could it be that word filtered back to the White House about what a commercial airline pilot had to say about the White House and the Capitol being targets? As the pilot pointed out there are only two clear routes to both and that is from the west, the only problem is it would take unparalleled skill to fly an airliner around the Washington Monument to make a level hit at 300 miles per hour which is required for a terrorist to get the desired result on either building. Trees obscure all other sides of the White House and the Capitol. But didn't the media lap up those tall tales, as well as Air Force One being a target?

Meanwhile, the shutdown of all the country's airports put the nation's commercial airliners on the brink of bankruptcy whether you wish to cry for them or not 100,000 airline personnel are headed for the unemployment lines, along with thousands of others being laid off; businesses large and small lost billions of dollars, the stock markets took a dive knocking holes in what was left of people's 401Ks. To add to the hysteria, the September 15 and 16 college and professional sports were cancelled so people could sit at home and brood over whom to punish for killing 6,500 innocent people.

All people with dark hair and swarthy complexions were put at risk, as extremists cried, "Kill the towel heads! " We know not how many innocent people may have been terrorized, beaten or killed, as a consequence.

Bush inflamed passions more when he showed his ignorance of Muslim sensitivities by referring to his lovely war as a "crusade" and called his madness "Operation Infinite Justice" now renamed "Operation Enduring Freedom."A reader pointed out the latter also was a curious use of words. Does he mean he has to endure freedom or wants freedom to endure? And when he settled on Osama bin Laden as the responsible one, without showing the American people or the rest of the world that he is trying to engage in his war a shred of proof, he ratcheted up the rhetoric another notch by referring to Old West posters that read: "Wanted Dead Or Alive."

Then there is the Office of Homeland Security he is setting up that will make gone with the rest of our freedoms. It is based on recommendations in the Orwellian "The Phase III Report Of The U.S. Commission On National Security/21st Century,"; which you may download in .pdf format and read for yourselves. It is hard to believe that former Senator Gary Hart and former UN Ambassador Andrew Young had a hand in writing this horror.

This is the report the media have been touting and asking why it hadn't been implemented sooner. That shows you where the corporate media are coming from. And when the media aren't whipping up further fear and hysteria, they are now working to convince us that national identity cards are the things that will keep us safe from terrorists.

Of course, it is unlikely that you have heard anything on the national news about the executive order Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, George W's brother, signed on September 7, four days before the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, that provides for the suspension of civil liberties in the Sunshine State (Executive Order Number 01 261), which begins: WHEREAS, the Florida National Guard has the statutory responsibility to provide support to law-enforcement personnel and emergency-management personnel in the event of civil disturbances or natural disasters; and . . .A curious coincidence at the least.

On the day of the attack, Jeb Bush signed Executive Order Number 01262 declaring a state of emergency exists in Florida. This gives state authorities the power to:

suspend the effect of any statute, rule, or order governing the conduct of state business . . . including any and all statutes and rules which effect budgeting, printing, purchasing, leasing, procurement, and the conditions of employment and compensation of employees . . . seize and utilize . . . personal property . . regulate the movement of any or all persons to or from any location in the State . .

Now, according to the Palm Beach Post, the Florida legislature wants to lock up all the public records and conduct its business in secrecy all for the sake of security, you know.

Does a fascist streak run in the Bush family or what? George W., while he already started his damage in the spring of 2000 by getting his oil friends to run up the price of crude, then followed that in the summer of 2000 by bad-mouthing a healthy economy, causing it to spiral downward, has managed to do in just the eight months he has occupied the White House what it took Hitler and the Nazis years to accomplish.

Interestingly, last spring Doubleday published investigative reporter James Bamford's new book, "Body of Secrets," in which Bamford lays out the frightening plans the Joint Chiefs of Staff, headed by Eisenhower appointee Army Gen. Lyman L. Lemnitzer, cooked up in 1962. Bamford stumbled on the documents in the National Archives; documents that were supposed to have been destroyed to save the nation's then military chief from great embarrassment.

The plans, code named Operation Northwoods, included hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, orchestrating acts of terrorism in U.S. cities, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, possibly assassinating Cuban emigres and causing U.S. military casualties, all as a way of tricking the American people and the international community into supporting a war against Cuba in order to oust Fidel Castro.

The Kennedy administration rejected the diabolical scheme and, according to Bamford, " . . . three days later, President Kennedy told Lemnitzer directly there was virtually no possibility of ever using overt force to take Cuba, Bamford reports. Within months, Lemnitzer would be denied another term as chairman and transferred to another job."

That brings us to the question of whether someone in the Bush administration read Bamford's book and dusted off the nearly 40-year-old Operation Northwoods renaming it Operation Infinite Justice, then renaming it again to Operation Enduring Freedom? Wag the dog?

This may be ancient history to some, but Castro was our bastard as Henry Kissinger was fond of calling the despots we supported until the day Fidel revealed he cottoned to Marxism.

Osama bin Laden also was our bastard during the years the Soviet Union waged war upon Afghanistan, as was Saddam Hussein when he was useful for holding the line on the Islamic fundamentalists who took over Iran.

Salem bin Laden, Osama's eldest brother, who died in a 1983 plane crash, was heavily invested in George W. Bush's first business venture, Arbusto Energy, thanks to Bush's friend and business partner James Bath, who also was tied up with the bin Ladens and the Bushes in the Bank Commerce Credit International.

According to a story that appeared last Saturday in The New York Times, under the headline "For Bush, a Mission and a Defining Moment,"Bush may also see himself on some holy mission in his desired all out "war on terrorism. According to Times reporter Frank Bruni, a senior administration official said Bush told a full cabinet meeting, "This is the purpose of this administration."

This is the administration the corporate media and certain members of Congress would have us surrender our civil liberties to, accept national identity cards, submit to constant surveillance, subject ourselves, our homes and businesses to unreasonable searches, and consign our persons to possibly detention without end.

Is this what it all has come down to? Have we become a nation of cowering, sniveling, spineless wimps all because of the acts of criminals, regardless of who they are? Do we now march like good little Germans into the ranks of the living dead as we sing the praises of our fuhrer?

Americans don't honor their fallen by handing over their freedoms and marching in lockstep to the dictates of some would-be Hitler and don't forget Bush said it would be easier if he were a dictator that is, if we still are Americans. Americans pick themselves up, brush themselves off, bury their dead and get on with it.

As FDR said, "There is nothing to fear but fear itself."

Source: http://www.onlinejournal.com

10/13/01
5:11:19 PM

Thich Nhat Hanh

The most important practice for preventing war is to stay in touch with what is refreshing, healing, and joyful inside us and around us. If we practice walking mindfully, being in touch with the Earth, the air, the trees, and ourselves, we can heal ourselves, and our entire society will also be healed. If the whole nation would practice watering seeds of joy and peace and not just seeds of anger and violence, the elements of war in all of us will be transformed.

We must prepare ourselves, whether we have one minute, ten years, or one thousand years. If we don't have time, there is no use in discussing peace, because you cannot practice peace without time. If you have one minute, please use that minute to breathe in and out calmly and plant the seeds of peace and understanding in yourself. If you have ten years, please use the ten years to prevent the next war. If you have one thousand years, please use the time to prevent the destruction of our planet.

...Just by your way of looking at things and doing things, you influence others. Approach everyone with love and patience, and try to water the positive seeds in them. We have to help each other, being skilful, kind, and understanding. Blaming and arguing never help.

...In the practice of mindfulness, we nurture the ability to see deeply into the nature of things and people, and the fruit is insight, understanding, and love.

Thich Nhat Hanh, 1991

10/13/01
5:09:10 PM

Greenpeace's Executive Director Sharply Rejects Pending Anti-Terrorism Legislation Your Rights or Your Safety, You Shouldn't Have to Choose

http://www.truthout.com/0670.GrnP.Rights.htm

Take Action:

http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/takeaction/peacefulprotest.htm

Learn More:

http://www.greenpeaceusa.org/rants/

Russian forces 'already in action' (OCT 11 200)

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2001350005-2001352971,00.html

New York rejects Saudi millions

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1594000/1594483.stm

TRACKING THE ELUSIVE TRUTH

http://www.rumormillnews.net/cgi-bin/config.pl?read=12591

Many interesting articles

http://www.onlinejournal.com

10/13/01
4:57:21 PM

Broad-sweeping new Anti Terrorism legislation approved by both houses of congress is moving like a juggernaut towards becoming law. In perhaps the most dramatic departure from constitutional freedoms ever undertaken by US lawmakers the House today followed the Senate in handing away some of the most precious liberties mankind has ever known. Today in the US congress there appears to be no will to defend the very freedoms Mr. Bush says we are fighting for. These actions are without precedent in US history and bear the gravest implications for the social fabric of the nation. There is clearly, panic on the hill.

ACLU "Bitterly Disappointed" in House-Senate Joint Passage of Anti-Terrorism Legislation

by Marc Ash

ACLU | Friday, October 12, 2001

WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union said today that it was bitterly disappointed with the passage of anti-terrorism legislation, which mirrored closely the highly controversial original legislative proposals the Administration submitted to the House of Representatives and the Senate.

"This bill has simply missed the mark of maximizing security and, at the same time, minimizing any adverse effects on America's freedoms," said Laura W. Murphy, Director of the ACLU Washington National Office. "Most Americans do not recognize that Congress has just passed a bill that would give the government expanded power to invade our privacy, imprison people without due process and punish dissent."

Late Thursday night, the Senate passed the so-called USA Act of 2001 (S. 1510) 96 to 1 with very little debate. Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) was the only Senator to vote against the bill. He also introduced three amendments - all of which were defeated by his colleagues - that would have fixed several of the bill's more glaring problems. Murphy praised Sen. Feingold for his "courageous attempt to protect American liberties."

This morning, the House GOP leadership substituted legislative language which matched closely both the Senate bill and the Administration's anti-terrorism package. It replaced the language of the PATRIOT Act, a bill that had undergone significant revision in the House Judiciary Committee to protect civil liberties. The new legislative language was agreed to in the wee hours of Friday morning and its substitution passed by a very thin margin after minimal debate.

Before final passage, the modified PATRIOT Act (HR 2975) was met by robust opposition on the floor by House Democrats but, nevertheless, was finally ratified by a vote of 337 to 79, with 3 Republicans voting against and 129 Democrats voting in favor.

It is as yet unclear whether the Senate and House will have to negotiate a compromise between their respective bills in conference. Given the similarities between the bills, the Senate may take up the House bill, making a conference unnecessary and "therefore forestalling any real opportunity to make a bad bill better," Murphy said. It is possible that the legislation could reach the President's desk as early as next week.

Pressure from the White House and the Department of Justice on Congress to quickly pass an anti-terrorism bill modeled closely on the Administration's proposals has been increasingly fierce over the past several days. The Washington Post criticized the Administration in an October 3rd editorial: "Attorney General John Ashcroft continues implicitly to flog Congress for engaging in the balancing act that should have been his responsibility but that he skipped past. He warns of the possibility of further terrorist activity, which we have no doubt is real. The implication is that if it occurs it will be partly the fault of those who insist on modifying this bill."

"In rushing through its legislation, the Administration has undercut any attempt at good faith negotiation with Democrats, the American public and even members of its own party," Murphy said. "If the bill does go to conference, we urge lawmakers to reestablish in the bill the proper balance between the requirements of safety and the necessity of liberty," Murphy added.

According to the ACLU, the most troubling provisions in both the Senate and the modified House anti-terrorism legislation now include:

Permits Information Sharing: Allows information obtained during criminal investigations to be distributed to the CIA, NSA, INS, Secret Service and military, without judicial review, and with no limits as to how these agencies can use the information once they have it.

Authorizes "Sneak and Peek Searches": Authorizes expanded use of covert searches for any criminal investigation, thus allowing the government to enter your home, office or other private place and conduct a search, take photographs, and download your computer files without notifying you until later.

Allows Forum Shopping: Law enforcement can apply for warrants in any court in any jurisdiction where it is conducting an investigation for a search anywhere in the country. This would make it very difficult for individuals subjected to searches to challenge the warrant.

Creates New Crime of Domestic Terrorism: Creates an entirely new type of crime, which is unnecessary for the prosecution of the "War on Terrorism." By expanding the definition of terrorism in such a way, the bill could potentially allow the government to levy heavy penalties for relatively minor offenses, including political protests.

Allows the CIA to Spy on Americans: Gives the Director of Central Intelligence the power to manage the gathering of intelligence in America and mandate the disclosure of information obtained by the FBI about terrorism in general - even if it is about law-abiding American citizens -to the CIA.

Imposes Indefinite Detention: Permits authorities to indefinitely detain non-citizens, without meaningful judicial review.

Reduces Privacy in Student Records: Allows law enforcement to access, use and disseminate highly personal information about American and foreign students.

Expands Wiretap Authority: Minimizes judicial supervision of law enforcement wiretap authority in several ways, including: permitting law enforcement to obtain the equivalent of "blank" warrants in the physical world; authorizing intelligence wiretaps that need not specify the phone to be tapped or require that only the target's conversations be eavesdropped upon; and allowing the FBI to use its "intelligence" authority to circumvent the judicial review of the probable cause requirement of the Fourth Amendment.

October 12, 2001

House Approves Senate Anti-Terrorism Bill

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 6:43 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The House on Friday quickly approved anti-terrorist legislation pushed by the Senate and White House to increase the government's power to spy on, detain and punish suspected terrorists.

Before passage, however, the House insisted on changing the Senate package to put a five-year expiration deadline on the most intrusive of the new measures, including roving wiretaps, because of misgivings about civil liberties. It also dumped a Senate money-laundering provision, which is moving separately through the House.

House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., said he hoped the Senate would accept the House changes and send the bill to President Bush.

Bush was pleased with the House passage, on a 337-79 vote.

"I commend the House for passing anti-terrorism legislation just one day after the Senate took action," he said in a statement.

"The House and Senate bills are virtually identical. I urge the Congress to quickly get the bill to my desk. We must strengthen the hand of law enforcement to help safeguard America and prevent future attacks -- and we must do it now."

Despite the presidential plea, possible delays loomed. "We will not support a counterterrorism bill that does not have money-laundering provisions in it," Sen. Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., said. "Whether it's done in conference or whether it's done in the House of Representatives, it must be done, and we will insist that it be done."

The Senate approved its version 96-1 late Thursday night.

Both the House and Senate anti-terrorism measures would expand the FBI's wiretapping authority, impose stronger penalties on those who harbor or finance terrorists and increase punishment of terrorists.

Members of the House Judiciary Committee were unwilling to give police some of the powers the Senate did, however, such as allowing secret "sneak and peak" searches of suspects' homes.

Until Friday, the House also had put the burden on the government to prove that an alien suspect was a terrorist instead of making the suspect prove he was not. Also dropped was an earlier House insistence that police get a court order before seizing business and phone records in terrorism investigations.

The American Civil Liberties Union criticized the legislation. "Most Americans do not recognize that Congress has just passed a bill that would give the government expanded power to invade our privacy, imprison people without due process and punish dissent," said Laura Murphy, director of the the group's Washington office.

With the Senate gone for the weekend and no final resolution possible, Democrats argued that the House should wait until Monday before passing the 175-page bill so that members could read it.

"This could be the Gulf of Tonkin resolution for civil liberties, instead of a measure meant to fight terrorism," said Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. Because of a reported attack on two U.S. warships, Congress gave President Johnson a free hand in August 1964 to strike back at attacks on U.S. forces in Southeast Asia, which Johnson used to greatly expand the Vietnam War.

With the government daily looking at new terrorist threats, however, Republicans argued there was no time to wait.

"This is the same bill that the Senate passed last night. It's the same bill that has been available for a few weeks," said Rep. David Weldon, R-Fla. "These are not new issues."

Differences probably will have to be worked out among House, Senate and White House negotiators, but key lawmakers promised finding a compromise won't require the year it took to finish anti-terrorism legislation after the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. "We will complete that conference quickly," said the Senate Judiciary chairman, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

House Republicans continued to balk at considering legislation Bush requested for improving security at airports and aboard airliners.

The Senate passed legislation Thursday that would make passenger and security gate baggage screeners at all major airports federal employees. Some House GOP leaders vigorously oppose the idea but admit they have fewer votes than those who support it.

"I'm not taking the Senate bill up, period," said Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska.

After Bush administration officials agreed earlier to the Senate language on federalizing aviation security workers, White House officials said Friday they now don't like it and want the Senate to reconsider.

"It's fair to say the president has broad authority here, and if the Congress is unable to act, the president does want to make certain that aviation security is attended to," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said.

Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., head of the Transportation aviation subcommittee, said he would introduce his own bill that puts the federal government in charge of supervising but not hiring airport screeners.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0672.Panic.Hill.htm

10/13/01
4:52:59 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: One month after the Sept. 11 attacks reshaped our world, writers and activists ponder the future of environmentalism in a special edition of Grist. <http://www.gristmagazine.com/grist/maindish/101101.asp?source=daily>

OILY SHEEN

Summoning the specter of national security threats, President Bush called on the U.S. Senate yesterday to pass an energy bill that would allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Earlier this week, Senate Democrats ended committee discussion of an energy bill, calling the subject too divisive to discuss during a national crisis. Republicans said discussions were halted because Democrats knew they would lose a vote on the Arctic Refuge issue. Bush weighed in by saying drilling would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil. Enviros, however, point out that oil from the refuge would not be available for at least seven years and that the government's own estimates show the refuge would yield only a 140-day oil supply. They are getting a boost from faux-President Martin Sheen, who taped an anti-drilling ad that is now playing in movie theaters in Washington, D.C., and in 12 key states.

straight to the source: New York Times, Katharine Q. Seelye, 12 Oct 2001 <http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/12/politics/12ENER.html>

straight to the source: Anchorage Daily News, Liz Ruskin, 11 Oct 2001 <http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/719395p-759274c.html>

FEELING HORNY

One of the world's rarest large mammals, the Javan rhinoceros, may have taken a baby step back from the brink of extinction, conservationists say. Information from tracking, DNA analyses, and rhino-tripped cameras hidden deep in Indonesia's Ujung Kulon National Park suggests that four Javan rhino calves have been born in the last two years. The park is home to the only viable Javan rhino population, which accounts for about 50 of 60 surviving animals, including the four new calves. Conservationists hope to increase the number of rhinos to 80, the park's carrying capacity, and then relocate some to start a second population elsewhere in Indonesia. But some scientists fear depletion of the gene pool is so significant that the long-term prognosis for the species is grim.

straight to the source: BBC News, Alex Kirby, 11 Oct 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1591000/1591648.stm>

ALMOST HEAVING, WEST VIRGINIA

Lawyers representing the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and residents of Coalfield, W. Va., asked the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday to consider limiting mountaintop-removal coal mining. Instead of taking coal from mountains, mountaintop removal take the mountain from the coal by blasting away entire hilltops, which scars landscapes and fills streams with debris. A U.S. district judge ruled two years ago that the technique violates federal environmental laws. But the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that decision in April, after lawyers for the coal industry and state officials argued that federal courts should not consider disputes over state enforcement of mining rules. Environmental advocates hope that the Supreme Court hears their case and agrees that citizens should be able to use federal courts to force state agencies to comply with national standards.

straight to the source: Charleston Gazette, Ken Ward Jr., 12 Oct 2001 <http://www.wvgazette.com/news/Other+News/2001101161/>

THIS IS NOT THE PLACE

Utah's teachers unions will consider resolutions tonight opposing the storage of radioactive waste in the state and the use of taxes from such waste to fund schools. The proposals are designed to counter efforts by lobbyists to convince Utah residents that nuclear waste storage would be good for the state and its students. Calling for school funding to come from other sources, American Federation of Teachers member Tiffany Rousculp, who proposed one of the resolutions, said, "We don't want to be the reason they push [nuclear waste storage] through."

straight to the source: Salt Lake Tribune, Marta Murvosh, 12 Oct 2001 <http://www.sltrib.com/10122001/utah/139720.htm>

10/13/01
4:45:53 PM

FAIR

Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting

Media analysis, critiques and news reports

MEDIA ADVISORY:

Networks Accept Government "Guidance"

October 12, 2001

On October 10, television network executives from ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and CNN held a conference call with national security adviser Condoleeza Rice, and apparently acceded to her "suggestion" that any future taped statements from Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda group be "abridged," and any potentially "inflammatory" language removed before broadcast.

The question of how to present the words of bin Laden or representatives of Al Qaeda is certainly a valid one for journalists to consider. The statements require context and explanation of the kind journalists should use to bracket the remarks of any party in a major news story. But it is inappropriate for the government to dictate to journalists how to report the news. In the context of recent heavy-handedness on the part of the administration (including White House spokesman Ari Fleischer's ominous remark that Americans "need to watch what they say"), Rice's request suggests that the White House is actually asking for something other than simple journalistic judgment.

Originally the administration expressed concern about the possibility of Al Qaeda members sending "coded messages" to their followers in the segments. But Rice's main argument to the networks seems to have been that bin Laden's statements must be restricted because of their content. NBC News chief Neal Shapiro told the New York Times that Rice's main point "was that here was a charismatic speaker who could arouse anti-American sentiment getting 20 minutes of air time to spew hatred and urge his followers to kill Americans."

Although presented as only a call for caution, there's a danger that the White House conference call may make broadcasters think twice about airing any footage of bin Laden at all.

The following day, Fleischer took the administration's campaign further and contacted major newspapers to request that they consider not printing full transcripts of bin Laden's messages. "The request is to report the news to the American people," said Fleischer. "But if you report it in its entirety, that could raise concerns that he's getting his prepackaged, pretaped message out" (New York Times, 10/12/01).

To its credit, the Times has apparently resisted such requests, but some media executives seem to actually appreciate the White House pressure. "We'll do whatever is our patriotic duty,'' said News Corp executive Rupert Murdoch (Reuters, 10/11/01). In an official statement, CNN declared: "In deciding what to air, CNN will consider guidance from appropriate authorities'' (Associated Press, 10/10/01). CNN chief Walter Isaacson added, "After hearing Dr. Rice, we're not going to step on the land mines she was talking about" (New York Times, 10/11/01).

The point is not that bin Laden or Al Qaeda deserve "equal time" on U.S. news broadcasts, but that it is troubling for government to shape or influence news content. Withholding information from the public is hardly patriotic. When the White House insists that it's dangerous to report a news event "in its entirety," alarm bells should go off for journalists and the American public alike.

http://www.FAIR.org

10/13/01
4:33:39 PM

12 Ways The Media Misreport Violence

Norwegian peace studies professor Johann Galtung has laid out 12 points of concern where journalism often goes wrong when dealing with violence. Each implicitly suggests more explicit remedies.

l. Decontextualizing violence: focusing on the irrational without looking at the reasons for unresolved conflicts and polarization.

2. Dualism: reducing the number of parties in a conflict to two, when often more are involved. Stories that just focus on internal developments often ignore such outside or "external" forces as foreign governments and transnational companies.

3. Manicheanism: portraying one side as good and demonizing the other as "evil."

4. Armageddon: presenting violence as inevitable, omitting alternatives.

5. Focusing on individual acts of violence while avoiding structural causes, like poverty, government neglect, and military or police repression.

6. Confusion: focusing only on the conflict arena (i.e., the battlefield or location of violent incidents) but not on the forces and factors that influence the violence.

7. Excluding and omitting the bereaved, thus never explaining why there are acts of revenge and spirals of violence.

8. Failure to explore the causes of escalation and the impact of media coverage itself.

9. Failure to explore the goals of outside interventionists, especially big powers.

l0. Failure to explore peace proposals and offer images of peaceful outcomes.

11. Confusing cease-fires and negotiations with actual peace.

12. Omitting reconciliation: conflicts tend to reemerge if attention is not paid to efforts to heal fractured societies. When news about attempts to resolve conflicts are absent, fatalism is reinforced. That can help engender even more violence, when people have no images or information about possible peaceful outcomes and the promise of healing.

Read more:

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/coveringviolence.shtml

10/13/01
4:26:35 PM

From 'Anti-globalization' to True Internationalism

by Naomi Klein

Our civil liberties, our modest victories, our usual strategies -- all are now in question. But this crisis also opens up new possibilities. As many have pointed out, the challenge for social justice movements is to connect economic inequality with the security concerns that now grip us all-- insisting that justice and equality are the most sustainable strategies against violence and fundamentalism.

But we cannot be naïve, as if the very real and ongoing threat of more slaughtering of innocents will disappear through political reform alone. There needs to be social justice, but there also needs to be justice for the victims of these attacks and immediate, practical prevention of future ones. Terrorism is indeed an international threat, and it did not begin with the attacks in the United States. As Bush invites the world to join America's war, sidelining the United Nations and the international courts, we need to become passionate defenders of true multilateralism, rejecting once and for all the label "antiglobalization." Bush's "coalition" does not represent a genuinely global response to terrorism but the internationalization of one country's foreign policy objectives -- the trademark of US international relations, from the WTO negotiating table to Kyoto: You are free to play by our rules or get shut out completely. We can make these connections not as "anti- Americans" but as true internationalists.

Read the full story at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&c=1&s=klein

10/13/01
4:25:30 PM

The Death Penalty, Dramatized and Documented

Two important television films this week take on the issue of capital punishment in no uncertain terms - though from vastly different angles.

*"Shot in the Heart" (HBO, Oct. 13, 9-10:30 p.m.) is the wrenching true story of Gary Gilmore's execution for murder in Utah, as told from the perspective of his youngest brother, Mikal.

A child is beaten and humiliated again and again for years on end, gets into trouble with the law, spends most of his adult life in prison, and when he does get out, murders two innocent men for no reason he can ever explain.

Based on the book by Mikal Gilmore (a winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award), the film does not sentimentalize Gary Gilmore, nor does it whitewash his rash nature. In fact, the film is much more about Mikal's attempt to understand why his brother became what he was than it is about Gary's remorse.

*"Investigative Reports with Bill Kurtis" celebrates its 10th anniversary with an outstanding documentary, "Investigative Reports Special Edition: Death Penalty on Trial" (A&E, Oct. 16, 9-11 p.m.). The numbers tell a staggering story, says Kurtis: More than 90 men and women have been exonerated of capital crimes by DNA testing after their convictions in recent years.

Poverty and race still make a difference. Corrupt or incompetent defense attorneys -- and even in some cases, police torture and collusion -- have been implicated in the death-penalty convictions of innocent people.

"Journalists started the whole investigation of the justice system," says Kurtis. "I think there will be a moratorium on the death penalty in time, but what is more significant is a reexamination of the legal system. Is it working?"

Read the full review at:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1012/p18s1-altv.html

10/13/01
4:22:03 PM

Aid For Afghanistan

In his press conference last night, President Bush appealed to the children of America to send dollars to the White House for Afghanistan aid. You may prefer giving to these trusted organizations which are also accepting donations:

Catholic Relief Services http://www.catholicrelief.org

Christian Aid http://www.christian-aid.org.uk

Church World Service http://www.churchworldservice.org

Lutheran World Relief http://www.lwr.org/

Mennonite Central Committee http://www.mcc.org/afghancrisis

World Vision http://www.worldvision.org

10/13/01
4:20:30 PM

Up to one-fifth of America's food goes to waste each year, an estimated 130 pounds of food per person. The annual value of this lost food is estimated at around $31 billion. Roughly 49 million people could be fed by those lost resources, more than twice the number of people in the world who die of starvation each year.

Source: U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, "A Citizen's Guide to Food Recovery," 1999.

From 1945 to 1997, the U.S. "lost" 11 nuclear weapons, still unaccounted for.

Source: U.S. Department of Defense, "Lost Weapons," 1997.

10/13/01
4:16:14 PM

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.

Thomas Merton

10/13/01
4:16:05 PM

When I pray for peace, I pray not only that the enemies of my own country may cease to want war, but above all that my own country will cease to do the things that make war inevitable.

Thomas Merton

10/12/01
5:40:04 PM

Starvation And Dollars Bills For Afghan Kids

by Norman Solomon

The Pentagon's air drops of food parcels and President Bush's plea for American children to aid Afghan kids with dollar bills will go down in history as two of the most cynical maneuvers of media manipulation in the early 21st century.

Many U.S. news outlets have been eager to play along. A New York Times editorial proclaimed that "Mr. Bush has wisely made providing humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people an integral part of American strategy." Four days later, on Oct. 12, the same newspaper still had nothing but praise for the U.S. government's food aid charades: "His reaffirmation of the need for humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan -- including donations from American children -- seemed heartfelt."

While thousands of kids across the United States stuff dollar bills into envelopes and mail them to the White House, the U.S. government continues a bombing campaign that is accelerating the momentum of mass starvation in Afghanistan.

Relief workers have voiced escalating alarm. Jonathan Patrick, an official with the humanitarian aid group Concern, minced no words. He called the food drops "absolute nonsense."

"What we need is 20-ton trucks in huge convoys going across the border all the time," said Patrick, based in Islamabad. But when the bombing began, the truck traffic into Afghanistan stopped.

In tandem with the bombing campaign, the U.S. government launched a PR blitz about its food-from-the-sky effort. But the Nobel-winning French organization Doctors Without Borders has charged that the gambit is "virtually useless and may even be dangerous." One aid group after another echoes the assessment. The U.S. has been dropping 37,000 meals a day on a country where several million Afghans face the imminent threat of starvation. Some of the food, inevitably, is landing on minefields.

The food drops began on Sunday, Oct. 7, simultaneous with the start of the bombing. "As of Thursday, a Pentagon spokeswoman said more than 137,000 of the yellow-packaged rations had been dropped," the Knight-Ridder News Service reported on Oct. 12. "International aid organization officials say, however, that around 5 million Afghans are in danger of starvation because the nation's borders are sealed and food supplies are diminishing by the day --meaning that only a tiny percentage of the hungry are receiving the U.S. food." The borders are sealed because of the continuous bombing.

Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld wasn't worried about provoking appropriate derision and outrage when he told reporters on Oct. 8: "It is quite true that 37,000 rations in a day do not feed millions of human beings. On the other hand, if you were one of the starving people who got one of the rations, you'd be appreciative."

Avowedly, the main targets of the bombing are the people in the bin Laden network and their Taliban supporters. But the rhetorical salvoes will be understood, all too appropriately, in wider contexts. "We will root them out and starve them out," Rumsfeld said, just before closing a news conference with a ringing declaration: "We are determined not to be terrorized."

Supposedly, bombing Afghanistan is going to make us safer back here in the USA. But as soon as the attacks began on Oct. 7, the FBI called for heightened alerts across the United States -- because the risk of another deadly attack in this country had just increased. What's wrong with this picture?

Unlike the media herd, longtime foreign correspondent Robert Fisk is exploring key questions. "President Bush says this is a war between good and evil," he writes in the London-based Independent newspaper. "You are either with us or against us. But that's exactly what bin Laden says. Isn't it worth pointing this out and asking where it leads?"

Fisk asks other questions that aren't ready for prime time: "Why are we journalists falling back on the same sheep-like conformity that we adopted in the 1991 Gulf War and the 1999 Kosovo war? ... Is there some kind of rhetorical fog that envelopes us every time we bomb someone?"

In wartime, media accounts seem to zigzag between selected facts and easy sentimentality. Michael Herr, a journalist who covered the Vietnam War, later wrote that the U.S. media "never found a way to report meaningfully about death, which of course was really what it was all about." Obscured by countless news stories, "the suffering was somehow unimpressive." Accustomed to seeing its military might as self-justifying, the USA powered ahead. "We took space back quickly, expensively, with total panic and close to maximum brutality," Herr observed. "Our machine was devastating. And versatile. It could do everything but stop."

In its Oct. 12 editorial, headlined "Mr. Bush's New Gravitas," the New York Times concluded that the current president is providing exactly the kind of leadership we need: "As he reflected on the sorrow, compassion and determination that have swept the country since those horrifying hours on the morning of Sept. 11, he seemed to be a leader whom the nation could follow in these difficult times."

Among the leadership qualities most appreciated by editorial writers is the Bush administration's aptitude for shameless propaganda. While the Pentagon keeps dropping tons of bombs, it scatters some meals to the winds. While the U.S. government persists with a bombing campaign that shows every sign of resulting in mass starvation, the president urges the young people of the United States to send in dollar bills -- "to join in a special effort to help the children of Afghanistan."

Norman Solomon writes a syndicated column on media and politics. His latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11701

10/12/01
5:30:50 PM

Thanks But No Thanks, Larry Ellison

by W. James Antle III

While much has been said about those who engaged in "price-gouging" in the wake of last month's terrorist attacks, perhaps the most self-serving response has been Oracle CEO Larry Ellison's offer to donate free software to the federal government for the development of a central national identification database.

It is not difficult to imagine how this generosity would ultimately yield financial gains for Oracle, though it would be amusing to see Ellison's offer accepted by the same federal government that brought anti-trust cases against Bill Gates for giving Internet Explorer to consumers for free. In this instance, we would all pay for Ellison's charity by opening ourselves up to government abuse and diminished civil liberties.

Having to fork over your papers to the authorities is characteristic of Nazi Germany and South Africa under apartheid, but not of a free constitutional republic. First, though this may seem a remarkably passe' concern, the federal government has absolutely no constitutional authority to require American citizens to carry a national ID card or to maintain a central database containing Americans' identities. A government unconstrained by the Constitution is not one that should be trusted with its citizens' identity information. The Constitution should not be a casualty of September 11, 2001.

So what, asks US News and World Report columnist Randall E. Stross. Only a society of hermits and self-sufficient farmers can be secure without a national ID card, accompanied by a digitized photograph and fingerprint. "If there's a prolonged debate over national identity cards," wrote Stross in the October 8 issue, "I hope it will not run along the old ruts, the individual's interests versus the state's. This vital matter is really between citizen and fellow citizen, the obligations of community members to one another." Just add three words (for the children) and we have now unassailably justified any conceivable expansion of government.

Never is it asked precisely how the National ID card would have stopped the recent terrorist attacks, because all known participants entered the country legally. Note also the assumption that a national ID card could not be falsified, a laughable assertion in the face of contemporary technology. The national ID card is simply an unconscionable invasion of privacy that counterfeiters would be able to reproduce as effectively as current forms of identification, in time if not already.

Stross repeats the most popular counter-argument of the pro-ID crowd to the question of privacy: It's too late to worry about that, because in this digital age the private sector already has your identity on file. "Yet these are outside our oversight," writes Stross. "A federal identity database, however, would be ours, accountable to us, governed by rules that we the public direct."

This is hopelessly naive. First, the routine invasions of privacy seen in American life today hardly justify making the situation worse. Second, the abuses visited upon us by the private sector pale in comparison to those the government is capable of. Government possesses a legal monopoly on lethal armed force. Junk mail can be thrown away, annoying cold-call telemarketers can be put into your answering machine, companies that misuse data can lose business or be prosecuted. What checks are there against government abuse of such a database?

Does Stross really think we are going to take a majority vote each time the database is about to be put to some use? (As if that would necessarily protect individual rights even if it were the case.) Are we going to be taking daily tours to monitor the uses of this database and correct abuses? "We the public" are not going to be managing this database, nor for the most part will our elected officials. Government bureaucrats will be in control of this information.

Without even detailing the more horrific examples of government abuses and malfeasance, it is clear that government does at times abuse such information. Already, the Social Security number has been transformed into an identity number despite initial government assurances -even legal promises - to the contrary. In early 1995, some 500 IRS employees were caught snooping through friends' and celebrities' income tax returns. Only five of them were fired. Confidential Census data was used to identify Japanese-Americans during the policy of internment during World War II. The state of Ohio actually sold its drivers' license and car registration lists to a private company.

Indeed, the only way a national ID card system could even theoretically work is if all Americans were to be closely monitored on the basis of the information contained in the database. Otherwise, there isn't even any point to this exercise. Conservatives who support this proposal should realize how this system would assist further growth of government, from gun confiscation to socialized medicine.

According to a study by Stephen Moore and John J. Miller for the Cato Institute, if used to enforce immigration regulations on employers, a national identity database with an error rate as low as 1 percent would deny jobs to 650,000 American workers per year. Making business an enforcement arm of big brother imposes costs.

The risks of having such information abused by powerful federal bureaucrats outweigh the benefits of any national ID card system. President Bush and our political leaders should tell Larry Ellison no thanks and concentrate on a military response to Al Qaeda and its allies.

W. James Antle III was a researcher for the Rhema Group, a political consulting firm in Rocky River, Ohio, and currently lives near Boston. He is a senior writer for Enter Stage Right and a columnist for OpinioNet.com, TooGood Reports and Etherzone. His writings have also been featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer, World Net Daily, PoliticalUSA, the Sierra Times, Liberty Free Press, The American Partisan and numerous other on-line and print publications.

Please email any comments to James at Jimantle@aol.com.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11694

10/12/01
5:24:48 PM

AlterNet.org

http://www.alternet.org

AFGHANISTAN'S COMING HUMANITARIAN DISASTER

Tamara Straus, AlterNet

The looming refugee crisis in Afghanistan, where millions are on the brink of starvation, begs the question: will the U.S. provide real aid this time, or just lip service?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11704

THE NEW GREAT GAME: OIL POLITICS IN CENTRAL ASIA

Ted Rall, AlterNet

The shortest route for a pipeline from oil-rich Kazakhstan out to sea would be through Afghanistan, which is why the U.S. is set on toppling the Taliban regime, argues this author.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11692

CALLING FOR A WIDER, BUT SMARTER WAR

David Corn, AlterNet

The American public should lobby for a limited military action, but a wider "war" that will really neutralize terrorism -- a crackdown on weapon sales, support of internationl courts, beefing up public health plans, support of solar power and more.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11699

THE CLASH OF IGNORANCE

Edward W. Said, The Nation

Labels like "Islam" and "the West" only serve to confuse us and fuel the destructive, basic paradigm of West versus the rest.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11700

EVEN IN THE RUINS, RACE MATTERS

Playthell Benjamin, The Black World Today

Black construction workers who are a small percentage of the WTC rescue force are routinely scrutinized and even detained in the name of heightened security.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11693

THANKS BUT NO THANKS, LARRY ELLISON

W. James Antle III, AlterNet

Oracle's CEO is leading the charge to put controversial ID cards in every American's pocket in exchange for privacy and real security.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11694

A VISIT TO A GOVERNMENT GERM FACTORY

Kate Silver, Las Vegas Weekly

Building 12-7 of the Nevada Test Site, some 100 miles north of Las Vegas, was a government test site for making biological weapons. Can it teach us anything about terrorism?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11698

WHEN TOURISTS MEET AN OPEN GRAVE

Alicia Rebensdorf, AlterNet

I visited the site of the Twin Towers, and it felt like being at a tourist attraction, not a grave. Am I jaded, or is my emotional distance, dare I say, normal?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11695

SOLOMON: STARVATION AND DOLLARS BILLS FOR AFGHAN KIDS

Norman Solomon, AlterNet

Bush's plea for American children to aid Afghan kids with dollar bills will go down as one of the most cynical maneuvers of media manipulation in the early 21st century.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11701

ELECTRONIC PRIVACY, THE NEXT CASUALTY

Brendan I. Koerner, Village Voice

Is privacy online a luxury that complicates national security? The American public seems to think so, with almost three-quarters favoring anti-encryption laws.

* In Media Culture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19

GENETICALLY MODIFIED PETS

Heather Moore, IMPACT Press

Virtually every species of domesticated animal has been tampered with as scientists attempt to create "new and improved" companion animals like glowing bunnies.

* In EnviroHealth: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=18

10/12/01
5:13:10 PM

Gradual Change Can Push Ecosystems Into Collapse

by Environmental News Network

This photo from space shows the shrinking Aral Sea in Central Asia with expanding islands.

After decades of continuous change imposed by human activity, many of the world's natural ecosystems appear susceptible to sudden catastrophic change, an international consortium of scientists reported. Coral reefs and tropical forests are vulnerable, as are northern lakes and forests, the team has found. Marten Scheffer, an ecologist at the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands, said, "Models have predicted this, but only in recent years has enough evidence accumulated to tell us that resilience of many important ecosystems has become undermined to the point that even the slightest disturbance can make them collapse."

Scheffer is the lead author of the study published Oct. 11 in the scientific journal Nature. He is one of five authors of the paper whose contributors include experts on an array of different ecosystem types.

A gradual awareness is building in the scientific community that stressed ecosystems, given the right nudge, are capable of slipping rapidly from a seemingly steady state to something entirely different, said coauthor Stephen Carpenter, a limnologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and immediate past president of the Ecological Society of America.

"We realize that there is a common pattern we're seeing in ecosystems around the world," said Carpenter, an authority on lakes. "Gradual changes in vulnerability accumulate and eventually you get a shock to the system, a flood or a drought, and boom, you're over into another regime. It becomes a self-sustaining collapse."

An understanding that ecosystems engage in a delicate balancing act has emerged as scientists have become more skillful at assessing entire ecological systems. Studying how catastrophic ecological change has occurred in the past can cast light on how today's ecosystems may be affected.

Six thousand years ago, parts of what is now the Sahara Desert were wet, and its lakes and swamps held crocodiles, hippos, and fish.

"The lines of geologic evidence and evidence from computer models show that it suddenly went from a pretty wet place to a pretty dry place," said Jonathan Foley, a University of Wisconsin-Madison climatologist who is also a coauthor of the Nature paper.

Another drying area is found around Central Asia's Aral Sea. As a result of its shrinking size due to the loss of recharge water and a high rate of evaporation, islands are gaining more surface area. As the sea level continues to drop, more of the sea floor is exposed, and the islands and peninsulas become connected land, the existing Aral Sea could become several separate bodies of water — forming new lakes. Since 1960, most of the fresh water has been diverted for agriculture, and salinity levels have steadily increased.

"Nature isn't linear," Foley said. "Sometimes you can push on a system and push on a system, and finally, you have the straw that breaks the camel's back."

Constant change is a fact of life for most ecosystems, the authors write, whether from increased nutrient levels or human exploitation. Global warming is now adding another destabilizing factor to put ecosystems in a far more precarious situation than scientists had previously imagined.

"All of this is set up by the growing susceptibility of ecosystems," Carpenter said. "A shock that formerly would not have knocked a system into another state now has the potential to do so. In fact, it's pretty easy."

Carpenter cited Lake Mendota, an urban lake in Madison, Wis., that is perhaps the most studied lake in the world. It has seen a steady influx of nutrients such as phosphorus — chemical runoff from farms and suburban lawns — as the land around it has been chemically enriched and then developed.

"Over the past 150 years, we've put a huge amount of phosphorus into the mud of Lake Mendota, and it's prompted a lot of algae growth in a lake that was once very clear," Carpenter said. In 1993, scientists watched nutrient levels rise sharply after a single heavy rain washed nutrients into the lake. "This phosphorus buildup has made it easy for Lake Mendota to go into a eutrophic state," characterized by green surface scums, Carpenter said, and reversing eutrophication is hard because of the phosphorus buildup in soils and sediments.

Similar patterns of ecosystem degradation are evident on coral reefs and in forests. If large enough, forests can influence the weather or even have their own weather systems by facilitating the movement of water from the surface of the earth to the atmosphere. Overexploitation of those forest resources, said Foley and Carpenter, can have profound effects beyond the simple extraction of a resource such as wood.

"The idea that nature can suddenly flip from one kind of condition to another is sobering," said Foley, who suggested that changes can be irreversible. "For hundreds of years, we've been taught to think in very linear ways; we like to think of nature as being simple. But now we know that we can't count on ecosystems to act in nice simple ways."

Says Carpenter, "Although it's possible to push things in the other direction, to a certain extent, restoring a system depends on the art of the possible. What can you do within the constraints of politics and economics to turn back the tide?"

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/10/10122001/s_45241.asp

10/12/01
4:56:25 PM

Terrorist Attacks Redraw The Global Map

The New World Order

by James Ridgeway with Camelia E. Fard

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Whether or not the U.S. knocks off Osama bin Laden, the attack on New York and the capital provides Washington with an extraordinary opportunity to project power for the long term in Central Asia by setting up a pro-Western government in Afghanistan. The U.S. could then oversee a pipeline across that nation from the rich Caspian oil fields to ports in Pakistan, and would be perched to react to political changes in volatile Iran. An outpost in Afghanistan would also give America added leverage with Europe and with Russia, which has always had a heavy hand in the region.

In one fell swoop, the attacks and the American response realign the politics of the world on a scale not seen since the height of the Cold War.

The wild card is Pakistan, a veritable university for fundamentalist terrorists. Early in the week it denied the U.S. rights to base ground troops there, but permitted air rights for planes and perhaps will end up letting some of its territory be used as a staging area for commando raids.

But Pakistan is far from trustworthy. As Ahmed Rashid of the Far Eastern Economic Review reported on the Web site EurasiaNet.org early this week, "After having spent the past seven years providing every conceivable form of military, political, and financial support to the Taliban, Pakistan is essentially now being asked by Washington to help the U.S. bomb the Taliban leadership and their guest Osama bin Laden and topple the Taliban regime."

Almost unnoticed amid the rumors of war was what looked to be a real, if temporary, ceasefire in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

All this comes at a time when the U.S. is waking from decades of having no policy in Central Asia. We ignored Afghanistan after the Soviets withdrew. Meanwhile, Bin Laden-run camps and hundreds of other fundamentalist schools in northwest Pakistan transformed the poor, war-torn dregs of Afghan and Pakistani societies into Muslim holy warriors who are now on the loose.

An attack on Afghanistan at this point may drive the Taliban into the mountains, but it won't touch their power base in Pakistan. Even if we were to pressure Pakistan to shut down the schools, President Pervez Musharaf might not be able to do so, and the entire country could break out in civil war—leaving America smack in the middle of an uncontrollable mess. Our best bet would be to mend fences with Iran, which hates the Taliban, but whose isolation we have been committed to since the days of Jimmy Carter's botched hostage mission.

Meanwhile, within the U.S. military, there's already a debate over what to do. The prospect of war in Central Asia revives the internecine political battles of the Reagan era, with the proponents of low-intensity (read: guerrilla) warfare pitting themselves against those who advocate conventional military forces, including planes, missiles, and airborne troops. Guerrilla backers want to take out Muslim extremists with pinpoint operations using commando units such as the Special Forces, Navy Seals, and Rangers, who could be dropped close to their targets from great heights, then settle down and wait for the opportune moment to strike. They would aim to kill someone like Bin Laden or Saddam Hussein with a 50-caliber sniper rifle (a weapon fine-tuned by the IRA against the British). There would be no raping of women, killing of civilians, or long-term engagement. Just in and out. Most important politically, since there are so few commandos involved, American casualties would be small in number. The main brunt of this sort of effort would be placed on the Special Operations section of the military, and especially the elite but small Delta Force, whose size is classified.

Already, though, military sources are salivating over Bush's decision to pour tens of billions into an antiterrorist effort, which they say would prime the economic pump. It would also lead to more of the same for the military, with cruise missiles, high-level bombing by B2s, and drop-ins by units such as the 82nd Airborne, all grinding on in a protracted and inconclusive military campaign that could last a decade.

By bombing Afghanistan, the U.S. stands to alienate the war-weary destitute who hate the Taliban and might otherwise support an American overthrow of the government. What's likely to happen is that we'll try a heavy bombing campaign, attempt to drive out the Taliban, and work to set up a replacement regime. The country could then be ruled by a combo of the U.S., NATO, and local Western-minded Afghans.

That would require the landing of substantial numbers of ground troops. Afghanistan undoubtedly would be hard hit to make it an example, but the real goal would be to project American military power in the region. Afghanistan could be our Fire Base Charlie amid the quarreling warlords of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Such a campaign might see NATO troops in Azerbaijan on the western side of the Caspian Sea. Uzbekistan, which runs across the top of the Caspian, has also indicated it would accept U.S. troops.

This might look like victory, but it's really a trap. Far from strengthening NATO, a large U.S. presence would drive a wedge between Central Asia and Europe, probably the main reason European nations like Germany and Italy were backing away from the U.S. early this week. By the same token, Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan will try to use U.S. support as a lever against Russia.

It's always possible that this sort of makeshift intervention would benefit U.S. oil interests in the Caspian Sea. While oil reserves there are probably not as large as originally projected, they nonetheless are of considerable size, with the natural gas especially important because western Europe has become so dependent on it. U.S. control of Afghanistan might encourage the building of a pipeline from there to Pakistan and the Indian subcontinent. The problem would be that fundamentalists in Pakistan could just blow it up from time to time.

The lasting effect of trying to transform Afghanistan into a Western proxy is probably counterproductive. Last week, a Moscow paper, Komosomolskaya Pravda, published this interesting take on the situation: "Possibly, the [terrorists'] leadership is deliberately 'exposing' certain Islamic countries, such as Libya, Iran, or Iraq, which are suspected of sympathizing with, or supporting, Muslim extremists, but which nevertheless are inclined to have normal relations with the West. The probable acts of retribution against such countries by the Americans will destabilize the situation in them and lead to a change of the regimes there in favor of more radical ones."

The only bright spot on the horizon is the very dim prospect of a rapprochement between the U.S. and Iran. People there wore black in mourning for the New York attack, signed books of condolences, and left flowers at makeshift shrines. The mood was grim and sorrowful. Religious police unsuccessfully tried to break up a vigil for New York victims. Soccer fans at a stadium for a major game in World Cup competition stopped for a moment of silence. A government official close to President Khatami told the Voice over the weekend, "There is a unique consensus in the world because of this tragedy. Islamic and non-Islamic countries have found an unprecedented will to fight terrorism. The official position of the Iranian government is that it welcomes NATO's call for collective action on this problem."

With research and translation by Ed Korasani and Ariston-Lizabeth Anderson.

Source: http://VillageVoice.com/issues/0138/ridgeway.php

10/12/01
4:49:45 PM

Russian Paper: Deal Worked Out For Post-War Afghanistan

The God of Fossil Fuels

by James Ridgeway

While the fighting in Afghanistan appears on the surface to hinge on issues of fundamentalism and American revenge, below the surface, strong economic currents are at work. At base, this war will be fought to set the boundaries of U.S. and Russian influence in Central Asia, a region previously dominated by the former Soviet Union, with strong influence from Iran and Pakistan. And it will carve up the oil and gas resources of the Caspian Sea.

The key to exploiting oil and gas is gaining control over pipelines carrying the fuels westward to markets across the Caucacus, or eastward across Afghanistan. The cheapest and most efficient route would be to run the product south to ports in Iran. The U.S. doesn't want to deal with Iran, and the route westward is considered to be too long. So if stability could be assured, Afghanistan would end up being a key route.

Last month, one Russian news outlet described the deals worked out before the fighting started. "Russia's worries are not hard to understand," the paper wrote. "They have to do with postwar arrangements in Afghanistan. Economic interests are paramount. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan need stability in Afghanistan so that they can transit their oil/gas independently." The publication went on to suggest that once the fighting stopped, the U.S. could send troops along the Himerand River in Herat. That is where a pipeline carrying Caspian Sea oil to ports in Pakistan on the Arabian Sea might be built.

Oil and gas sources in Moscow claim it will take six years to achieve any stability in Afghanistan, but already, the paper said, Russia has completed talks with the Tajiks on how to share gas revenues after the war is over. According to the paper, Russia has another deal in the works with the Uzbeks. In the kind of revealing speculation rarely seen in the stateside press, the paper suggested the two former Cold War enemies have hammered out a pact detailing ways of controlling Afghanistan. "All this is taking place beneath an already done deal in which Russia will exercise its influence in Afghanistan through the Northern Alliance," the paper reported, while the U.S. will work through the ex-king Zahir."

Source: http://VillageVoice.com/issues/0141/ridgeway2.php

10/12/01
4:43:23 PM

Missing The Oil Story

by Nina Burleigh

Recently I attended one of those legendary Washington dinner parties, attended by British cosmopolites and Americans in the know. A few courses in, people were gossiping about the Bush family's close and enduring friendship with the Saudi ambassador, Prince Bandar, dean of the diplomatic corps in Washington. By the end of the evening, everyone was talking about how the unfolding events were going to affect the flow of oil out of Central Asia.

I left wondering whether 6,000 Americans might prove to have died in New York for the royal family of Saud, or oil, or both. But I didn't have much more than insider dinner gossip to go on. I get my analysis from the standard all-American news outlets. And they've been too focused on a) anthrax and smallpox, or b) the intricacies of Muslim fanaticism, to throw any reporters at the murky ways in which international oil politics and its big players have a stake in what's unfolding.

A quick Nexis search brought up a raft of interesting leads that would keep me busy for 10 years if the economics of this war was my beat. But only two articles in the American media since September 11 have tried to describe how Big Oil might benefit from a cleanup of terrorists and other anti-American elements in the Central Asia region. One was by James Ridgeway of the Village Voice. The other was by a Hearst writer based in Paris and it was picked up only in the San Francisco Chronicle.

In other words, only the Left is connecting the dots of what the Russians have called "The Great Game" -- how oil underneath the 'stans' fits into the new world order. Here's just a small slice of what ought to provoke deeper research by American reporters with resources and talent.

Start with father Bush. The former president and ex-CIA director is not unemployed these days. He's been globetrotting as a member of Washington's Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm which employs a motorcade of former ranking Republicans, including Frank Carlucci, Jim Baker and Richard Darman. George Bush senior and colleagues open doors overseas for The Carlyle Group's "access capitalists."

Bush specializes in Asia and has been in and out of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait (countries that revere him thanks to the Gulf War) often on business since his presidency. Baker, the pin-striped midwife of 'Election 2000' was working his network in the 'stans' before the ink was dry on Clinton's first inaugural address. The Bin Laden family (presumably the friendly wing) is also invested in Carlyle. Carlyle's portfolio is heavy in defense and telecommunications firms, although it has other holdings including food and bottling companies.

The Carlyle connection means that George Bush Senior is on the payroll from private interests that have defense business before the government, while his son is president. Hmmm. As Charles Lewis of the Washington-based Center for Public Integrity has put it, "in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. And that to me is a jaw-dropper."

Why can we assume that global businessmen like Bush Senior and Jim Baker care about who runs Afghanistan and NOT just because it's home base for lethal anti-Americans? Because it also happens to be situated in the middle of that perennial vital national interest -- a region with abundant oil. By 2050, Central Asia will account for more than 80 percent of our oil. On September 10, an industry publication, Oil and Gas Journal, reported that Central Asia represents one of the world's last great frontiers for geological survey and analysis, "offering opportunities for investment in the discovery, production, transportation, and refining of enormous quantities of oil and gas resources."

It's assumed we need unimpeded access in the 'stans' for our geologists, construction workers and pipelines if we are going to realize the conservation-free, fossil-fueled future outlined recently by Vice President Cheney. A number of pipeline projects to carry Central Asia's resources west are already under way or have been proposed. They would go through Russia, through the Caucasus or via Turkey and Iran. Each route will be within easy reach of the Taliban's thugs and could be made much safer by an American vanquishment of Muslim terrorism.

There's also lots of oil beneath the turf of our politically precarious newest best friend, Pakistan. "Massive untapped gas reserves are believed to be lying beneath Pakistan's remotest deserts, but they are being held hostage by armed tribal groups demanding a better deal from the central government," reported Agence France Presse just days before September 11.

So many business deals, so much oil, all those big players with powerful connections to the Bush administration. It doesn't add up to a conspiracy theory. But it does mean there is a significant MONEY subtext that the American public ought to know about as "Operation Enduring Freedom" blasts new holes where pipelines might someday be buried.

Nina Burleigh has written for The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, and New York magazine. As a reporter for TIME, she was among the first American journalists to enter Iraq after the Gulf War.

Source: http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/10/11/index.html

10/12/01
4:37:09 PM

TomPaine.com

Though we posted Nina Burleigh's piece earlier this week, we're putting in our DISPATCH again today because it's created a lot of interest. If you haven't read it yet, take a look:

MISSING THE OIL STORY

by Nina Burleigh

Preoccupied by anthrax and Muslim fanaticism, the American media has yet to explore the murky ways of international oil politics and the big players who have a stake in what's unfolding.

AUDIO and TEXT produced by Steven Rosenfeld

http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/10/11/index.html

BEFORE THE DELUGE

Politics of Energy and Oil Become the Backdrop of Wars to Come

by Danny Schechter

"Many of us still don't recognize that the 'new war' most Americans support as a just campaign to wipe out a band of evil terrorists may morph quickly into a war to control the oil fields dominated by Iraq and the Saudis."

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/11/2.html

A GIFT FROM THE ASHES OF WAR

Rediscovering Simple Beauties and Lasting Values

by Jasmina Teodosijevic-Ryan

"My native country, the former Yugoslavia, and my current home, the U.S., are quite different places with different roots of war. But the lessons of violence are the same everywhere."

AUDIO and TEXT produced by Sharon Basco

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/10/11/index.html

OIL AID: AFTER THE ATTACK

Why Bush's energy plan should be scrapped

by David Case, TomPaine.com

Just one day after the 9/11 attack, several Republican senators called for prompt consideration of the energy bill -- short-sighted legislation that gives aid to oil and other fossil-fuel industries while virtually ignoring the altneratives.

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/11/index.html

WE'RE ALL IN THIS ONE TOGETHER

by M. W. Guzy

"You needn't travel to New York to visit Ground Zero. You're standing on it."

AUDIO and TEXT produced by Sharon Basco

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/10/10/index.html

CHECK IT OUT!

What's New In The Public Interest

by The TomPaine.com Staff

It's An Ad, Not a Book... Drug Czar Opposed... Getting Over Oil... Missing in NYC... and More!

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/09/2.html

10/12/01
4:34:25 PM

Media Rant - '100% Chance Of Bio Attack In The US'

by Gerald Cohail

The possibility of "terrorists" using anthrax as a biological weapon in the United States has not gone unnoticed by the talking heads at the network and cable news outlets. We have been told over and over again that there is a "100% chance" of such an attack.

100%! WOW! What do the TelePrompTer readers know that we don't know? And why do they fail to mention how terrorists came into possession of anthrax?

While searching the Internet for answers to these questions, I came across the following quote from retired Air Force Major Glenn MacDonald:

"Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. William J. Crowe Jr. was part of the crew that sold Saddam Hussein the deadly means to wage war with anthrax germs. That's when the United States wanted the 'Butcher of Baghdad' to use anthrax on Iran."

Admiral William J. Crowe Jr. was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from 1985 until he retired from the Navy in 1989. This is the era during which the US government was backing Suddan Hussein and just before the period in time when President George Herbert Walker Bush waged war on Iraq because Hussein was no longer considered an asset to the United States.

Not only is it disturbing that such a means of mass destruction was provided to Saddam Hussein (and who knows how many others) by our own government, it is equally disturbing to consider that retired Admiral William J Crowe Jr. is now in a position to reap profits from the sale of anthrax vaccine to the US Department of Defense. Or, one shudders to think, in a position to perhaps prevent the manufacture of the vaccine.

Crowe is on the board of directors and owns a 13% share of the Lansing, Michigan-based BioPort Corporation, the only company in the United States licensed to make a vaccine for anthrax. His 13% share ensures he will make a tidy profit from any sale of anthrax vaccine to the government. However, and this is what disturbs me most, BioPort has not produced a single drop of vaccine since they purchased Michigan Biologic Products Institute from the State of Michigan in 1998. In the meantime the Defense Department advanced BioPort $18 million in 1999 and another $24 million in 2000.

Under contract to supply the military with 14 million doses, BioPort has delivered less than 4% of that amount, despite the governent being willing to pay "triple the original cost in the contract, from $3.50 a dose, to over ten dollars!"

Inspections of the BioPort facility by the FDA in 1999 and 2000 found contamination and suspicious changes made to expiration dates. The agency has barred the company from releasing any of the vaccine as a result.

MacDonald has asked, "Why has the Pentagon 'fronted' BioPort with millions of dollars in taxpayers' money when the troubled manufacturer has experienced continued failures? Does that have something to do with who some of its owners and investors are?"

Admiral Crowe is also an advisor to Global Options LLC, "an international crisis management firm based in Washington". Their web site (http://www.globalops.com) contains the slogan, "The Corporate Equalizer".

Also on the advisory board for Global Options is former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, R. James Woolsey.

The chairman and CEO of Global Options is Neil C. Livingstone, one of the people quoted in a 11 September 2001 article published by the Boston Globe after the attacks on the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon. He was quoted as saying, "I think we are at war. I liken this to Pearl Harbor."

The President and every talking head at every major media outlet repeated this theme for days after the attacks. Is there a connection? Or, would we all have come to this same conclusion?

Livingstone has been a featured guest on numerous network and cable outlets since 9/11 as an "expert" on terrorism. According to Kurt Saxon (http://www.kurtsaxon.com), "Any 'wanna be' terrorist, by reading Neil's book, can learn how to easily bring a system to its knees. If you are interested in how a terrorist works, or want to be one, you can't do better than to read what I describe as 'The Complete Terrorist', or 'The Terrorist's Bible', Neil Livingstone's own 'The War Against Terrorism', published by Lexington Books."

Gerald Cohail gcohail@hotmail.com Common Law Copyright, October 2001 May be reproduced only in its entirety and only for non-commercial purposes.

Additional links: Major Glenn MacDonald: http://www.militarycorruption.com

Source: http://www.rense.com/general15/mediarant.htm

10/12/01
4:15:33 PM

Taliban Claim Airstrikes Kill 200

By KATHY GANNON and AMIR SHAH, Associated Press Writers

KABUL, Afghanistan (news - web sites) (AP) - The Taliban claimed Friday at least 200 people had been killed two days earlier in an airstrike on a village outside the eastern city of Jalalabad. It was the largest casualty claim to date by Afghanistan's ruling Islamic militia, and could not immediately be independently verified.

As the campaign of U.S.-led airstrikes moved into its sixth day, angry demonstrations broke out in neighboring Pakistan on the first Muslim Sabbath since the start of the air assault. In Kabul, the Afghan capital, the preacher at a central mosque prayed that the United States would suffer the same fate as Afghanistan.

The air campaign was launched after the Taliban repeatedly refused to hand over Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), chief suspect in the terror strikes a month ago on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon (news - web sites).

The report of the airstrike on the Afghan village of Karam came from Zadra Azam, the deputy governor of Taliban-controlled Nangarhar province.

``We're still digging bodies out of the rubble,'' Azam said, adding that villagers from nearby had rushed to help with the rescue and recovery effort.

The village is very close to the town of Darunta, about 80 miles east of the capital, Kabul, in an area where Osama bin Laden is believed to train fighters for his Al-Qaida network.

In addition, the Taliban's official news agency said at least 10 people were killed and several homes were destroyed in Argandab, north of the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. Bombs also destroyed homes in Karaga, north of Kabul, the news agency said.

The United States has said repeatedly that the raids are not targeting civilians. There was no immediate Pentagon comment on the Taliban claim, but military officials have noted they do not intend to comment on every such report.

Casualty claims are almost impossible to verify because foreign journalists, like other non-Afghans, are barred from entering Afghanistan.

At the Pakistani border, panicky arriving Afghan refugees reported fleeing airstrikes that hit close to populated areas.

``I have never seen such a sight. Bombs were dropping in and around the village, and there was fire and smoke everywhere,'' said Agha Jan Agha, a farmer from Kalamtar, near the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar. ``I grabbed my family and some clothes - we must have walked about 10 kilometers (six miles) in the night before we found a car that would bring us to the border.''

The first of what was expected to be a day of anti-U.S. protests erupted in Pakistan's port city of Karachi, where thousands of demonstrators stoned police, torched cars and set fire to a KFC restaurant licensed by the American fast-food chain.

Spurred by protest calls from leaders of Muslim extremist Pakistani parties, demonstrators took to the streets elsewhere in Pakistan as well.

In Kabul, worshippers at the central Haji Yaqoub mosque heard fiery calls of revenge from the imam, or preacher.

``Cruel America has killed scores of our people. God must destroy those who are committing atrocities against us,'' he told several hundred worshippers. ``We pray to God that the United States should meet a fate similar to that we are suffering.''

Earlier Friday, Kabul was hit by a pre-dawn strike in which U.S. jets dropped three bombs in rapid succession. Within 20 minutes another jet streaked in high, dropping two more bombs.

These fell north of the capital, in the vicinity of the front line where Taliban soldiers face off against troops of an opposition military alliance.

The ground trembled and windows rattled in Kabul from the force of the impact.

Late Thursday, a huge fireball lit up the sky over the eastern part of the city in the direction of a training base of bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network. Huge detonations could be heard from miles away.

Pakistani officials have acknowledged that U.S. planes and personnel are on the ground as part of the American-led campaign against the Taliban and bin Laden, and say the United States had been granted use of two key bases.

But the air campaign is so controversial in Muslim Pakistan that the government publicly denied there were any American military personnel in the country.

Pakistani officials who confirmed the American presence were careful not to categorize them as military personnel, and Pakistan stressed that its territory would not be a staging ground for military strikes against neighboring Afghanistan.

Even so, assistance to the United States has stirred up a backlash against Gen. Pervez Musharraf from militant Muslim parties. A spokesman for Musharraf said Friday that the government was determined to keep order.

``There are only a few extremist elements who tried to disrupt law and order, but we have given instructions to the law-enforcement agencies not to allow anybody to take law in their hands,'' said the president's spokesman, Maj. Gen. Rashid Quereshi.

In Peshawar, armored personnel carriers were parked at key intersections and barbed wire cordoned off an ancient mosque in the old city that has been a focal point for demonstrations in past weeks.

More than 1,000 heavily armed police and paramilitary troops backed by tanks and armored personnel carriers enforced an uneasy calm in Quetta, where pro-Taliban sentiment runs high.

Border tensions grew as well. Near the Pakistani town of Chaman, border militia dug trenches along the frontier with Afghanistan on Friday and set up new lines of barbed wire.

More than 15 U.S. military aircraft, including C-130 transport planes, arrived over the past two days at a Pakistani base at Jacobabad, 300 miles northeast of Karachi and about 150 miles from the Afghan border, said Pakistani officials, speaking on condition of anonymity

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011012/wl/attacks_afghanistan.html

10/12/01
4:10:04 PM

Trump Wants Parachute

From CLODAGH HARTLEY in Los Angeles

PROPERTY billionaire Donald Trump has been thinking of buying a PARACHUTE in the wake of last month’s attacks on skyscrapers.

Trump, 55 — owner of Manhattan’s glitzy Trump Towers — is one of scores of nervous New Yorkers to inquire about new “executive” chutes.

US makers Precision Aerodynamics say they have been besieged by calls about the £500 chutes — billed as a “last resort” for those trapped on top of burning high-rise buildings.

A rival, the Emergency Building Escape Parachute, will cost £1,575 or more — depending on the customer’s weight.

Precision Aerodynamics’ brochure says the chutes, developed after the September 11 atrocities, will open automatically.

It adds: “Simple steering and landing techniques can deliver you to the surface with confidence.”

But the American Parachute Industry Association said most people who used the products would DIE.

It is discouraging sales to office workers.

Spokesman Lowell Bachman said: “It’s just not a good idea.”

He suggested ropes and abseiling equipment might be a better choice.

Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001352016,00.html

10/12/01
4:04:43 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES ACT FAILING TO PROTECT FISH

WASHINGTON, DC, October 11, 2001 (ENS) - Five years after Congress hailed the new Sustainable Fisheries Act as "the hallmark of conservation of fisheries throughout the world," the destruction of fish habitat and decimation of fish populations continues. While there are some regional success stories, the body of evidence points to significant problems with implementation of the Act.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-06.html

DEVELOPING COUNTRIES LEARN TO LIMIT CHEMICAL RISKS

ROME, Italy, October 11, 2001 (ENS) - Officials from over 100 governments concerned with reducing the risks of chemical use, particularly in developing countries, have been meeting in Rome this week to prepare for the entry into force of a global treaty to govern these risks.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-01.html

NUNAVUT EARNS COLD CASH BY BOTTLING BERGS

By Aaron Spitzer

IQALUIT, Nunavut, Canada, October 11, 2001 (ENS) - Qikiqtaaluk Corporation has a cool idea. It plans to sell Nunavut's icebergs to Japan.

The bergs would be melted, bottled, and marketed to consumers who want clean drinking water and a taste of the exotic Arctic, says Mathew Spence, Qikiqtaaluk Corp's venture development manager.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-03.html

LEADER OF GREENPEACE AMAZON CAMPAIGN THREATENED WITH DEATH

MANAUS, Brazil, October 11, 2001 (ENS) - Fresh photo and video evidence of extensive illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest released by Greenpeace on September 26 has brought retaliation.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-02.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 11, 2001

New House Minority Whip Called Environmental Champion

Energy Legislation Blocked in Senate Committee

Accumulated Change Courts Ecosystem Catastrophe

Invasive Argentine Ants Harm Ecosystems

New EPA Officials Take Office

Toxic Coatings Banned From California Engines

Groups Seek to Block Nevada Land Sale

Maine Rivers Stocked with Atlantic Salmon

Weather Agencies Try to Prevent Alaska Deaths

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-11-09.html

10/12/01
4:02:34 PM

Media Blackout Sparks Protests

By Mark Preston October 04, 2001

Congressional reporters are crying foul about a news blackout imposed by the U.S. Capitol Police and Senate officials after Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) fell ill on the Senate floor Tuesday morning.

Within minutes of Thurmond being helped to the floor after complaining of lightheadedness, the viewing galleries were shuttered, television cameras controlled by the Senate were turned off, and a security perimeter was established, forcing reporters to vacate the second-floor hallways and restricting their movements on the East Front plaza.

"It concerns me when you have a potentially huge news story unfold on the floor of the Senate and the press has no access," said Curt Anderson, an Associated Press reporter and chairman of the Daily Gallery's Standing Committee of Correspondents.

The fact that no visual images were provided during the 20-minute incident again raised questions in some quarters about whether it is proper for Congressional officials to control access to images of the nation's legislature in action.

Viewers of C-SPAN 2 were left in the dark about what was taking place Tuesday morning on the floor, and the Congressional Record makes no reference to the 98-year-old Thurmond's medical emergency except to note that the Senate went into recess at 10:36 a.m. and "reassembled" at 10:54 a.m.

Reporters were forced to rely on secondhand accounts from Senators and staff who were present on the floor.

After spending Tuesday night at Walter Reed Medical Center, Thurmond returned to work yesterday, and a spokeswoman said doctors "determined that dehydration" caused the South Carolina Republican's fainting spell.

Lt. Dan Nichols, spokesman for the Capitol Police, defended the decision to take security steps when Thurmond fell ill, saying that clearing the galleries so medical teams could "work on a Member with a certain amount of discretion and decorum" was appropriate. "We had a situation where a Member of Congress needed medical assistance, and we have to make sure we got the medical teams in ... that is our responsibility."

As for establishing a perimeter outside, Nichols explained that "There are procedures put in place where we have set perimeters, and all we have to do is put out the word and that perimeter is already set. It is just a standard operating procedure for us."

Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) said he "understood" the Capitol Police's decision to clear the galleries "given the circumstance," but added, "We are going to review it."

Brian Lamb, the chairman and CEO of C-SPAN, said he was "not particularly outraged" about not being able to broadcast images of an incapacitated Thurmond. But he noted that this latest incident is a perfect example of why Congress should not be able to control the images of floor proceedings.

"We never like the fact that the Senate and the House sets this thing up to protect their own," said Lamb, whose network provides gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Senate and House floor proceedings. "It is very uncomfortable when something like this happens."

"Overall, it gives you an example why it is problematic when the government controls cameras for an event," he said, adding that C-SPAN 2 would have "focused on the atmosphere in the Senate" rather than broadcasting a close-up of Thurmond lying on the Senate floor next to his desk.

Stephen Crowley, a New York Times photographer and a member of the Standing Committee of Press Photographers, agreed with Lamb and pointed out that print photographers are still banned from entering the Senate chamber to take pictures.

"It is absolutely nonsense," said Crowley, who added that Senate officials and Senators themselves "have no good answer" as to why photographers continue to be barred from taking pictures in the chamber.

News of Thurmond's illness quickly spread at about 10:30 Tuesday morning as police radios announced "Senator is down" and additional officers, medical personnel and reporters rushed to the chamber.

Bill Roberts, a Congressional correspondent for Bloomberg News and a member of the Daily Gallery's Standing Committee of Correspondents, said he and several other reporters tried to enter the press gallery to witness what was going on, but were denied access.

"It is a legitimate privacy concern for the Senator, and I am sympathetic to that; but we need to report," said Roberts.

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a subtle tension has developed between some reporters, police officers and Senate officials over access to Members, and Tuesday's incident sparked a handful of public disagreements.

Reporters waiting on the East Front plaza for Thurmond to be brought to the ambulance were pushed back by police officers enforcing the emergency perimeter, causing some scribes to question why they were being denied the right to do their jobs. Inside, two Capitol Hill veterans squared off over the press's right to report the news.

Adam Clymer, a New York Times correspondent, accused Robert Petersen, the director of the Senate Daily Press Gallery, of failing to look after reporters' interests.

"Anyone who closes the gallery and keeps the press from doing its job shouldn't be working in the press gallery," Clymer said moments after butting heads with Petersen at a media stakeout over the issue of access to the galleries. "He is a bureaucratic hack."

"Daschle went along with it," Clymer continued, "and that is outrageous."

Petersen refused to comment on the argument except to say, "He asked me 'Do you think the gallery should be cleared?,' and I said, 'Well, common decency is if a man was dying, you wouldn't want an audience.'"

Anderson and Roberts both expressed concern that access in the Capitol might be further restricted under the guise of a need for tighter security measures.

"I don't want to see the heightened security used as a way to suppress the media's access to the news," Anderson said.

Nichols said the police would continue to "take precautions as the situation warrants," particularly when a high-profile administration official such as Vice President Cheney visits the Capitol.

Source: http://www.rollcall.com/pages/news/00/2001/10/news1004b.html

10/12/01
3:57:35 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

THE END OF FAMILY FARMS?

by Jennifer Bauduy, TomPaine.com

-- Owners of small family farms who expected to seek economic solace in Bill Clinton's 1996 Freedom to Farm Bill are finding themselves sinking deeper into debt as the government hands over subsidies to corporate farms.

MODERN TRIBALISM

by unnu, Underground.net

-- After completing their new feature documentary about modern tribalism, Low-fi Filmworks talks with Underground.net about their understanding of what it means to be tribal in today's modern world.

MEDIA BLACKOUT SPARKS PROTEST

by Mark Preston, Roll Call

-- The media blackout following Sen. Strom Thurmond's collapse on the Senate floor, a move that prompted the news media to question government's willingness to limit access to information, is increasing tensions in an already uneasy Capitol Hill.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

10/12/01
3:53:19 PM

SKOUSEN ON STRAFOR AND DEBKA

STRATFOR.COM: From their own website, this is how they introduce themselves: "On March 23, 1999, an intelligence consulting firm in Austin, Texas, launched an experimental web site to answer the question: Would people be interested in intelligence instead of news about a major global event?" Intelligence consulting firm? What was their name? They don't say. Who were their clients? They don't say and I don't believe their basic story. Yes, they were an intelligence firm, all right--but certainly not private. If they did exist in the private sector before, they were acting as government "cut outs" and their clients were probably government connected defense contractors--an incestuous relationship between government and corporate interests that doesn't qualify as truly private. They don't tell who the principals are, how they are funded, who their sources are or who they were before they became "Stratfor.com." They didn't charge for the information until recently, and their current prices are so low as to make it unbelievable that they are funding this huge intelligence network by subscriptions alone. Stratfor obviously has access to intelligence sources in every country of the world--which doesn't come legal or cheap. Nor can private companies get access to those sources on a regular basis, no matter how much money they possess--unless they are secretly part of government themselves.

The specific information Stratfor provides is voluminous and mostly accurate--that's what makes them instantly attractive. Their short-term projections are often accurate as well, but their comprehensive analysis of why things are happening and how the world works is completely flawed--totally worthless. Everything is analyzed with a perspective of leaders working "in their national interest." There is no leader of any country today that works strictly in his country's "national interest" anymore. Every national leader today is part of the international control process--you can't get elected or stay alive if you are actively resisting the Powers That Be. This doesn't mean they are all knowledgeable about the broad conspiracy, or its specific plans, but at least they know they are beholden to powerful international interests and have tacitly, at least, agreed to go along. Although national leaders always attempt to excuse what they do as "in the national interest," that is never the whole or real reason. My hunch is that Stratfor.com is a CIA proprietary organization helping to control the information flow to the private sector. I can't prove that specifically, but it fits the evidence. I believe Stratfor is part of the government's attempt to influence the public's increasing reliance on Internet news and analysis--feeding disinformation and wrong conclusions to the new intellectuals of the free market. Why is this so important? Without ready-made excuses for the apparent collusion between national leaders, working against the best interests of their people, smart people might come to the conclusion that there is a conspiracy. By feeding Americans a steady diet of phony explanations the dreaded "C" word is avoided.

DEBKA.COM: Debka.com appeared out of nowhere six months ago with a full slate of intelligence sources, a full blown website and everything is free. This intelligence site is oriented strongly toward Israel. They even have a Hebrew version of the site (which doesn't come cheap). However, they don't tell who they are, where they came from or what their ideological position is [anyone who claims to be neutral is lying]. There are no bylines or names of real people anywhere on the website. Their analysis is better than the liberal media but it is also tainted with half truthful conclusions.

For example, in their analysis of the Rabin assassination they take only a middle ground, allowing for a conspiracy but carefully aiming only at supposed co-conspirators of Yigal Amir, the shooter: "No one doubted that Amir had pulled the trigger of the gun that shot the Israeli prime minister two years after he signed the 1993 Oslo peace accords. But many wondered out loud if he acted alone. And if not, who sent or programmed him for the slaying? And if there was a conspiracy, what was the motive behind it?" No one doubted Amir pulled the trigger? Hardly. They divert their readers from Barry Chamish's startling revelations proving that Amir was shooting blanks (a setup to place the blame on right-wing settlers) and that Rabin was actually assassinated by his own body guard (at the behest of the Shabak--Israel's secret service--under orders from former Prime Minister Shimon Peres) once inside the limousine. They had to finish him off inside the hospital when he was revived by doctors. Debka's evasion of the Chamish revelations is telling. They could not possibly not know of Barry's charges--almost 80% of Israel now knows as well as thousands in the US due to Barry's lecture tours. His evidence from original sources is irrefutable. That is why the Israeli government called upon US customs to impound Barry's books and video tapes when they arrived at New York Kennedy Airport. His revelations threaten the legitimacy of the Israeli government. Barry is considered an "enemy of the state." Israeli authorities can lie and cover up the crimes in their "official versions," but they can't defeat his evidence. [For those of you who are not able to see Barry in person during this tour, I have video tapes of his remarkable lecture as well as extra copies of Barry's books on the situation in Israel. Prices are $15 for the video or any of his books. Email or call me (801-224-4746) to order or if you have questions on which book to order].

In Debka's coverage of the Lockerbie trial (regarding the terrorist bombing of PanAm 103 over Lockerbie Scotland) they covered all the conspiratorial angles involving Libyan, Syrian and Palestinian terrorists but failed to point any fingers at the CIA's involvement through the process. An entire CIA Middle Eastern team of agents was on PanAm 103 reportedly heading back to the US to blow the whistle on CIA terrorist and drug dealings in the Middle East. They were fed up with attempts to keep them quiet. Thus, the CIA had a very big motive to use their terrorist connections to plant a bomb on the plane. How does the CIA facilitate the passage of drugs, bombs or secret papers on airlines? It has a working relationship with every airport authority in Europe and with every major airline. It can flash its credentials and put any suitcase it wants into the cargo hold--with full diplomatic immunity from inspections. One source in Germany said the CIA specifically demanded that a suspicious suitcase be put on board, despite his protests. But none of this was mentioned by Debka. Once again, these disinformation sources carefully use portions of what is true, but conceal the real reasons and the top players. Bottom line: I suspect Debka is some type of Israeli government operation, perhaps linked to the Mossad (Israel's CIA).

In contrast to Debka, Israel has a solid independent private news source in Arutz-7--low budget, persecuted by the government and has solid news and analysis. It's radio station operates on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea and the government has attempted to shut it down on several occasions. Check it out at http://www.israelnationalnews.com

Contrary to the website name, Arutz-7 has no connection with the government of Israel.

Contrast these two suspicious sources with NewsMax.com and WorldNetDaily.com--two legitimate conservative news sources online. I know both the principals behind these organizations, Chris Ruddy and Joseph Farah. Neither came from shadowy backgrounds of government. My only criticism of these sites (besides the crass commercialism that begins to take hold whenever a site has to exist on advertising), is that neither will address conspiracy openly. Neither will the Washington Times-- a good paper, but a rabid apologist for the Republicans, no matter how great the compromises. Chris Ruddy certain knows conspiracy exists after his writings on the murder of Vince Foster, but he is reluctant to look any further than a Clinton cover-up. Joseph Farah is leery being labeled an extremist. That's what inevitably follows when one values growth and influence over uncomfortable truths. I saw both websites develop from small outfits working on a shoestring. As they gained readership, they attracted advertising revenue. There was no magical instant presence on the web with unlimited funding. All their writers are real live conservatives with names--no shadowy figures from dark-side operations. Occasionally they will get information from someone in government, but not on a regular basis--until now, that is. WorldNetDaily just made a deal with Debka to market Debka's analysis in a US weekly: Debka-Net-Daily. I don't suspect direct collusion, but rather, that Farah got suckered into Debka's neutral appearance and sees the joint venture as a good way to increase circulation. Farah has begun to distance himself from writers like Jeff Nyquist who was making too much of a stir over his projections about Russian plans for a pre-emptive nuclear strike. Well, that's how free-market news sites develop, and that's how they get compromised. It happen to Rush Limbaugh and it may be happening to Farah. If he can't see through Debka, then he isn't very savvy

I'll mention just one or two more sites that are on our side, but that have too-good-to-be-true sources. One is AlMartinraw.com by Al Martin and the other is rumormillnews.com hosted by Rayelan Allan. Both give extensive background and information about government cover-ups, illegal activities and conspiracy. But Al Martin claims to know too much and Rayelan Allan has some sources that I suspect are feeding her disinformation.

Al Martin was a Lt. Comdr. in the Navy who claims to have been let in on the Iran Contra scandal and to know all the principals involved. This part is probably true, but he now puts out information, with minute first person details, about almost every other government conspiracy and cover-up. This is suspicious. One person can't know this much. Even Gunther Russbacher, the highest ranking defector from dark-side CIA operations we have ever seen didn't claim to know as much as this mid-level Lt. Comdr., Al Martin. Martin makes reference to occasional shadowy sources, but has never named any. In contrast, Rodney Stich, who I consider totally legitimate, has been able to name most of his sources. Martin claims to hobnob with all kinds of dark-side military and foreign armament dealers, and yet also claims to be in hiding from a government manhunt trying to shut him down. His stories about being arrested and slipping out of government hands don't match what I know about reality. First, no one who uses this many sources repeatedly and has this much of a website presence could successfully evade capture from our dark-side government agencies for long. Either he is being allowed to stay in circulation or he is marvelously adept at piecing together other people's stories and claiming first hand knowledge--perhaps, both. I have independent confirmation on a lot of what Al Martin writes, so you can learn a great deal from his writings, but I suspect he fills in the blanks too often to be completely reliable.

Rayelan Allan is Gunther Russbacher's ex-wife--which is her claim to fame. I've been on radio shows with her and talked to her, and am convinced she is on our side. But her sources are too good to be true--some group, claiming to be insiders, is making a concerted effort to feed her information. You don't get those kinds of insider sources just for being the wife of one of the CIA's biggest defectors. Much of what she predicts and discusses goes far beyond what she could have gotten from Russbacher. Russbacher was a do-all man for the "company," with assignments that included flying George Bush Sr. to Paris in a YF-12 supersonic aircraft to sign the secret deal with Iran, trading weapons for hostages (operation October Surprise), and setting up many CIA proprietary operations to launder drug money. He had to flee to his native Austria to evade the CIA's penalties for betraying company secrets. I suspect that the CIA's way of defusing Russbacher's effectiveness is to feed Rayelan Allan a steady stream of facts, seeded with disinformation. The information she gets from her sources has that same taint as Stratfor and Debka--some good facts but faulty conclusions. Once again, I don't say these things about Martin or Allan to discredit the good they do--just to give a warning not to take everything they post at face value. All of this points to the fact that you must have multiple sources of corroborating evidence before you can successfully discern fact from fiction in this maze of Internet "news" that pours out in ever-more voluminous quantities.

10/12/01
3:48:33 PM

US 'Planned Attack On Taleban'

The wider objective was to oust the Taleban

by George Arney BBC

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

Mr Naik said US officials told him of the plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin.

Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place - possibly under the leadership of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah.

Mr Naik was told that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American advisers were already in place.

He was told that Uzbekistan would also participate in the operation and that 17,000 Russian troops were on standby.

Mr Naik was told that if the military action went ahead it would take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.

He said that he was in no doubt that after the World Trade Center bombings this pre-existing US plan had been built upon and would be implemented within two or three weeks.

And he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban. US 'planned attack on Taleban'

The wider objective was to oust the Taleban By the BBC's George Arney

A former Pakistani diplomat has told the BBC that the US was planning military action against Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban even before last week's attacks.

Niaz Naik, a former Pakistani Foreign Secretary, was told by senior American officials in mid-July that military action against Afghanistan would go ahead by the middle of October.

Mr Naik said US officials told him of the plan at a UN-sponsored international contact group on Afghanistan which took place in Berlin.

Mr Naik told the BBC that at the meeting the US representatives told him that unless Bin Laden was handed over swiftly America would take military action to kill or capture both Bin Laden and the Taleban leader, Mullah Omar.

The wider objective, according to Mr Naik, would be to topple the Taleban regime and install a transitional government of moderate Afghans in its place - possibly under the leadership of the former Afghan King Zahir Shah.

Mr Naik was told that Washington would launch its operation from bases in Tajikistan, where American advisers were already in place.

He was told that Uzbekistan would also participate in the operation and that 17,000 Russian troops were on standby.

Mr Naik was told that if the military action went ahead it would take place before the snows started falling in Afghanistan, by the middle of October at the latest.

He said that he was in no doubt that after the World Trade Center bombings this pre-existing US plan had been built upon and would be implemented within two or three weeks.

And he said it was doubtful that Washington would drop its plan even if Bin Laden were to be surrendered immediately by the Taleban.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1550000/1550366.stm

10/12/01
3:42:42 PM

Alleged Hijackers May Have Trained At U.S. Bases

The Pentagon has turned over military records on five men to the FBI

by George Wehrfritz, Catharine Skipp and John Barry NEWSWEEK

Sept. 15 — U.S. military sources have given the FBI information that suggests five of the alleged hijackers of the planes that were used in Tuesday’s terror attacks received training at secure U.S. military installations in the 1990s.

THREE OF THE alleged hijackers listed their address on drivers licenses and car registrations as the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Fla.—known as the “Cradle of U.S. Navy Aviation,” according to a high-ranking U.S. Navy source. Another of the alleged hijackers may have been trained in strategy and tactics at the Air War College in Montgomery, Ala., said another high-ranking Pentagon official. The fifth man may have received language instruction at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Tex. Both were former Saudi Air Force pilots who had come to the United States, according to the Pentagon source. But there are slight discrepancies between the military training records and the official FBI list of suspected hijackers—either in the spellings of their names or with their birthdates. One military source said it is possible that the hijackers may have stolen the identities of the foreign nationals who studied at the U.S. installations.

The five men were on a list of 19 people identified as hijackers by the FBI on Friday. The three foreign nationals training in Pensacola appear to be Saeed Alghamdi and Ahmad Alnami, who were among the four men who allegedly commandeered United Airlines Flight 93. That flight crashed into rural Pennsylvania. The third man who may have trained in Pensacola, Ahmed Alghamdi, allegedly helped highjack United Airlines Flight 75, which hit the south tower of the World Trade Center.

Military records show that the three used as their address 10 Radford Boulevard, a base roadway on which residences for foreign-military flight trainees are located. In March 1997, Saeed Alghamdi listed the address to register a 1998 Oldsmobile; five months later he used it again to register a second vehicle, a late model Buick. Drivers licenses thought to have been issued to the other two suspects in 1996 and 1998 list the barracks as their residences. NEWSWEEK visited the base early Saturday morning, where military police confirmed that the address housed foreign military flight trainees but denied access past front barricades. Officials at the base confirmed that the FBI is investigating the three students.

It is not unusual for foreign nationals to train at U.S. military facilities. A former Navy pilot told NEWSWEEK that during his years on the base, “we always, always, always trained other countries’ pilots. When I was there two decades ago, it was Iranians. The shah was in power. Whoever the country du jour is, that’s whose pilots we train.” Candidates begin with “an officer’s equivalent of boot camp,” he said. “Then they would put them through flight training.” The U.S. has a long-standing agreement with Saudi Arabia—a key ally in the 1990-91 gulf war—to train pilots for its National Guard. Candidates are trained in air combat on several Army and Navy bases. Training is paid for by Saudi Arabia.

Source: http://www.msnbc.com/news/629529.asp?cp1=1

10/12/01
3:38:02 PM

It Would Be Worse Than Chernobyl

by Kate Foster (kfoster@scotsman.com)

IF A hijacked airliner plunged into Sellafield’s nuclear reprocessing complex, the radiation that followed could cause more than two million cancer cases and make some places uninhabitable, scientists have warned.

Gordon Thompson, executive director of the Institute for Resource and Security Studies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, said the impact would "almost certainly" break open some of the tanks containing high-level radioactive liquid waste, and the accompanying explosion would fling a plume of radioactivity into the atmosphere.

He said: "The explosion and the fire would just be the beginning. The burning fuel would continue to pump radioactivity into the air.

"Putting this fire out wouldn’t be easy. Fire crews struggled to damp down the fire after the Pentagon crash on 11 September, and they didn’t have deadly radiation to contend with.

"A crash of such magnitude would probably destroy the cooling systems, too," he added. "Tanks that survived the initial impact would heat up and start to spew out more radioactivity within hours."

The warning comes after fears were voiced that Britain’s emergency services are under-equipped and under-resourced to cope with terror attacks and not properly trained to deal with the casualties of chemical or nuclear warfare.

Ministers responded to demands from firemasters with a £200 million package for emergency services, but fire sources have insisted that the biggest risk from terrorist attacks are nuclear or chemical installations.

Contingency plans are currently being reviewed but, according to the Fire Brigades Union in Scotland, resources for such specialist training have not been made available.

After the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, an exclusion zone was set up around the plant and more than a quarter of a million people were resettled. Radiation spread so far that sheep in Wales still have to be tested to check they are safe to eat.

So far, 11,000 cases of thyroid cancer have been reported in the Ukraine and Belarus.

According to Mr Thompson, who has been investigating the high-level waste tanks for local authorities in Britain for the past five years, if a passenger jet were to plough into building B215 at Sellafield, which contains 21 concrete and steel waste tanks, as much as half of its 2,400kg of caesium-137 could escape into the air.

Reprocessing involves dissolving old fuel rods in acid and extracting the plutonium. The leftover liquid, which contains a mixture of wastes including caesium-137, is stored in the tanks in B215. It is so radioactive the tanks have to be cooled constantly to prevent their contents from boiling and leaking out.

Mr Thompson said: "The amount of caesium-137 that would be escape into the atmosphere is 44 times more than was released by Chernobyl ."

He added: "Immediately after the attack, there would be widespread chaos as authorities tried to organise mass evacuations. In years to come, the death toll might be terrible."

In a statement, British Nuclear Fuels (BNFL) said: "Major nuclear facilities, including reactors and highly active waste stores, are constructed to extremely robust engineering standards and incorporate large quantities of reinforced concrete as an integral part of the construction.

"These facilities are resistant to many terrorist threats, including aircraft impact. Safety cases and contingency plans take these events into account."

But according to a safety report published last year, the 21 high-level waste tanks in B215 have not been constructed to withstand crashing planes.

It states: "There has been no specific design provision to protect against crashing aircraft."

John Large, an independent nuclear engineer, has identified seven potential terrorist targets at Sellafield, including the high-level waste tanks and a store containing 70 tonnes of plutonium. He said all their radioactive inventories are published, and aerial photographs showing their precise locations are easy to get hold of.

Mr Thompson says he is "disturbed" that Sellafield is storing so much high-level waste in such a dangerous form.

He said: "BNFL is meant to solidify the liquid waste into blocks of glass to make it safer, but technical problems are holding up the process."

Meanwhile, according to New Scientist, aviation sources have pointed out that every year thousands of large passenger jets fly along the coast near Sellafield, on their way from European airports to the west coast of the US.

Lockerbie, where Pan Am Flight 103 crashed in 1988, is less than 50 miles away.

But, according to Mr Thompson, Sellafield is not the only possible target for a terror attack. There are similar storage facilities in several countries, including the US and Russia.

Kate Foster (kfoster@scotsman.com)

Source: http://thescotsman.co.uk/uk.cfm?id=115223

10/12/01
3:26:41 PM

News of interest

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1593000/1593151.stm

Guide to 'bunker-busting' bombs (Oct 11)

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011011/us/attacks_high_alert_10.html

FBI Issues Terror Strikes Warning (Oct 11)

http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011010/wl/hurricane_iris_25.html

Hurricane Iris Kills at Least 15 (in devastated Belize where I went on vacation last winter)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_1589000/1589318.stm

Clockwork warfare - Afghans rely on radio more than any other media

10/12/01
2:51:11 PM

Speak No Evil

The government can be expected to clam up in times of war -- but why are citizens muzzling themselves?

by Brooke Shelby Biggs

Anyone who remembers the Gulf War won't be surprised to hear that as it undertakes the "war on terrorism," the US government plans to freeze out the press to an extent never before seen -- worse even than during Operation Desert Storm, when the media were bottle-fed news of smart bombs and surgical strikes that turned out to be less than accurate. Already, the State Department has "persuaded" the Voice of America to kill an interview with a prominent Taliban leader. And Pentagon officials have announced that they are prepared to lie to the press about developments in Operation Enduring Freedom.

We know to expect these kinds of efforts from a government at war. Even the White House's dressing down of a television personality shouldn't shock us -- anybody remember Murphy Brown and Dan Quayle?

Far more surprising than government attempts to stifle criticism is the seeming willingness of the media, politicians, and activist groups -- particularly those on the left -- to censor themselves. Some may be backing off to avoid the kind of public crucifixion endured by "Politically Incorrect"'s Bill Maher. Others, however, apparently truly believe that frank and vibrant public discourse is damaging to the country's moral fiber.

That was essentially the rationale behind the decision by a huge consortium of news organizations -- including the New York Times and the Washington Post -- to hold off on publishing the results of a recount of disputed votes in last year's presidential election. According to some of those familiar with the ballot project, one reason for the delay was the "queasy sense that now is not the right time to publish information that could well question the legitimacy of the nation's commander in chief."

But if ever there's a time to critically examine the legitimacy and ability of a leader, it's when he is leading the nation into an open-ended war and asking citizens to "make certain sacrifices," including some of our freedoms. Like a muscle, free speech has to be exercised, or it weakens.

Some instances of self-censorship are more egregious than others. Among the more trivial, but nonetheless disturbing cases was the decision by Bushorchimp.com to suspend its posting of images of the president side-by-side with pictures of various primates. The joke was broad, simple, and only moderately funny. Most importantly, it was harmless. The idea that the world's only superpower cannot afford a handful of citizens who derive joy from childishly comparing their leader to a monkey is not funny at all.

Perhaps Bushorchimp's disappearance was simply a case of a webmaster erring on the side of good taste (or failing to mention that the site had been kicked off its server for using too much bandwidth). And indications are that the nation's sense of humor may be recovering.

Still, it's hard not to wonder what was behind "Saturday Night Live"'s choice to eliminate any teasing of Bush in the show's Sept. 29 season opener: Did the show's producers fear the fate of "Politically Incorrect," which lost key sponsors in the wake of Maher's comments? That's what's known as a chilling effect.

Even more ominous than the silence of the satirists was the decision by both the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council to pull ad campaigns criticizing President George W. Bush's environmental policies. Bush's policies haven't changed -- and they still need some serious criticizing -- but both organizations said the atmosphere wasn't right to bring up such issues.

That would be understandable, if the reasoning were that America simply wasn't interested in thinking about anything other than the fresh tragedy. But an NRDC spokesman said the decision was made because "We want to show our support for the administration. This was a heinous act and it's unseemly for anyone to try to exploit this tragedy by pushing a pre-existing agenda." It's hard to understand how an ad campaign criticizing the president's stand on arsenic in drinking water could be seen as exploitation of the terrorist tragedy. The Sierra Club even went so far as to purge its Web site of comments critical of Bush made before Sept. 11.

Similarly, the Anti-Giuliani Message Board, dedicated to venting about the iron-handed leadership style of New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was taken down just after the attacks, and replaced with a message offering the webmaster's "unqualified support" for the mayor. Even if most of us agree that Giuliani has done a remarkable job bringing his city together in the wake of the disaster, is it healthy to suspend examination of his record? Especially at a time when he is seeking an extension of his term?

Dissent, "a treasured American virtue" as one pompous anchorman aptly put it recently, is more than a privilege and a right; it's a responsibility. By abdicating our responsibility to voice opposition, we invite the erosion of the very value system we claim to be protecting. What do you think?

Brooke Shelby Biggs is a contributing editor of http://www.MotherJones.com

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/self_censorship.html

10/12/01
2:42:07 PM

The Real Price Of Oil Congressional

Republicans are using terrorism fears to advance the administration's energy policy -- including oil drilling in Alaska -- while ignoring the plan's enormous long-term cost.

by Mark Hertsgaard

Perhaps it's a sign of politics inching back toward business as usual: Congressional Republicans are exploiting the Sept. 11 terror attacks to push the Bush administration's plan for an all-out increase in energy production. Lawmakers have proposed making the administration's controversial plan -- which includes drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- part of a federal anti-terrorism bill being debated in the Senate this week. And even if that amendment fails, as Senate Democrats predict, drilling advocates are likely to continue invoking terrorism fears as they argue for more oil development.

Bush, of course, has long maintained that his energy plan will increase America's "energy security" -- meaning the nation's access to relatively inexpensive electricity and fuel. To that end, he has proposed a package of measures intended to encourage greater production of oil, along with other fossil fuels and nuclear power. In a victory that surprised even Republicans, the House of Representatives in August endorsed much of Bush's approach, including $33 billion worth of tax incentives for oil companies.

It's questionable, however, whether these steps will in fact guarantee stable energy prices. Given the power that OPEC and the international oil companies have to manipulate production, the usual rules of supply and demand don't apply to the oil business. And even if Bush's approach works, it will affect the price of oil only in a narrow sense: what a barrel of light crude fetches on the London spot market, what a gallon of gasoline for the family automobile costs at the pump.

What matters more is what should be called the real price of oil. This is comprised of two elements: petroleum's market price, plus the many indirect costs that its production and consumption impose on nature, public health, and future generations.

Under Bush's plan, for example, the real price of oil will soon include not only those $33 billion in subsidies, but the potential destruction of Alaskan caribou calving grounds. Increased production also means a growing possibility of more oil spills like the 1989 Exxon Valdez disaster, as well as continuation of the less-publicized release of an average of 10 million gallons of petroleum into the oceans every year from tanker accidents.

Further raising oil's real price will increased air pollution made possible by Bush's relaxation of environmental regulations. Already, diseases stemming from car exhaust kill some 30,000 Americans each year, according to a 1995 Harvard University study. And back in 1993, the Worldwatch Institute estimated the damage to human and environmental health from vehicle emissions at $93 billion a year.

For the world at large, the most serious consequence of continued reliance on oil and other fossil fuels will be accelerating climate change in the 21st century. Though a number of factors contribute to the greenhouse effect, oil remains a major culprit. Some 40 percent of America's greenhouse gas emissions stem from automobiles.

Scientists have noted that already -- after a mere one-degree increase in temperatures over the past century -- glaciers are melting and catastrophic storms becoming more severe and frequent. They expect the planet to warm an additional 4 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit in the 21st century, bringing yet more violent weather, flooded coastlines, killer droughts and social havoc. One insurance industry study projects that climate change will impose $304 billion of additional direct costs on the global economy every year.

Bush has rightly been criticized for rejecting the Kyoto accord on global warming. But the truth is, America has never been shy about expecting the rest of the world to support its oil habit. Presidents and Congresses of both US political parties have for decades affirmed military and diplomatic policies aimed at guaranteeing American access to overseas oil; the CIA-assisted overthrow in 1953 of Iran's prime minister Mohammed Mossadegh -- who had advocated nationalizing the country's oil supplies -- is but one example.

According to the Rocky Mountain Institute, an eco-think tank that analyzed Pentagon and Department of Energy spending data for the mid-1990s, federally funded research and development provided at least $300 million annually in subsidies for the fossil-fuel industry. And at least $50 billion of the US annual military budget during those years paid for forces whose primary purpose is to safeguard Middle Eastern oil fields and shipping lanes -- and whose presence, especially in the Islamic holy land of Saudi Arabia, provokes bitter resentment in much of the Muslim world.

Economists use the term "externalities" to refer to costs that are not included in a commodity's market price, but are borne by society as a whole. Society, of course, also has benefited from the past century's increase in oil consumption: The US economy underwent an extraordinary expansion during the 20th century, when cheap oil fostered first the automobilization of the nation and, after World War II, its suburbanization. Oil also made possible a transportation system built around individual mobility and personal convenience that in many respects remains the envy of the world.

But the impending threat of climate change suggests that our reliance on oil has reached a point of diminishing returns. It's time for a new strategy -- a shift to energy efficiency in the short term and to solar and other renewable energy forms in the long term. Such a Global Green Deal would not only reduce ecological damage, but yield substantially more jobs, profits and economic prosperity than today's system does. Investments in energy efficiency create two to ten times more jobs per dollar than investments in oil and nuclear power -- a crucial concern as the economy slides into recession.

Bush is betting that the nation is willing to pay whatever it takes to keep oil flowing, and he may be right. In the House of Representatives, the president's plan was supported by Democrats and Republicans, labor and corporate interests. In the Senate, much will depend on what kind of pressure is brought to bear on its members.

Americans may ultimately agree with Bush that maintaining their oil habit is worth any price. But we should at least acknowledge the full cost of such a decision -- not only for Americans, but for the six billion people we share the planet with. What do you think?

Mark Hertsgaard, author of Earth Odyssey: Around the World In Search of Our Environmental Future, is at work on a book about America and why it fascinates, infuriates, and bewilders the rest of the world.

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/oil_price.html

10/12/01
2:38:06 PM

MOJOURNAL October 11, 2001

http://www.motherjones.com/

* The Real Price of Oil * - Web Exclusive: Congressional Republicans are using terrorism fears to advance the administration's energy policy -- including oil drilling in Alaska -- while ignoring the plan's enormous long-term cost.

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/oil_price.html

* Speak No Evil * - Opinion: The government can be expected to clam up in times of war -- but why are citizens muzzling themselves?

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/commentary/opinion/self_censorship.html

* Beyond the Blasts * - Web Exclusive: Faux food drops?; too many bombs, not enough targets; Congressional consensus cracked; Central Asia's powder keg; it won't end in Afghanistan; more ...

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/blast5.html

* Bush Files * - Web Exclusive: The ever-changing war; Bush sets the bar too high; moving fast on Fast Track; not much intelligence in Congress; more...

http://www.motherjones.com/web_exclusives/features/news/bushfiles34.html

* Discuss * - Guns and butter: The B-1 and B-52 bombers that began runs over Afghanistan Sunday were joined by C-17 transport planes dropping food aid. Will this action change the way Afghanistan and the Islamic world views the US?

http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/WebX?50@@.ee99ce0

10/12/01
12:05:01 PM

For Immediate Release October 11, 2001

Washington D.C. FBI National Press Office

Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days. The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity.

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/101101.htm

October 11, 2001

F.B.I. Warns of Possible Terrorist Strike in Next Few Days

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 7:00 p.m. ET

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a stark warning, the FBI said Thursday it has received information there may be additional terrorist attacks inside the United States or abroad in the next several days.

The bureau said its information does not identify specific targets, but it has asked local police to be on the highest alert and for all Americans to be wary of suspicious activity.

"Certain information, while not specific as to target, gives the government the reason to believe that there may be additional terrorist attacks within the United States and against U.S. interests overseas over the next several days," the FBI said in its warning.

"The FBI has again alerted all local law enforcement to be on the highest alert and we call on all people to immediately notify the FBI and local law enforcement of any unusual or suspicious activity," it said.

The statement provided no additional information.

In a taped interview for ABC's "Nightline," Attorney General John Ashcroft said, "I think the next several days are obviously important partially because of the environment in which we find ourselves in the initial response period" in Afghanistan."

Justice Department spokeswoman Mindy Tucker said the department had received new intelligence within the past few days about a potential attack and decided to alert the public as well as law enforcement agencies.

"We realize the importance of the public accurately understanding the kinds of alerts we are sending out to law enforcement," said Tucker.

She said since Sept. 11 the FBI has sent law enforcement agencies five or six alerts. One that urged extra security and vigilance over crop-dusting operations was eventually made public.

Attorney General John Ashcroft has also warned Americans about possible attacks in retaliation for the U.S.-led bombing campaign in Afghanistan.

"We asked everyone to be on the highest alert and we're asking everyone to do that again," said Tucker. She added, in words similar to Ashcroft's this week, "Americans should go on with their lives, there's no reason people should live in panic."

It was the FBI's second request this week that law enforcement move to its highest state of alert. The first was on Sunday.

Thursday's statement was the first to suggest attacks might occur within several days.

Attorney General John Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller have said they intend to alert Americans to any credible threats about future terrorist plans.

In recent days, the FBI has asked supervisors of water supplies, nuclear and electric power plant operators, owners of crop dusters and drivers of hazardous waste trucks among others to increase security to ward off attacks.

"We are working to do everything possible and we would enlist the help of citizens in that," Ashcroft said earlier Thursday, before the FBI warning was issued.

THE TALEBAN ACCUSES THE US OF TARGETING CIVILIANS

The Afghan capital, Kabul, has come under further attack during the night and into the day as American warplanes launched a series of raids, drawing anti-aircraft fire from Taleban forces.

Several loud explosions could be heard in the east of the city near a Taleban military base, and a huge fireball lit the night-sky to the south of Kabul with a munitions dump reported hit.

The strikes came as the British Chief of Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, said the campaign could last into next summer if it did not end rapidly now.

US President George W Bush, in the first primetime news conference of his presidency, added that it could even take a couple of years.

But he said that the Taleban would be given a "second chance" if they presented Bin Laden and his "leaders and lieutenants and other thugs and criminals".

Civilian deaths

The US earlier denied Taleban claims that it has targeted civilians. The Taleban say more than 140 people had been killed in the last 24 hours.

The US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said in any military engagement, there was going to be unintended loss of life and it would happen in this one.

He regretted that, but he said that the United States did not target civilians. It was the terrorists, he went on, who had killed thousands of Americans.

He also said the Taleban were still in a position, as he put it, to threaten US aircraft. He pointed out they still had anti-aircraft batteries, stinger and surface-to-air missiles as well as helicopters and planes.

Earlier this week, Mr Rumsfeld had said US and British planes had secured air supremacy.

Daylight raids

The US raids began in daylight with planes flying over Kabul. Huge plumes of smoke were reported in the area of Kabul airport and on the eastern edge of the city.

And by night-time, residents said they had heard several more explosions close or within the city, in a sign of another heavy US onslaught.

Blasts were also reports of explosions around the Taleban stronghold of Kandahar to the south.

The Taleban say the US raids have caused many civilian casualties.

The Afghan Islamic Press agency quoted Taleban sources as saying the village of Kouram near Jalalabad had been flattened in an attack on Wednesday.

More than 100 people were feared dead, with 50 bodies recovered so far, a Taleban spokesman said.

These reports are impossible to verify as foreign journalists are barred from entering Taleban-controlled territory. But the Taleban governor of Jalalabad has invited reporters to come and see evidence of civilian casualties.

Panic

An Afghan refugee who left Kabul two days ago and has arrived in the Pakistani city of Peshawar has told the BBC that the air strikes have caused some civilian casualties.

But he said most people found the attacks less dangerous than they expected and were no longer seeking to leave the city.

However, the Associated Press news agency reported that Thursday's air strikes had sent people fleeing in panic.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0669.Afghan.Day.5.htm

10/12/01
11:59:21 AM

Your Rights or Your Safety, You Shouldn't Have to Choose

by John Passacantando, Greenpeace Executive Director

As I write this, the U.S. Senate is preparing to vote on the "Uniting and Strengthening America Act (USA)." As an attempt to enhance the ability of law enforcement and government agencies to prevent terrorist acts this legislation is being put forth with the best of intentions. But no matter how good the intentions, the bill as actually written contains a dangerous definition of terrorism that should concern every American.

As defined by section 803 of this bill, an activity committed within the U.S. would be considered a crime of domestic terrorism if it involves acts dangerous to human life that violate the laws of the United States or any State and appear to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.

As written, this definition could lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for supporting and engaging in civil disobedience and have the perverse effect of discouraging citizens from participating in the very essence of our democracy -- the right to peacefully protest.

Civil disobedience has played an invaluable role in bringing about important changes in society over the course of the last century, both in the U.S. and in many other countries around the world. Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mendela and Vaclav Havel all took part in acts of civil disobedience that led to important changes in the laws of their countries, not through violence or coercion, but through non-violent protests.

We realize this is a very sensitive issue at this time of heightened fear and concern for personal and national security. Our need for security is part of human nature. The events of September 11 were, and still are, horrifying beyond words, and we mourn for the dead and express our sympathy to the survivors and their loved ones. However, we believe that voicing dissent and engaging in peaceful, non-violent protest, even when it's unpopular, are the duties of responsible, engaged citizens in a democracy. For the past 30 years, Greenpeace has been involved in acts of civil disobedience to start a public debate within democratic countries around the world. These actions have often led to greater protection for our planet and the people on it.

We're calling on the Senate, with the letter below, to narrow the definition of what constitutes domestic terrorist activity to protect the rights of individual citizens and organizations like Greenpeace to peacefully and non-violently protest. The protection of our basic rights, and the protection of our planet go hand in hand with our safety. We can not afford to lose any of these things to the fight against terrorism.

Tuesday, October 9, 2001 Dear Senator,

I would like to express our concern regarding the "Uniting and Strengthening America Act (USA)" that has emerged from negotiations between the Senate and the White House, which could lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for engaging in civil disobedience.

The events of September 11 are horrifying beyond words. We mourn for the dead and express our sympathy to the survivors and their loved ones. We fully support the intent of the legislation to enhance the ability of law enforcement and government agencies to prevent such terrorist acts from occurring in the future. We are concerned, however, that the legislation currently under consideration in the Senate would result in the loss or infringement of fundamental civil liberties that have been essential to the healthy democratic political system that the United States has championed for more than 200 years.

Voicing dissent and engaging in peaceful, non-violent protest, even when it's unpopular, are the duties of responsible, engaged citizens in a democracy. For the past 30 years, Greenpeace has been involved in acts of civil disobedience to start a public debate within democratic countries around the world. These actions have often led to greater protection for our planet and the people on it.

We are concerned with the definition of terrorism in the "Uniting and Strengthening America Act." As currently constructed, it could lead to large-scale investigations of American citizens for supporting and engaging in civil disobedience and have the perverse effect of discouraging citizens from participating in the very essence of our democracy -- the right to peacefully protest.

We call on the Senate to narrow the definition of what constitutes domestic terrorist activity to protect the rights of individual citizens and organizations like Greenpeace to peacefully and non-violently protest. Ask yourself this: Would the Freedom Riders be considered terrorists under this legislation? How about Cesar Chavez? Civil disobedience has played an invaluable role in bringing about important changes in society over the course of the last century, both in the U.S. and in many other countries around the world. Rosa Parks, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Cesar Chavez, Nelson Mendela and Vaclav Havel all took part in acts of civil disobedience that led to important changes in the laws of their countries, not through violence or coercion, but through non-violent protests. Thank you for your attention to this very sensitive issue.

Sincerely,

John Passacantando

Greenpeace Executive Director

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0670.GrnP.Rights.htm

Greenpeace statement on the emerging conflict: 8 October, 2001

Terrorism and war are the ultimate, violent expressions of political conflict. Violent responses to violent attacks only breed further violence, further tragedy, and further human suffering. A Palestinian's loss of a son, an Israeli's loss of daughter, an American's loss of a father or an Afghani's loss of a mother are equal: human suffering is not lessened by the morality of the politics that caused it.

Our world has only recently taken its first steps away from the escalating global conflict of the Cold War, where new weapons systems bred newer weapons systems and attacks bred counter-attacks. We must not now allow a new conflict to beget an identical cycle of terror.

Our communities and their environments will remain sustainable and secure only if humanity can find peaceful means of resolving conflicts and ensuring justice.

Our world continues to bristle with nuclear weapons. Our world is threatened by new weapons systems and the prospect of a new arms race in space. Billions of people suffer daily from the lack of access to food, water, and to the basic means of survival. Environmental degradation has created millions of refugees, the world's massive dependence on fossil fuels has created political instability, and whole peoples are threatened by the sea-level rise associated with global warming.

Our world has yet to respond effectively to the prospects of widespread suffering and starvation presented by climate change, the poisoning of our planet, and the loss of biodiversity -- all of which raise fundamental questions about the security of our future. We can ill afford to further jeopardise that future by fuelling a massive new cycle of violence, potentially on a planetary scale.

Our plea to all parties in this emerging conflict is to view themselves as citizens of an imperilled planet, and to weigh their actions not against the short-term criteria of revenge and retaliation, but against the long term needs for our planet's peace and security.

All humanity, regardless of our political or economic differences, share the same most basic rights and needs and values. Our task now should be to create a global response to the threats to our common future.

http://greenpeace.org

10/12/01
11:50:49 AM

(Editors Note : This is a follow-up to an article published by t r u t h o u t on Chinese troop movements in the Afghan theater. Clearly there are conflicting reports. From the best information we have available, it appears that some Chinese Muslim fighters are either officially or unofficially entering the conflict zone on behalf of the Taliban. Officially the Chinese government adamantly opposes any such moment but unofficially the Chinese Army is clearly present along the Afghan Frontier. It is not clear who worries them more the US Forces or their own Muslim separatists.)

October 11, 2001

China Asks Help Against Muslims

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:25 p.m. ET

BEIJING (AP) -- China called for foreign support in its fight against Muslim separatists in its far west, saying Thursday it has evidence that they had links to terrorists abroad.

It was the clearest sign yet that China hopes to use the global anti-terror sentiment after the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States to its own domestic advantage.

China has fought Muslim separatists for years in its western region of Xinjiang. Activists campaigning for the creation of an independent nation of East Turkestan are blamed for sporadic bombings and assassinations.

China has been criticized for executing and imprisoning separatist suspects and for its heavy-handed rule in the region. Xinjiang's dominant ethnic group are the Uighurs --Turkic-speaking Muslims who are culturally and linguistically unrelated to China's majority Han ethnic group.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said China has strong evidence that separatists "have not only participated in terrorist activities they've also had links with international terrorist groups or elements."

Sun said he could not give specifics of which foreign groups were involved.

But he said many independence activists "openly state in their programs that they will engage in violence as a way to go against China."

"We hope that efforts to fight against East Turkestan terrorist forces should become a part of the international efforts and should also win support and understanding," Sun said at a regular briefing for reporters.

Human rights activists and Uighur exiles warn Beijing could use the Sept. 11 attacks as an excuse to crack down in Xinjiang.

"China has always been carrying out state terrorism in Uighur areas," said Dilxat Raxit, a Sweden-based spokesman for the East Turkestan Information Center, an exiled Uighur group. "They use violence, the military and all sorts of repression so that we obey Beijing."

London-based Amnesty International expressed fears Thursday that China will pressure Central Asian republics to "arrest and extradite Uighurs suspected of being 'separatists' as part of regional 'counter-terorrist' measures."

Some foreign scholars say China may be exaggerating the separatist threat. Experts say some Uighurs were trained in Afghanistan but that the separatists are few and poorly organized.

But Sun said separatists "are responsible for a series of terrorist violence activities like bombings, assassinations, poisoning, abductions and robbery." Their activities threaten China's security and "the stability and security of the whole region," Sun said.

A respected Hong Kong newspaper, Ming Pao, reported Thursday that police in Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi, launched an anti-terrorist crackdown this month that will last until the end of the year.

Ming Pao said Urumqi police have crushed 10 violent terrorist groups and arrested 210 people suspected of terrorism, separatist activity and religious extremism this year.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0668.China.Afghan.2.htm

10/12/01
11:46:10 AM

For Mobile Chernobyl and Yucca Mountain data and routes, talk about great terrorist targets – how about 77,000 tons of high level radiation waste traveling through 43 states over a period of 30 years.

http://www.citizen.org/cmep

10/12/01
11:06:44 AM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Alaska pipeline spill costs expected to mount - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12775/story.htm

Plug Power 2001 fuel cell shipments on target - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12777/story.htm

US nuclear agency reviews Web site, eyeing security - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12778/story.htm

Green groups to test Bt corn for allergic reaction - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12781/story.htm

UPDATE - Bush says US Senate should pass energy bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12782/story.htm

Tougher US laws urged to protect sea mammals - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12783/story.htm

In shift, USDA assists Senate in farm law rewrite - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12784/story.htm

Ultra-fine asbestos a concern for WTC work crews - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12785/story.htm

Thin roof caused 2000 Kentucky coal disaster - study - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12789/story.htm

South Africa says mammoth 2002 summit to go ahead - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12787/story.htm

Lithuania to extend no-fly zone near N-plant - LATVIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12779/story.htm

UPDATE - EU decision on German green energy pending - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12776/story.htm

Authorities probe security at German Isar 1 N-plant - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12780/story.htm

UPDATE - US fails to resolve China soybean row - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12786/story.htm

China taps 10 western areas for resource development - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12788/story.htm

10/12/01
11:01:05 AM

A New Marshall Plan?

Advancing Human Security and Controlling Terrorism

By Dick Bell & Michael Renner, Worldwatch Institute

What do you think of this advice from a senior U.S. military officer and statesman about how the people of the United States should deal with a part of the world torn by war, poverty, disease, and hunger:

"...it is of vast importance that our people reach some general understanding of what the complications really are, rather than react from a passion or a prejudice or an emotion of the moment....It is virtually impossible at this distance merely by reading, or listening, or even seeing photographs or motion pictures, to grasp at all the real significance of the situation. And yet the whole world of the future hangs on a proper judgment."

The speaker was General George C. Marshall, outlining the Marshall Plan in an address at Harvard University on June 5, 1947. Surveying the wrecked economies of Europe, Marshall noted the "possibilities of disturbances arising as a result of the desperation of the people concerned." He said that there could be "no political stability and no assured peace" without economic security, and that U.S. policy was "directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos."

As President Bush and his advisors review the results of the initial bombing campaign, they might also consider the relevance of Marshall's strategy to the moral and political problems America now confronts. Of course we should find the people responsible for the deaths of September 11 and bring them to justice, and work with other nations to root out other terrorist networks. But we must do so in a way that does not result in the deaths of even more innocent people, deaths that would only deepen the cycle of anger and rage that led to September 11.

What is largely missing from the administration's rhetoric is recognition of the scale of the underlying problems that have to be addressed, regardless of how successful we may be in the short run in tracking down the perpetrators of the September 11th terrorist assaults. As Marshall's words so plainly suggest, finding the terrorists should be part of a much more ambitious campaign, one in which the rich countries approach the appalling inequities of the world with the same boldness and determination that the United States brought to bear in Europe under the Marshall Plan.

We don't really need to spend another dime on "intelligence" to recognize the conditions that leave whole countries in a state of despair and misery. Some 1.2 billion people worldwide struggle to survive on $1 day or less. 1.2 billion people lack access to safe drinking water and 2.9 billion have inadequate access to sanitation. About 150 million children are malnourished, and more than 10 million children under 5 will die in 2001 alone. At least 150 million people are unemployed and 900 million are "underemployed"-contending with inadequate incomes despite long hours of backbreaking work.

Globalization has raised expectations, even as modern communications make the rising inequality between a rich, powerful, and imposing West and the rest of the world visible to all. Poverty and deprivation do not automatically translate into hatred. But people whose hopes have worn thin, whose aspirations have been thwarted, and whose discontent is rising, are far more likely to succumb to the siren song of extremism. This is particularly true for the swelling ranks of young people whose prospects for the future are bleak. Some 34 percent of the developing world's population is under 15 years of age.

The United States and the other industrial nations should launch a global "Marshall Plan" to provide everyone on earth with a decent standard of living. We can already hear the cries of people claiming that such a global plan would "cost too much." But let's look at the numbers. The cost of our initial response has soared into the tens of billions of dollars, on top of an already large proposed defense budget of $342.7 billion.

For the sake of comparison, let's assume that the United States will spend an additional $100 billion on military actions in the next 12 months. What could we buy if we matched this $100 billion military expenditure dollar-for-dollar with spending on programs to alleviate human suffering?

A 1998 report by the United Nations Development Programme estimated the annual cost to achieve universal access to a number of basic social services in all developing countries: $9 billion would provide water and sanitation for all; $12 billion would cover reproductive health for all women; $13 billion would give every person on Earth basic health and nutrition; and $6 billion would provide basic education for all.

These sums are substantial, but they are still only a fraction of the tens of billions of dollars we are already spending. And these social and health expenditures pale in comparison with what is being spent on the military by all nations-some $780 billion each year.

There is a sad irony in watching the Bush Administration's strenuous efforts to build an international coalition. There is no such muscular effort underway, in the United States, or in any of the other rich nations, to build a coalition to eradicate hunger, to immunize all children, to provide clean water, to eradicate infectious disease, to provide adequate jobs, to combat illiteracy, or to build decent housing.

The cost of failing to advance human security and to eliminate the fertile ground upon which terrorism thrives is already escalating. Since September 11, we know that sophisticated weapons offer little protection against those who are out to seek vengeance, at any cost, for real and perceived wrongs. Unless our priorities change, the threat is certain to keep rising in coming years.

By choosing to mobilize adequate resources to address human suffering around the world, President Bush has a unique opportunity to seize the terrible moment of September 11 and earn a truly exalted place in human history. But first, we must all understand that in the end, weapons alone cannot buy us a lasting peace in a world of extreme inequality, injustice, and deprivation for billions of our fellow human beings.

Dick Bell is Vice President for Communications at the Worldwatch Institute

(dbell@worldwatch.org)

Michael Renner is a Senior Researcher at the Worldwatch Institute

(mrenner@peconic.net)

For further information, please contact Niki Clark, 202-452-1992 x 517,

nclark@worldwatch.org

The Worldwatch Institute web site is at http://www.worldwatch.org

10/11/01
9:29:06 PM

The Nation

"One month after September 11, ground zero--six blocks from where I live--remains unquiet. Inextinguishable subterranean fires belch smoke into the neighborhood, as if the ruin were an active volcano, spreading a stench whose source we do not care to think about. The global crisis set in motion by the attack has been active, too."

Read the rest of "Annihilation and the Ways of Peace," Jonathan Schell's most recent Letter From Ground Zero, published in the October 29, 2001 issue of The Nation, currently at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011029&s=schell

The war in Afghanistan, coming after the atrocities of September 11, provokes a range of emotions and fears. On one side a desire for justice and a yearning for security. And, on the other side, dread of a war effort unrestrained by national boundaries, domestic dissent or definable goals.

In "Ends and Means," scholar Richard Falk tries to define what exactly a just and effective response to September 11 would actually look like. Falk argues that since there is a real threat of further terrorist attacks, action designed to hunt down members of the terrorist network and those in the Taliban government who collaborate with it is legitimate. But acknowledging a right of response is by no means an endorsement of unlimited force or a blank check for an global 'war on terrorism."

Read Falk's essay in its entirety at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011029&s=falk

And see Mark Crispin Miller's special web report for an examination of the way critical discussion of terrorism is being shut out of the media on the homefront. Currently available at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=20011011miller

We've also created a special page on The Nation website, where we'll collect all of our September 11 resources and material at:

http://www.thenation.com/special/wtc/index.mhtml

Updated regularly, this page features all relevant Nation web articles; a collection of Nation archival material; a series of links to peace and anti-discrimination groups; a selection of current essays and articles from publications around the world; and a set of Internet-based resources devoted to elucidating the true essence of Islamic culture and to discussing tensions in the world's far-from-monolithic Muslim communities.

Currently you can find a debate between Noam Chomsky and Christoher Hitchens on the roots of the September 11 attacks; a 1998 Nation interview with bin Laden conducted by Robert Fisk; a 1996 Nation essay by Fred Halliday examining the Taliban's ascent in Afghanistan; a 1978 reflection on terrorism and democracy by Aryeh Neier; Nation web articles by Naomi Klein, Tariq Ali, David Corn, Joel Rogers, Sumana Raychaudhuri and John Nichols and a regularly updated selection of media clips from around the world.

All this and much, much more available at:

http://www.thenation.com/special/wtc/index.mhtml

And don't miss these recent articles of interest from the October 22, 2001 issue of The Nation, including:

EDWARD W. SAID: The Clash of Ignorance

Labels like "Islam" and "the West" serve only to confuse us about a disorderly reality.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=said

NAOMI KLEIN: Signs of the Times

Protests aimed at powerful symbols of capitalism find themselves in a transformed landscape.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=klein

KATHA POLLITT: Where Are the Women? Now more than ever, RAWA, which opposes both the Taliban and the Northern Alliance as violent, lawless, misogynistic and antidemocratic, deserves attention and support.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=pollitt

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS: Blaming bin Laden First

We certainly owe a duty to Afghanistan's people, whose lives were rendered impossible by the Taliban long before we felt any pain.

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=hitchens

10/11/01
9:20:47 PM

Solar energy users open homes for public tours

Thursday, October 11, 2001 By Environmental News Network

Workers install solar panels on the Colorado governor's residence.

Utilizing the power of the Sun to provide energy for homes has developed into a fine art. This month, Energy Awareness Month, the American Solar Energy Society is coordinating the opening of hundreds of private homes across the country for public viewing. People will be able to tour more than 800 homes and businesses powered by solar energy in 44 states and see first hand the benefits of the clean, nonpolluting power of the Sun.

The home and business owners will explain to visitors how photovoltaic cells for electricity and passive solar energy systems for heat work. Some homeowners will explain how they can sell electricity generated by their solar installations back to their local utility through a process known as net metering.

Especially in California, dealing with its energy crunch, the idea that sunny days can be turned into electricity is appealing. California Energy Commissioner Robert Pernell said, "Photovoltaic panels, small wind turbines, and fuel cells can be installed in existing structures or incorporated into new construction. These tours are a good way for homeowners who are interested in learning more about this type of energy technology to see the systems working, ask questions, and find out which system best suits their needs."

This coming weekend, Oct. 13 and 14, the public is invited to visit private homes throughout Los Angeles that use solar technology. Solar homes in Santa Monica, Culver City, and Hollywood will be open on the Real Places For Real People tour, sponsored by the solar and renewable energy nonprofit organization Global Possibilities.

Casey Coates Danson, founding president of Global Possibilities, said, "The homes on this tour are making a great contribution to mitigating climate change by using solar energy. It will take the participation of many more individuals like these to make a substantial impact on climate change."

Danson's own 4,500-square-foot residence, a highlight of the tour, is the largest private residence in Los Angeles using solar technology.

Also on Oct. 13, solar homes farther north in California will be open. Tours sponsored by the Northern California Solar Energy Association offer 35 sites in the East Bay, Silicon Valley, Contra Costa, and Santa Cruz featuring solar power, photovoltaic systems, solar water and space heating, passive solar, and green building materials.

"This is a great opportunity for the public to see how solar power can maximize home energy efficiency and why a home with renewable energy is a good investment," said Ed Nold, owner and founder of Green Home Design, a consulting firm specializing in putting environmental commitments into practice in residential construction projects.

California Congresswoman Jane Harman, a Democrat and a Venice Beach resident, recently added solar panels to her home. "It was not a tough choice," she said." I live on the beach and the sun beats down on my roof almost every day. Photovoltaic technologies convert that energy to usable electricity with no polluting byproducts. Hopefully more people will choose clean, efficient solar over antiquated fossil generation."

Pernell assures interested people on a tight budget, "Many renewable technologies that are available today for California homes and businesses are also eligible for a state rebate."

Opportunities abound in other areas of the country. Near Chatanooga, Tenn., the Sequatchie Valley Institute is inviting people to tour its facilities, which model environmental sustainability. They feature hand-crafted passive solar buildings that utilize solar and wind-powered electricity. Surrounding the Center is a permaculture farm with edible landscaping integrated into the forest ecosystem.

In the nation's capital, the Potomic Region Solar Energy Association is hosting the solar tour in cooperation with Sierra Club, Virginia Solar Council, and American Solar Energy Council. The tour will include the home of Mike Tidwell and Catherine Varchaver, which was featured in a Washington Post article on Oct. 6.

Even in cold North Dakota, a solar home will be open near Carson to display a solar-wind hybrid system. The tour is hosted by Dakota Solar Electric, which designs and installs solar-powered water systems for ranchers in North Dakota.

In conjunction with the Denver self-guided solar home tour, the National Renewable Energy Lab in nearby Golden, Colo., is hosting an exhibitor showcase featuring 25 local companies and organizations that provide renewable energy and energy efficiency products and services.

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/10/10112001/s_45228.asp

10/11/01
9:17:42 PM

Public Citizen Expands to the West Coast

New California Office to Focus on Trade, Energy, Environment Issues and More

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Thirty years after its founding in Washington, D.C., the national consumer advocacy group Public Citizen has opened a field office in California. In the new Oakland location, Public Citizen will work on national and state issues, placing a special emphasis on connecting with local advocacy groups and activists.

"What happens in Washington has a profound impact on the rest of the country, and what happens in California often signals emerging policy issues," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen since 1982. "Our new office will help us interact with many important allies and members across the country."

The California field office will expand the reach of the organization's work on its core issues, which include campaign finance reform, food and automobile safety, prescription drug pricing and corporate responsibility. The West Coast office also puts Public Citizen in a prime location for its work on international trade and energy policy. Public Citizen has already done significant research on California's struggles with a deregulated electricity system, and the California office will enable the organization to increase that focus.

Public Citizen was founded in 1971 by consumer advocate Ralph Nader to fight for consumer interests in the legislatures, courts and regulatory agencies. Nader left the organization in 1980. The organization now has five policy groups: Congress Watch, which tracks congressional actions on health policy and campaign finance reform and monitors attacks on the civil justice and regulatory systems; the Critical Mass Energy and Environment Program, devoted to studying nuclear safety, food irradiation and energy issues; Global Trade Watch, which campaigns for social and economic justice in international trade agreements; the Health Research Group, which works for prescription drug safety and healthcare delivery; and the Litigation Group, which fights in the courts for corporate and government responsibility. Public Citizen also does a significant amount of work on auto and truck safety.

Public Citizen has a Texas field office, which opened in 1984. Like the Texas satellite, the California office will work on issues from all of the policy groups. In total, the organization has roughly 100 employees.

California was a natural candidate for a field office because almost a fifth of Public Citizen's membership of 150,000 lives in California. Jane Kelly, director of the new office, said that she hopes to tap these members' energy and involve them as activists.

"Public Citizen does a lot of important work on critical issues facing this country, and we want to engage Californians in those efforts," she said. "We want to provide people with an opportunity to be involved and change the balance of power through citizen activism, and California is the natural place to do that."

Kelly will run the office with Michael Dolan, deputy director of Global Trade Watch, and office manager Julie Chi.

Kelly previously worked for two years as a consultant to nonprofit organizations. Before that, she spent seven years with the Union of Concerned Scientists, where she led California campaigns promoting renewable energy and energy-efficient vehicles and fought against electricity deregulation.

The office held an opening event on Friday, Sept. 14. To contact the office, located at 1615 Broadway, Ninth Floor, in Oakland, call (510) 663-0888, or fax (510) 663-8569.

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

10/11/01
9:12:39 PM

October 11th, 2001

Dear Readers,

One month after the tragic attack, there are still some serious questions that need to be answered. Here are seven big ones:

1) Is Vice President Dick Cheney healthy? Even if we aren't allowed to know where he is most of the time for security reasons, he still should be making appearances before the media, who can ask him questions of their choosing. The American public has a right and a need to see our Veep, not just the Prez. Even as V.P. he is still one of our leaders. Some of us wonder if his health would make him unable to perform the duties of president if called upon to do so, and if that's true, the public needs to know that.

2) How come fighter jets took off from Langley AFB, bound for Washington, DC, at 9:30 am on September 11th, but 13 minutes later, at 9:43, when the plane struck the Pentagon, those jets were said to be "12 minutes away"? (These numbers are from a Dateline NBC broadcast which didn't question them. Other media generally are reporting -- and not questioning -- the same numbers.) Langley AFB is about 130 miles from DC. So at the speed these planes fly at, even allowing for acceleration and takeoff, they are less than 7 minutes away from DC to begin with. Similar discrepancies exist for the NYC fighter planes AND there is at least one video of the WTC attack (FOX has it) which seems to show something moving extremely rapidly across the scene. It's not a missile. Was it a fighter jet? Can it be heard on the audio tracks? Some reports said the fighters were "8 minutes away" when the second jet struck the tower. But the base they took off from (in Massachusetts) is only about 8 minutes away from NYC if you kick in the afterburners. So what's up with these phoney timelines we've been presented with?

4) When are we going to be told exactly what United Flight 93 did, according to its black boxes? Where exactly was it headed? What was its exact timeline of events? How did the plane go down? Why were the passengers heard to scream twice, according to the father of one of the passengers, who was on the phone when the plane went down?

5) The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, on September 21st, 2001, said that on September 11th, 2001, they kicked into action at 10:00 a.m., telling all the plants to go on high alert, whatever that means (not much, I'm sure). The second plane struck the second tower at 9:02 a.m. erasing even the slightest doubt that this was an accident. So the question is, what did the NRC do from 9:02 a.m. until 10:00 a.m.?

6) Why haven't we American citizens managed to force our leaders to shut down the nukes permanently yet? They are each a catastrophe waiting to happen, which would be many orders of magnitude worse than the WTC horror. And it doesn't take terrorism. That's only the most obvious worry, but there are 1000 other ways a nuke can create a dead zone the size of a small country.

7) Security experts testifying before Congress this week have stated that there is a "100%" chance of future terrorist retaliations in America. Why is so little being done to reduce our vulnerabilities? We are being told to simply go about our business, when that is NOT what Americans want to do. We want to help make America safe, secure, and strong, but instead we are being told to twiddle our thumbs. We can build windmills so the nukes can be closed. There are always things to be done at times like these. America must roll into full crises mode right away.

-- Russell Hoffman, Concerned Citizen, Carlsbad, CA

10/11/01
9:07:55 PM

In Miami, the false alarms and hoaxes involving anthrax have gotten so bad that firefighters are running out of disposable contamination suits.

"We've had to order more," said Assistant Fire Chief Joe Fernandez. The death of Bob Stevens, 63, of anthrax in Atlantis, Fla., last Friday has sparked fears of bio-terrorism in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It's also touched off hundreds of false alarms -- intentional and accidental -- throughout Florida and the rest of the nation.

About 1,000 people were locked down in an Internal Revenue Service center in Covington, Ky., when white powder was found in the mailroom. Police and firefighters rushed to a shopping mall in Lincoln, Neb., when a box labeled "anthrax" was found.

But most of the action was in Florida. A St. Petersburg Times columnist received an envelope containing what looked like sugar or salt. His desk was encased in plastic. A preliminary test produced no sign of anthrax.

In Naples, Fla., 75 workers were detained in two buildings after employees and a bank and a law firm found white powder covering mail delieved by a private courier service. No evidence of anthrax was found.

At a Hollywood, Fla., parking lot, the scene approached the bizarre as firemen in contamination suits scrubbed off fully clothed office workers with push brooms and hoses. White powder found under a computer keyboard was later found to be harmless.

Prosecutors said Wednesday there have been no arrests yet, but they are considering treating false anthrax calls and mailing letters with mysterious white powder in them as serious criminal offenses.

10/11/01
9:05:37 PM

Backwards Speech

While the White House says Osama bin Laden and his cronies may be using the international news media to convey coded messages, an authority on messages hidden in speech says the suspected terrorist's pre-taped interview Sunday has already revealed one message, encoded backwards. That message, according to Jon Kelly, states: "Allah hath told him that we should hold Hamas."

Other reversed audio clips from Sunday include British Prime Minister Tony Blair stating, "Famish guy -- he has virus," and "Give us him, Saddam." Kelly claims President Bush can also be heard telling the world, "We will beat them."

Kelly claims that involuntary muscular contractions affecting the vocal organs embed messages within speech while people talk. The messages are encoded backwards, according to Kelly, in order to bypass the censor mechanism of the speaker's ego -- thereby providing a look into the unconscious mind.

http://www.YourInnerVoice.com

10/11/01
8:59:18 PM

Public Citizen

Internet Critics of New Jersey Town Officials Have First Amendment Right to Anonymity, Even If They Don't Have An Attorney

Court Should Not Allow Anonymous Posters of Internet Messages to be Identified, Public Citizen and American Civil Liberties Union Say

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- When considering whether to allow Emerson, N.J. town officials to learn the identities of their anonymous Internet critics, a judge should determine whether the officials have made a sufficient argument to warrant such a privacy invasion -- regardless of whether the critics have retained attorneys, Public Citizen and the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey (ACLU- NJ) told a court today.

Also, the person who created the Web site that spawned the lawsuit should not be liable for comments posted on it, the organizations said.

In an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief filed Thursday in the Superior Court of Bergen County, the two organizations argued that the First Amendment protects those who filed the comments on a site called "Eye on Emerson," regardless of whether they have found lawyers to protect their rights in court. Two council members, a council candidate and a council member's husband sued 60 John and Jane Does as well as the site's creator, claiming defamation. They also are seeking information from Internet service provider VantageNet that would identify those who posted the messages.

"This suit is a clear attempt to intimidate the townspeople so they stop making comments about their officials," said Paul Alan Levy, an attorney for Public Citizen, which is involved in the case because it has a history of defending First Amendment rights. "Not only is it preposterous, but it violates the First Amendment. Further, the judge should realize that the First Amendment protects the anonymity of these critics, regardless of whether they have an attorney. "

Courts have clearly established that the First Amendment protects the right to speak anonymously, and they have upheld that right when it applies to the Internet, the organizations wrote in the brief. Those seeking to identify anonymous sources bear a very heavy legal burden.

In this case, the judge should be mindful that those seeking to identify their critics are public officials who have the power to reject zoning requests, withhold city services and even to use police power, the organizations wrote. Identifying the critics would have a chilling effect on the willingness of townspeople to speak out in the future.

Further, anonymous message posters who have not been able to hire a lawyer to argue their cases in court still are entitled to the same First Amendment protection, the groups said. For those message posters, the judge has an independent duty to review the plaintiffs' evidence to be sure there is enough to warrant enforcement of the subpoena to obtain identifying information.

Case law also indicates that the creator of the Web site, Stephen Moldow, is immune from liability for messages posted on his site. The Communications Decency Act says that no provider of an interactive computer service shall be treated as a publisher or speaker of any of the information provided by someone using the site. Congress passed the law because it was worried that companies running Internet sites in which millions of messages are posted would shut down if they could be liable for what people wrote.

"Moldow's site, which is devoted to topics relating to local government, represents a terrific gift to the community," Levy said. "If someone like Moldow has to face the prospect of ruinous litigation from any person who is criticized on the Web site, then very few citizens would ever set up such valuable sites."

Public Citizen is working with J.C. Salyer and Ed Barocas of the ACLU-NJ.

A copy of the brief is available at

http://www.citizen.org/litigation/briefs/IntFreeSpch/articles.cfm?ID=6271

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, DC.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

10/11/01
7:17:17 PM

MediaChannel.org

World In Crisis, Media In Conflict:

WAR, PEACE, CONTEXT AND CULTURE

MediaChannel's ongoing coverage includes:

*Global Arab Voices: The Power Of Al-Jazeera TV.

*Assume the military -and media- will lie..

*Edward Said: The "West" Versus "Islam"?

And Much, Much More...

PLUS: Books on media and conflict, guides for teachers and resources for journalists.

http://www.mediachannel.org/atissue/conflict

NEWS DISSECTOR: MUSIC AS MEDIA

Danny Schechter discusses how popular music often has a power that journalism doesn't.

http://www.mediachannel.org/views/dissector/music.shtml

FIGHT THE POWER: MEDIA DEMOCRACY

October 19 is "Media Democracy Day" and everyone concerned about social justice should join the growing grassroots movement to challenge the corporate media, says Bob Hackett. (From CPBF Canada)

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#democracy

WHAT YOU'RE SAYING: VOICES FROM THE FORUM

"Women obscured in the 'Fight for Freedom'" "Getting facts wrong on Afghanistan" "Request talking points ... how to shift the debate?" Join the discussion!

http://64.225.103.105/forum/

MEDIA READER

The best media about the media.

MediaChannel's international, biweekly, multimedia magazine

* TV Contacts Kids By Cellphone

* Activism Via Virus

* Trouble In Tunisia

And much, much more... Plus: Streaming audio and video

http://www.mediachannel.org/news/mediareader

POLITICS OF POP

How are Hollywood and indy artists responding to war? What is the future of digital music? Visit the new popCULT, a MediaChannel site dedicated to global pop culture. It's a work-in-progress, please share your feedback!!

http://www.mediachannel.org/front.shtml#pop

10/11/01
5:53:46 PM

Senator Blocks Terror Bill Over Civil Liberties

WASHINGTON (Oct. 10) - The Bush administration's anti-terrorism legislation has stalled because of one senator's concern that it will erode civil liberties.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., tried to hurry the bill through Tuesday, but Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., refused Daschle's request to let the bill go through without debate or amendment.

``I can't quite understand why we can't have just a few hours of debate,'' said Feingold, who wants the chance to limit some of the police powers in the Senate legislation.

The House and Senate last week came up with anti-terrorism bills based on an outline offered by Attorney General John Ashcroft, who has been urging Congress to quickly pass the bill.

When Senate negotiations on an airline security bill stalled, Daschle asked senators to unanimously agree to move on to the anti-terrorism bill.

Under Daschle's plan, the Senate would have voted on final passage of the bill Tuesday evening and senators would not have been allowed to offer amendments. But Feingold refused to go along, saying he wanted to add four important amendments to limit some of the bill's police powers.

Feingold's amendments would:

Eliminate a provision in the bill that would allow police to secretly search suspects' homes.

Narrow a provision that allows federal officials to wiretap telephones.

Keep the FBI from being able to access Americans' personal records.

Clarify the federal government's ability to wiretap computers.

``It is crucial that civil liberties in this country be preserved,'' Feingold said. ``Otherwise the terrorists will win the battle against American values without firing another shot.''

The anti-terrorism bill now will have to wait until senators finish the aviation bill, which worries some senators. ``There is a danger that the aviation bill will tangle up the rest of this week, and we won't be able to get to it until next week,'' said Senate Republican Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.

The House, meanwhile, is expected to move on an anti-terrorism bill before the end of the week. However, House aides say administration officials are pressuring House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., to take the Senate bill instead of the bill approved by the House Judiciary Committee.

The Bush administration prefers the Senate bill to the House bill, which eliminates most of the bill's police power in 2004. The House bill also does not have anti-money-laundering provisions requested by the White House.

Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that regardless of what's in either bill, it will be changed in negotiations between the House and Senate. The House-Senate conference committee bill ``will be the final package,'' Leahy said.

The bill numbers are H.R. 2975 and S. 1510.

10/11/01
5:51:14 PM

Senator Blocks Terror Bill Over Civil Liberties

URGENT: Specific follow up on threat to Civil Liberties! (HR 2975 and S 1510)]

Dear Friends,

This will hopefully be the last need for sending such a message, but it is a response to so many of you asking re: the specifics of the bills being put through Congress, which will potential restrict our civil liberties in powerful ways.

If you are concerned now about civil liberties, these are the bills that Congress is attempting to rush through. We could live with their effects forever if we are not careful. So educate yourself and take the time to correspond with your senators and congressmen.

The vote on this stuff is happening very quickly, so take time to speak now. For instance, they wanted to vote on these issues last night (Tuesday), but only one senator held them up. The bill labelled HR 2975 is in the House, the bill labelled S 1510 is in the Senate.

I would suggest that you first READ the article at the bottom of this email. However, if you want to see the specifics of the bills, go to website: http://thomas.loc.gov/ and follow the instructions for reading the text (search by bill number - include the HR and S before the numbers.)

To contact your Congresspeople, go to website: http://www.congress.org or http://www.congressmerge.com/onlinedb/index.html (This has an email facility so you can then correspond with them).

And if you have not had the time to read the Monthly Weather Report, this is vital information to becoming educated - so that you can become a part of the healing response, not the fear. As we move forward into this time of initiation and challenge (which will bring us into an unprecedented time of healing - if we respond and stand in our loving truth), it is vital that we hold the resonance of love.

10/11/01
5:49:11 PM

DIVERSE COALITIONS OF AMERICANS SPEAK OUT AGAINST WAR: YES!

http://www.yesmagazine.org/19technology/pressrelease0919.htm

PRAYERS

http://www.yesmagazine.org/19technology/prayers.htm

Think Peace!

http://www.spirituelekrant.nl/index.html

10/11/01
5:45:31 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

INTERNATIONAL TEAM COMBATS BLACK SEA DECLINE

KALMAR, Sweden, October 10, 2001 (ENS) - The Black Sea is spiralling into decline as a result of chronic over-fishing, high levels of pollution and the devastating impacts of alien species, an international team of scientists has warned at a meeting here.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-10-01.html

FUEL ECONOMY DOWN IN U.S. CARS

WASHINGTON, DC, October 10, 2001 (ENS) - More than 94 percent of the cars and trucks available in the new model year get less than 30 miles to a gallon of gas, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revealed today. On average, fuel economy of the 2002 model cars is down slightly from last year's models, the agency said.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-10-06.html

GERMAN REACTION TO TERRORISM: SHUT DOWN NUCLEAR PLANTS

BERLIN, Germany, October 10, 2001 (ENS) - German environment minister Juergen Trittin yesterday turned the screw on a nuclear power sector already due to be phased out by 2030 by threatening emergency plant closures in case of a credible threat of terrorist attack.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-10-02.html

RHINO ATTACKS DRUGER PARK TOURISTS

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, South Africa, October 10, 2001 (ENS) - The Kruger National Park does not plan to end its wilderness walking tours in the bush after seven tourists narrowly escaped being hurt by an angry rhino on Sunday.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-10-03.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 10, 2001

Whitman Announces Water Protection Task Force

Conservation Groups File Suit to Halt Timber Sale

West Nile Virus Spreads West of Mississippi River

Federal, Private Partners Save Missouri River Acres

FDA Reviews Mad Cow Preventive Measures

Scaleshell Mussell Listed as Endangered

Crayfish Declining Across the U.S.

Campaign Calls for Clean, Recyclable Electronic Products

Wildlife Research Highlights California's Fire Risk

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-10-09.html

10/11/01
5:42:09 PM

Third Person Tests Positive for Anthrax in Florida

BOCA RATON, Fla. (Reuters) - A third person has tested positive for anthrax in Florida and the probe into the source of the disease is now a criminal investigation, officials said on Wednesday.

"We have an additional employee that has been found to have anthrax present," said FBI special agent in charge Hector Pesquera.

Acting U.S. Attorney Guy Lewis said the investigation was now considered a criminal probe. Pesquera stressed there was no indication the anthrax was produced or caused by a terrorist group or individuals related to the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington.

Investigators have been looking into the source of anthrax that killed one man at the offices of tabloid publishers American Media Inc. in Boca Raton, Florida. A mailroom employee, was also exposed to the disease and on Wednesday officials announced a 35-year-old woman tested positive.

Officials stressed the exposure was limited to the AMI building.

Experts say the rare disease can be used as a biological warfare agent. But a senior government health official earlier on Wednesday sought to allay any such fears in this case.

"If this was a massive exposure, there should be lots of people sick. We are not finding that," Dr. Scott Lillibridge, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson's special assistant for bioterrorism, told members of Congress in Washington.

But the Florida contamination has fueled fears in a public already on edge over last month's hijack attacks.

Many Boca Raton residents have pointed to the fact that some of the suspected hijackers lived in south Florida in recent months and some made inquiries about crop-dusting planes.

Federal investigators grounded crop-dusters for a period last month out of concern they could be used in biological or chemical attacks. Such flights have now resumed.

10/11/01
5:30:06 PM

Music Trumps Journalism Again

by Danny Schechter

It was September 23, in the same month that would years later go down in infamy-plus. Battery Park City was a pit of sand then, not from fallen towers as it is today, but because that corner of Lower Manhattan, next door to the World Trade Center, was still a landfill site on which a city within a city would soon rise.

The year was 1979, and 250,000 people converged in the shadow of the Twin Towers for a giant No Nukes rally headlined by Jackson Browne and other musical superstars. That rally was the culmination of five days of the MUSE (Musicians United for Safe Energy) Concerts for a Non-Nuclear Future at a packed Madison Square Garden.

Jackson Browne sang his big hit that Sunday afternoon alongside the majestic Hudson River. It was prophetically called "Before the Deluge" and contained the line: "And let the buildings keep our children dry." He and his counterparts had come to sing against the dangers of an energy policy built around nuclear plants. Many others had come to hear the stars sing, to sing along, to stand with them against a corporate threat that seemed to promise only destruction. In those years, there was a strong intersection between popular culture and movements for change. I helped anchor coverage for a national string of commercial FM rock stations, coverage a political rally would never get today.

Back then, years before we'd heard the term globalization, the World Trade Center was considered a symbol of greed. "Do you lie down and let those corporations roll over you?" Browne asked, "Can you leave your life in the hands of those people?"

That 1979 event, and events like it, slowed (and some think stopped) the momentum of nuclear plant construction. The nuclear industry was put on the defensive and lost billions in the following years after some of the problems critics warned against surfaced in places like Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

Oil's Role

None of us then could have foreseen the events of September 11, 2001, or how the politics of energy and oil would become the backdrop for conflicts and wars to come. Many of us still don't recognize that the "new war" most Americans support as a just campaign to wipe out a band of evil terrorists may morph quickly into a war to control the oil fields dominated by Iraq and the Saudis, whose society produced Bin Ladin and funds Islamic extremism as a counterweight against political radicalism and democratic change. As the world economy shrinks and corporate profits decline, there will be pressures for more intervention in other lands in a fight over resources.

For many in the desperately poor and developing world, the America they hate or call the great Satan is experienced through the presence of the oil and energy industries. Many of their opposition movements are aware of the power and influence of multinational corporations as the wedge of U.S. influence, even if they aren't much investigated or reported either abroad or here. I have so far seen only one thorough-going analysis, for example, about the oil aspect of this conflict in an American newspaper, a report by Frank Viviano in the San Francisco Chronicle, republished by Global Exchange. "The hidden stakes in the war against terrorism can be summed up in a single word: oil," he writes. ""Rather than a simple confrontation between Islam and the West, [these energy sources] will be the primary flash point of global conflict for decades to come."

Most Americans are not exposed to much coverage of the interests that shape our policies or the problems they exacerbate. At the same time, the people who rally against our country overseas are not terribly well informed about the Other America. Their media are rarely objective nor do they feature the views of critics and dissenters. This is a shame because it is important to know that the interests of the majority of working people are often at odds with those in control. How many readers and viewers in other countries know that an attack on a symbol of financial power also took the lives of 1,000 members of trade unions? Unhappily, the media in many countries keep their cultures in a bubble of insularity and ignorance.

As Benjamin R. Barber makes clear in his thoughtful study, "Jihad vs. McWorld", much of the world is locked in a battle between two fundamentalisms that are equally at odds with the spirit and demands of democracy. Islamic fundamentalism and global market capitalism share more in outlook than is commonly recognized, he says. Both want to silence the voices of ordinary people and impose forms of control from above; both use media shamelessly and all too effectively to promote their ideological mission and values.

Flashing Forward

Today, Jackson Browne is still at it, this time joining as many as 200 other artists, athletes and others in recording another musical anthem, "We Are Family," a song that originally came out in the year of the No Nukes rally at the World Trade Center. "We Are Family" has been remade by one of its original producers, Nile Rodgers, as an anthem of our common humanity, a song to help promote a sense that we are all part of a global family that has to stand up against the intolerance and hate crimes that have crawled out of the rubble of September 11. I documented the 10-day production and recording sessions for a "making of and meaning of" film, Spike Lee is producing the music video.

Other artists have been very visible in this crisis. A telethon broadcast on 35 U.S. networks and in 156 countries featured top musicians singing powerful songs of social concern (and raised $150 million for disaster relief). A long-scheduled John Lennon tribute was also turned into a fund-raiser. Both events featured renditions of Lennon's anthem "Imagine," which was on the list of songs that Clear Channel communications seemed to want to censor from the radio. Music still has the power to do what journalism does so rarely: reinforce empathy, caring and a sense of a world with other possibilities.

Ten years ago, on the eve of the Gulf War, I produced a documentary on the making of another message song, a remake of "Give Peace A Chance" by John Lennon's son Sean and Lenny Kravitz, with 37 other artists from every musical genre. That song was powerfully done but totally suppressed by the media at the start of the Gulf War. No outlets would play a peace song then. It was considered traitorous. Today, Yoko Ono has posted a billboard with the words "GIVE PEACE A CHANCE" on a billboard affixed to our office building in Times Square. It is not signed or identified in any way.

Today, as what CNN calls "America's New War" cranks up, as the flags fly in the news and on the sets of newscasts, will the loving vibe of "We Are Family" get a proper hearing? Let's hope so, even as we seem to be in for a new period of censorship, self-censorship and the muzzling of dissent. It is a message we need more than ever as bombs and missiles crash down on their targets.

Danny Schechter, executive editor of MediaChannel.org, is also executive producer of Globalvision. His most recent book is "News Dissector: Passions, Pieces and Polemics" (Akashic Books).

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11688

10/11/01
5:22:07 PM

I Lost My Brother On 9-11; Does He Matter?

by David Potorti

[Ed's note: On Tuesday, September 11, the writer lost his brother, James Potorti, at the World Trade Center. James worked on the 96th Floor of the first tower for a company called Marsh & McLennan.]

On October 8th, as most Americans rose concerned and curious about the military action taking place on the other side of the globe, NPR's Morning Edition host Bob Edwards asked Cokie Roberts to weigh in. "Leaders of Congress were quick to issue a statement in support of the military action in Afghanistan," he said. "Were there any dissenters?"

"None that matter," she replied.

It's a jaw-dropping statement when you think about it, one that says nothing and yet says everything. There was opposition to the bombing. But how much? From whom? But before you go demanding simple facts or objective reportage, let's cut to the chase: it doesn't matter.

It's an opinion unlikely to be shared by California Representative Barbara Lee, the only member of Congress brave enough to vote her conscience in declining to authorize the use of military force. Or to other members of Congress who expressed similar concerns. Do they matter? To countless Americans who share their concerns, they do.

But in a larger sense, of course, Roberts is right. In a media universe where you're likely to find right-wing conservatives on ABC, Fox, or NPR, the facts don't matter; only the framing. And in the hands of biased pundits posing as objective journalists, the framing is always going to be the same: pro-military, pro-government, and pro-war.

Still, Roberts may have done us a favor with her comment. Those three little words tell us worlds about the values informing the operation of U.S. intelligence, the State Department, and the Pentagon. Understanding those words may bring us some much-needed clarity on U.S. policies seemingly at odds with U.S. values.

Have sanctions against Iraq have killed more than 500,000 innocent children? None that matter. Did bombing Yugoslavia kill more civilians than soldiers? None that matter. Did lobbing cruise missiles at a Sudanese pharmaceutical factory result in the deaths of medicine-starved civilians? None that matter.

The phrase is useful for understanding domestic policies as well. At the Koyoto summit, did any significant criticisms of U.S. energy policies emerge? None that matter. Has the U.S. stance on eliminating the ABM treaty produced any significant concerns from the rest of the civilized world? None that matter. Has U.S. reliance on the death penalty inflicted any damages on our moral authority? None that matter.

It's equally handy at explaining our current crisis. Are the militaristic responses to the terrorist attacks likely to endanger the lives of more American civilians? None that matter. Will the war on terrorism endanger the civil liberties of Americans at home? None that matter. Will bombing Afghanistan cause any significant improvements in the lot of the innocent Afghan people? None that matter.

And let's not forget: it's a handy phrase you can use at home as well. Will network news divisions, owned by defense contractors, give us any useful insights into the workings of the U.S. military? None that matter. Will you hear any coherent news reports from outside of a narrow, statist perspective? None that matter. And are there any mainstream media outlets willing to criticize U.S. foreign policy? None that matter.

Thanks, Cokie. By telling us it doesn't matter, you've done more than express your biased political opinion. You've explained the arrogant, provincial, and value-free attitudes at work behind American foreign policy. And you've also given us valuable insight into the mindset of the terrorists behind the events of September 11.

Won't innocent American civilians die in the attacks? None that matter. Won't Islam be defamed in the eyes of other nations? None that matter. And, in the end, are the attacks likely to achieve much-needed changes in U.S. foreign policy?

None that matter.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11686

10/11/01
5:15:14 PM

AlterNet.org

http://www.alternet.org

PROTESTING IN THE POST-WTC AGE

Naomi Klein, The Nation

Anti-corporate protesters who once aimed at powerful symbols of capitalism -- like the World Trade Center -- have found themselves in a transformed landscape.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11684

I LOST MY BROTHER ON 9-11; DOES HE MATTER?

David Potorti, AlterNet

On September 11, David Potorti lost his brother at the World Trade Center. Instead of calling for war, he started asking hard questions -- questions the mainstream media won't ask.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11686

BERT LEAVES SESAME STREET FOR BIN LADEN?

David Cassel, AlterNet

Through a bizarre twist of the Internet, Sesame Street's Bert has mysteriously popped up on signs carried by Osama bin Laden supporters in Bangladesh.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11687

BLACK COACHES ARE STILL NOT IN THE GAME

Lee Hubbard, AlterNet

According to a recent report, while almost 50 percent of college football players are black, only five percent of their coaches are.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11691

HUFFINGTON: GIRLS AND THEIR GAS MASKS

Arianna Huffington, OverthrowTheGov.com

Fears about biological warfare are breaking along gender lines, with women stockpiling emergency medicine and men adopting a macho, "it can't happen here" attitude.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11685

WHAT IS IT ABOUT OPIUM?

David Borden, DRCNet

To listen to drug warriors these days you'd think opium was the lifeblood of terrorist organizations around the globe.

* In Drug Reporter: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=17

MUSIC TRUMPS JOURNALISM AGAIN

Danny Schechter, MediaChannel.org

Musicians have been mobilizing to raise funds and awareness in the aftermath of September 11, showing how popular music often has a power that journalism doesn't.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11688

GAY STUDIES: CONTROVERSY, NOT CREDIBILITY

Jennifer L. Pozner, Extra!

Two homosexuality studies were recently released, one claiming that gays can "go straight" through therapy, the other claiming they can't. Guess which one got media top-billing?

* In MediaCulture: http://www.alternet.org/?IssueAreaID=19

10/11/01
4:54:32 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

US sees EU GMO labeling rules as impeding trade - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12762/story.htm

UPDATE - Possible gas leak spooks DC subway system - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12773/story.htm

FBI says US water supplies logical attack target - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12772/story.htm

EIA advisory panel to discuss US natgas data - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12771/story.htm

UPDATE - FBI investigators press on with anthrax probe - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12769/story.htm

UPDATE - US truckers take new steps to enhance security - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12768/story.htm

Alaska drilling would win in Senate vote - Murkowski - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12765/story.htm

Alcan forecasts jump in aluminum demand for autos - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12774/story.htm

FACTBOX - Highlights of US House panel trade pact bill - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12764/story.htm

UPDATE - US senators move to secure domestic energy sites - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12760/story.htm

Lawmaker proposes $2 bln/yr to protect US energy - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12759/story.htm

PG&E utility reorganization draws fire in California - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12758/story.htm

UPDATE - Rash of anthrax scares hits United States - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12755/story.htm

UPDATE - US military tender for tankers for diesel, jet fuel - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12767/story.htm

INTERVIEW - UK's Meacher says hopes US accepts Kyoto - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12766/story.htm

FEATURE - Tobacco may be good for you, says Philippines - PHILIPPINES http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12754/story.htm

Mexico moves to bolster solar, wind and hydro power - MEXICO http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12753/story.htm

Daihatsu develops hybrid minivehicle - JAPAN http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12763/story.htm

Energiekontor starts building wind park in Portugal - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12761/story.htm

Demonstrators protest German nuke waste shipments - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12757/story.htm

US gas mask boom reaches Chilean factory - CHILE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12770/story.htm

Australia A$30 mln biogas generator to start 2002 - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12756/story.htm

10/11/01
4:49:56 PM

FBI investigates Women In Black

By Ronnie Gilbert

October 9, 2001-For the second time in my life, a group that I belong to is being investigated by the FBI. The first was the Weavers. Now it is the Women in Black.

The Weavers were a recording industry phenomenon. In 1950 we recorded a couple of songs from our American/World folk music repertoire, Leadbelly's "Goodnight Irene" and (ironically) the Israeli "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" and sold millions of records for the almost-defunct record label. Folk music entered the mainstream, and the Weavers were stars.

By 1952, it was over. The record company dropped us; eager television producers stopped knocking on our door. The Weavers were on a private yet well-publicized roster of suspected entertainment industry reds. The FBI came a-calling.

Last week, I found out that Women in Black, another group of peace activists I belong to, is the subject of an FBI investigation. Women in Black is a loosely knit international network of women who vigil against violence, often silently, each group autonomous, each group focused on the particular problems of personal and state violence in its part of the world.

Because my group is composed mostly of Jewish women, we focus on the Middle East, protesting the cycle of violence and revenge in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

The FBI is threatening my group with a Grand Jury investigation. Of what? That we publicly call the Israeli military's occupation of the mandated Palestine lands illegal? So does the World Court and the United Nations.

That destroying hundreds of thousands of the Palestinians' olive and fruit trees, blocking roads and demolishing homes promotes hatred and terrorism in the Middle East? Even President Bush and Colin Powell have gotten around to saying so. So, what is to investigate? That some of us are in contact with activist Palestinian peace groups? This is bad?

The Jewish Women in Black of Jerusalem have stood vigil every Friday for 13 years in protest against the Occupation; Muslim women from Palestinian peace groups stand with them at every opportunity. We praise and honor them, these Jewish and Arab women who endure hatred and frequent abuse from extremists on both sides for what they do. We are not alone in our admiration.

Jerusalem Women in Black is a nominee for the 2001 Nobel Peace Prize, along with the Bosnia Women in Black, now ten years old.

If the FBI cannot or will not distinguish between groups who collude in hatred and terrorism, and peace activists who struggle in the full light of day against all forms of terrorism, we are in serious trouble.

I have seen such trouble before in my lifetime. It was called McCarthyism. In the hysterical atmosphere of the early Cold War, anyone who had signed a peace petition, who had joined an organization opposing violence or racism or had tried to raise money for the refugee children of the Spanish Civil War, in other words, who had openly advocated what was not popular at the time, was fair game.

In my case, the FBI visited The Weavers' booking agent, the recording company, my neighbors, my dentist husband's patients, my friends. In the waning of our career, the Weavers were followed down the street, accosted onstage by drunken "patriots," warned by friendly hotel employees to keep the door open if we rehearsed in anyone's room so as not to become targets for the vice squad. It was nasty. Every two-bit local wannabe G-man joined the dragnet searching out and identifying "communist spies."

In all those self-debasing years, how many spies did that dragnet pull in? Nary a one. Instead it pulled down thousands of teachers, union members, scientists, journalists, actors, entertainers like us, who saw our lives disrupted, our jobs, careers go down the drain, our standing in the community lost, even our children harassed. A scared population soon shut their mouths up tight.

Thus came the silence of the 1950s and early 60s, when no notable voice of reason was heard to say, "Hey, wait a minute. Look what we're doing to ourselves, to the land of the free and the home of the brave," when not one dissenting intelligence was allowed a public voice to warn against zealous foreign policies we'd later come to regret, would be regretting now, if our leaders were honest.

Today, in the wake of the worst hate crime of the millennium, a dragnet is out for "terrorists" and we are told that certain civil liberties may have to be curtailed for our own security. Which ones? I'm curious to know. The First Amendment guarantee of freedom of speech or of the press? The right of people peaceably to assemble? Suddenly, deja vu-haven't I been here before? Hysterical neo-McCarthyism does not equal security, never will.

The bitter lesson September 11's horrific tragedy should have taught us and our government is that only an honest re-evaluation of our foreign policies and careful, focused and intelligent intelligence work can hope to combat operations like the one that robbed all of us and their families of 6,000 decent working people. We owe the dead that, at least. As for Women in Black, we intend to keep on keeping on.

"Peace is not the absence of war, but the presence of justice." ~African adage

10/11/01
4:43:22 PM

Fearless Leader Not:

From "duh" to a rabbit hole in Nebraska

By Paul Lukasiak

October 9, 2001-On the morning of September 11, the world stopped for just about every American the moment they heard that two planes had crashed into New York City's World Trade Center.

Americans from all walks of life stopped what they were doing as they contemplated the implications of the well coordinated deadly terrorist attack on the premier symbol of economic democracy in the world. From the moment the second plane hit, everyone in America was immediately obsessed with questions of who had done it, why it had been done, and most importantly, what the United States would do about it.

Everyone, that is, except for one man. That man was the President of the United States, George W. Bush. Bush simply ignored the news that the nation was under terrorist attack. Instead, he chose to continue with the day's scheduled photo-op, raising grave questions regarding his character and suitability to lead this nation in time of crisis.

Sonia Ross, a Washington DC-based Associated Press reporter who accompanied Bush on the trip to Sarasota, described the situation in an AP wire story . . .

"My cell phone rang as President Bush's motorcade coursed toward Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla. A colleague reported that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. No further information.

"I called the AP desk in Washington, seeking details. Same scant information. But I knew it had to be grim. I searched for a White House official to question, but none was on hand until 9:05 a.m. Bush's chief of staff, Andrew Card, walked into S. Kay Daniels' second grade classroom, where the president was observing a reading lesson. He whispered something to Bush, and the color drained from the president's face. Bush looked at the children, at the cameras, at the children again. Card stood off to the side briefly, then left the room. Bush picked up a textbook in an attempt to follow the lesson, his concentration gone.

"Clearly Bush now knew what we were trying to confirm."

The president of the United States, having been notified of a deadly, highly organized terrorist attack against the World Trade Center, chose to continue with that day's photo op: a reading demonstration by second graders. He asked no questions about the attack. He did not excuse himself from the room in order to determine what was happening and what he, as president, needed to do.

According to data compiled from Flight 77's transponder, when Bush was notified of the first plane crash into the North Tower of the WTC, Flight 77 from Dulles Airport in Washingtonm DC, had already begun to turn around. Shortly after the time White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card notified Bush of the second attack, the transponder aboard Flight 77 indicated that the airplane had completely changed directions, and was now headed due east, back toward Washington, DC. The transponder ceased to function shortly after the 180-degree turn was completed, but at 9:10 a.m. radar detected Flight 77 headed due east. Twenty-two minutes later Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon.

According to NORAD's chronology of events, the FAA did not notify NORAD about Flight 77 until 9:24, at which point the order was given to put fighter planes in the air to intercept the passenger jet. Those fighters took off at 9:30, too late to intercept the plane that crashed into the Pentagon at 9:37.

The information that a plane was off course was available as early as 8:55 a.m., 10 minutes after the first plane hit the WTC. Even if NORAD had been notified, the order to shoot down a civilian passenger jet would have had to come from the Bush, who was still engaged with the second graders.

Interviews with two witnesses that were in the classroom flesh out the story. These individuals have asked to not be identified.

Bush had been scheduled to take part in a staged reading demonstration by second graders at Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, at 9 a.m.. The reading demonstration was designed to provide visuals to accompany coverage of a speech he would give on his education agenda from the Booker school library at 9:30.

Before entering the classroom, Bush had been notified that a plane had crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Shortly after entering the classroom, at 9:05, Andrew Card whispered in the president's ear that a second plane had crashed into the WTC's South Tower, confirming that the United States was under attack by terrorists.

Bush asked no questions of Card. Instead, he continued listening to the second graders until they were finished with their presentation. According to various sources who were in the classroom at the time, Bush remained in the classroom for at least another 10-15 minutes. At that point, according to these witnesses, a reporter asked him if he was aware of the first explosion at the WTC (the reporters in the room were, at the time, unaware of the second plane crash). According to CNN, "Bush nodded, and said that he would talk about the situation later."

After the question, Bush left the classroom, as did the rest of the visitors who were there for the photo-op. The visitors adjourned to the library, where Bush was scheduled to give his education speech. About 10 minutes later, at 9:30, Bush entered the library, made a short statement about the terrorist attack, and left the school.

What happened next has been a matter of some controversy, with even conservative Republicans criticizing the president's decision to flee first to Shreveport LA, then to Nebraska, before returning to the nation's capital that evening. The White House responded by claiming that the decision to avoid the nation's capital was driven by credible threats to the White House and Air Force One. After a series of lies, including a claim over a week after the tragedy by Ari Fleisher that the White House had radar records showing that Flight 77 had been aimed at the White House when no such records existed, the White House acknowledged that there had been no threat to the White House or Air Force One.

The White House is taking great pains to create an image of George W. Bush as competent and in charge at a time when America is under attack. But the evidence is clear that Bush completely and utterly failed to do what is required of a president in a national crisis. America's mass media news outlets seems to believe that covering up the fact that the Bush is not up to the job is the best course of action at this time. One hopes that the media will recognize the even greater danger of a president who is unsuited to the task having control over this nation's future.

America's 'war on terrorism' is going to require a president capable of walking a military and diplomatic tightrope. George W. Bush had already demonstrated that he lacks the necessary skills, experience, and balance to accomplish this task. We can only hope that when he falls, he does not take the rest of us with him.

10/10/01
9:06:51 PM

TomPaine.com

FREE TRADE EXPRESS

The 'Fast-Track' Assault on Democracy

Imagine: Americans paying multinational corporations NOT to pollute our air... paying them NOT to poison our water... paying them NOT to mistreat workers.

Sound crazy? It is. But it's already law in the United States, Mexico and Canada under NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement.

Multinational corporations can sue U.S. taxpayers under NAFTA if they believe public regulation has damaged their profits - and they are. These claims will not be heard in open court, but before secretive tribunals, no citizens allowed.

Now the same provision could spread throughout the Western Hemisphere if the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) treaty is adopted. It's based on the theory of "regulatory takings" - a radical concept developed by anti-government ideologue Richard Epstein.

When citizens act through government to protect the public interest, Epstein's theory goes, they should pay businesses for limiting or "taking" future profits.

Americans might like to debate whether our sovereign right to protect the common good - clean air and water, public health and safety - should be traded away.

But "free trade" advocates in Congress, portraying FTAA as apple pie sprinkled with stars and stripes, want to limit debate by giving the White House "fast track" authority to negotiate the treaty.

General Electric, Ford, General Motors, International Paper, Motorola, Dow, DuPont, Chevron, Proctor & Gamble and 3M - these and other companies endorse the "takings" provision in FTAA, saying in a letter to the U.S. Trade Representative that it provides "protection from regulations that diminish the value of investors' assets."

"Jesus, they can't mean that," a retired USTR staffer said when reviewing the letter. "If they do that, they're going to put Middle America on the barricades alongside the environmentalists."

This op ad is adapted from an article in THE NATION by William Greider.

Read it at www.TheNation.com.

Visit TomPaine.com to read more about FTAA, "free trade" and "takings."

Check It Out!

FOCUS ON 'FREE TRADE'

A Selection of Summaries and Links

NAFTA "Takings" Rule Offers Peek Into FTAA... The Price of Free Trade... Alternative Blueprint for Free Trade... Women's World... Labor and Trade... Common Sense Trade Rules.

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/09/1.html

COMBATING TERRORISM WITH... FAST TRACK?

A Blank Check on Trade

by Jennifer Bauduy, TomPaine.com

Judging from the comments of business leaders, lawmakers and administration officials, international trade is the answer to all woes -- from a faltering economy to world hunger to terrorism.

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/09/5.html

Q & A: William Greider

SITTING ON A TIME BOMB

TP.c's Steven Rosenfeld talks to William Greider about the "profound transformation in American governance and public rights" that will result from FTAA.

AUDIO and TEXT

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/03/index.html

INVALIDATING THE 20th CENTURY

"Takings" and Trade Agreements

by William Greider -- an excerpt from his in-depth article for THE NATION with a link to the full text at

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/09/4.html

10/10/01
9:01:52 PM

The U.S. government works to keep terrorists out of drinking water

By Environmental News Network

The federal government is creating a water protection task force that will help federal, state, and local partners expand their tools to safeguard the nation's drinking water supply from terrorist attack. The task force will be part of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). "While EPA already has a strong coordinated partnership program for protecting our drinking water, this task force will have specific duties to expand EPA's service to the community water systems," said EPA Administrator Christine Whitman, announcing the task force on Monday.

In the event of an attack on a water system, a drinking water utility would activate its existing emergency response plan with state emergency officials. If needed, these plans provide for shutting down the system, notifying the public of any emergency steps they might need to take such as boiling water, and providing alternative sources of water.

"The threat of public harm from an attack on our nation's water supply is small," Whitman said. "Our goal here is to ensure that drinking water utilities in every community have access to the best scientific information and technical expertise they need and to know what immediate steps to take and to whom to turn to for help."

The Sept. 11 terrorists attacks make it "imperative that EPA and its private partners finally move forward aggressively" to reduce water system vulnerabilities, Missouri Sen. Kit Bond, a Republican, wrote last week to Whitman. Bond, who is the ranking minority member of the appropriations panel that oversees EPA's budget, urged EPA officials to meet with his staff immediately "to review EPA's water infrastructure protection actions and what resources are required to accelerate water protection activities."

Right now, a notification system is in place to quickly share information among drinking water providers; the local, state, and federal law enforcement community; and emergency response officials.

This system, developed though a public/private partnership with the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies and the FBI, alerts authorities and water system officials to threats, potential vulnerabilities, and incidents. This type of notification went out as an FBI alert after the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center.

The EPA has given the Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies a $600,000 grant to improve this notification system with a secure, Internet-based virtual center. The information sharing and analysis center can be accessed by all partners, including wastewater facilities.

There are about 168,000 public water systems nationwide. Unlike other utilities that are interconnected across large parts of the country, water systems are self-contained, serving a defined area.

Should an attack be suspected, the EPA can dispatch expert emergency response personnel to the scene immediately, as was done for the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. These experts are located in all of EPA's 10 regions, and they are prepared to help with containment, monitoring, and cleanup.

The EPA has worked closely with experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Departments of Defense and Energy to better understand the potential of biological and chemical contaminants and their fate and transport within drinking water.

The information has been used to develop in-depth tools to help water systems assess their vulnerabilities, determine actions that need to be taken to guard against an attack, and enhance emergency response plans.

The new water protection task force will provide immediate guidance to water systems on improving security, identify potential gaps in infrastructure protection and preparedness, and speed up the availability of new advanced materials to be used in preparedness efforts.

Task force members will consult with the utility industry and the states and tribes to determine what can be done to increase the security of America's drinking water supplies. The first report on these additional steps is due within two weeks.

Beginning in a few weeks, the EPA, along with the American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the AWWA Research Foundation, will provide training for management and employees in these advanced approaches to drinking water systems.

The goal is to ensure that water utilities are undertaking the steps to understand vulnerable points and to mitigate the threat from terrorist attacks as quickly as possible.

The House Resources Committee Thursday voted for two key bills that will improve security at federal dams, power stations, and transmission lines. One allows the Bureau of Reclamation to better plan and implement security for 348 reservoirs and 58 hydro-electric power plants that provide critical water and power to some of the most populous regions of the country.

It allows the Bureau of Reclamation to contract with local, state, tribal, and federal agencies to provide trained and certified law enforcement security at federal dams and other reclamation sites. Current law does not allow the Bureau to either hire its own certified law enforcement personnel or contract with other agencies to provide that security.

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2001/10/10102001/s_45216.asp

10/10/01
8:58:34 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

FAIRER FAUCET

For the first time, construction of new housing developments in California will be contingent on water availability, under a bill signed yesterday by Gov. Gray Davis (D). The new law prohibits cities and counties from approving housing projects of 500 or more units unless water agencies verify that there is sufficient water to serve the developments for at least 20 years, even in times of drought. The bill's author, state Sen. Sheila Kuehl (D), is optimistic that the law can help California reconcile its dwindling water supply with a booming population. (The number of California residents is expected to increase by 70 percent in the next 40 years.) The law will have the greatest impact in arid Southern California and in the Central Valley, including parts of the East Bay.

straight to the source: San Jose Mercury News, Tracey Kaplan, 10 Oct 2001 <http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/local/docs/water10tk.htm>

UNITED THEY STAND

In a sign-of-the-times statement, Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said yesterday that his committee would stop work on an energy bill for the rest of year to avoid "issues that divide, rather than unite us." Prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, a sweeping energy package was a top congressional priority; now, broad legislation will probably be shelved until 2002, although the Senate may consider a more limited energy security bill. Sen. Frank Murkowski (R-Alaska), who had hoped to secure committee approval of a plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, criticized Democrats for closing down the discussions.

straight to the source: Anchorage Daily News, Liz Ruskin, 10 Oct 2001 <http://www.adn.com/front/story/717907p-757988c.html>

COUPE COUP

Less than 6 percent of 2002 model cars and trucks now hitting showrooms get better than 30 miles per gallon, according to a report released yesterday by the U.S. EPA. On average, the fuel economy for the cars (23.9 mpg) is a bit worse than the 2001 model year. The gas-electric hybrid Honda Insight, a two-seat coupe, takes top honors in fuel economy, at 64 mpg; the hybrid Toyota Prius, a five-seat sedan, comes in second, at 48 mpg. SUVs like the Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator account for 13 of the 35 vehicles with the worst gas mileage, all 14 mpg or lower. The EPA said an average fuel increase of three mpg would save $25 billion in fuel costs and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by about 140 million tons a year.

straight to the source: Buffalo News, Associated Press, John Heilprin, 10 Oct 2001 <http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20011010/1023340.asp>

MOSCOWL

Not much of the northern forest in the European portion of Russia is still standing and many of the trees that haven't been felled are in jeopardy, according to a report released by Greenpeace Russia and Global Forest Watch. Russian researchers who spent five years mapping the forest for the report say that the largest stretches of intact forest aren't protected from logging. In total, about 14 percent of the region's wild forests is in undisturbed areas of at least 123,000 acres, the minimum size judged necessary for long-term survival. Global Forest Watch, a project of the World Resources Institute, is working with other partners to produce similar maps and reports for forests in Brazil, Chile, Venezuela, Indonesia, Canada, and the U.S., as well as the rest of Russia.

straight to the source: BBC News, Alex Kirby, 09 Oct 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1586000/1586889.stm>=

10/10/01
8:54:45 PM

Public Citizen

Oct. 9, 2001

Unprecedented Partisan Committee Split on Thomas Fast Track Bill Signals the Bill's Dim Floor Prospects

With GOP Members Outnumbering Democrats by Seven, Committee Passage Was Inevitable, But No Past Fast Track Bill Ever Received So Many "No" Votes in Trade Committee

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today's unprecedented "no" votes by all but two committee Democrats on a Fast Track bill revealed the boiling partisan anger that has built over Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas' push to exploit the Sept. 11 attacks to revive the controversial trade proposal, which has been stalled from lack of support in Congress, Public Citizen said today.

"Charges of political profiteering have fostered downright outrage as members are being forced to shift their attention away from the emergency needs of millions of Americans who have suddenly lost their livelihoods and from creating the polices needed to safeguard the nation from further attacks," said Lori Wallach, director of Public Citizen's Global Trade Watch. "Anger about the process only has been exacerbated by the substance of Thomas' bill, which is viewed as a slap in the face to Democrats because it rolls back labor language that was in all past Fast Track bills and undercuts standards on environment and labor included in a recent pact with Jordan."

As Democratic opposition to the Thomas bill grows, a significant number of GOP House members have maintained their long-standing opposition to Fast Track. GOP House members from regions where floods of imports of steel, textiles and farm commodities have caused widespread economic hardship are unwilling to support Fast Track.

"That the ranking Democrat and every single Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, except the two who supported the original Crane Fast Track bill, voted against a Fast Track proposal is remarkable," Wallach said. "When you add up the new Democratic opponents to the Thomas Fast Track bill and the longstanding Republican opponents, it becomes clear that a significant majority in Congress oppose Fast Track."

Thomas' markup is the last card he can play in his campaign to push Fast Track.

"The White House and the Speaker know the rancor in the committee is a preview of coming attractions for the broad, destructive fallout that certainly would result if Fast Track went to the House floor," Wallach said. "If the GOP leadership seeks to maintain the bipartisan climate necessary to deal with responses to the Sept. 11 attack and to get the spending bills done, then Fast Track is toast, because this was the least bipartisan and most nasty, rancorous vote on a trade bill I have seen in a decade."

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

10/10/01
8:53:37 PM

Public Citizen

Oct. 10, 2001

Nation's Commercial Truck System Dangerously Insecure and Unsafe

Chronic Failures of Federal Government Have Led to Few Key Safety Rules

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Because of chronic failures by the federal government, the country's commercial motor carrier transportation system is so insecure that a large loss of life could occur if Congress doesn't act promptly, Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook told lawmakers today.

In testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine, Claybrook painted a picture of a system in which it is alarmingly easy to get a license to truck hazardous materials, in which truck drivers can mask a criminal record, where they receive little training before they step into a large rig, and where it is far too easy for dangerous cargo to be trucked across U.S. borders.

Many of the shortcomings can be traced to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration and its predecessor in the Federal Highway Administration, which failed year after year to enact dozens of regulations ordered by Congress. This irresponsible lack of oversight and inadequate regulation of the motor carrier industry is particularly ominous in light of the terrorist threat under which Americans now live, said Claybrook, who testified on behalf of Public Citizen and Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a coalition of consumer, health, safety and insurance groups on whose board Claybrook serves.

"The federal agency overseeing trucks has dragged its feet for years on installing the kinds of safety nets needed to help shore up our system," Claybrook said before testifying. "While this has always been unacceptable, the urgency to address this untenable situation is even stronger now. The government's failure to act now can help those intent on mass destruction achieve their goals. We simply can't let this continue."

In her testimony, available at

http://www.citizen.org/autosafety/articles.cfm?ID=6261

Claybrook said that:

* It is far too easy for a person to obtain a commercial driver's license (CDL) to operate a truck or bus in interstate commerce, or to haul hazardous materials. Those applying for CDLs take a perfunctory, written test and a minimum on-road skills test, and many drivers learn how to handle rigs solely through on-the-job training. Applicants in many states who take a test for a commercial driver's license are not required to have any instruction, do not need much driving experience and can obtain a license that has no restrictions. The FMCSA should institute mandatory driver entry-level training for those seeking to obtain a commercial driver's license.

* It is far to easy for a trucking company to obtain operating authority to open shop. The FMSCA awards new operating authority to motor carrier applicants without examining the records of the drivers employed by the company, the operating history of the company or the quality of its management and equipment. After opening, the company can be in business for 18 months without a safety review.

* Despite a congressional mandate in 1994, the U.S. Department of Transportation still has not established basic safety information that new or prospective employers must seek from former employers during the investigation of a driver's employment record. In light of published reports that suspected terrorists have obtained licenses to haul hazardous materials, the FMSCA should issue a rule requiring criminal background checks for applicants for commercial driver's licenses and security investigations for those who seek to transport hazardous materials.

* Unless Congress enacts the Senate-passed legislation authored by Sens. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.), a trucking company on Jan. 1, 2002, will be able to set up shop in Mexico and transport goods into and through the United States for 18 months before the United States conducts a safety review of the company. Under Murray-Shelby, which Public Citizen strongly urges Congress to enact, the United States would conduct on-site safety evaluations of Mexico-domiciled carriers before granting them operating authority. Further, border inspections of freight and passenger transportation would also be beefed up. Records indicate that an overwhelming majority of Mexico- domiciled trucks don't comply with U.S. rules for transporting hazardous materials.

* U.S. law grants extensive exemptions for the transport of hazardous materials for agricultural purposes. Rules for shipping papers, placarding, emergency telephone numbers and hazardous materials training are waived for the transport of materials within 150 miles of a farm. Certain chemicals also are exempt from the rules if transported below designated quantities. The idea was to reduce the burden on farmers, but Congress should re-examine these exemptions because they allow the transport of significant quantities of volatile materials with no strings attached.

* Rules outlining travel routes for the transport of non-radioactive hazardous materials are inadequate because they allow large quantities of dangerous materials to be driven through major cities and neighborhoods. Routes should be changed to avoid cities, and hazardous materials trucks should be equipped with Global Positioning Systems so they can be continuously tracked.

* There is no national database of information about the number of hazardous materials shipments, the quantity of what is transported, its nature, its exact origins or its destinations. Such a database must be established.

* The federal government wants to open a high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada. This would require huge quantities of radioactive waste to be trucked through neighborhoods and cities in 43 states -- greatly increasing the threat of a terrorist attack in an urban setting.

Public Citizen is a nonprofit consumer advocacy organization based in Washington, D.C.

For more information, please visit http://www.citizen.org

10/10/01
8:50:21 PM

The Environmental Movement, Part 2 FAILURES AND SUCCESSES

In this series, we are exploring the evolution of the modern environmental movement, from about 1965 onward. The mainstream environmental organizations with the largest budgets are Environmental Defense, Natural Resources Defense Council, National Wildlife Federation, Sierra Club, and Wilderness Society. Since the late 1970s, a new environmental movement has appeared. This "environmental justice" (EJ) movement is composed of roughly five hundred locally-based groups. Descriptions of many of these groups can be found among the 2700 organizations now described on our web site, http://www.rachel.org. (Environmental groups of all kinds are encouraged to add themselves to our web site, thus helping to make the movement visible. If you know of groups that we are missing, please send E-mail to erf@rachel.org or call us toll-free at (888) 272-2435.)

The vast majority of U.S. citizens -- roughly 80% -- express strong support for environmental values,[1] yet most have never allied themselves with either the traditional or the environmental justice movements, so both movements are politically weaker than they could be. An obvious question is, Why?

Historically, many mainstream-professional environmentalists have viewed humans mainly as a source of trouble. This view has turned the nation's environmental agenda away from human concerns. Some within the Sierra Club have now rejected this view, but it remains widely held.

An excellent short history of the environmental movement has recently been published by MIT Press: William Shutkin's THE LAND THAT COULD BE. Shutkin observes, "...traditional environmentalism has focused on places where very few of us actually live and work, such as wilderness and national parks, while overlooking densely populated areas like cities and suburbs." [2, pg. 127]

Shutkin goes on to say, "Left out of the [traditional environmental] movement have been the people themselves and the environmental issues that, quite literally, hit home -- local issues like lack of open space, brownfields [contaminated urban sites] , asthma brought on by air pollution, and other environmental problems endemic to many American communities.... Local communities and constituencies have been relegated to the back burner by both the public interest environmental establishment and the environmental law and policy system itself."[2, pg. 120]

Importantly, mainstream-professional environmentalists have traditionally viewed community development and economic development as incompatible with environmental protection, thus turning their backs on the bread-and-butter concerns of a majority of Americans -- the working class, the poor, and people of color.

Shutkin: "Despite the importance of economic investment and employment opportunities to overall community health, including environmental protection and the availability of environmentally sustainable production methods, these issues have not risen to prominence among mainstream-professional environmentalists. Similarly, the movement has failed to address the persistent segregation of communities along racial lines, which has resulted in the continuing development of suburban and rural areas, with the associated environmental costs." [2, pgs.124-125]

The mainstream-professional environmental movement has not only ignored the importance of economic development and the corrosive effects of persistent racism, it has also solidified and institutionalized a system of environmental protection designed (intentionally or not) to funnel pollutants into poor communities. As attorney Luke Cole has written,

"Environmental laws are not designed by or for poor people. The theory and ideology behind environmental laws ignores the systemic genesis of pollution. Environmental statutes actually legitimate the pollution of low-income neighborhoods." [3, pg. 642]

Cole goes on, "Mainstream environmentalists see pollution as the FAILURE of government and industry -- if the environmentalists could only shape up the few bad apples, our environment would be protected. But grassroots activists come to view pollution as the SUCCESS of government and industry, success at industry's primary objective: maximizing profits by externalizing environmental costs. Pollution of our air, land, and water that is literally killing people is often not in violation of environmental laws...." [3, pg. 643]

Because mainstream-professional environmentalism excluded other key concerns of the working class, the poor and minorities, a new approach to environmental protection began to emerge in the U.S. in the late 1970s.

This new approach -- environmental justice -- focuses on the environments in which people live, work, and play, and it assumes that environmental protection and justice require a political struggle against corporations. It also recognizes that environmental protection requires us to engage, defend, and rebuild our communities. Paragraph 12 of the 1991 Principles of Environmental Justice said, "Environmental justice affirms the need for urban and rural ecological policies to clean up and rebuild our cities and rural areas in balance with nature, honoring the cultural integrity of all our communities, and providing fair access for all to the full range of resources." [4]

In practice the EJ movement has had considerable success keeping bad projects, such as garbage incinerators, out of poor communities and communities of color. And it has established the principle that everyone has the right to a clean environment.

As a result of EJ advocacy (and similar work by grass-roots groups overseas), the right to a clean environment is now becoming recognized as a basic human right.[5] In April of this year the United Nations Commission on Human Rights declared formally that, "Everyone has the right to live in a world free from toxic pollution and environmental degradation." In announcing this new human rights declaration, Claus Toepfer, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, said, "It is time to recognize that those who pollute or destroy the natural environment are not just committing a crime against nature, but are violating human rights as well."[5] This declaration transforms the main concern of the EJ movement --equal protection against environmental harms -- into an international norm. By any standard, this is an important and lasting achievement of the EJ movement.

Furthermore, some EJ groups have made the difficult transition from environmental protection to community protection and economic development. Some EJ groups now own and manage housing units, computer-training labs, urban gardens, farmers' markets, and restaurants. Some EJ groups have taken control of the community planning process. Thus the EJ movement is beginning to take on projects that have very wide appeal, indeed -- far beyond the purview of traditional environmentalists. (We'll discuss this further in Part 3.)

William Shutkin makes the point that mainstream-professional environmentalism has failed -- even within its own terms --because it evolved a style of advocacy that failed to mobilize the democratic participation of affected people everywhere. "With its direct mail machinery, centralized structure, and top-down decision making, mainstream-professional environmentalism has cultivated a largely passive constituency and in the process has stripped itself of the ability to activate and inspire robust political participation and civic engagement, the very forces that can hold decision makers accountable, prevent environmental harms, and institute local and regional environmental strategies...." [2, pgs. 122-123]

Essentially, mainstream-professional environmentalism failed to appreciate the importance of natural and social assets in creating and maintaining robust communities:

Shutkin again: "...[E] nvironmental assets like mass transportation, parks, and tree-lined walkways are paid for by public funds, and they require ongoing public investment for their maintenance and upgrade. Such assets constitute a significant part of the country's public spaces -- the physical infrastructure that allows people to come together, associate face to face, and engage in civic activities. Without them, our communities possess none of the physical resources that allow civic life to be expressed. In essence, environmental assets are the enabling mechanisms for civic culture." [2, pgs. 125-126]

But it's a two-way street: in our cities and towns, environmental amenities are the enabling mechanism for civic life, but active civic participation is essential for the maintenance of local environments. Once again, William Shutkin:

"Most Americans have lost touch not only with their neighbors, but [also with] the physical places where they live and work --their environment. In the course of an ordinary day, week, or month, many of us have little direct involvement in the civic life of our communities, nor do we enjoy ready access to a safe, quality environment. The two are causally connected. As a public good, a healthy physical environment demands informed, active public participation in local decision making to ensure that the private sector, government, and even one's own neighbors do not undermine long-term environmental gains in their pursuit of short-term narrow ends." [2, pg. 126]

Sociologist Manuel Pastor, Jr., draws out the implications of these ideas, as follows:

Whereas many environmental justice battles of the past have focused on stopping harmful and inequitable projects, community-based grass-roots groups can also "offer hope for a more positive and harmonious vision of the social good." Pastor sees at least two major benefits from this larger community-development approach:

(1) "... Claiming the right to clean air and water can be the beginning of a community movement to deploy natural assets in the service of community-based wealth creation [for example, in urban farms and gardens] ."

(2) Once a community asserts its right to a clean environment, it is a short step to asserting a right to other "social resources" such as schools, housing, open space, and employment.

Pastor concludes that -- without diminishing in any way the accomplishments of the environmental justice movement in opposing the placement of toxic hazards in communities of color and poor communities -- environmental justice activism can go further, becoming "an important part of the general community-building movement." [6, pgs. 1-3]

No doubt William Shutkin would agree with Pastor on this point. In THE LAND THAT COULD BE Shutkin has described one version of this larger community development approach, which he calls "civic environmentalism," our subject for Part 3. -

Peter Montague

10/10/01
8:46:20 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

IS NORMAL THE BEST WE CAN DO?

by Arianna Huffington, ariannaonline.com

-- Patriotism need not be synonymous with consumerism. Arianna Huffington challenges Americans to show their pride by resuming progressive activism.

SAVE HARRY!

Web site review by Kate Garsombke, SaveHarry.com

-- A campaign by the Center for Science in the Public Interest invites you to send a letter to J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter book series, to protest a movie marketing deal with Coca-Cola.

BRIDGING THE GAP

by Madelynn Amalfitano, Metropolis Magazine

-- In an effort to "personalize an impersonal experience," a Tijuana art collective is proposing a multimedia-enhanced border-crossing footbridge to be built at the Tijuana/San Diego border checkpoint in hopes of stripping away the anonymity of the thousands of visitors crossing daily.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

10/10/01
5:26:43 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

OZONE LAYER RECOVERY COMPELS GLOBAL COOPERATION

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, October 9, 2001 (ENS) - Accelerating protection of the Earth's ozone layer will be the urgent focus of governmental representatives meeting here next week. The 13th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol will draw some 400 delegates from 130 countries.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-09-03.html

GLOBAL BAN ON TOXIC SHIP PAINT AGREED

LONDON, United Kingdom, October 9, 2001 (ENS) - Ship paint containing the harmful compounds known as organotins will be restricted as of January 1, 2003 and banned five years later, members of the world's primary maritime organization have agreed.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-09-01.html

EUROPEAN SCIENTISTS URGE STRICTER COSMETICS CONTROLS

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 9, 2001 (ENS) - A scientific committee of the European Union has stunned policy makers and the cosmetics industry by calling for a blanket ban on all confirmed and likely carcinogenic, mutagenic and reprotoxic substances in cosmetic products without any prior assessment of their exposure related risks.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-09-02.html

TENNESSEE VALLEY POWER PLANTS TO CUT SULFUR DIOXIDE

KNOXVILLE, Tennessee, October 9, 2001 (ENS) - The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to install scrubbers on five coal burning power plants that will slash sulfur dioxide emissions by more than 200,000 tons per year. The new emissions control equipment will help clear the air over Great Smoky Mountains National Park, named as one of the United States' 10 most endangered parks for the past three years.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-09-06.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 9, 2001

Anthrax Strikes Florida Tabloid Headquarters

Settlement Protects Verde River in Arizona

Comment Needed on Rules to Compensate Nuclear Workers

Judge Bars Two Timber Sales in Jefferson National Forest

San Joaquin Valley Agrees to Cut Air Pollution

Florida Man Arrested Again for Illegal Hazwaste Disposal

Agreement Would Save 171,000 New Hampshire Acres

$25 Million Will Build Pennsylvania Environmental Center

Duke Energy Workers Help Build Oyster Reef

Norm Thompson Outfitters Switches Catalogs to Recycled Paper

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-09-09.html

10/10/01
5:00:26 PM

Chomsky Interview

The following interview was conducted with Noam Chomsky via email on October 5, 2001. Greg Ruggerio did the interview in conjunction with Indymedia.

IMC: In order to shape an international alliance, the U.S. has suddenly shifted positions with a number of countries in the Middle East, Africa and Asia, offering a variety of political, military and monetary packages in exchange for forms of support. How might these sudden moves be affecting the political dynamics in those regions?

CHOMSKY: Washington is stepping very delicately. We have to remember what is at stake: the world's major energy reserves, primarily in Saudi Arabia but throughout the Gulf region, along with not-inconsiderable resources in Central Asia. Though a minor factor, Afghanistan has been discussed for years as a possible site for pipelines that will aid the U.S. in the complex maneuvering over control of Central Asian resources. North of Afghanistan, the states are fragile and violent. Uzbekistan is the most important. It has been condemned by Human Rights Watch for serious atrocities, and is fighting its own internal Islamic insurgency. Tajikistan is similar, and is also a major drug trafficking outlet to Europe, primarily in connection with the Northern Alliance, which controls most of the Afghan-Tajikistan border and has been the major source of drugs since the Taliban virtually eliminated poppy production. Flight of Afghans to the north could lead to all sorts of internal problems. Pakistan, which has been the main supporter of the Taliban, has a strong internal radical Islamic movement. Its reaction is unpredictable, and potentially dangerous, if Pakistan is visibly used as a base for U.S. operations in Afghanistan; and there is much well-advised concern over the fact that Pakistan has nuclear weapons. The Pakistani military, while eager to obtain military aid from the U.S. (already promised), is wary, because of stormy past relations, and is also concerned over a potentially hostile Afghanistan allied with its enemy to the East, India. They are not pleased that the Northern Alliance is led by Tajiks, Uzbeks, and other Afghan minorities hostile to Pakistan and supported by India, Iran and Russia, now the U.S. as well.

In the Gulf region, even wealthy and secular elements are bitter about U.S. policies and quietly often express support for bin Laden, whom they detest, as "the conscience of Islam" (New York Times, October 5, quoting an international lawyer for multinationals, trained in the U.S.). Quietly, because these are highly repressive states; one factor in the general bitterness towards the U.S. is its support for these regimes. Internal conflict could easily spread, with consequences that could be enormous, especially if U.S. control over the huge resources of the region is threatened. Similar problems extend to North Afica and Southeast Asia, particularly Indonesia. Even apart from internal conflict, an increased flow of armaments to the countries of the region increases the likelihood of armed conflict and the flow of weapons to terrorist organizations and narcotraffickers. The governments are eager to join the U.S. "war against terrorism" to gain support for their own state terrorism, often on a shocking scale (Russia and Turkey, to mention only the most obvious examples, though Turkey has always benefited from crucial U.S. involvement).

IMC: Pakistan and India, border countries armed with nuclear weapons, have been eye to eye in serious conflict for years. How might the sudden and intense pressure that the U.S. is exerting in the region impact their already volatile relationship?

CHOMSKY: The main source of conflict is Kashmir, where India claims to be fighting Islamic terrorism, and Pakistan claims that India is refusing self-determination and has carried out large-scale terrorism itself. All the claims, unfortunately, are basically correct. There have been several wars over Kashmir, the latest one in 1999, when both states had nuclear weapons available; fortunately they were kept under control, but that can hardly be guaranteed. The threat of nuclear war is likely to increase if the U.S. persists in its militarization of space programs (euphemistically described as "missile defense"). These already include support for expansion of China's nuclear forces, in order to gain Chinese acquiescence to the programs. India will presumably try to match China's expansion, then Pakistan, then beyond, including Israel. Its nuclear capacities were described by the former head of the U.S. Strategic Command as "dangerous in the extreme," and one of the prime threats in the region. "Volatile" is right, maybe worse.

IMC: Prior to 9-11, the Bush administration was being fiercely critiqued, ally nations included, for its political "unilateralism"- refusal to sign on to the Kyoto protocol for greenhouse emissions, intention to violate the ABM treaty in order to militarize space with a "missile defense" program, walkout of the racism conference in Durban, South Africa, to name only a few recent examples. Might the sudden U.S. alliance-building effort spawn a new "multi-lateralism" in which unexpected positive developments-like progress for Palestinians-might advance?

CHOMSKY: It's worth recalling that Bush's "unilateralism" was an extension of standard practice. In 1993, Clinton informed the UN that the U.S. will-before-act "multilaterally when possible but unilaterally when necessary," and proceeded to do so. The position was reiterated by UN Ambassador Madeleine Albright and in 1999 by Secretary of Defense William Cohen, who declared that the U.S. is committed to "unilateral use of military power" to defend vital interests, which include "ensuring uninhibited access to key markets, energy supplies and strategic resources," and indeed anything that Washington might determine to be within its "domestic jurisdiction." The last phrase is important: it refers to the exception the U.S. granted itself from World Court decisions, employed when it rejected the Court's order to terminate its terrorist attack against Nicaragua. But it is true that Bush went beyond, causing considerable anxiety among allies. The current need to form a coalition may attenuate the rhetoric, but is unlikely to change the policies. Members of the coalition are expected to be silent and obedient supporters, not participants. The U.S. explicitly reserves to itself the right to act as it chooses, and is carefully avoiding any meaningful recourse to international institutions, as required by law. The Palestinians are unlikely to gain anything. On the contrary, the terrorist attack of September 11 was a crushing blow to them, as they and Israel recognized immediately.

IMC: Since 9-11, Secretary of State Colin Powell has been signalling that the U.S. may adopt a new stance toward the plight of Palestinians. What is your reading?

CHOMSKY: My reading is exactly that of the officials and other sources quoted towards the end of the front-page story of the New York Times. As they made clear, Bush-Powell do not even go as far as Clinton's Camp David proposals, lauded in the mainstream here but completely unacceptable, for reasons discussed accurately in Israel and elsewhere, and as anyone could see by looking at a map-one reason, I suppose, why maps were so hard to find here, though not elsewhere, including Israel. One can find more detail about this in articles at the time of Camp David, including my own, and essays in the collection edited by Roane Carey The New Intifada.

IMC: The free flow of information is one of the first casualties of any war. Is the present situation in any way an exception? Examples?

CHOMSKY: Impediments to free flow of information in countries like the U.S. are rarely traceable to government; rather, to self-censorship of the familiar kind. The current situation is not exceptional-considerably better than the norm, in my opinion.

There are, however, some startling examples of U.S. government efforts to restrict free flow of information abroad. The Arab world has had one free and open news source, the satellite TV news channel Al-Jazeera in Qatar, modelled on BBC, with an enormous audience throughout the Arab-speaking world. It is the sole uncensored source, carrying a great deal of important news and also live debates and a wide range of opinion-broad enough to include Colin Powell a week ago and Israeli Prime Minister Barak (me too, just to declare an interest). Al-Jazeera is also "the only international news organization to maintain reporters in the Taliban-controlled part of Afghanistan" (Wall Street Journal). Among other examples, it was responsible for the exclusive filming of the destruction of Buddhist statues that rightly infuriated the world. It has also provided lengthy interviews with bin Laden that I'm sure are perused closely by Western intelligence agencies and are invaluable to others who wants to understand what he is thinking. These are translated and rebroadcast by BBC, several of them since 9-11.

Al-Jazeera is, naturally, despised and feared by the dictatorships of the region, particularly because of its frank exposures of their human rights records. The U.S. has joined their ranks. BBC reports that "The U.S. is not the first to feel aggrieved by al-Jazeera coverage, which has in the past provoked anger from Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt for giving airtime to political dissidents."

The Emir of Qatar confirmed that "Washington has asked Qatar to rein in the influential and editorially independent Arabic al-Jazeera television station," BBC reported. The Emir, who also chairs the Organization of Islamic Conference that includes 56 countries, informed the press in Washington that Secretary of State Powell had pressured him to rein in Al-Jazeera: to "persuade Al-Jazeera to tone down its coverage," Al-Jazeera reports. Asked about the reports of censorship, the Emir said: "This is true. We heard from the U.S. administration, and also from the previous U.S. administration" (BBC, October 4, 2001, citing Reuters).

The only serious report I noticed of this highly important news is in the Wall Street Journal (October 5), which also describes the reaction of intellectuals and scholars throughout the Arab world ("truly appalling," etc.). The report adds, as the Journal has done before, that "many Arab analysts argued that it is, after all, Washington's perceived disregard for human rights in officially pro-American countries such as Saudi Arabia that fuels the rampant anti-Americanism." There has also been remarkably little use of the bin Laden interviews and other material from Afghanistan available from Al-Jazeera.

So yes, there are barriers to free flow of information, but they cannot be blamed on government censorship or pressure, a very marginal factor in the United States.

http://www.indymedia.org

10/10/01
4:53:14 PM

U.S. Air Supremacy Heralds New Phase In Afghan Campaign

By Alan Elsner and Sayed Salahuddin

WASHINGTON/KABUL (Reuters) - The United States unleashed its first daylight bombing raids on Afghanistan on Tuesday and said it had knocked out almost all airfields there, creating air supremacy to allow a sustained campaign against radical Islamic forces.

As U.S. bombs and missiles rained down for the third straight day on Afghanistan in reprisal for attacks on New York and Washington that killed nearly 5,600 people one month ago, authorities appealed for calm in Florida where two cases of anthrax raised fears of possible biological warfare attacks.

At a Pentagon briefing, officials for the first time showed pictures of destroyed airfields, missile sites and training camps used by the al Qaeda network of Saudi-militant Osama bin Laden, blamed by Washington for the Sept. 11 attacks that leveled the World Trade Center and damaged the Pentagon.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said: "We have struck several terrorist training camps. We have damaged most of the airfields, I believe all but one, as well as their anti-aircraft and launchers ... We believe we are now able to carry out strikes more or less around the clock as we wish."

"Essentially we have air supremacy over Afghanistan," Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the top U.S. military man, told the same briefing.

Rumsfeld expressed regret for the deaths of four Afghans who worked for a United Nations-funded demining group, but said some civilian casualties were inevitable in such a large operation.

On the home front, Attorney General John Ashcroft, the chief U.S. law officer, has warned Americans of an increased risk of reprisals by militants as a result of raids on Afghanistan's ruling Taliban Islamic purists, who are sheltering bin Laden.

The FBI said on Tuesday it found no evidence so far of criminal intent in a Florida probe into two cases of anthrax, a rare disease that could be used as a biological weapon.

Teams of FBI agents have been searching a building H belonging to a supermarket tabloid group, American Media Inc., in Boca Raton, Florida, where two workers were exposed to anthrax. One of the workers, a photo editor, died last Friday.

GROUND ATTACK POSSIBLE

As the U.S.-led war against terrorism continued from the air, Britain, Washington's leading ally in the campaign so far, said ground operations were a possibility.

"As far as any ground operations are concerned, clearly we are preparing plans to allow us to look at that as an option," British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon said on Tuesday.

"We have only just started the very first part of the military campaign, with the attacks that took place overnight on Sunday and Monday," he added.

At his briefing, Rumsfeld said the damage inflicted so far had created "conditions necessary to conduct a sustained campaign to root out terrorists."

Prime Minister Tony Blair told the Afghan people in a targeted radio interview on Tuesday that the West would not abandon them after the war on the Taliban had been completed.

In a broadcast for the Pashto language service of the BBC's World Service, Blair conceded the West had made past mistakes on Afghanistan and had simply "walked away" from its people.

"This time round we must not repeat that mistake," he said.

Blair set off for the Middle East on Tuesday on a fresh diplomatic initiative to shore up Arab support for the campaign. Secrecy prevented a detailed schedule from being issued.

Islamic nations meeting in Qatar on Wednesday will urge the United States to limit its war on terrorism to Afghanistan's ruling Taliban, but the 56-member Organization of Islamic Conference is unlikely to condemn U.S. strikes, delegates said.

In Pakistan, police shot dead five people in anti-American demonstrations and the country's largest Islamic party, the Jamaat-e-Islami, threatened to put millions of protesters on the streets if military action was not stopped.

Soldiers were deployed at many intersections in Islamabad and built sand-bagged bunkers on the edge of the capital's "diplomatic compound" that houses western embassies.

The Afghan opposition Northern Alliance said 40 Taliban commanders with 1,200 men under arms had switched sides and closed the only road linking north and south Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters also exchanged gunfire with Pakistani border guards in a remote northwestern border area early on Tuesday, injuring four of them. The three-hour battle erupted after Pakistani paramilitary Scouts stopped about 30 Taliban fighters who tried to enter the area, witnesses said.

TALIBAN STRONGHOLD ATTACKED

One of the missiles in the air raids on Afghanistan slammed into a house in the Taliban stronghold of Kandahar once used by Mullah Mohammad Omar, the movement's supreme leader, but he was not there, the Taliban ambassador to Pakistan said. Bin Laden has also escaped unscathed from the attacks, he said.

With U.S. warplanes returning home to their bases, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called for an immediate end to the strikes. "Thousands of people should not be killed under the pretext of fighting terrorism, and innocent and oppressed people should not be sacrificed to aggression," he said.

Discontent continued to simmer in some Islamic countries. Indonesian police fired warning shots, tear gas and water cannon in a clash with 400 Muslim anti-American protesters near the U.S. embassy in Jakarta.

Leaders of rival Palestinian factions appealed for calm and officials kept schools and universities closed in the Gaza Strip, where two people were killed and more than 100 injured on Monday in clashes between police and bin Laden supporters.

President Bush aimed on Tuesday to reassure a nation concerned about the possibility of reprisal attacks by naming retired Army Gen. Wayne Downing as a new anti-terror chief and to consolidate his coalition in talks with a key European ally German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

NATO dispatched a flotilla of warships to the eastern Mediterranean on Tuesday to show the alliance stood squarely behind the United States.

Source: http://www.truthout.com/0661.Air.Strikes.Day.3.htm

10/10/01
4:37:21 PM

(Editors Note : The first article now just over 7 months old examines efforts by former President Bush and others to secure Saudi favor for select business interests. Part two which follows below deals with the recent Bush appointment of Dallas attorney Robert Jordan to serve as ambassador to Saudi Arabia and his deep connections to those same select interests.)

The New York Times | March 5, 2001, Monday

Elder Bush in Big G.O.P. Cast Toiling for Top Equity Firm

By LESLIE WAYNE

During the presidential campaign last year, former President George Bush took time off from his son's race to call on Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia at a luxurious desert compound outside Riyadh to talk about American-Saudi business affairs.

Mr. Bush went as an ambassador of sorts, but not for his government. In the same way, Mr. Bush's secretary of state, James A. Baker III, recently met with a group of wealthy people at the elegant Lanesborough Hotel in London to explain the Florida vote count.

Traveling with the fanfare of dignitaries, Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker were using their extensive government contacts to further their business interests as representatives of the Carlyle Group, a $12 billion private equity firm based in Washington that has parlayed a roster of former top-level government officials, largely from the Bush and Reagan administrations, into a moneymaking machine.

In a new spin on Washington's revolving door between business and government, where lobbying by former officials is restricted but soliciting investments is not, Carlyle has upped the ante and taken the practice global. Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker were accompanied on their trips by former Prime Minister John Major of Britain, another of Carlyle's political stars. With door-openers of this caliber, along with shrewd investment skills, Carlyle has gone from an unknown in the world of private equity to one of its biggest players. Private equity, which involves buying up companies in private deals and reselling them, is a high-end business open only to the very rich.

Over the last decade, the Carlyle empire has grown to span three continents and include investments in most corners of the world. It owns so many companies that it is now in effect one of the nation's biggest defense contractors and a force in global telecommunications. Its blue-chip investors include major banks and insurance companies, billion-dollar pension funds and wealthy investors from Abu Dhabi to Singapore.

In getting business for Carlyle, Mr. Bush has been impressive. His meeting with the crown prince was followed by a yacht cruise and private dinners with Saudi officials, including King Fahd, all on behalf of Carlyle, which has extensive interests in the Middle East.

And Mr. Bush led Carlyle's successful entry into South Korea, the fastest-growing economy in Asia. After his meetings with the prime minister and other government and business leaders, Carlyle won a tough competition for control of KorAm, one of Korea's few healthy banks.

The steady flow of politicians to lucrative private-sector jobs based on their government contacts is a familiar Washington tale. But in this case, it is being played out for more dollars, on a global stage, and in the world of private finance, where the minimal government rules prohibiting lobbying by former officials for a given period are not a factor. These rules say nothing about potential conflicts when former government officials use their connections and insights for financial gain, and they may attract more notice now that George W. Bush is president. Many of those involved with Carlyle, which invests largely in companies that do business with the government or are affected by government regulations, have ties to the Oval Office.

For instance, Frank C. Carlucci, a Reagan secretary of defense who as much as anyone is responsible for Carlyle's success, said he met in February with his old college classmate Donald H. Rumsfeld, the secretary of defense, and Vice President Dick Cheney, himself a defense secretary under former President Bush, to talk about military matters -- at a time when Carlyle has several billion-dollar defense projects under consideration.

Carlyle officials contend that the firm's activities do not present any potential conflicts since Mr. Bush, Mr. Baker and other former Republican officials now at Carlyle -- including Mr. Carlucci, who is Carlyle's chairman, and Richard G. Darman, Mr. Bush's former budget director -- do not lobby the federal government. Carlyle executives point out that many corporations have former government officials as board members.

''Mr. Bush gives us no advice on what do with with the federal government,'' said David Rubenstein, the firm's founder and a former aide in the Carter White House. ''We've gone over backwards to make sure that we do no lobbying.''

Others, however, see little difference between potential conflicts involving lobbying and those involving investments.

''Carlyle is as deeply wired into the current administration as they can possibly be,'' said Charles Lewis, executive director of the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit public interest group based in Washington. ''George Bush is getting money from private interests that have business before the government, while his son is president. And, in a really peculiar way, George W. Bush could, some day, benefit financially from his own administration's decisions, through his father's investments. The average American doesn't know that and, to me, that's a jaw-dropper.''

It is difficult to determine exactly how much money the senior Mr. Bush and Mr. Baker have made. Mr. Baker is a Carlyle partner, and Mr. Bush has the title senior adviser to its Asian activities. With a current market value of about $3.5 billion on Carlyle's equity and with the firm owned by 18 partners and one outside investor, Mr. Baker's Carlyle stake would be worth about $180 million if each partner held an equal stake. It is not known whether he has more or less than the other partners.

Unlike Mr. Baker, Mr. Bush has no ownership stake in Carlyle; he is an adviser and an investor and is compensated by obtaining stakes in Carlyle investments. Carlyle executives cited, for example, Mr. Bush's being allowed to put money he earns giving speeches for Carlyle into its investment funds. Mr. Bush generally receives $80,000 to $100,000 for a speech. He sits on no corporate boards other than Carlyle's.

Carlyle also gave the Bush family a hand in 1990 by putting George W. Bush, who was then struggling to find a career, on the board of a Carlyle subsidiary, Caterair, an airline-catering company.

From Carlyle's point of view, the involvement of Mr. Baker and the former president is invaluable.

''It punches up the brand awareness for us globally,'' said Daniel A. D'Aniello, a Carlyle managing director. ''We are greatly assisted by Baker and Bush. It shows that we are associated with people of the highest ethical standards.''

With $12 billion from investors, Carlyle claims to be the nation's largest private equity fund and makes money by investing in undervalued companies and reselling at a profit. These numbers put Carlyle in the same league as better-known private equity firms like Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company and Forstmann-Little & Company.

Two hundred forty Carlyle employees are stationed throughout the world either raising money or finding ways to spend it. Carlyle has ownership stakes in 164 companies, which last year employed more than 70,000 people and generated $16 billion in revenues. About 450 institutions -- mainly large pension funds and banks -- are Carlyle investors.

The California state pension fund invested $305 million with Carlyle, and the Texas teachers pension fund -- whose board was appointed when George W. Bush was governor -- gave Carlyle $100 million to invest in November. Carlyle also works as a financial adviser to the Saudi government.

''Let's say Carlyle is going fund-raising in the Middle East and they bring Bush along,'' said David Snow, editor of Private Equity Central, a trade publication. ''He led the U.S. Army into that region. That will catch the attention of very wealthy investors in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. The fact that Bush is involved doesn't mean that Carlyle will make great investment decisions. But it will get them access to certain deals and certain countries that they might otherwise not have.''

One former Carlyle employee said, ''The firm understands that having Bush and Major around is like having movie stars around.''

Yet Carlyle's success is not just because of its high-powered connections. Carlyle has done well for its investors, returning an average of 34 percent a year over the last decade, in line with other private equity funds. It has done this by buying what it knows best -- companies that are regulated by the government. Nearly two-thirds of its investments are in defense and telecommunications companies, which are affected by shifts in government spending and policy.

Carlyle has become the nation's 11th largest defense contractor, owning companies that make tanks, aircraft wings and a broad array of other military equipment. It also owns health care companies, real estate, Internet companies, a bottling company and even Le Figaro, the French newspaper.

''Carlyle is one of the most successful fund-raising groups,'' said Mario L. Giannini, president of Hamilton Lane, a Philadelphia consultant to institutional investors. ''They have tremendous access and they have done very well with their money.''

And its access extends well beyond American shores. In Europe, Carlyle has assembled an advisory board that besides Mr. Major includes Karl Otto Pöhl, former president of German's Bundesbank, and the past or present chairmen of B.M.W., Hoffman-LaRoche, Nestlé, LVMH-Moët Hennessy, Louis Vuitton and Aerospatiale, the French Airbus partner.

Carlyle's Asia advisory board, which helps raise money and finds and reviews deals, includes former President Fidel V. Ramos of the Philippines, the former prime minister of Thailand and the executive director of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority. The former South Korean prime minister Park Tae Joon was also an adviser to Carlyle.

This star power is a source of great pride for Carlyle and part of an acknowledged long-term strategy to associate the firm with brand-name politicians and business executives in order to attract more of the same -- along with their money, insights and connections. That said, Carlyle partners bristle at any suggestion that the firm's success is based only on high-powered schmoozing.

''If our track record was not good, people would not invest with us,'' said Mr. Rubenstein, the founding partner. ''No one would gives us money just because Mr. Bush is one of our advisers.''

On that point, others agree. ''People took potshots at Carlyle early on and tried to denigrate their investment credentials because they had all these government officials over there,'' said Bernard Aronson, managing partner at ACON Investments, a private equity firm in Washington. ''But that's sort of a myth. The all-hat-and-no-cattle has disappeared because they performed consistently, delivered excellent returns and have become global players.''

One of the people who put Carlyle on the map -- developing its riches and its image -- is Mr. Carlucci, who joined the firm in 1989 when it had engaged in a string of ill-fated ventures. He is credited with steering Carlyle into successful defense industry acquisitions -- just when other investors were shunning them -- and with using his seat on more than a dozen corporate boards to bring Carlyle deals and investors.

In an office adorned with photographs of Mr. Carlucci and the politically mighty -- he sits beneath an Oval Office picture of himself and Mr. Reagan -- Mr. Carlucci makes it clear that his extensive government and global ties are as fresh as ever.

''I know Rumsfeld extremely well,'' Mr. Carlucci said in an interview. ''We've been close friends throughout the years. We were college classmates.''

Pointing to a picture of the Chinese president, he said, ''There's a photo of me and Jiang Zemin. And there's me and the president of Taiwan.''

Right now, Carlyle is hoping that financing is provided for the $13.7 billion Crusader program. The Crusader is a heavy-duty tank made by a Carlyle portfolio company and other contractors. And Carlyle just lodged a complaint with the government after another of its portfolio companies lost a $4 billion contract to build a lightweight combat vehicle.

While Mr. Carlucci is open about his discussions with Mr. Rumsfeld on Pentagon policies, he said he never lobbies. ''I've made it clear that I don't lobby the defense industry,'' Mr. Carlucci said. ''I will give our Carlyle bankers advice on what they might do and who they should talk to. But I do not pick up the phone and say you should fund X, Y or Z.''

If Washington's revolving door brought Republicans to Carlyle during the Clinton presidency, now the firm is preparing for an onslaught of Democrats. The day these interviews took place at Carlyle's Washington office, Gene Sperling, one of the Clinton administration's top economic advisers, was in for a job interview.

xoxox

New ambassador to Saudi Arabia is another Bush/Carlyle Group crony.

October 9, 2001, Tuesday

By Jonathan Ashley, Eyes On American

Dallas attorney Robert Jordan was confirmed Wednesday by the United States Senate to serve as ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Jordan has no diplomatic experience. However, his connections leave no doubt as to why he was named to the post. He defended George W. Bush in a probe of insider trading allegations in 1990. The allegations involved the sale by Bush of 60% of his Harken Energy Corp. stocks two months before a 25% drop in the stock's price. According to a 7 Sep 2000 article by the Associated Press, "At the time of the investigation, Bush's father was president of the United States and the SEC was run by one of his biggest political supporters, Richard Breeden. The SEC's then-general counsel, James R. Doty, was another staunch presidential supporter who as a private attorney was George W. Bush's lawyer when he purchased his share of the Texas Rangers baseball team."

This is not Jordan's only connection to the Bush family. Jordan is a corporate lawyer in the Dallas office of Houston-based Baker Botts. Baker Botts has an office in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The client list at Baker Botts includes "more than half of the Fortune 100 companies". The client list also includes The Carlyle Group. On the board of directors for Carlyle is former President George Herbert Walker Bush.

James A. Baker III is the current Baker in Baker Botts. Baker was Secretary of State under the first President Bush. He is currently senior counsel to The Carlyle Group. Baker was a classmate of Donald H. Rumsfeld at Yale University. Rumsfeld, the current Secretary of Defense, was the roommate of Frank C. Carlucci at Yale.

Carlucci, who was head of the National Security Counsel under President Ronald Reagan, is currently chairman of The Carlyle Group.

The current President Bush was a director of Caterair during the years 1990-1994. Caterair is owned by The Carlyle Group.

The board of directors of The Carlyle Group also includes: former Phillipines President, Fidel V. Ramos; former director of the U.S. Office of Management & Budget, Richard Darman; former Assistant to the President (Bush I), Robert Grady; former Prime Minister of South Korea, Park Tae Joon; former SEC chairman, Arthur Levitt; former Prime Minister of Great Britain, John Major; former general director of the World Health Organization, Michael Orloff; retired U.S. Army General, J. H. Binford Peay; former president of Deutsche Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl; and former chairman of the Joint Chief's of Staff, John Shalikashvili.

Two-thirds of Carlyle's holdings are in defense and telecommunications companies.

At leaset $2 million of Carlyle funding has come from the bin Laden family of Saudi Arabia.

Source: http://eyesonamerica.org/200110/10050102.html

10/10/01
4:29:20 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

EU's Byrne says GM product approval could resume - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12730/story.htm

WTC cleanup triggers safety, cost allegations - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12740/story.htm

Alaska oil output back to normal after shutdown - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12739/story.htm

UPDATE - Pentagon tenders for jet fuel, marine diesel - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12745/story.htm

Contamination fear hits IRS center in Kentucky - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12746/story.htm

Florida tabloid employees tested amid anthrax scare - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12747/story.htm

Alcan Aluminum to cut more greenhouse emissions - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12733/story.htm

Republican seeks more details on Bush farm policy - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12731/story.htm

UPDATE - US senators move to secure domestic energy sites - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12725/story.htm

Colorado to kill elk exposed to wasting disease - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12724/story.htm

UPDATE - Honda, Toyota models top US mileage list - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12732/story.htm

Animal lab Huntingdon says has no plan to quit UK - UK http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12737/story.htm

EU largely isolated on WTO environment issue - SWITZERLAND http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12742/story.htm

FEATURE - Peru's rainforest natives pin future on ecotourism - PERU http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12723/story.htm

Sydkraft sells green certificates to Dutch Nuon - NORWAY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12728/story.htm

INTERVIEW - Demand surges for non-GMO animal feed in Europe - NETHERLANDS http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12743/story.htm

Gene patents are legal, EU court rules - LUXEMBOURG http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12735/story.htm

German N-plants may go offline if in danger - EnvMin - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12748/story.htm

Protesters line up for German nuke waste shipments - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12727/story.htm

Energiekontor starts building wind park in Portugal - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12726/story.htm

Blast rocks French chemicals plant, no casualties - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12749/story.htm

French rank Britain bottom of food safety league - FRANCE http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12734/story.htm

Brazil says farm products must be on WTO agenda - BRAZIL http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12741/story.htm

EU Commission moves to end ban on new GM crops - BELGIUM http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12736/story.htm

Australia's Labor would ratify Kyoto climate pact - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12744/story.htm

Australia Labor eyes power in environmental policy - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12722/story.htm

Australia ABARE sees 2.3% annual energy use rise - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12729/story.htm

10/10/01
4:27:52 PM

News from Utne Reader

T A L K I N G S T I C K

"When you have these news anchors on television, they should be flashing the amount of money they make. People should understand the economic strata they come from. They represent such a minority in this country and they interview their friends, basically."

Amy Goodman, host of Pacifica Radio's Democracy Now!, Z Magazine (June 2001)

FEATURED ARTICLE: Seeking Peace in the War on Drugs

The drug war is being challenged as never before, writes Ethan A. Nadelman in the Sept./Oct. issue of Utne Reader. But Nadleman asserts that drug war critics are not building a drug legalization movement. "What there is," he writes, "is a nascent political and social movement for drug policy reform.

"It consists of the growing number of citizens who have been victimized, in one way or another, by the drug war, and who now believe that our current drug policies, like alcohol prohibition in the 1920s, do more harm than good."

Read the article at http://www.utne.com

10/10/01
4:24:48 PM

Environmental news from GRIST MAGAZINE

<http://www.gristmagazine.com>

TOODLE-OO, TUVALU

New Zealand has agreed to welcome an annual quota of immigrants from the tiny Pacific nation of Tuvalu, where rising sea levels are forcing residents from their homes. Tuvalu, a nine-island archipelago halfway between Hawaii and Australia, blames global warming for the higher ocean levels, as well as for coastal erosion, droughts, and unusually severe weather. The nation's Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy, and the Environment had strong criticism for Australia, which declined to accept Tuvalu refugees, as well as for the U.S., for its refusal to back the Kyoto treaty on climate change. Meanwhile, in the absence of federal leadership on climate change in the U.S., state, city, and regional governments are taking up some of the slack, calling for measures like broader use of energy-saving devices, more efficient building standards, cleaner power plants, and greater investment in renewable resources.

straight to the source: BBC News, Alex Kirby, 06 Oct 2001 <http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1581000/1581457.stm >

FOULBANKS, ALASKA

More than 100 workers are busily cleaning up a 285,600-gallon oil spill outside of Fairbanks, Alaska, that began Thursday when a man fired a .338 caliber rifle at the trans-Alaskan pipeline. About a third of the spilled oil has been recovered, but a representative of the company managing the cleanup said it would be years before the area is free of contamination. Although the pipeline -- which carries about 17 percent of the oil produced in the nation, or about 1 million barrels per day -- has been hit by gun and rifle fire more than 50 times in its history, it had never been punctured prior to last week.

straight to the source: Olympian, Associated Press, 09 Oct 2001 <http://news.theolympian.com/stories/20011009/Northwest/119825.shtml >

straight to the source: Anchorage Daily News, Associated Press, Allen Baker, 09 Oct 2001 <http://www.adn.com/alaska/story/716833p-757024c.html>

10/10/01
4:06:07 PM

America's Terrorist Nuclear Threat Ti Itself

By Harvey Wasserman

No sane nation hands to a wartime enemy atomic weapons set to go off within its own homeland, and then lights the fuse.

Yet as the bombs and missiles drop on Afghanistan, the certainty of terror retaliation inside America has turned our 103 nuclear power plants into weapons of apocalyptic destruction, just waiting to be used against us.

One or both planes that crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, could have easily obliterated the two atomic reactors now operating at Indian Point, about 40 miles up the Hudson.

The catastrophic devastation would have been unfathomable. But those and a hundred other American reactors are still running. Security has been heightened. But all are vulnerable to another sophisticated terror attack aimed at perpetrating the unthinkable.

Indian Point Unit One was shut long ago by public outcry. But Units 2 & 3 have operated since the 1970s. Back then there was talk of requiring reactor containment domes to be strong enough to withstand a jetliner crash. But the biggest jets were far smaller than the ones that fly today. Nor did those early calculations account for the jet fuel whose hellish fire melted the critical steel supports that ultimately brought down the Trade Center.

Had one or both those jets hit one or both the operating reactors at Indian Point, the ensuing cloud of radiation would have dwarfed the ones at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

The intense radioactive heat within today's operating reactors is the hottest anywhere on the planet. So are the hellish levels of radioactivity.

Because Indian Point has operated so long, its accumulated radioactive burden far exceeds that of Chernobyl, which ran only four years before it exploded.

Some believe the WTC jets could have collapsed or breached either of the Indian Point containment domes. But at very least the massive impact and intense jet fuel fire would destroy the human ability to control the plants' functions. Vital cooling systems, backup power generators and communications networks would crumble.

Indeed, Indian Point Unit One was shut because activists warned that its lack of an emergency core cooling system made it an unacceptable risk. The government ultimately agreed.

But today terrorist attacks could destroy those same critical cooling and control systems that are vital to not only the Unit Two and Three reactor cores, but to the spent fuel pools that sit on site.

The assault would not require a large jet. The safety systems are extremely complex and virtually indefensible. One or more could be wiped out with a wide range of easily deployed small aircraft, ground-based weapons, truck bombs or even chemical/biological assaults aimed at the operating work force. Dozens of US reactors have repeatedly failed even modest security tests over the years. Even heightened wartime standards cannot guarantee protection of the vast, supremely sensitive controls required for reactor safety.

Without continous monitoring and guaranteed water flow, the thousands of tons of radioactive rods in the cores and the thousands more stored in those fragile pools would rapidly melt into super-hot radioactive balls of lava that would burn into the ground and the water table and, ultimately, the Hudson.

Indeed, a jetcrash like the one on 9/11 or other forms of terrorist assault at Indian Point could yield three infernal fireballs of molten radioactive lava burning through the earth and into the aquifer and the river. Striking water they would blast gigantic billows of horribly radioactive steam into the atmosphere. Prevailing winds from the north and west might initially drive these clouds of mass death downriver into New York City and east into Westchester and Long Island.

But at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, winds ultimately shifted around the compass to irradiate all surrounding areas with the devastating poisons released by the on-going fiery torrent. At Indian Point, thousands of square miles would have been saturated with the most lethal clouds ever created or imagined, depositing relentless genetic poisons that would kill forever.

In nearby communities like Buchanan, Nyack, Monsey and scores more, infants and small children would quickly die en masse. Virtually all pregnant women would spontaneously abort, or ultimately give birth to horribly deformed offspring. Ghastly sores, rashes, ulcerations and burns would afflict the skin of millions. Emphysema, heart attacks, stroke, multiple organ failure, hair loss, nausea, inability to eat or drink or swallow, diarrhea and incontinance, sterility and impotence, asthma, blindness, and more would kill thousands on the spot, and doom hundreds of thousands if not millions. A terrible metallic taste would afflict virtually everyone downwind in New York, New Jersey and New England, a ghoulish curse similar to that endured by the fliers who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagaskai, by those living downwind from nuclear bomb tests in the south seas and Nevada, and by victims caught in the downdrafts from Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.

Then comes the abominable wave of cancers, leukemias, lymphomas, tumors and hellish diseases for which new names will have to be invented, and new dimensions of agony will beg description.

Indeed, those who survived the initial wave of radiation would envy those who did not.

Evacuation would be impossible, but thousands would die trying. Bridges and highways would become killing fields for those attempting to escape to destinations that would soon enough become equally deadly as the winds shifted.

Attempts to quench the fires would be futile. At Chernobyl, pilots flying helicopters that dropped boron on the fiery core died in droves. At Indian Point, such missions would be a sure ticket to death. Their utility would be doubtful as the molten cores rage uncontrolled for days, weeks and years, spewing ever more devastation into the eco-sphere. More than 800,000 Soviet draftees were forced through Chernobyl's seething remains in a futile attempt to clean it up. They are dying in droves. Who would now volunteer for such an American task force?

The radioactive cloud from Chernobyl blanketed the vast Ukraine and Belarus landscape, then carried over Europe and into the jetstream, surging through the west coast of the United States within ten days, carrying across our northern tier, circling the globe, then coming back again.

The radioactive clouds from Indian Point would enshroud New York, New Jersey, New England, and carry deep into the Atlantic and up into Canada and across to Europe and around the globe again and again.

The immediate damage would render thousands of the world's most populous and expensive square miles permanently uninhabitable. All five boroughs of New York City would be an apocalyptic wasteland. The World Trade Center would be rendered as unusable and even more lethal by a jet crash at Indian Point than it was by the direct hits of 9/11. All real estate and economic value would be poisonously radioactive throughout the entire region. Irreplaceable trillions in human capital would be forever lost.

As at Three Mile Island, where thousands of farm and wild animals died in heaps, and as at Chernobyl, where soil, water and plant life have been hopelessly irradiated, natural eco-systems on which human and all other life depends would be permanently and irrevocably destroyed,

Spiritually, psychologically, financially, ecologically, our nation would never recover.

This is what we missed by a mere forty miles near New York City on September 11. Now that we are at war, this is what could be happening as you read this.

There are 103 of these potential Bombs of the Apocalypse now operating in the United States. They generate just 18% of America's electricity, just 8% of our total energy. As with reactors elsewhere, the two at Indian Point have both been off-line for long periods of time with no appreciable impact on life in New York. Already an extremely expensive source of electricity, the cost of attempting to defend these reactors will put nuclear energy even further off the competitive scale.

Since its deregulation crisis, California---already the nation's second-most efficient state---cut further into its electric consumption by some 15%. Within a year the US could cheaply replace virtually with increased efficiency all the reactors now so much more expensive to operate and protect.

Yet, as the bombs fall and the terror escalates, Congress is fast-tracking a form of legal immunity to protect the operators of reactors like Indian Point from liability in case of a meltdown or terrorist attack.

Why is our nation handing its proclaimed enemies the weapons of our own mass destruction, and then shielding from liability the companies that insist on continuing to operate them?

Do we take this war seriously? Are we committed to the survival of our nation?

If so, the ticking reactor bombs that could obliterate the very core of our life and of all future generations must be shut down.

Harvey Wasserman is author of THE LAST ENERGY WAR and co-author of KILLING OUR OWN: THE DISASTER OF AMERICA'S EXPERIENCE WITH ATOMIC RADIATION.

10/10/01
3:47:41 PM

Tens Of Thousands March Against War

By John Catalinotto, Washington, D.C.

Tens of thousands of people in Washington, San Francisco and Los Angeles, and thousands in other cities worldwide, demonstrated Sept. 29 against the Bush administration's drive to war and in defense of Arab and Muslim people living in the U.S. who have been subject to racist attacks.

Since the Sept. 11 destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon has moved 28,000 troops, dozens of warships and hundreds of bombers to the Persian/Arabian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, threatening to strike Afghanistan and perhaps other countries.

The Sept. 29 protest actions in the U.S., called by a new coalition--Act Now to Stop War & End Racism, or ANSWER--attracted a rainbow-like gathering of civil rights, anti-war, religious, solidarity, community and student organizations, with some participation from organized labor.

Brian Becker, an ANSWER spokesperson, said the demonstrations showed "there was a real coalition, broad enough and solid enough to build a powerful movement in the United States against the war that Bush and the Pentagon are planning."

He announced at a meeting following the Washington protest that ANSWER was proposing follow-up mass actions for Oct. 27.

Increasing the significance of the demonstrations is that they happened in the midst of a super-patriotic media campaign. The media gave 100-percent backing to Bush's war moves. Some also stridently red-baited and violence-baited the demonstration's organizers. But they failed to stifle the new coalition.

On the contrary, the movement for peace--as reflected by dozens of speakers as well as the marchers--was broader Sept. 29 than it has been since the last years of the U.S. war against Vietnam.

At the Washington, D.C., rally, speakers from the area included Vanessa Dixon of the D.C. Healthcare Now Coalition, Eleiza Braun of the George Washington University Action Coalition and Rev. Graylan Hagler, Senior Minister of the Plymouth Congregational Church, showing that community, student and religious organizations were strongly supporting the anti-war coalition.

The mass anti-war sentiment in the Black community was also represented by the Rev. Curtis Gatewood, president of the Durham chapter of the NAACP. Rev. Gatewood had spoken out the week before against U.S. military action, despite the patriotic stance of the NAACP national leadership. When the national leadership chastised him for his statement, the members of the Durham NAACP reaffirmed their support for Gatewood.

Here's a short sample of the diversity among the speakers in D.C.: James Creedon, an emergency medical technician who rescued people at Ground Zero; James Terry, Queer Youth for Social Justice; Sam Jordan, International Concerned Family and Friends of Mumia Abu-Jamal; Amer Jubran, Al Awda Boston; Sunita Mehda, Sakhi for South Asian Women; Marina Alarcon, Mexican Support Network; Ray LeForest, District Council 1707, AFSCME; Yoomi Jeong, Korea Truth Commission; Rusty Fabunana, Bayan Philippines Forum; and Eric Le Compte, School of the Americas Watch.

MARCH BREAKS THROUGH ISOLATION

ANSWER organizers had told Workers World three days before the march that the major purpose of the coalition event was to break through the isolation people were feeling under the pressure of the pro-war media campaign.

As the rally ended, the demonstrators took the advice of Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, Co-Director of the Partnership for Civil Justice, and marched out of the rally area at Freedom Plaza with determination, despite the heavy presence of thousands of riot police, some armed with automatic rifles and all armored.

They headed along Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol. The realization that they had succeeded in their goal flooded over the marchers as their route climbed a hill alongside the Capitol.

As the front of the march neared the top of the hill, people turned around and looked back. A cheer went up as they saw that the march stretched for blocks and blocks, tightly packed across the width of Pennsylvania Avenue.

"No war in our name," read one sign. "U.S. out of the Middle East," read another. And everywhere, "Stop the war" and "Stop racist attacks." The organizers would soon announce that some 20,000 people were there.

The sight of the vast crowd increased the excitement. As if invigorated by the discovery that they had plenty of company in the fight against a new war, students from dozens of universities accepted ANSWER's invitation to announce their school's name and how many students had come.

"Vassar, 100!" "Gettysburg, where tens of thousands died in the U.S. Civil War." "University of Minnesota." "Columbia College." "Bard College in New York, 200!" Students streamed to the podium to shout out their affiliations. There was Oberlin, Howard, four campuses from the University of Wisconsin, plus dozens more. High-school students, too, spoke out their presence.

It was another sign that people were motivated to bring the mood of the demonstration back into their communities, where they would continue to organize opposition to the war and racism.

HOW THE COALITION GREW

Before the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon had altered the political climate in the country, anti-globalization groups had planned protests in Washington for the week from Sept. 28 to Oct. 4. Some estimates were that as many as 100,000 youths would come to denounce the responsibility of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank for keeping close to 2 billion people in the world near starvation while a handful of big capitalists grew rich beyond all imagination.

The International Action Center--a key initiator of the anti-war march--had scheduled a demonstration Sept. 29 to surround the White House, focusing the protest against the Bush administration.

Then the attacks took place. The Bush administration and the U.S. government in general used the events to put the country on a war footing, while pressuring the media to whip up a patriotism and anti-foreigner sentiment among a stunned population.

When the IMF and World Bank then decided to postpone their meetings, most of the groups in the anti-globalization movement also cancelled their protests. The IAC, said Becker, who is an IAC Co-Director, "decided it was important to keep the date and turn its focus against the war, while opening it up to all those who wanted to oppose the war drive and the virulent anti-Arab and anti-Muslim attacks."

The Anti-Capitalist Convergence also sponsored a successful early-morning march, which later converged with ANSWER.

"We consulted with others and issued the ANSWER call," said Becker. "We thought that even a few thousand protesting the war would show the world--including the population here--that there was more than just the official pro-war opinion. From our point of view the turnout was a tremendous success and the broad organizational support shows that a real anti-war coalition exists and can grow.

"In the original call we suggested further action on Oct. 12-13. But it became apparent that we needed more time to use the impulse of the Sept. 29 march to organize other national or regional actions, so we have adjusted this to Oct. 27," Becker said. "There will be a hard struggle before us, but we have now seen what is possible and the potential support that exists."

(Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: ww@workers.org. For subscription info send message to: info@workers.org. Web: http://www.workers.org/)

Source: http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011004101028387.html

10/10/01
3:44:34 PM

Green Party

Just as bombs began to drop on Afghanistan, Ithacans joined people worldwide in a vigil to promote peace and global justice. Dave Galezo, organizer of the Tompkins County Peace and Justice Network, congradulated Green Party candidates Annemarie Zwack, Linda Holzbaur, John Tottey and Joe Whetmore for participating in last Sunday's event.

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20010809120834306.html

International day of protest against Space Weapons

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011009083206399.html

U.S. and Britain begin missle attacks on Afghanistan

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011009082333738.html

Sustainabilty Conference in Buffalo, NY

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011008223100303.html

A Declaration of Peace

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011008181824270.html

The Antiwar Struggle Begins

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011008171842669.html

Jill Stein runs for Massachusetts Governor

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011005052545480.html

The Ultimate Field Guide to the U.S. Economy

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011005061742599.html

If Americans Really Understood the Income Tax

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011005054024761.html

Tens of thousands march against war

http://www.tcgreens.org/gl/articles/20011004101028387.html

10/10/01
3:42:28 PM

Late-Breaking Spore Scores

All the majors lead with the second day of the U.S.-led war against global-reach terrorism, which consisted of air and missile attacks against Taliban military targets, and of food drops elsewhere over concentrations of refugees. Everybody notes that the number of missions was less than the day before although there were also some daylight sorties, which as the New York Times points out, indicates that Taliban air defenses had been weakened by Sunday's after-dark-only raids. It's reported that secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld said all aircrews returned safely, and he asserted that Taliban claims of 20 civilians killed by the airstrikes are untrue. The Los Angeles Times headlines Rumsfeld's flat assertion that besides the air activity, commandos on the ground are reaching out to anti-Taliban Afghan groups and to disaffected Taliban members. The coverage reports that on Monday there were street demonstrations or riots against the war in many parts of the Muslim world. The Washington Post's lead editorial observes that particularly intense reactions occurred in the West Bank, where Palestinian Authority police fatally shot at least two demonstrators, in Pakistan, where huge pro-Taliban demonstrations left one dead, and in Indonesia, where Islamic militants protested in front of the U.S. embassy and threatened to hunt down Americans.

The WP, NYT and LAT front and USAT reefers the news that a second case of anthrax has been uncovered in Florida. The Wall Street Journal also goes long on the development. The new victim, a worker at the same tabloid newspaper as the man who died of anthrax last week, is suffering from flu-like rather than full-blown anthrax symptoms, but anthrax bacteria have been found in his nose, and so he's been hospitalized and is being treated with antibiotics, as are hundreds of others who work in or visited their office building. Traces of anthrax have been found on a computer keyboard the dead man used, and which the second man had access to. The coverage reminds that the building is only a few miles from where some of the September 11 hijackers lived, took flight lessons and made inquiries into buying a crop-dusting plane. The FBI has taken over the case. The NYT reports that unnamed law enforcement officials said privately that the episode was highly suspicious even though they had no evidence of criminal or terrorist activity. The LAT has an unnamed law enforcement source saying the possibility of terrorism is under consideration. The Wall Street Journal has a doctor observing that "there has never been a reported case of anthrax exposure inside a building." The WP and USAT report that a Virginia hospital is looking into a third possible case of anthrax exposure, in a man whose job may have brought him in contact with the Florida tabloid building. The headline over the online version of the USAT story deems "FOUL PLAY LIKELY" in the case, with the text attempting to cheer but falling a bit short with its observation that this doesn't mean that terrorists were responsible.

USAT fronts, and everybody else stuffs, word that yesterday, a man broke into the cockpit of a Los Angeles to Chicago airliner. After a struggle during which the plane rocked violently, the man was subdued by passengers, and, escorted by Air Force fighters, the aircraft then made a safe landing in Chicago.

USAT's "Life" front blurbs a Monday Variety revelation that the U.S. Army has been brainstorming with Hollywood creative folks on possible terrorist scenarios and how to respond to them. Involved in a session last week were Die Hard's screenwriter and the directors of Fight Club and Being John Malkovich.

USAT reports that when Osama Bin Laden made the virulently anti-American videotape that was distributed world-wide on Sunday, in at least one detail he demonstrated an appreciation for something American. According to a U.S. Marine quoted by the paper, Bin Laden was wearing one of the service's camouflaged field jackets, which by law are manufactured in the U.S.

Source: http://www.Slate.com

10/10/01
3:34:54 PM

The Virtue Of Vulnerability

by Ted Lewis

In the chaos of September 11, the first instinct of people at the foot of the World Trade Center and of those at the Pentagon was to save human lives. Distinctions of race, class and national origin were erased amid the trauma of terror, and on that morning every person was equally vulnerable, equally human. One of the most important questions now facing us as a nation is whether we can take that instinct to save, to protect, and to heal and extend it to an international level. Our answer will greatly determine whether we will be able to end the scourge of terrorism.

The September 11 attacks made Americans painfully aware of our own vulnerability. The recognition of how exposed we are to attacks has led to a great amount of understandable fear. But recognizing our vulnerability is not a bad thing. If we are to make the world safe from terrorism -- and safety and security are clearly the most important challenges we face -- then we must acknowledge and grapple with our weaknesses and susceptibilities.

For most of humanity, vulnerability is a way of life. Poverty, hunger, civil war and ethnic strife force billions of people to live at the whims of forces beyond their control. Before September 11 most Americans, buffered by privilege, had never felt that sort of insecurity. But now we do. Suddenly we know the frailty of our place in the world just like those billions of people for whom frailty is all-too-familiar. The hope is that our newfound sense of vulnerability will lead to a kind of international empathy and solidarity. Such empathy could be the cornerstone of a new spirit of international cooperation -- a cooperation that provides the only way to ensure global security.

Future terrorist attacks will only be eliminated when all the peoples of the world work together to isolate suicidal fanatics. Unfortunately, current US policies are an obstacle to collaboration. The US's political, military and economic policies have bred a seething resentment of the US around the world. That resentment presents a very real barrier to international cooperation. It is important, then, that we take our just-discovered sense of vulnerability and use it to reflect on who we are as a people and how we want to relate to the rest of the world.

The widespread, and in some places very deep, bitterness toward the US has arisen not because of our values, but because we have abandoned so many of our values when it comes to our foreign policy. We are a country founded on the ideal of justice, and yet our policy makers have resisted calls to establish an international criminal court. We pledge ourselves to freedom, yet one administration after another has supported brutal dictatorships around the world. And even as we talk about opportunity and the "pursuit of happiness," our economic policies propagate sweatshops and our national leaders refuse meaningful debt cancellation that would create the opportunities for other countries to pursue happiness.

The status quo has created a vast distrust of the US. Until we embrace policies that truly reflect our values, we won't be able to disarm that distrust. If we want the world to work with us to isolate terrorism, then we will have to work with the rest of the world. For too long parochial self-interest has driven our national policies. Now more than ever we need foreign policies informed by enlightened self-interest. The requisite for global security is global justice.

How can we win the lasting goodwill of the world's peoples? It may not be easy, but a few immediate steps come to mind. First, we should commit ourselves to working collaboratively with other countries. That would mean ratifying treaties like the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Kyoto Protocol on global warming, and the international land mines agreement, among others. Unconditional debt cancellation would be another way of proving our commitment to real justice. Thousands of people in Africa are dying of AIDS every day because their countries, which suffer under massive debt burdens, can't afford the drugs or the medical services to treat them. Canceling third world debt and showing that we care about such suffering would win us many new friends. Finally, the US should promise not to support any country, including allies such as Turkey and Israel, which violates international human rights standards.

No country, not even one as powerful as the US, can go it alone in eliminating terrorism. As September 11 showed, when it comes to the terror of suicide attacks, we are all equally vulnerable, all equally human. Only by recognizing that, and by working together, will we become safe.

Ted Lewis directs the political and civil rights program at Global Exchange, an international human rights organization.

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11672

10/10/01
3:29:43 PM

TV News -- A Militarized Zone

by Norman Solomon

When the bombing of Afghanistan resumed Monday night, retired generals showed no fatigue at their posts under hot lights at network studios. On CNN, former NATO supreme commander Wesley Clark teamed up with Maj. Gen. Don Shepperd to explain military strategies; they were sharing their insights as employees of AOL Time Warner.

Far away, missiles are flying and bombs are exploding -- but in televisionland, a sense of equilibrium prevails. The tones are calm; the correspondents are self-composed. News bulletins crawl across the bottom of the screen, along with invitations to learn more. "Take a 3-D look at U.S. military aircraft at CNN.com."

At Pentagon briefings, carried live, the secretary of defense bears a chilling resemblance to a predecessor named McNamara. But the language of Donald Rumsfeld is thoroughly modern, foreshadowing a war without end: "In this battle against terrorism, there is no silver bullet." But there will be many bullets, missiles and bombs. We hear the customary assurances that air strikes will be surgical, and Rumsfeld echoes the metaphor: "Terrorism is a cancer on the human condition."

The reports about the bombing are laced with references to airborne food drops. Details have been sketchy. But self-congratulation has been profuse on television, now a free-fire zone for war propaganda.

Sunday night, on "Larry King Live," a bipartisan panel of senators affirmed their loyalty to the president. The ranking GOP member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, a former secretary of the navy, illuminated our goodness. Sen. John Warner said: "This, I think, is the first time in contemporary military history where a military operation is being conducted against the government of a country, and simultaneously, with the troops carrying out their mission, other troops are trying to take care of the innocent victims who all too often are caught in harm's way."

Hours after Warner's explanation of American saintliness, the UN's World Food Program halted its convoys of emergency aid to Afghanistan because of the bombing campaign. Meanwhile, private relief workers voiced escalating alarm. A news release, put out by my colleagues at the Institute for Public Accuracy ( www.acuracy.org), quoted the president of the humanitarian aid organization Conscience International, Jim Jennings: "Food drops from high altitudes alone absolutely cannot provide sufficient and effective relief that is urgently necessary to prevent mass starvation."

The U.S. government sent two C-17 planes to drop rations. Jennings, who has been involved in humanitarian work around the world for two decades, was not impressed. At a single camp inside Afghanistan, in Herat, "there are 600,000 people on the verge of starvation," he said. "If you provide one pound of food per day, the minimum for bare survival, it would take 500 planeloads a month to supply the one camp in Herat alone, and Afghanistan is the size of Texas. The administration has stated that two aircraft are being used for food relief so far -- for all of Afghanistan."

Avowedly, the main targets of the bombing are the people in the Bin Laden network. But the rhetorical salvoes will be understood, all too appropriately, in wider contexts. "We will root them out and starve them out," Rumsfeld said, just before closing a news conference with a ringing declaration: "We are determined not to be terrorized."

"That last quote says it all," MSNBC anchor Brian Williams interjected a moment later, before going to "NBC military analyst" Bernard Trainor, a former Marine Corps general. Like the other ex-generals on network payrolls, Trainor consistently uses the word "we" to describe U.S. military actions. ("We now have the capability...") High-tech maps and video graphics are profuse during the explications of war-game scenarios.

Former diplomats can play too. On NBC, Richard Holbrooke -- a media favorite who engineered the diplomatic runup to the bombing of Yugoslavia in spring 1999 -- chatted with Tom Brokaw while using a pointer and a bright-lit map to elucidate geopolitical dynamics.

Constantly crawling across TV screens, snippets of quotes blur together... Bin Laden saying that believers will triumph, Bush declaring "may God continue to bless America," the Taliban accusing the U.S. of "terrorist" attacks... As time goes on, the adversaries increasingly seem to be talking each other's language.

The on-screen logos, spangled in red-white-and-blue, exude pride in a nation resurgent. CBS has opted for "America Fights Back." NBC and MSNBC are using "America Strikes Back." At times, MSNBC switches to an alternate buzz phrase: "Homeland Defense."

Supposedly, bombing Afghanistan is going to make us safer back here in the USA. Yet hours after the attacks began on Sunday, the FBI called for heightened alerts across the United States -- because the risk of another deadly attack in this country had just increased. If war can be peace, why can't greater danger bring us greater security?

By Monday afternoon, networks were showing bombers taking off from aircraft carriers, en route to Afghanistan. MSNBC's viewers saw footage of warheads with "NYPD" scrawled on them; in the background, an American Flag fluttered on deck.

And so, a bait-and-switch process of patriotic imagery is near completion. For weeks, in the aftermath of the horrendous events of Sept. 11, the public embraced Old Glory as a symbol of grief, human solidarity and love of country. Now the ubiquitous American Flag is being affixed to military means of destruction.

"This will be a long war," George W. Bush promised on Monday. From all indications, the TV networks are ready to do their part for the military operation that has been named Enduring Freedom. But far from the comforts of televisionland, many people will be enduring our freedom to kill.

Norman Solomon writes a syndicated column on media and politics. His latest book is "The Habits of Highly Deceptive Media."

Source: http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11670

10/10/01
3:25:59 PM

AlterNet.org

THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT'S CHALLENGE

Geov Parrish, Seattle Weekly

Anti-war activists need to give up the hackneyed "no war!" posters and peace signs, replacing them with ways to combat terrorism far more effectively than bombing Kabul.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11669

BACK TO NORMAL? NO WAY

David Corn, AlterNet

Now that we've launched a war, our leaders should stop their phony attempts at assuaging our anxieties, and they should admit that American life isn't normal at all anymore.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11663

ALL I AM SAYING IS GIVE WAR A CHANCE

Michael Moore, AlterNet

Just in case you're feeling a little conflicted about "America Strikes Back," here's six reasons to stop worrying and learn to love the War.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11664

WARTIME LIES -- A CONSUMER'S GUIDE TO THE BOMBING

Paul Bass, New Haven Advocate

It's hard to know what's really happening in Afghanistan now, but the government is probably lying to us. Here's how to cut through the propaganda to find the truth.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11668

HUTCHINSON: WHY WE SHOULD WAVE THE FLAG

Earl Ofari Hutchinson, AlterNet

If the flag can be refashioned to stand for racial and ethnic tolerance, civil liberties and the right to dissent and peacefully protest, then it deserves to be waved.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11665

AFTER BOMBING, GROUND TROOPS, NATION BUILDING OR WALKING AWAY?

Jason Vest, AlterNet

Now that we've begun bombing Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, the unavoidable question is: How will we leave a country already destroyed and abandoned?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11660

SOLOMON: TV NEWS -- A MILITARIZED ZONE

Norman Solomon, AlterNet

Far away, missiles are flying and bombs are exploding -- but self-congratulation has been profuse on television, which is now a free-fire zone for war propaganda.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11670

"NOW, JIHAD HAS BEGUN"

Asra Q. Nomani, Salon

From the living room of a close friend and advisor to Osama bin Laden, Sunday's attack seems like just the beginning of a much greater battle.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11661

THE VIRTUE OF VULNERABILITY

Ted Lewis, AlterNet

Bitterness and distrust toward the U.S. have arisen not because of our values, but because we have abandoned so many of our values when it comes to foreign policy.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11672

10/10/01
3:22:49 PM

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE

http://ens-news.com

MISSILE STRIKES, DROUGHT, DISEASE, AND HUNGER

QUETTA, Pakistan, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - The United States has launched a second night of air strikes against selected military, Taliban and terrorist targets in Afghanistan, says Air Force General Richard Myers, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Military strikes inside Afghanistan began yesterday evening. Missiles launched by the United States and the United Kingdom struck Kabul, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-03.html

LIFE RETURNS TO JORDAN'S PARCHED OASIS

AMMAN, Jordan, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - The overexploited Azraq oasis in Jordan's eastern desert is enjoying an ecological recovery. "Many of the birds for which the oasis was renowned are coming back," said Chris Johnson, director of development of the Royal Society for the Conservation of Nature (RSCN), a non-governmental organization devoted to the protection of nature in Jordan.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-01.html

TROPICAL FORESTS FALLING ACROSS AFRICA, SOUTH AMERICA

ROME, Italy, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - Tropical countries are losing their forests at a very high rate, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned in a new issue of the "State of the World's Forests 2001," published Wednesday.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-04.html

BULLET HOLES SPILL ALASKAN OIL

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - A drunken man shot a hole in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline last Thursday, causing one of the worst oil spills in the pipeline's history. Although the hole has now been patched, and oil once again flows through Alaska's primary oil artery, workers are still laboring to clean up an estimated 6,800 barrels of crude oil from the Arctic landscape.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-06.html

EUROPE SECURES VICTORY OVER AIRCRAFT NOISE

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - The European Union has secured the right for airports within the bloc to tackle noise pollution by restricting aircraft access, it emerged Friday at an international aviation conference held in Montreal. The deal is an important victory for the European Union in the face of increasing pressure from citizens to cut aircraft noise.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-05.html

AUSTRALIAN SHARKS TO BE SHOT ON SIGHT

PERTH, Australia, October 8, 2001 (ENS) - Western Australian fisheries officers and police have been handed the authority to shoot sharks on sight if they threaten swimmers at beaches near Perth under a new plan introduced by the state government.

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-02.html

ENVIRONMENT NEWS SERVICE AMERISCAN: OCTOBER 8, 2001

EPA Appoints Administrator for San Francisco Office

Adaptive Decision Strategy Offsets Climate Uncertainties

NRC Investigates Missing Spent Fuel Rods

Ohlone Tiger Beetle Listed as Endangered

Study Could Help Prevent Water Borne Diseases

UN, TV Channel to Promote Animal Conservation, Biodiversity

Environmental Education Grants Awarded to 11 States

USFWS Bans Certain Polar Bear Trophies

Grant Promotes Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy

DOE Funded Research Wins 25 Awards

For full text and graphics visit:

http://ens-news.com/ens/oct2001/2001L-10-08-09.html

10/10/01
3:10:30 PM

FURTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

SPRING 2001: BUSH TALKED OF TERRORISM WAR

http://www.world-action.co.uk/spanish.html

WHO'S TRULY BEHIND THE ATTACK ON AMERICA

http://www.konformist.com/911/jimmarrs.htm

BUSH/GLOBAL ELITE BEHIND MASSIVE, UNPRECEDENTED 'TERRORIST' ATTACKS, ANALYSIS REVEALS

http://www.konformist.com/911/newshawk1.htm

THE NEW WAR-LD ORDER (AMERICA'S NEW WAR)

http://www.sauderzone.com/samizdat2.htm

'EVIDENCE' AGAINST OSAMA CALLED 'A STRING OF CONJECTURES'

http://www.rense.com/general14/evidenceagainst.htm

STRATEGIC DECEPTION DESK:

http://www.ecologynews.com/cuenews43updates.html

A COMPENDIUM OF SUPPRESSED INFORMATION

10/10/01
3:05:13 PM

The History Of Secret Experimentation On United States Citizens

1931 Dr. Cornelius Rhoads, under the auspices of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Investigations, infects human subjects with cancer cells. He later goes on to establish the U.S. Army Biological Warfarefacilities in Maryland, Utah, and Panama, and is named to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission. While there, he begins a series of radiation exposure experiments on American soldiers and civilian hospital patients.

1932 The Tuskegee Syphilis Study begins. 200 black men diagnosed with syphilis are never told of their illness, are denied treatment, and instead are used as human guinea pigs in order to follow the progression and symptoms of the disease. They all subsequently die from syphilis, their families never told that they could have been treated.

1935 The Pellagra Incident. After millions of individuals die from Pellagra over a span of two decades, the U.S. Public Health Service finally acts to stem the disease. The director of the agency admits it had known for at least 20 years that Pellagra is caused by a niacin deficiency but failed to act since most of the deaths occured within poverty-striken black populations.

1940 Four hundred prisoners in Chicago are infected with Malaria in order to study the effects of new and experimental drugs to combat the disease. Nazi doctors later on trial at Nuremberg cite this American study to defend their own actions during the Holocaust.

1942 Chemical Warfare Services begins mustard gas experiments on approximately 4,000 servicemen. The experiments continue until 1945 and made use of Seventh Day Adventists who chose to become human guinea pigs rather than serve on active duty.

1943 In response to Japan's full-scale germ warfare program, the U.S. begins research on biological weapons at Fort Detrick, MD.

1944 U.S. Navy uses human subjects to test gas masks and clothing. Individuals were locked in a gas chamber and exposed to mustard gas and lewisite.

1945 Project Paperclip is initiated. The U.S. State Department, Army intelligence, and the CIA recruit Nazi scientists and offer them immunity and secret identities in exchange for work on top secret government projects in the United States.

1945 "Program F" is implemented by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). This is the most extensive U.S. study of the health effects of fluoride, which was the key chemical component in atomic bomb production. One of the most toxic chemicals known to man, fluoride, it is found, causes marked adverse effects to the central nervous system but much of the information is squelched in the name of national security because of fear that lawsuits would undermine full-scale production of atomic bombs.

1946 Patients in VA hospitals are used as guinea pigs for medical experiments. In order to allay suspicions, the order is given to change the word "experiments" to "investigations" or "observations" whenever reporting a medical study performed in one of the nation's veteran's hospitals.

1947 Colonel E.E. Kirkpatrick of the U.S. Atomic Energy Comission issues a secret document (Document 07075001, January 8, 1947) stating that the agency will begin administering intravenous doses of radioactive substances to human subjects.

1947 The CIA begins its study of LSD as a potential weapon for use by American intelligence. Human subjects (both civilian and military) are used with and without their knowledge.

1950 Department of Defense begins plans to detonate nuclear weapons in desert areas and monitor downwind residents for medical problems and mortality rates.

1950 In an experiment to determine how susceptible an American city would be to biological attack, the U.S. Navy sprays a cloud of bacteria from ships over San Franciso. Monitoring devices are situated throughout the city in order to test the extent of infection. Many residents become ill with pneumonia-like symptoms.

1951 Department of Defense begins open air tests using disease-producing bacteria and viruses. Tests last through 1969 and there is concern that people in the surrounding areas have been exposed.

1953 U.S. military releases clouds of zinc cadmium sulfide gas over Winnipeg, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Fort Wayne, the Monocacy River Valley in Maryland, and Leesburg, Virginia. Their intent is to determine how efficiently they could disperse chemical agents.

1953 Joint Army-Navy-CIA experiments are conducted in which tens of thousands of people in New York and San Francisco are exposed to the airborne germs Serratia marcescens and Bacillus glogigii.

1953 CIA initiates Project MKULTRA. This is an eleven year research program designed to produce and test drugs and biological agents that would be used for mind control and behavior modification. Six of the subprojects involved testing the agents on unwitting human beings.

1955 The CIA, in an experiment to test its ability to infect human populations with biological agents, releases a bacteria withdrawn from the Army's biological warfare arsenal over Tampa Bay, Fl.

1955 Army Chemical Corps continues LSD research, studying its potential use as a chemical incapacitating agent. More than 1,000 Americans participate in the tests, which continue until 1958.

1956 U.S. military releases mosquitoes infected with Yellow Fever over Savannah, Ga and Avon Park, Fl. Following each test, Army agents posing as public health officials test victims for effects.

1958 LSD is tested on 95 volunteers at the Army's Chemical Warfare Laboratories for its effect on intelligence.

1960 The Army Assistant Chief-of-Staff for Intelligence (ACSI) authorizes field testing of LSD in Europe and the Far East. Testing of the european population is code named Project THIRD CHANCE; testing of the Asian population is code named Project DERBY HAT.

1965 CIA and Department of Defense begin Project MKSEARCH, a program to develop a capability to manipulate human behavior through the use of mind-altering drugs.

1965 Prisoners at the Holmesburg State Prison in Philadelphia are subjected to dioxin, the highly toxic chemical component of Agent Orange used in Viet Nam. The men are later studied for development of cancer, which indicates that Agent Orange had been a suspected carcinogen all along.

1966 CIA initiates Project MKOFTEN, a program to test the toxicological effects of certain drugs on humans and animals.

1966 U.S. Army dispenses Bacillus subtilis variant niger throughout the New York City subway system. More than a million civilians are exposed when army scientists drop lightbulbs filled with the bacteria onto ventilation grates.

1967 CIA and Department of Defense implement Project MKNAOMI, successor to MKULTRA and designed to maintain, stockpile and test biological and chemical weapons.

1968 CIA experiments with the possibility of poisoning drinking water by injecting chemicals into the water supply of the FDA in Washington, D.C.

1969 Dr. Robert MacMahan of the Department of Defense requests from congress $10 million to develop, within 5 to 10 years, a synthetic biological agent to which no natural immunity exists.

1970 Funding for the synthetic biological agent is obtained under H.R. 15090. The project, under the supervision of the CIA, is carried out by the Special Operations Division at Fort Detrick, the army's top secret biological weapons facility. Speculation is raised that molecular biology techniques are used to produce AIDS-like retroviruses.

1970 United States intensifies its development of "ethnic weapons" (Military Review, Nov., 1970), designed to selectively target and eliminate specific ethnic groups who are susceptible due to genetic differences and variations in DNA.

1975 The virus section of Fort Detrick's Center for Biological Warfare Research is renamed the Fredrick Cancer Research Facilities and placed under the supervision of the National Cancer Institute (NCI) . It is here that a special virus cancer program is initiated by the U.S. Navy, purportedly to develop cancer-causing viruses. It is also here that retrovirologists isolate a virus to which no immunity exists. It is later named HTLV (Human T-cell Leukemia Virus).

1977 Senate hearings on Health and Scientific Research confirm that 239 populated areas had been contaminated with biological agents between 1949 and 1969. Some of the areas included San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Key West, Panama City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis.

1978 Experimental Hepatitis B vaccine trials, conducted by the CDC, begin in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Ads for research subjects specifically ask for promiscuous homosexual men.

1981 First cases of AIDS are confirmed in homosexual men in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco, triggering speculation that AIDS may have been introduced via the Hepatitis B vaccine.

1985 According to the journal Science (227:173-177), HTLV and VISNA, a fatal sheep virus, are very similar, indicating a close taxonomic and evolutionary relationship.

1986 According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (83:4007-4011), HIV and VISNA are highly similar and share all structural elements, except for a small segment which is nearly identical to HTLV. This leads to speculation that HTLV and VISNA may have been linked to produce a new retrovirus to which no natural immunity exists.

1986 A report to Congress reveals that the U.S. Government's current generation of biological agents includes: modified viruses, naturally occurring toxins, and agents that are altered through genetic engineering to change immunological character and prevent treatment by all existing vaccines.

1987 Department of Defense admits that, despite a treaty banning research and development of biological agents, it continues to operate research facilities at 127 facilities and universities around the nation.

1990 More than 1500 six-month old black and hispanic babies in Los Angeles are given an "experimental" measles vaccine that had never been licensed for use in the United States. CDC later admits that parents were never informed that the vaccine being injected to their children was experimental.

1994 With a technique called "gene tracking," Dr. Garth Nicolson at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX discovers that many returning Desert Storm veterans are infected with an altered strain of Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used in the production of biological weapons. Incorporated into its molecular structure is 40 percent of the HIV protein coat, indicating that it had been man-made.

1994 Senator John D. Rockefeller issues a report revealing that for at least 50 years the Department of Defense has used hundreds of thousands of military personnel in human experiments and for intentional exposure to dangerous substances. Materials included mustard and nerve gas, ionizing radiation, psychochemicals, hallucinogens, and drugs used during the Gulf War.

1995 U.S. Government admits that it had offered Japanese war criminals and scientists who had performed human medical experiments salaries and immunity from prosecution in exchange for data on biological warfare research.

1995 Dr. Garth Nicolson, uncovers evidence that the biological agents used during the Gulf War had been manufactured in Houston, TX and Boca Raton, Fl and tested on prisoners in the Texas Department of Corrections.

1996 Department of Defense admits that Desert Storm soldiers were exposed to chemical agents.

1997 Eighty-eight members of Congress sign a letter demanding an investigation into bioweapons use & Gulf War Syndrome.

10/10/01
2:30:18 PM

Turkmen Pipeline Project On Hold

Reuters

ASHKABAD, March 11: A proposed gas pipeline linking Turkmenistan in Central Asia with Pakistan across Afghanistan is on hold indefinitely as it is currently unfinanceable, the project's head told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Lenders have said the project at this moment is just not financeable," said Marty Miller, vice president of Unocal in Central Asia and CEO of Centgas, the consortium developing the project. Unocal is the majority shareholder in Centgas.

Miller was speaking during the third Turkmenistan oil and gas conference and exhibition (TIOGE).

He said that work on the project would not start this year. "The idea that we could finalize all commercial agreements and then close the finance - it's impossible to have it all done by the end of the year."

Turkmenistan's deputy minister of oil and gas, Khoshgeldy Babayev, had told a news conference earlier that he expected work to start this year.

Miller said that the project had approached most multilateral lending agencies (MLAs), and in particular the World Bank as the key to getting support from other MLAs.

But while the political situation in Afghanistan is uncertain, none are interested.

"The current situation in Afghanistan has not changed much since we started the project. Essentially it's engaged in civil war...it all hinges on having a form of government which enjoys the confidence of investors and lenders," he said.

He was unable to put a specific timetable to the project, saying "it could be next year or it could be in five years."

And he agreed that the delay could prejudice the future of the project. Centgas is composed of Unocal (54.11 percent), Saudi Arabia's Delta Oil Company (15 per cent), Japan's Itochu Corp and Inpex, with 7.22 percent each, and Hyundai of South Korea with 5.54 percent. Other participants are Crescent Group of Pakistan (3.89 percent) and the Turkmen government, with seven percent. Russia's Gazprom recently gave up a 10 percent share in the line.

Source: http://dawn.com/1998/19980312/ebr8.htm

10/10/01
2:02:12 PM

The Reichstag Under The National Socialists

With the victory of the Nazis in 1933 the political situation in Germany changed abruptly. The party of the National Socialists (NSDAP) had become more powerful over the years and had used the economic crisis and confusing situation among the parties in the Reichstag to come to power. The Nazis blamed the democrats for not having achieved any economic or political improvement, and its leader Adolf Hitler "assured Germans that he could succeed where the republic had failed,..."(15) Consequently, the Nazis´ first objective was to destroy democracy and to eliminate the Reichstag. On January 30 in the same year, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolph Hitler as Chancellor. The second strongest party since the elections of 1930, the Nazis already controlled the Ministry of the Interior of Prussia, which gave them control over two thirds of the nation´s police. The following day Hitler broke up the Reichstag. The Weimar Republic had come to an end and the Reichstag was doomed to fall under the Nazis. The building itself was seriously destroyed except for the library and the archives. A Dutch communist with the name of Marinus van der Lubbe was found at the scene and charged with arson. At the end of 1933 he was found guilty and executed. Today, historians still argue about who was responsible for the fire. Some say it was Lubbe because of a communist plot, while others say the Nazis did it to create an incident in order to come to power and under the pretext of the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) which was passed on March 24. This law enabled Hitler not only to pass laws without the consent of Reichstag, Reichsrat, and Reichspresident but also to legalize the Nazi power in- and outside the country. Today, this law is forbidden.

Regardless of who started the fire, there is no doubt that the Nazis took advantage of the situation in order to proceed with their cause at the expense of the civil rights and freedom of the German people. In the same night of the Reichstag fire, the Nazis used the opportunity to arrest 4,000 communists.(16) Not only did the Nazis use the incident as a propaganda against communists but they also arrested additional 40,000 members of the opposition. Consequently, the Nazis had achieved their objective of eliminating democracy and ensuring their majority in the parliament.

After the fire on February 28, 1933, president Hindenburg and Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permitted the suspension of civil liberties during national emergencies. Some examples of this Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State abrogated the following constitutional protections: Freedom of the press, free expression of opinion, individual property rights, right of assembly and association, right to privacy of postal and electronic communications, states´ rights of self-government, and protection against unlawful searches and seizures. This Decree enabled the Nazis to suppress the opposition in the elections on March 5. In addition, federal police agencies, the SS (Special Security) and SA (Storm Troops), were created. This enabled the Nazis to suppress all opponents. Consequently, communists were arrested although the communist party was not banned until after the elections, so that the left vote would remain split.

On March 5, 1933, with a majority of 44% the Nazis won the elections. Now the new parliament consisted almost entirely of members of the Nazi party. The Nazis used their new power to create disorder among the German people and took advantage of the new situation by offering solutions in the form of abrogating civil rights and state laws. Hermann Göring a member of the Nazi party, declared that there was no further need for State Governments. Consequently, all Weimar State governments were replaced with appointed Nazi commissioners. After a new Reichstag had been elected on March 23, 1933, the Nazis met in the Kroll Opera, east of the Königsplatz, and on March 24, they passed the Law for Terminating the Suffering of People and Nation at the Reichstag, which was also known as the Enabling Act, giving Adolf Hitler ultimate dictatorial power.

In July, 1933, all other parties, except the NSDAP were forbidden and the Reichstag contained only members of the Nazi party.(17) The Reichstag took on a different role: for Hitler the Reichstag had always symbolized the Weimar Republic. He hated the building and used the Reichstag to hold propaganda speeches, knowing that it was a degradation for the former parliament. However, Hitler did not destroy the building, because he liked the architecture. In addition, Hitler and his architect Albert Speer were planning a major street through Berlin (called the Grosse Achse) and a new government building which would have reached a height of 290 meters. This would have led to the destruction of many historical buildings in the city. Nevertheless, because of the war Hitler was never able to fulfill his dreams. Until 1939 the Nazis used the Reichstag for several anti-semite exhibitions and film presentations.(18) Consequently, the Reichstag no longer served as a parliament building. The Nazis themselves met in the Kroll Opera, mainly on holidays, where Hitler gave most of his speeches.

With the beginning of WWII, the Reichstag again took on a different function. In 1941 the building served as a base for the German airforce and next to the Reichstag, the Wehrmacht constructed a bunker. In the following years all windows were removed and the building was transformed into a fortress. During WWII especially when the air raids of Berlin started, the Reichstag became severely damaged. Towards the end of WWII, the Reichstag became the main target for the Red Army. The victory over Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag was the central goal for the soviets. Although the Nazis hated the Reichstag and never used the building for their politics, for the soviets it had a special meaning; it symbolized Hitler and Nazi Germany and by conquering the Reichstag it would symbolize the soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

"So sehr, daß sie mehr als eine Million Geschosse auf diese kurzfristig zur Festung ausgebaute Parlamentsruine feuerten,...als würde dort der Krieg zu Ende sein."

This was, however, paradoxical since for the Nazis in 1933, the Reichstag had symbolized the victory over the Republic and they had never used the building for their meetings. On May 2, in 1945, Berlin was conquered by the Red Army and on top of the Reichstag the Russians hissed the flag of the USSR, symbolizing the victory over the capital and Nazi Germany.

10/10/01
1:58:00 PM

The Reichstag Under The National Socialists

With the victory of the Nazis in 1933 the political situation in Germany changed abruptly. The party of the National Socialists (NSDAP) had become more powerful over the years and had used the economic crisis and confusing situation among the parties in the Reichstag to come to power. The Nazis blamed the democrats for not having achieved any economic or political improvement, and its leader Adolf Hitler "assured Germans that he could succeed where the republic had failed,..."(15) Consequently, the Nazis´ first objective was to destroy democracy and to eliminate the Reichstag. On January 30 in the same year, President Paul von Hindenburg appointed Adolph Hitler as Chancellor. The second strongest party since the elections of 1930, the Nazis already controlled the Ministry of the Interior of Prussia, which gave them control over two thirds of the nation´s police. The following day Hitler broke up the Reichstag. The Weimar Republic had come to an end and the Reichstag was doomed to fall under the Nazis. The building itself was seriously destroyed except for the library and the archives. A Dutch communist with the name of Marinus van der Lubbe was found at the scene and charged with arson. At the end of 1933 he was found guilty and executed. Today, historians still argue about who was responsible for the fire. Some say it was Lubbe because of a communist plot, while others say the Nazis did it to create an incident in order to come to power and under the pretext of the Ermächtigungsgesetz (Enabling Act) which was passed on March 24. This law enabled Hitler not only to pass laws without the consent of Reichstag, Reichsrat, and Reichspresident but also to legalize the Nazi power in- and outside the country. Today, this law is forbidden.

Regardless of who started the fire, there is no doubt that the Nazis took advantage of the situation in order to proceed with their cause at the expense of the civil rights and freedom of the German people. In the same night of the Reichstag fire, the Nazis used the opportunity to arrest 4,000 communists.(16) Not only did the Nazis use the incident as a propaganda against communists but they also arrested additional 40,000 members of the opposition. Consequently, the Nazis had achieved their objective of eliminating democracy and ensuring their majority in the parliament.

After the fire on February 28, 1933, president Hindenburg and Hitler invoked Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, which permitted the suspension of civil liberties during national emergencies. Some examples of this Decree of the Reich President for the Protection of the People and State abrogated the following constitutional protections: Freedom of the press, free expression of opinion, individual property rights, right of assembly and association, right to privacy of postal and electronic communications, states´ rights of self-government, and protection against unlawful searches and seizures. This Decree enabled the Nazis to suppress the opposition in the elections on March 5. In addition, federal police agencies, the SS (Special Security) and SA (Storm Troops), were created. This enabled the Nazis to suppress all opponents. Consequently, communists were arrested although the communist party was not banned until after the elections, so that the left vote would remain split.

On March 5, 1933, with a majority of 44% the Nazis won the elections. Now the new parliament consisted almost entirely of members of the Nazi party. The Nazis used their new power to create disorder among the German people and took advantage of the new situation by offering solutions in the form of abrogating civil rights and state laws. Hermann Göring a member of the Nazi party, declared that there was no further need for State Governments. Consequently, all Weimar State governments were replaced with appointed Nazi commissioners. After a new Reichstag had been elected on March 23, 1933, the Nazis met in the Kroll Opera, east of the Königsplatz, and on March 24, they passed the Law for Terminating the Suffering of People and Nation at the Reichstag, which was also known as the Enabling Act, giving Adolf Hitler ultimate dictatorial power.

In July, 1933, all other parties, except the NSDAP were forbidden and the Reichstag contained only members of the Nazi party.(17) The Reichstag took on a different role: for Hitler the Reichstag had always symbolized the Weimar Republic. He hated the building and used the Reichstag to hold propaganda speeches, knowing that it was a degradation for the former parliament. However, Hitler did not destroy the building, because he liked the architecture. In addition, Hitler and his architect Albert Speer were planning a major street through Berlin (called the Grosse Achse) and a new government building which would have reached a height of 290 meters. This would have led to the destruction of many historical buildings in the city. Nevertheless, because of the war Hitler was never able to fulfill his dreams. Until 1939 the Nazis used the Reichstag for several anti-semite exhibitions and film presentations.(18) Consequently, the Reichstag no longer served as a parliament building. The Nazis themselves met in the Kroll Opera, mainly on holidays, where Hitler gave most of his speeches.

With the beginning of WWII, the Reichstag again took on a different function. In 1941 the building served as a base for the German airforce and next to the Reichstag, the Wehrmacht constructed a bunker. In the following years all windows were removed and the building was transformed into a fortress. During WWII especially when the air raids of Berlin started, the Reichstag became severely damaged. Towards the end of WWII, the Reichstag became the main target for the Red Army. The victory over Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag was the central goal for the soviets. Although the Nazis hated the Reichstag and never used the building for their politics, for the soviets it had a special meaning; it symbolized Hitler and Nazi Germany and by conquering the Reichstag it would symbolize the soviet victory over Nazi Germany.

"So sehr, daß sie mehr als eine Million Geschosse auf diese kurzfristig zur Festung ausgebaute Parlamentsruine feuerten,...als würde dort der Krieg zu Ende sein."

This was, however, paradoxical since for the Nazis in 1933, the Reichstag had symbolized the victory over the Republic and they had never used the building for their meetings. On May 2, in 1945, Berlin was conquered by the Red Army and on top of the Reichstag the Russians hissed the flag of the USSR, symbolizing the victory over the capital and Nazi Germany.

10/10/01
1:50:53 PM

"U.S. GOVERNMENT PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF EMERGENCY"

by Sherman H. Skolnick 09/11/01

AMERICA'S REICHSTAG FIRE

The most massive so-called "terrorist" attacks on U.S. soil since the Oklahoma City bombings of 1995, were known, a week ahead of time, by the American CIA. Among the foreign intelligence agencies who penetrated the plots were the French CIA and Israel's The Mossad, units of both often working with one another.

Foreign intelligence sources confirm the validity of this story. And they state that they informed the U.S. secret police who absolutely failed, neglected, and outright refused to take action as to known prior specifics of which the top-level of the CIA were informed in advance.

As made known to the CIA, were the following, among other details

[1] That George Herbert Walker Bush, as President, at the close of the Persian Gulf War, 1991, arranged to bring into the U.S. some four thousand Iraqi military officers, some from intelligence units, and their families.

[2] Some 550 of these officers became residents in Lincoln, Nebraska, AND TWO THOUSAND OF THEM took up residence in Oklahoma City. In a watered down story, CBS' "60 Minutes" Program did a segment once on this about Lincoln, Nebraska but said NOTHING about the Iraqi military officers in Oklahoma City.

[3] The financial and other provisions for them and their families were arranged by the Elder Bush, and then quietly continued by Bill Clinton as President, and perpetuated by George W. Bush as White House "resident" and "occupant". The arrangements included financial subsidies, housing, and employment for the Iraqi officers.

[A brave Oklahoma City TV Reporter, Jayna Davis, on their local TV station, put on the air several stories about the Iraqi connection to the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building, the bombing done with the aid of domestic dissidents as surrogates. A group bought out the TV station and silenced her. Timothy McVeigh's chief defense counsel for the murder trial, Stephen Jones, on behalf of McVeigh, filed an extra-ordinary petition in the next higher court, just prior to the murder trial. To no avail, Jones tried to force Denver U.S. District Judge Richard Matsch to compel the American CIA to disgorge records held by them showing prior U.S. knowledge of the bombing, as confirmed by other known records, some of them also in secret court records. We have a copy of the 185 page U.S. Court of Appeals, 10th Circuit, petition filed by Jones and almost uniformly ignored by the American monopoly press. The petition raises the Iraqi connection.]

[4] The foreign intelligence agencies informed the American CIA that guns would be planted on-board as many as ten U.S. commercial airflights. This to be done by airplane clean-up crew members who are generally not subject to airport security provisions. These workers most likely did not know the purpose of the gun-planting.

[5] The CIA also was informed prior to the "terrorist" attacks scheduled for "911" Emergency Day [September 11], that highly skilled Iraqi pilots, among the four thousand Iraqi officers resident in the U.S., would take over the commercial flights, by retrieving the weapons concealed onboard, and then commandeering the flight deck.

[6] The Elder Bush, Clinton, and George W. Bush, all were in a position to know that the Iraqi officers that they provided for included some double-agents. The FBI Counter-Intelligence Division at no time was instructed to do anything about these double-agents in a position to commit mischief, murder, and mayhem, on U.S. soil.

[7] As I revealed a week prior to the "terrorist" attacks, some foreign television networks were busy preparing lengthy documentaries that would scandalize George W. Bush and other members of the Bush Family, including the Elder Bush and Jeb Bush. The subject matter included how forty million dollars in dope funds were used by the Bush Family to reportedly corrupt South Florida DEMOCRATS to abandon the recount even ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling installing George W. Bush as the "resident" and "occupant" of the White House. The dope funds came reportedly from Bush Family business partner, Carlos Lehder, co-founder of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel. [Visit our website story, "Chandra Levy Affair, Part Two".] I discussed this on radio talk shows.

[8] As part of the targetting of the World Trade Center buildings, a group of surrogates for the Iraqi military officers, reportedly spent considerable time within one of the buildings, with building security officers somehow oblivious of their presence.

[9] As the CIA top officials were informed and had prior knowledge, the purpose of the "terrorist" attacks was to effectively paralyze the financial infrastructure of the U.S. Some of the most important stock and bond houses in the world, with their key people having loads of inside knowledge and hard to replace trading tricks and expertise, were located in the known-to-be-targetted twin towers of the World Trade Center, New York City. It was like blowing up the main "financial factory" and destroying their inventory. The so-called "back-up" records kept parked across the river in New Jersey, are not only inadequate but cannot help reconstruct various accounts and transactions in the works.

Financial experts tell us the "back up" records parked in New Jersey, may NOT be sufficient to re-start the American financial apparatus. Some of the experts are loudly grumbling that they should have early on seen Federal Reserve Czar Alan Greenspan on the television explaining about the financial ramifications. Of course, some suppose that Americans would panic and run out of control. So we are dealt with like little children.

[10] It is a serious mistake, according to savvy American and foreign intelligence sources, to blame the Emergency all on Osama bin Laden. As readers of our website are aware, we have long pointed out that bin Laden is reportedly in the Mid-East Construction business. His reputed partners? The family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller. She is the wife of John D. Rockefeller 4th (D., W.Va.), great grandson of the founder of the infamous Standard Oil Trust that used to bomb their own obsolete buildings to falsely blame onto their competitors. Bin Laden's so-called "secret" accounts, which the White House has said they would like to freeze, are or have been actually reportedly in the Harris Bank, Chicago, joint accounts with the family of Sharon PERCY Rockefeller.

[11] The Saudi Royal Family actually consists of some five thousand members, some of whom actually are for the U.S. and some anti-U.S. Some of them have bankrolled Iraq's war against Iran, 1980 to 1988, to destroy some oil facilities and keep the price of oil HIGH. The foreign intelligence agencies, that penetrated the plots to be carried out on U.S. soil, are aware that some of the Saudi royals are actually sympathetic to the Iraqis destroying the World Trade Center Buildings and in part, wrecking the Pentagon. [As if the American CIA did not ALREADY have their own knowledge of this.]

Whenever there is a political assassination or some other unusual violent event, what is the key question the oil-soaked, spy-riddled monopoly press ALWAYS fails to ask? WHO BENEFITS. With a scandal about to break against George W. Bush, he and his circle had an interest NOT to stop these things from happening. And to divert attention. The White House has a strong motive to silence critics and urge people TO RALLY AROUND THE PRESIDENT. Simple-minded folks, of course, often poorly informed,do not understand how the ruling classes would shed the blood of thousands if not millions of innocent people, in some instigated war, to avoid dealing with the apparent on-coming economic disasters.

In the midst of this prior-knowledge emergency, who dares now to point to the Bush Family as reputed business partners of the major kingpin, Carlos Lehder, of the U.S./Colombia medellin dope cartel? Or how huge dope money bought the Electoral College trick in Florida and corrupted the U.S. Supreme Court's "gang of five".

This is America's REICHSTAG fire. Adolph Hitler burned down the German parliament and falsely blamed his enemies and had them rounded up and put in the concentration camps. Has the U.S. Constitution now been revoked?

More coming. Stay tuned.

http://www.skolnicksreport.com/pkem.html

10/10/01
1:42:44 PM

And again from last week's posting at http://www.debka.com (no longer available there)

Knowing the Enemy

23 September:

As US sea-air armadas, destroyers, air fleets and Special Service units speed east to make war on terrorism, the opposition makes its own preparations quietly and in the dark. The ex-Saudi terror master Osama Bin Laden is generally presented as being on the run, dodging with a small band from one hideout to another in the UruzgaMountains north of Kahandar and south of Hindu Kush, to escape the mighty force out to get him. Some reports place him in hiding in Somalia. The truth is that no one - including western intelligence agencies - knows where he is.

What DEBKAfile's intelligence and military sources can say is that Bin Laden and his senior commanders, far from giving up the flight, are in fact busy preparing their next offensive against the US, Britain, Saudi Arabia, the Gulf Emirates, Egypt and Israel - all affirmed targets of the jihad he has declared against America and everything its stands for.

Bin Laden and his ilk do not practice Western military doctrines. The concepts of military hierarchy, with its generals and colonels, general staffs and operational, air intelligence and naval intelligence branches, are all alien to Bin Laden and his band.

This is quite deliberate. Bin Laden keeps his men untouched by Western military thinking and formats for two reasons:

1. To prevent his men's exposure to Western culture, while creating a milieu in which any Western penetration agent will soon be spotted.

2. A preference for traditional Islamic fighting methods, mostly taken from the early days of conquering Islam - the 7th century, when the Caliph Omar prevailed over the Byzantine Empire, and the 11th century, when Saladin defeated the European Crusaders. Saladin, who was not an Arab but a Seljuk from Asia Minor, built his army around a very small command of adherents and a large international pool of reservists, who were called up for major battles by a dozen or so runners, who traveled to the different countries and activated local couriers in relays for posting call-up summons in the towns and villages.

DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that Bin Laden's courier squad of half a dozen runners went into action on September 9, two days before the four hijacked airliners rammed the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington. They spread out in two destinations. One group headed for the Islamic madrassas, Islamic schools and colleges of Afghanistan, where 40,000 of the more than one million students, Afghans and foreigners, have embraced the jihad mission under Bin Laden's leadership. A second group went round the 10,000 madrassas of Pakistan, where Bin Laden can count on a further 70,000 jihad devotees. The conscripts were issued with their personal weapons early last week from central armories serving each cluster of madrassas. These schools are not colleges in the Western sense, but training and indoctrination academies breeding militant zealots for battle and self-sacrifice.

These future recruits to Bin Laden's Moslem internationale are subjected to rigorous training disciplines in guerrilla and urban combat, sabotage, the making and use of bombs, simple weaponry for use against planes, helicopters and tanks and endurance in harsh conditions deprived of water and food for long periods. This is not a ragged rabble, but a well-drilled, dedicated Islamic legion of at least 110,000 zealots, raring to take on Western armies and unafraid of elite US Delta, Rangers and Seals or British S.A.S. commandos descending on their strongholds.

Indeed some of the instructors teaching the students the arts of war may have received their own training at the hands of American Moslem commando instructors, attached at different periods to US 101st or 82nd Airborne Divisions. How these Moslem Americans reached the most violent Islamic training grounds in the world will be described elsewhere. Suffice it to say that the Islamic army congregating in Afghanistan under the Bin Laden banner is a fighting force as formidable in its own way as the military might the United States and the British are assembling to eradicate it. Some 3,500 hard core senior officers serving in Bin Laden's training bases in Afghanistan have taken command of the gathering army.

DEBKAfile's military sources confirm at least one initial engagement between US elite forces who have crossed from neighboring Tadjikistan, a former Soviet republic, into southeast Afghanistan since Saturday, September 22. They were Led through the mountains by Russian intelligence officers familiar with Afghan frontier terrain and Tadjik and Pushtun smugglers associated with Russian intelligence. There was another brush Saturday, between British SAS units who entered Afghanistan from the north and linked up with the Afghan general Rashid Dustum, an Uzbek, and a Bin Laden band. Members of the British force penetrated Afghan military lines and reached the outskirts of Kabul.

DEBKAfile's military sources are quite clear that the coming war will be fought both inside and outside Afghanistan, and that its tempo, scale, arena and intensity will not be dictated by the Americans alone. Al Qaeda is an international association of allied groups operating in many parts of the world. Its top commanders are:

AYMAN AL ZAWAHRI, head of the Egyptian Jihad Islami, who is Bin Laden's senior deputy and heir apparent.

JUMMA MAMANGANI, an Uzbek, who was recently appointed Al Qaeda chief of operations. He is former commander of the Moslem Army for the Liberation of Kyrgistan. Three key Afghan training camps, at Jalalabad, Farmada and Daronta, are under his command.

FATEH KAMEL, who leads the most militant cells of the extremist Algerian GIA. In the name of Al Qaida, he controls terrorist cells in the United States, Canada and Algeria.

MUHAMMED ATIF aka SUBHI ABU-SITTAH, who is nominal chief of staff of the network and its brightest military brain. He comes from the Egyptian Jihad Islami.

IMAD MUGHNIYEH, the former Lebanese Hizballah hostage-taker and bomber, who is in charge of the combined terrorist campaign around the Middle East, the Persian Gulf, Europe and Israel.

On top of the 3,500 hard core commanders and 110,000 Afghan and Pakistani troops, Al Qaeda retains another 6400 commanders in 12 centers: North America, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Albania, Kosovo, Algeria, Chechenya, Tadjikistan and all the former Soviet republics of Central Asia, the Philippines, Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia.

The numbers Bin Laden can muster differs from place to place. In North America, together with his closest ally, the Egyptian Jihad Islami, some 2,500 hard core fighting men; in Yemen, where his family originated before migrating to Saudi Arabia - 2000 directly. But Bin Laden has a special relationship with the commanders of the 20,000-man strong irregular Moslem Liberation Army, which hold a monopoly of the arms trade of the Arabian Peninsula, the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea and East Africa. Its reach sometimes goes as far as Iran. Bin Laden often serves as the MLA's clearing bank and ready bankroll for arms deal. In Saudi Arabia, where the privileged and affluent Bin Laden clan lives, Osama commands some 200-250 hard-core commanders, but many more potential partisans among the disaffected tribes in the central and eastern provinces, especially the Nejd, as well as in the Saudi armed forces and national guard.

An intensive Al Qaeda recruitment effort in those two Saudi forces could cause their collapse and drop in Bin Laden's lap their arsenals, with some of the most sophisticated hardware in use today. According to conservative estimates, the millionaire-terrorist could most probably rally around the world roughly the same number of fighting men as those flocking to his flag in Afghanistan and Pakistan, namely an army of over 200,000 men. Many members of his overseas legions are available for both sustained and for one-time operations. In between, they simply go back to their normal pursuits and their homes in host countries. They are also available for terrorist operations on their home ground.

10/10/01
1:40:33 PM

Also from http://www.debka.com (this week only)

China Moves Forces into Afghanistan

6 October:

Before even the launching of the major US military offensive in Afghanistan, long Chinese convoys were carrying armed Chinese Muslim servicemen through northwest China into Afghanistan, according to DEBKAfile's intelligence experts.

They were sent in to fight alongside the ruling Taliban and Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda.Their number is estimated roughly between 5000 and 15,000. Our sources report another three convoys are behind the first 3000, who crossed the frontier Friday, October 5. They are entering Afghanistan along the ancient Krakoram Road to the Afghan-Pakistani border, through the Kulik Pass of Little Pamir, which is situated in one of the highest and most remote regions of the world.

Beijing is deploying this force in two places:

A. Whakyir, the Kirgyz tribal encampment near the Little Pamir-Tadjik frontier, opposite the swelling concentration of US and Russian Special Forces and air strength.

The Chinese have brought with them Kirgyz fundamentalist militants from the Ferghana Valley of Central Asia, as interpreters. From Whakyir, the Chinese generals believe, with Bin Laden's and the Taliban's tacticians, they will be able to block off the movement of the US-led force from its rallying point in Dzhartygumbez, Tadjikistan, no more than 35 miles from Little Pamir, into the mountains of Hindu Kush.

B. Jalalabad in north Afghanistan, at the foot of the Hindu Kush range.

DEBKAfile's Chinese sources reveal that, immediately after the terrorist strikes in the United States on September 11, the Chinese intelligence service, MSS, handed in to the defense ministry in Beijing their estimation that the United States would go to war to overthrow the Taliban regime, for the sake of which it would sign a pact with Russia. The Chinese leadership viewed this eventuality as the most significant shift in the global balance since the 1962 Chinese-Russian feud, with dangerous implications for China's world standing and its interests in Central and Southwest Asia. They decided it must be counteracted.

The only satisfactory outcome of the Bin Laden crisis in Chinese eyes is the redeployment of Japanese-based US troops to the Persian Gulf, when the Kitty Hawk carrier moved the 3rd Marines Division out of Okinawa last week.

Chinese intelligence did not miss the absence of fighters and reconnaissance craft on her decks. The planes stayed behind, but the very fact that the Kitty Hawk is no longer within operational range of the Straits of Taiwan leaves the disputed island with diminished protection.

Beijing also took note of additional US military movements, including the Army's 10th Mountain Division based at Fort Drum, New York and that of another formerly Pacific-based unit, the 25th Infantry Division, out of Hawaii to the Persian Gulf.

According to DEBKAfile 's Far East experts, the removal of substantial US military strength from the Pacific Rim opened the way for Chinese intervention in Afghanistan and its effort to slow down the US-Russian advance.

10/10/01
1:36:24 PM

Also from: http://www.debka.com

Fears of Terrorist Backlash

6 October:

US intelligence are in no doubt that a fresh wave of terrorist strikes, including possibly chemical and biological attacks, threatens the United States in the wake of a US assault on Osama Bin Laden.

On September 13, two days after the devastating airliner crashes in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania, DEBKAfile 's experts on terrorism reported that a second wave had been planned well in advance of the first. This prognosis has not changed.

According to those experts, the plans were drawn up by the key elements of the Bin Laden network - the Egyptian Islamic Jihad - his primary operational arm, the arcane Iranian-Palestinian-Lebanese group headed by the former hostage-taker of Beirut, Imad Mughniyeh - mastermind of the Iranian leader Ali Khamenei's terror network, the chiefs of the Algerian extremist GIA, and terrorist groups associated with Iraqi military intelligence, notably the 15th of May group. It was this last organization - not Libyan intelligence - that was behind the 1988 bombing of PanAm-103 over Lockerbie Scotland.

In the estimate of DEBKAfile's experts, between 30 and 50 terror activists are organized in teams in the United States. They are all armed with detailed missions for implementation in major US cities on both coasts as soon as the US launches its offensive in Afghanistan. Logistical and command posts to run this second wave have been set up on three continents: Canada, in Toronto and Vancouver in Canada; Europe, in Hamburg, Vienna and the north Albanian Adriatic port of Shengjin, an important Albanian mafia center; and the Persian Gulf, in Dubai.

These centers are operated by an estimated 900-1000 Al Qaeda activists. At their disposal in the US are a further 70-90 well-trained Islamic militants waiting for missions and orders to strike.

An additional 150 terrorists are scattered round Canada, Europe, the Persian Gulf and the Far East, as a reserve force. They live quietly under false identities, with wives and families, usually locals who do not suspect that the head of he family is a terrorist and may disappear forever, if called to action.

The most dangerous terrorists-in-waiting, who live under the deepest cover, are the 100 or so Islamic militants, who are programmed to carry out missions as lone wolves - not all of them inside America. These loners are the ones most likely to carry out chemical or biological strikes, the fear of which is now gripping America. The FBI is looking closely at the anthrax case in Florida that occurred not far from the flying school where one of the hijackers who crashed an airliner in New York on September 11 rented planes.

Any bioterrorists would have received their training in the dissemination of dangerous materials directly from Iraqi military intelligence experts. Iraq is the only country known to be actively developing such substances of mass murder as anthrax, sarin, mustard gas and nerve gases as war weapons.

Many intelligence experts have now come to believe, as DEBKAfile postulated at the time, that the foot and mouth disease which struck British livestock last year was a bioterror exercise carried out either by groups connected with Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network or by Iraqi military intelligence.

10/10/01
1:35:39 PM

OF COURSE THERE IS NO WAY TO VERIFY THE ACCURACY OF WHAT IS POSTED AT http://www.debka.com - SO I LET YOU DECIDE FOR YOURSELF... VISIT IT ONCE A WEEK DURING THE WAR CAMPAIGN TO KEEP ABREAST OF SUCH INTELLIGENCE WHICH NO MEDIA WILL EVER REPORT.

From: http://www.debka.com

US and Russia Strike Reciprocal Deal on Tactical Nuclear Weapons Deployment Against Afghanistan and Chechnya -- 6 October

DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that Presidents George W. Bush and Vladimir Putin, in a single 70-minutes conversation on September 23, eleven days after the terrorist assaults in New York and Washington, agreed on the deployment of tactical weapons. This is an epic shift in the global balance of strength.

Putin gave the nod for US forces poised in Central Asia to jump into Afghanistan to be armed with tactical nuclear weapons, such as small neutron bombs, which emit strong radiation, nuclear mines, shells, and other nuclear ammunition suited to commando warfare in mountainous terrain.

In return, Bush assented to Russia deploying tactical nuclear weapons units around Chechnya after Moscow' s ultimatum to the rebels, some of whom are backed by Osama Bin Laden, to surrender, went by without response. DEBKAfile's military sources place the US nuclear weapons in four former Soviet Central Asian bases: the military air facility at Tuzel, 15 km (10 miles) northwest of the Uzbek capital of Tashkent; at Kagady in the Termez region; in Khandabad, near the city of Karshi; and at the military air base in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan.

In addition to the nuclear weapons units, Russian bombers carrying small neutron bombs were moved to Russian military air bases around the border of the breakaway province, in Stavropol northwest of Chechnya, the Godowta base in Georgia to the south, and Mozdok in northern Osetia, northwest of Chechnya. Russian and U.S. military sources refuse to take questions on these startling events.

The US is far from eager to actively inject a nuclear element into the war against terrorism and will not be the first to do so. According to DEBKAfile's military sources, the US plans to hold those tactical nuclear weapons in reserve, unleashing them in the campaign against bin Laden only in certain extreme circumstances:

1. To counter a move by Bin Laden's men first bring out nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against the US force fighting inside Afghanistan.

2. If there is a chemical or biological assault by the Taliban against Pakistan.

3. Should groups of bin Laden's Al Qaeda network - either in Central Asia or the Balkans - wield these weapons of mass destruction against US military targets or US nuclear arms in other parts of the world.

4. If using them is the only way to save heavy American combat casualties.

Full accounts of impending war preparations appear in the latest issue of DEBKA-Net-Weekly, the exclusive electronic intelligence letter put out for paying subscribers by DEBKAfile.

10/10/01
1:30:09 PM

A lot of you have expressed a lot of FEAR on this message group. Remember Roosevelt saying "We have nothing to fear but FEAR itself?" We are what we think. I've covered that many times on my shows and lectures. Fear is a useless emotion (debilitating actually) and turned inward causes depression. Fear can only be used as FUEL. Fuel your fire. Speak up for your rights. Your opinions. Get active in something that helps. Get your fire going and be a watchdog in your neighborhood, community, world.

Yes, the world is pretty messed up right now. Sometimes, like the Phoenix (the bird, not the city) things have to get down to the fire and ashes in order for a rebirth to happen. Hopefully, the human race will recognize the error of our ways politically, nationally,

environmentally etc from all this madness, leading to a more sane, civilized, global caring FAMILY of humans. It could happen. I prefer to focus my thoughts on more "godly" thoughts, such as peace and love. My energy is channeled through the passion I put into notifying my audience, friends, clients of WHAT is going on in the world. Yes, it's ugly. But it is what we have to deal with.

Again a lot of the stories/comments sent me have been covered on the show. Today's show was a life-saver chock full of information you NEED to know. Spread it around. Tell others where they can hear real news, truth and some inspirational thought provoking ideas.

Remember, every cloud has a silver lining. If the human race becomes more "humane" after all this madness, it may be worth it. As I had covered many many times on my show, we were on a collision course with life itself by destroying our planet ( see http://Lovearth.net ) according to 5,000 brilliant international scientists. Now mankind has decided to rush the Omega point from 2012-2016 to ????? When will we wake up? When will we realize the slow death and hell we've all contributed to? When will we arm ourselves with facts, truth, compassion and love? It surely looks as though it's what the world needs and RIGHT NOW.

With the anthrax scare now (not really new, was announced in August) will you decide to finally stop killing animals? Eating meat?Drinking and using Dairy? What will it take? How many animals will now be killed in the U.S.? The legislation was already passed to kill them on Sept 21.

Why not go and meet that neighbor you haven't talked to? How about donating a little time to help someone else? There is SO very much we can do to create a better, happier, safer world without leaving it all up to our Govt.

Of course I'm going to also suggest prayer. But, not just for yourself or your family. Not just for the U.S. Prayer for the whole world, the peoples, animals, plants, planet, all of it. Jon Lennon said it could be as easy as hanging a sign in your window that says "PEACE".

When thoughts or feelings of FEAR come up, instantly say aloud LOVE. Watch that fear get conquered by the LOVE. Nothing can survive against love. It's the strongest power we have. Much love to all of you and stay tuned.....

Meria

10/10/01
1:28:19 PM

Planet Ark World Environment News

Alaska pipeline restarts after bullet hole closed - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12715/story.htm

Stranded koalas caught up in security alert - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12718/story.htm

UPDATE - Removal of Trade Center rubble a monumental task - USA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12721/story.htm

FEATURE - Face to face with the great white shark - SOUTH AFRICA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12717/story.htm

CHRONOLOGY - Main events in Russian Kursk submarine saga - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12716/story.htm

FACTBOX - Lifting the Kursk submarine from Barents Sea bed - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12719/story.htm

UPDATE - Russia's Kursk sub lift enters tricky final phase - RUSSIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12720/story.htm

UPDATE - German LPX shrugs off nuclear outage - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12712/story.htm

UPDATE - Germany shuts N-plant after safety incident - GERMANY http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12713/story.htm

Water sources for China Yellow River dry up-Xinhua - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12711/story.htm

UPDATE - China farm trade frets over GMO, not US raids - CHINA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12714/story.htm

Anaconda gets environmental nod to expand - AUSTRALIA http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/12708/story.htm

10/10/01
1:24:44 PM

Breaking News and Analysis as America Goes to War

http://www.alternet.org

AFTER BOMBING: GROUND TROOPS, NATION BUILDING OR WALKING AWAY?

Jason Vest, AlterNet

Now that we've begun bombing Afghanistan to topple the Taliban, the unavoidable question is: How will we leave a country already destroyed and abandoned?

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11660

Also:

"NOW, JIHAD HAS BEGUN"

Asra Q. Nomani, Salon

From the living room of a close friend and advisor to Osama bin Laden, Sunday's attack seems like just the beginning of a much greater battle.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11661

10/10/01
1:17:09 PM

MONTANA CATTLE MUTILATIONS

September 21, 2001

WHITEFISH -- Brian Schweitzer, a cattle rancher, who was the unsuccessful Democratic candidate for the US Senate last year, recently found one of his cows killed. "The brand inspector said lightning caused the death." Mr. Schweitzer said, "but there was no lightning that night. And it very much looked like those incisions were done with instruments." Mr. Taliaferro, a cattleman who has been ranching for 25 years. "When you see it, I tell you, it makes a believer out of you that something weird is going on." Eight cow killings have been reported in Montana since June 12, the most recent on August 31, 2001, and they all appear similar to 67 cattle mutilations in the 1970's. Law enforcement officials and veterinarians who investigated said they had never seen anything like it. In all the cases, part of the animal's face, called the mask, is removed, along with reproductive organs. There is usually no blood, and predators will often not touch the carcass. County sheriff'! s deputy, says people who dismiss the deaths are not looking hard enough. No vehicle tracks or footprints have been found around the animals. "There are smooth edges on those cuts and no bite marks. The mystery and savagery of the deaths have led the more fanciful to speculate that the cattle, which can weigh nearly a ton, were killed by a band of satanic cultists, by UFOs or by secret military testing.

10/10/01
1:10:37 PM

CANADA NEW CROP CIRCLES

RED DEER, ALBERTA -- Paul Anderson reports the 'Star of David' formation is 422 feet in diameter, making this the largest, and arguably most complex formation yet found in this country. The large circle in the center is 106 feet, the smaller circles range from 42 to 44 feet. Connecting pathways are about 3 feet wide. Judy Arndt of CropCircleQuest and coordinator Gordon Sopczak conducted a ground survey of the formation yesterday. The formation was found September 16, 2001. The crop is mature red wheat, which is very dry and brittle. Aerial photos show the geometry is off in places, although the overall design is impressive, and very large! The seed heads do not show any obvious damage associated with mechanical flattening (as in most hoaxes); plant stalks are bent at various heights, from ground level to about three inches above the ground. No stretched or ruptured nodes found. Nurses in nearby Lacombe on September 15, 2001, reported seeing odd triangular configuratio! ns of lights at 3:15 and 5:00 AM. A few nights later, on the at 1:05 AM, other nurses saw a set of lights, arranged in seven triangles, peach or light orange in color, which changed to an arrow, then a crescent shaped pattern before disappearing.

Thanks to Paul Anderson psa@look.ca

Canadian Crop Circle Research Network

http://www.geocities.com/cropcirclecanada

10/10/01
1:09:06 PM

NETHERLANDS CROP CIRCLE

Nancy Talbot phoned to inform me she had witnessed the formation of a Crop Circle in the early morning hours of August 21, 2001. Nancy had gone to Holland to visit an amazing young man called Robert. Nancy was reading in bed at 3:00 AM, when she heard cattle outside her room making noises. A few minutes later, they started again but stopped about 3:15 AM. Nancy noticed her room was brightening like a welder's arc light. An intense column of light was above the field located behind her bedroom. There were two tubes of light about a foot in diameter shinning down on the field. The lights went out for a second and other came down. Nancy jumped out of bed and called for the young man she was visiting named Robert. He was also awake in the kitchen and also saw the lights shinning down about 85 feet away. They rushed outside and there was nothing in the sky or field. Everything was quiet with no sound, and no smells. They walked toward the field and just beyond the fence was a Crop Circle in the string beans. It was a 35 foot ellipse (stretched circle) with a twenty foot long off to one side with a crossbar at the end, forming a 'T' coming off the ellipse. Nancy thought she saw some steam rising from the Crop Circle. The next morning Nancy saw the field from her bedroom window. We wondered if the Crop Circle had been made so Nancy could see it. This observation seems more than a coincidence and infers intelligence at work.

Thanks to Nancy Talbot and George Reynolds Maryland MUFON.

10/10/01
1:03:17 PM

THIRD ANTHRAX OUTBREAK

By KEITH KELLY and LARRY CELONA, New York Post

DANGER ZONE:

October 9, 2001 -- An anthrax scare gripped the nation yesterday as a third employee of a supermarket tabloid was said to be exposed - and the FBI probed frightening reports of an odd e-mail from a departing intern about "a little present" that he left behind.

The FBI announced it had taken over the investigation as a possible criminal - or terrorist - attack.

Three employees of American Media, which publishes The National Enquirer and other supermarket tabloids out of Boca Raton, Fla., told The Post that the FBI wants to question a summer intern who left the company recently after sending out an e-mail to employees saying thank you and "I left you all a little present."

A top executive at the company said the intern was believed to be from Sudan and was on an exchange program at a local college.

At the time, no one thought anything of the intern's e-mail, but in the wake of the anthrax scare, employees are now concerned, they said.

The FBI is also investigating a strangely worded letter received by the company that contained a "soapy, powdery substance" in the shape of a Star of David, Newsweek has reported. The letter was handled by two of the people who contracted anthrax, the magazine said.

All employees and people who were in the building in the last 60 days were told to take antibiotics for the next two months to fight off infection.

They were also asked for all their computer passwords so investigators could probe their hard drives.

One employee, 63-year-old photo editor Bob Stevens, died last week of inhalation anthrax, while a second, identified by sources as mailroom worker Ernesto Blanco, was found to have a small amount of anthrax in his nose.

David Pecker, the president of American Media, told The Post that a woman librarian at the office building already being treated for pneumonia tested positive for anthrax exposure, in addition to the other two cases.

Florida health officials said late yesterday that only two people had come into contact with the bacteria.

Health experts say it is extremely unlikely that such a transmission - two men working in separate areas in an office building - could be accidental.

"You have to really, really reach to come up with a scenario where this is unintentional," said Professor Thomas Johnson, the director of the Division of Respiratory Therapy at Long Island University.

The building where the staffers worked - which houses The Globe, The Sun, The Star, The National Enquirer, and Weekly World News - was ordered sealed yesterday.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said the Boca Raton case "could become a clear criminal investigation" as the feds dig deeper.

Officials cautioned they have no evidence to suggest a criminal or terrorist act - but they aren't taking any chances.

"We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism or not," Ashcroft said.

Officials did not consider foul play in Stevens' death until a test swab on the nostrils of another employee, presumably Blanco, turned up the anthrax bacteria.

Officials said the mailroom worker has not contracted any symptoms of the disease - a very important and encouraging sign.

Hundreds of frightened workers lined up at a Palm Beach County health facility to get tested for the bacteria and receive antibiotics.

Part of their fear stems from news accounts that terror ringleader Mohamed Atta took flying lessons about a mile from Stevens' Lantana, Fla., home. Atta and some of the other hijackers also lived in Florida cities not far from American Media.

"To tell you the truth, I'm terrified," said Globe reporter Felicia Levine.

"We're in an area surrounded by the terrorists, and this is a coincidence? The name of our company is American Media. I'm scared."

Health officials tried to reassure the company and the community, saying there was no public health threat.

"The risk is low," said Dr. John Agwunobi, Florida secretary of health.

Pecker said all the publications had shifted to temporary locations in a rush to put out their next editions, which went to press yesterday.

Employees were also asked to fill out questionnaires explaining how often they came into contact with the photo or mailroom areas, and if they've noticed anything unusual around the building since Sept. 11.

Meanwhile, in New York, Mayor Giuliani said there's no reason to fear an outbreak - but that area hospitals are on the lookout for possible symptoms.

"Given the events of the last four weeks, we now monitor that even more carefully," he said.

Also contributing to this story were Malcolm Balfour in Florida, Brian Blomquist in Washington, Braden Keil and David Seifman in New York. It was written by Devlin Barrett.

10/10/01
11:39:36 AM

THE REAL GLOBALISATION AGENDA (11 steps)

To gain control of the world's economies, politics, and people it is necessary to implement national and international security measures as a weapon in a "war against terrorism". Measures to gain access to all private email and phone calls and to restrict human movements would be introduced. Thus humanity would be largely controlled and subservient to the globalisation agenda. This is how it is happening to you right now.

1. The CIA funded and armed the Mujadeen in Pakistan and Afghanistan against the Russian occupation. The terrorist training camps where Osama Bin Laden allegedly planned his attacks were built with American money and backing.

2. The Taliban terrorist regime are a result of CIA funding and training whilst the Russians were in occupation.

3. During Clinton's administration, the CIA and other secret organisations devised and furthered a campaign for a "war on terrorism" as a cover to push forward a covert globalisation agenda.

4. During the Gulf War an estimated 200,000 Iraqis died and at least a million civilians, half of them children, have since died in Iraq as a result of the USA led embargo. Meanwhile US bomb and munitions training is being given to Iraqi and other foreign military personnel.

5. In Palestine, the enduring illegal occupation by Israel would have collapsed long ago were it not for US backing.

6. The Bush administration is put into power by any means possible and sets about creating controversy to take our mind's off their sleight of hand by undoing environmental protection and civil rights, withdrawing from the Kyoto Treaty, then from the ABM treaty, promulgating a "reward your friends" energy policy, etc. all predictably leading to an alienation of the electorate.

7. This Spring 2001 Bush comes to Europe and asks his counterparts if they would support a "war on terrorism" in particular to oust the Taliban regime and to put a stop to Bin Laden. In response, terrorist networks move on plans to lash back at the American and Western covert agenda.

8. Bin Laden's financial partnerships include the family of Sharon Rockefeller.

9. The CIA were aware of the threat to the WTC Twin Towers in advance and had time and means to stop the hijacking yet allowed the planes through restricted air space.

10. The Twin Towers were detonated after the planes impact.

11. The emotional response and outcry is used by media programming to push through support for an unconditional "war on terrorism".

The War on terrorism is a means to ensure that each of us submits to the globalisation agenda.

10/10/01
11:31:43 AM

Why are oil and gas stocks your best investments

If you follow world events, you probably know that the prices of commodities and stocks reflect international politics and tensions! That's why the stock market lost over 10% in just a few days after the recent terrorist attacks.

As the U.S. prepares its response, tensions could escalate even further in the Middle East. This could have a DRAMATIC IMPACT on the supply of oil and gas therefore increasing worldwide prices. If this happens, oil and gas companies and THEIR SHAREHOLDERS could be poised to MAKE MONEY from any price increases. That's why many people consider oil and gas stocks not just a great speculative investment, but also an insurance against future market developments.

10/10/01
11:29:34 AM

Subject: 35,615 humans died from hunger on 11/9

Something to think about!!!

On the September 11, 2001, 35,615 of our fellow brothers and sisters died from the worst possible death, from starvation.

Here's the statistics...

Victims: 35,615 (according to FAO)

Location: the poorest countries in the world

Special TV reports on the tragedy: NONE

Newspaper articles: NONE

Messages from heads of states: NONE

Appeals by organizations against the crisis: NONE

Solidarity messages: NONE

Minutes of silence: NONE

Homages to the victims: NONE

Special forums organized: NONE

Messages from the Pope: NONE

Stock exchanges: situation normal

Alarm level: NONE

Mobilization of armed forces: NONE

Media speculation over the identity of the perpetrators of this crime: NONE

Those responsobile for this crime. ALL OF US

10/9/01
10:00:00 PM

Millions Of Afgans Face Starvation As Crops Fail

Rome, June 8, 2001 - Millions of Afghans are facing starvation because a third consecutive year of drought and intensifying economic problems have seriously undermined the food supply situation in Afghanistan, according to a joint Special Alert released today by two United Nations food agencies. The drought has resulted in near total failure of rainfed agriculture and has substantially reduced irrigated farm production. As a result, the alert warns that the food situation in Afghanistan is rapidly deteriorating and will continue to worsen.

The alert, produced by a joint Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission, sent to Afghanistan by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), says: "There is mounting evidence of emerging widespread famine conditions in the country, reflecting substantially reduced food intakes, collapse of the purchasing power of the people, distress sales of livestock, large-scale depletion of personal assets, soaring foodgrain prices, rapidly increasing numbers of destitute people, and ever swelling ranks of refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs)."

"The issue of 'life saving' in Afghanistan is going to be even more crucial this year than it was last year," warns the alert.

It is estimated that some five million Afghans have little or no access to food and will require international humanitarian food aid. The priority group is judged to be particularly vulnerable because its purchasing power has been seriously eroded by the lack of employment opportunities within and outside agriculture. This has been caused by a number of factors including abandonment of poppy cultivation, a decline in other cash crop production, low livestock prices, depletion of herds and other assets, as well as displacement due to conflict and drought.

According to the alert, the group will require emergency food aid for periods ranging from 3 to 10 months, at least until next year's harvest to prevent starvation and reduce the number people leaving the land to become IDPs and refugees. Substantial assistance is also needed to rehabilitate the collapsing irrigation system and infrastructure and the provision of quality seed.

The alert says, that the "exceptionally positive development of the abandonment of poppy cultivation in 2001, which has rid the world of 3,000 to 4,000 tonnes of opium and derivates," comes at a time when intensifying economic problems limit the opportunities for alternative income sources for poppy farmers and workers.

Three years of drought have also dealt a serious blow to livestock with catastrophic consequences for Afghan nomads.

During its extensive field visits, the Mission observed that rainfed wheat and barley crops had almost totally failed, except in a few pockets in different regions. The rainfed wheat production in 2001 is estimated to be about 40 percent less than even last year's extremely low output. The mission estimated the 2001 total cereal production at 2.03.million tonnes -about 12 percent larger compared to 2000 but smaller by 37 percent compared to 1999. As a result, the cereal import requirement in

the 2001/02 marketing year (July/June) is estimated at 2.2 million tonnes, slightly less than last year's record high level of 2.3 million tonnes, but about double the volume of 1.1 million tonnes in 1999.

The alert puts commercial cereal imports at some 760,000 tonnes, about 25 percent lower than the estimate for last year, leaving a gap of 1.4 million tonnes. WFP estimates emergency food aid needs at 386,000 tonnes, Of which 156,000 tons are covered under current WFP relief commitments, leaving an uncovered gap of over 1 million tonnes. "A shortfall of this magnitude, coupled with seriously deteriorating purchasing power of the population, if unmet, could have disastrous consequences," says the alert.

The full Alert by the FAO/WFP Crop and Food Supply Assessment Mission to Afghanistan is available at the following URL:

http://www.fao.org/WAICENT/faoinfo/economic/giews/english/alertes/sptoc.htm

Source: http://www.fao.org/waicent/search/default.asp

10/9/01
9:22:37 PM

UTNE WEB WATCH

The Best of the Alternative Web

MEDIA INDUSTRY EFFORTS TO ELIMINATE AND WEAKEN OWNERSHIP RULES

Center for Digital Democracy

-- Major changes in FCC rules would slacken the leash on large media companies in their relentless quest for more stations and newspapers.

BEING RONNIE BURKETT: AN INTERVIEW

by Chris Koentges, The Jack JackMan Project

-- Check out this interview with the man who is doing for wood puppets "what 'The Simpsons' did to prime time animation."

ACTION WITHOUT BORDERS

Web site review by Sara Buckwitz, Idealist.org

-- In the last five years, the people at Idealist.org have developed a rich community of nonprofit and volunteering resources from more than 23,000 organizations in 153 countries.

Links to the above articles: http://www.utne.com/webwatch

10/9/01
9:20:26 PM

The Nation

As the long expected U.S. bombing campaign commenced against Afghanistan in massive fashion today, the world's most wanted man, Osama bin Laden, issued a dramatic videotaped statement this morning praising the September 11 suicide-hijackers and saying America would not live in peace until Palestinians could do the same.

His statement to Qatar's al-Jazeera television, filmed against a rocky background with an assault rifle at his side, was immediately broadcast to the world as bombs rained down on a range of targets in and around Afghanistan.

Check The Nation website for continuing reporting. analysis, commentary and investigations on September 11 and its aftermath.

We've created a special page to collect all of our September 11 resources and material. Currently you can find Robert Fisk's 1998 interview with bin Laden, Richard Falk's recent call for a just response, a debate between Noam Chomsky and Christoher Hitchens on the roots of the September 11 attacks, a collection of links to sites offering reliable information on Islamic traditon and culture, a section of activist resources, and dispatches from Pakistan and India by Ahmed Rashid and Praful Bidwai. All of this and much more available at:

http://www.thenation.com

Also featured are new essays by Edward Said and Naomi Klein from the October 22, 2001 issue of The Nation:

EDWARD SAID: The Clash of Ignorance "Labels like "Islam" and "the West" only serve to confuse us."

http:////www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=said

NAOMI KLEIN: Signs of the Times "Protests aimed at powerful symbols of capitalism find themselves in a transformed landscape."

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011022&s=klein

10/9/01
4:20:16 PM

TomPaine.com

The Loyal Opposition

FAR FROM NORMAL

by David Corn

Let our leaders acknowledge: we're far from what we once believed was normal and are not likely to be in that territory for a long time.

http://www.tompaine.com/history/2001/10/05/index.html

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PEACE MOVEMENT

Parting Ways Over the War on Terrorism

by Charles Deemer

"I do not believe the network of terroism can be defeated without engaging it directly, which I believe will result in violent acts.... So farewell, my friends."

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/10/05/1.html

NEEDED: AN INDEPENDENT PUBLIC BROADCASTING SERVICE

by Jerold M. Starr -- the first in a series on public broadcasting.

As the U.S. prepares to wage "war" against "terrorism," the American public has never been more in need of alternative views, independent analysis, and an open forum for public discussion.

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/05/index.html

AGRIBUSINESS AT THE FEDERAL FEED TROUGH

Corporate Welfare in Time of Crisis and Beyond

by Cena Swisher, Taxpayers for Common Sense

The House-passed Farm Security Act of 2001 continues a bad policy of the past: giving agribusinesses and large corporate farmers -- the producers least in need of federal assistance -- most of the help.

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/10/05/2.html

Dispatch: Addison County, Vermont

REFLECTING ON 9-11 -- Poetry in Time of Crisis

by Gary Margolis

"As if the earth were lying about why the ground Shifted under us on September 11, when wasn't it the sky that fell down."

http://www.tompaine.com/opinion/2001/10/05/index.html

CHECK IT OUT!

A New Twice-Weekly Feature

by The TomPaine.com Staff

Rumors of War Set Straight ... Women's Work ... Nuclear War of Words ... Freedom of Censorship ... and The Comeback Canids.

http://www.tompaine.com/features/2001/10/04/index.html

ECONOMICS REPORTING REVIEW

September 24 - September 28

A Weekly Compendium and Commentary

by Dean Baker

HMOs and Medicare... Amtrak... Interest Rates... Wartime Boom... Free Trade With Jordan... and more.

http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/10/04/index.html