Ahmadinejad repeats Holocaust is a 'myth'
AFP
11 FEB 06
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeated his view that the Holocaust of Jews under Nazi Germany was a "myth" and argued that Palestinians and Iraqis were suffering from "the real Holocaust".
"Questioning the myth of the Holocaust and the creation of the phoney regime of Zionism has haunted them," the president said in a speech marking the 27th anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution.
"For more than 60 years, this myth has enabled the Zionists to blackmail the Western countries, justify the killing of women and children and make them refugees in occupied land," he said.
"The real Holocaust is happening today in Palestine and Iraq. If you are looking for the real Holocaust, look at the poor Iraqi people," he said in the speech to huge crowds gathered in central Tehran Saturday.
Speaking out against the publication in Western newspapers of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed, he said: "They are hostages to the Zionists."
"How come insulting the prophet is free, but investigating the Holocaust is banned," asked the president, who has already drawn Western condemnation for his questioning of the Holocaust and his call for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
"We suggested to them that we will send an unbiased group to look at your documents in Europe and inform the nation, but you will not even allow your own scholars to invesigate the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad said.
"This is the same way as you dealt with things in the dark ages."
Ahmadinejad went on to hail the victory in last month's Palestinian legislative elections of the Islamic militant group Hamas.
"The Zionists are on on the verge of being destroyed; the time of occupation is coming to an end, so put an end to your slavery of Zionism," he said of the West.
"The recent elections in Palestine show what is inside the nation, so if you want a solution to the Palestinian issue, let them say what they want to say in a referendum, the result of which you have seen so far," he said.
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Ahmadinejad warns Iran could quit nuclear treaty
AFP
12 Feb 06
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the Islamic republic could quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if forced by the West to limit its disputed nuclear program.
In a strongly worded speech to huge crowds marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution, the outspoken hardliner also repeated his view that Nazi Germany's mass killing of Jews was a "myth" and argued that Palestinians and Iraqis were suffering from "the real Holocaust."
"Until now, the Islamic republic's policy was to use nuclear technology for peaceful ends," the president said, a week after Iran was reported to the UN Security Council amid fears it is seeking nuclear weapons.
"The Islamic Republic of Iran has continued its nuclear drive within the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the NPT, but if we see that you want to deprive us of our right using these regulations, know that the people will revise their policy in this regard," he said in a thinly-veiled warning.
Hundreds of thousands of Iranians were out under Tehran's winter sunshine, answering a call from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to put on a show of force in the face of mounting international pressure.
The West wants Iran to abandon uranium enrichment work, which can be extended from making reactor fuel to the fissile core of a nuclear weapon. Iran maintains that it only wants to generate electricity and that its fuel cycle work is therefore permitted by the NPT.
But the reporting of Iran to the Security Council marked a turning point in the long-running crisis by exposing the country to the danger of sanctions unless it returns to a nuclear freeze and cooperates more with the IAEA.
So far Iran has reacted by doing the opposite.
"The Iranian people will never renounce their nuclear rights," Ahmadinejad vowed, drawing deafening chants from the crowd of "We will not give in!"
"Your threats will not get you anywhere. Don't push us to the limit. Don't make us change our policy," said Ahmadinejad, raising the threat that Iran could follow the course of North Korea by abandoning the NPT.
The NPT is the cornerstone of the global battle against the spread of nuclear weapons, prohibiting the development of the bomb and subjecting its signatories to IAEA inspections.
But the president said the West "believes it can cheat us by hiding its face behind international institutions like the IAEA and Security Council", but added "you have left these institutions and the NPT with no credibility."
Ahmadinejad, who since his shock election win last June has steered Iran on a collision course with the West, also used the speech to lash out at arch-enemy Israel.
"Questioning the myth of the Holocaust and the creation of the phoney Zionist regime has haunted them," said the president.
"For more than 60 years, this myth has enabled the Zionists to blackmail the Western countries, justify the killing of women and children and make them refugees in occupied land," he said.
"The real Holocaust is happening today in Palestine and Iraq. If you are looking for the real Holocaust, look at the poor Iraqi people."
He also lashed out against the publication in Western newspapers of caricatures depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Several European embassies in Tehran have been attacked by pro-regime protestors over the past week.
"How come insulting the prophet is free, but investigating the Holocaust is banned?" asked the president, who caused an uproar late last year by questioning whether the Holocaust even took place and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
"We suggested to them that we will send an unbiased group to look at your documents in Europe and inform the nation, but you will not even allow your own scholars to investigate the Holocaust," Ahmadinejad complained.
"This is the same way as you dealt with things in the dark ages."
Ahmadinejad went on to salute the victory in last month's Palestinian legislative election of the Islamic militant group Hamas, a close ally of the Islamic republic.
"The Zionists are on on the verge of being destroyed; the time of occupation is coming to an end, so put an end to your slavery of Zionism," he said.
"If you want a solution to the Palestinian issue, let them say what they want to say in a referendum, the result of which you have seen so far," he said.
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Thousands would die in US strikes on Iran, says study
Ewen MacAskill, diplomatic editor
Monday February 13, 2006
Guardian
· Report warns of effects of American or Israeli strikes
· Military operations would mean long confrontation
A surprise American or Israeli air strike on Iranian nuclear sites could cause a large number of civilian as well as military casualties, says a report published today.
The report, Iran: Consequences of a War, written by Professor Paul Rogers and published by the Oxford Research Group, draws comparisons with Iraq. It says the civilian population in that country had three weeks to prepare for war in 2003, giving people the chance to flee potentially dangerous sites. But Prof Rogers says attacks on Iranian facilities, most of which are in densely populated areas, would be surprise ones, allowing no time for such evacuations or other precautions.
"Military deaths in this first wave of attacks would be expected to be in the thousands," he says. "Civilian deaths would be in the many hundreds at least, particularly with the requirement to target technical support for the nuclear and missile infrastructure, with many of the factories being located in urban areas."
The death toll would eventually be much higher if Iran took retaliatory action and the United States responded, or if the US took pre-emptive military action in addition to strikes on nuclear sites.
Prof Rogers, of the University of Bradford's peace studies department, says: "A military operation against Iran would not ... be a short-term matter but would set in motion a complex and long-lasting confrontation. It follows that military action should be firmly ruled out and alternative strategies developed."
US and other western critics of Tehran say the government there is intent on securing a nuclear weapons capability. The Iranians deny this, saying they are pursuing civilian nuclear energy. The issue could still be resolved diplomatically, but both the US and Israel have said the option of air strikes remains open.
Prof Rogers says the aim of an attack would be to set back Iran's nuclear programme by at least five years. He says Britain could be drawn in as US aircraft would probably use UK bases.
He lists the expected targets as the Tehran Research Reactor, a radioisotope production facility, a range of nuclear-related laboratories, and the Kalaye Electric Company, all in Tehran, and facilities in Isfahan and Natanz.
"The new reactor nearing completion at Bushehr would be targeted, although this could be problematic once the reactor is fully fuelled and goes critical some time in 2006," he says. "Once that has happened, any destruction of the containment structure could lead to serious problems of radioactive dispersal affecting not just the Gulf coast but west Gulf seaboards in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates."
He adds: "All the initial attacks would be undertaken more-or-less simultaneously, in order to kill as many of the technically competent staff as possible, therefore doing the greatest damage to longer-term prospects."
Iran would be unable to prevent such an attack, as it has only limited air defences. But Prof Rogers says it has a large arsenal of responses. It could:
· withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty and pursue speedy development of nuclear weapons capability;
· encourage retaliatory action against Israel by the Lebanese-based Hizbullah group, which has missiles capable of hitting Haifa and several other Israeli cities;
· close the Strait of Hormuz, one of the main access routes for oil from the Gulf;
· send Iranian paramilitary units into states such as Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates;
· or order Iranian Revolutionary Guards to step up links with insurgents in Iraq.
Prof Rogers says a US or Israeli attack could also help al-Qaida by increasing the anti-US mood in the region and beyond.
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President Ahmadinejad's trap
Daniel F
UnknownNews
8 Feb 06
I believe that President Ahmadinejad of Iran is goading the U.S. and Israel into attacking him. He knows he does not have sufficient military assets to attack Israel let alone America, but he knows he can win a defensive war and bring down the American empire. When America can no longer subsidize Israel, Zionism will be put to rest.
I would like to make a few points about the insanity of attacking Iran.
1) Iran has Russian-made Sunburn missiles which can sink an aircraft carrier and shoot down an F-16. Are you prepared to lose all U.S. Navy ships in the Persian Gulf? Do you realize what that loss would do to America?
2) Iran has the ability to shut down all shipping in the Gulf. Are you prepared to pay $300 to $400 for a barrel of oil?
3) Iran stopped recruiting suicide bombers when they had 40,000 volunteers. That many dedicated and educated young people could easily cut U.S. supply lines into Iraq, kill many thousands of our troops and destroy what is left of our military morale. Are you prepared to destroy the only army that is willing to defend you?
4) The air campaign against Iran would include targets 150 feet under Tehran protected by double concrete walls with lead lining. There would be enormous civilian casualties. How many suicide bombers would it take to blow up the oil refineries in your area? How many Americans would die if all the refineries in the greater Houston area were blown up? What would the price of gasoline be if oil were $300 a barrel and several dozen refineries were destroyed? What would happen to your country if gasoline were $9.00 a gallon? What percentage of Americans would not be able to afford to drive to work?
5) America does have a strategic petroleum reserve which could sustain us for a few months though we would have to build refineries to process it. China and Japan have almost 2 trillion dollars of absolutely worthless paper currency that they cannot spend. If they spent all the money they earn selling to us, the dollar would collapse from the sudden increase in circulating dollars. You must realize that raising the price of oil to $300 a barrel would destroy the dollar and the world economy. Look at a world map and ask yourself which of these countries both import oil and cannot afford to pay $300 a barrel? All of those countries will be destroyed economically and politically. And you will have no army to protect American citizens and property.
6) You must realize that your purchasing power is being propped up by China, Japan and a handful of other nations that are willing to accept absolutely worthless pieces of paper for cars, computers, and everything at Wal-Mart. Attacking Iran will bring all of those subsidies to a crashing halt. When that happens, everyone will protect themselves by dumping trillions of dollars into commodity and currency markets. I calculate that prices will go up 1,000%. That means a relatively well off pensioner with a 2005 income of $3,000 a month will have to live on $300 a month. That will not pay rent, buy food, pay for utilities and incidentals. Millions of elderly will have no choice but to commit suicide. I would expect an unemployment rate of 25% and real after tax wage cuts of 50% to 70%. Do you realize what would happen to your community if half the people could not afford to eat? Would you be willing to shoot people who had not eaten food for 3 days? a week? Would you be willing to shoot their children? Would you be willing to live in a country that did precisely that?
I repeat. President Ahmadinejad of Iran has thought this out. He knows what he is doing. He is so unwilling to live under the New World Order that he has decided to risk his life and the lives a few million Iranians. It is true that you can drop a few nukes on Iran and destroy it. But you must realize that your country will cease to exist as you knew it. Do you really want to destroy America?
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Why would Iran start an arms race in the Middle East?
AlJazeera
11 Feb 06
Phil Giraldi, a former CIA staff officer, disagrees with Berman’s shallow warning of Iran’s alleged threat to the world.
"I do not believe it constitutes a major threat to the U.S. specifically. Last year, undoubtedly, speakers here (at the Conservative Political Action Conference) promoted the war in Iraq," Giraldi said. "All were wrong. Iraq was no threat ... Now we're hearing the same things about Iran."
Giraldi, who served 16 years as staff officer before becoming the chief of base in Barcelona, Spain, was also involved in gathering intelligence across the Middle East and Europe.
The Iranian government has repeatedly stated that its NUCLEAR PROGRAME is solely intended at peaceful purposes, simply generating electricity, not warheads. But the West, lead by Washington’s efforts, claim, although they fail to put too fine a point on it, that these are not the true intentions of Tehran, viewed as a security challenge for Western powers.
"Iran poses the single largest foreign policy challenge," said Ilan Berman, the vice president for policy at the American Foreign Policy Council and an expert on regional security in the Middle East, Central Asia, and the Russian Federation, arguing "they pose a direct challenge to our goals in the WAR ON TERRORISM."
Also in a private meeting with European diplomats that was held last week, a former senior U.S. official suggested launching a dozen B2 bombers in an air raid aimed at a key Iranian nuclear facilities.
But the official’s suggestion comes in contradiction with what the U.S. and the European Union keep boasting about; using diplomacy to resolve the world’s standoff over Iran’s nukes.
"Iran's radical president has said he would spread this technology as far as he can,"
"It would be a tragedy if we prolonged the life of this regime unnecessarily. Iran acquiring a nuclear bomb would do that," Berman added.
But Phil Giraldi, a former CIA staff officer, disagrees with Berman’s shallow warning of Iran’s alleged threat to the world.
"I do not believe it constitutes a major threat to the U.S. specifically. Last year, undoubtedly, speakers here (at the Conservative Political Action Conference) promoted the war in Iraq," Giraldi said. "All were wrong. Iraq was no threat ... Now we're hearing the same things about Iran."
Giraldi, who served 16 years as staff officer before becoming the chief of base in Barcelona, Spain, was also involved in gathering intelligence across the Middle East and Europe.
"If Iran used the bomb, they would face hundreds of Israeli NUCLEAR WARHEADS, and thousands in the U.S.," Giraldi, who writes for The American Conservative, a print magazine that contends the conservative movement, further states.
"Iran would be annihilated and would cease to exist. They know this."
Prior to Iraq war, Giraldi said, he warned that attacking the country was “neither realistic nor practical”, and could eventually lead to major unintended consequences.
However, the former CIA officer warned that Iran could make the situation in Iraq "untenable" for the Americans and that by aiding the Shia fighters there. to Iran, Giraldi said
He also suggests that Tehran might consider transferring cruise missiles obtained from Ukraine and Shahab missiles with biological and chemical payloads, targeting the U.S. occupation bases in Iraq, Israel, Qatar, Bahrain and elsewhere.
At the same time Giraldi said that shutting down the Strait of Hormuz could send oil skyrocketing to as much as $300 a barrel.
Giraldi says: "is this all worth it? No".
"It's not good policy to go to war on a basis of a 'what if' situation," he said.
"The Soviet Union was contained for 40 years."
"Ronald Reagan was able to destroy it without firing a single shot."
In 2002, the U.S. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH delivered his State of the Union address, announcing his intention to initiate unilateral preemptive wars against any nation he sees as a potential threat, defying almost universal world laws and opinions.
He started IRAQ WAR, and now considers a similar action again the Islamic Republic.
Iran, a signatory of the NUCLEAR NON-PROLIFERATION TREATY, doesn’t wish for a direct military confrontation with the U.S., but it can aspire to deter what seems to be an imminent threat to its military and nuclear facilities, should the U.S. or any of its allies decide to attack it.
The options Iran would consider to fulfill its goals and protect itself is developing the capability to inflict unacceptable catastrophic damage on American interests or military forces, on the American fleet in the Persian Gulf, or even on the American homeland itself.
However, numerous analysts have stated that the possibility of an American strike on Iran have become weaker than it was in 2002 and 2003, knowing the suffering and continuous catastrophes inflicted upon the American troops in Iraq. But Tehran doesn’t believe that that shift in geostrategic dynamics will be permanent.
Iran doesn’t seek starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East region, as it will pose a threat to its lands and facilities as well. The only country that stands as a threat to the Middle East security and stability is Israel, believed to possess about 300 NUCLEAR WARHEADS and refuses to sign the NPT.
The Islamic Republic seeks developing nuclear technology to meet the rising demand for energy on one hand and to protect any future military attack by the U.S. or Israel on the other.
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Muslims rally in Europe as worldwide cartoon protests rage on
AFP
11 Feb 06
Muslims are set to rally across Europe to vent their anger over satirical images of the Prophet Mohammed, a day after Denmark's ambassador to Syria temporarily left the country over security fears.
In the west German city of Duesseldorf several hundred Muslims joined a protest march to the Danish consulate but police did not expect any violence.
Protest rallies were also planned in Berlin and other German cities; Paris and Strasbourg in France, and in Amsterdam.
In Britain where demonstrations were due to start in London at 1300 GMT Saturday, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Friday he regretted the offense caused to Muslims by the caricatures reprinted by European papers, but added that nothing justified the violent backlash.
"I understand the offense the cartoons have caused, we all regret that," Blair said at the opening of his Labour Party's spring conference in Blackpool, northern England.
"But nothing, I repeat nothing, can justify the violent retribution visited on innocent people or embassies round the world or the glorifying of acts of terrorism," including those on July 7 last year in London, Blair said.
Newspapers across Europe have republished some or all of the 12 cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper last September, prompting violent demonstrations across the world, particularly in the Middle East.
France's officially recognised French Council for the Muslim Religion (CFCM) said it was taking legal action against papers that reprinted the cartoons.
In Britain, demonstrators in an earlier rally have praised the suicide bomb attacks of last July when four presumed Islamic militants blew themselves up on three London subway trains and a bus, killing 52 commuters and themselves.
In Asia, about 500 Muslim protestors rallied in the Indonesian capital Saturday, calling the cartoons part of a "war on Islam".
Members of Hizbut Tahrir (Party of Liberation) Indonesia massed in Jakarta's central traffic circle, waving signs that read "Stop propaganda against Islam" and "The cartoons are proof of Western enmity against Islam."
The Muslim group's spokesman Mohammad Ismail Yusanto said the publication of the caricatures, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper and subsequently in other mainly European newspapers, was part of a "war on Islam."
"This is not just an insult against out prophet. Before this, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark has called for opposition to Islam," he told AFP, referring to passages from the queen's official biography published last year.
From Tehran, Cairo, Istanbul and Nairobi to Kuala Lumpur and Islamabad, protesters had taken to the streets Friday after traditional prayers as politicians scrambled for answers to a crisis that has exposed cultural and religious divisions.
Police in Egypt fired rubber bullets and tear gas, while Kenyan police also used tear gas as a few rallies turned violent, but there was no repeat of the mayhem that has so far left 13 people dead worldwide.
Muslims regard images of the prophet as blasphemy, and the reaction has raised searching questions on where to draw the line between religious rights and free speech.
Denmark's ambassador to Syria quit Damascus with his staff, the foreign ministry said late Friday, citing an "unacceptably low level" of official Syrian protection at the mission, which had been ransacked the previous weekend.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will seek to repair ties strained over the furore during a five-stop Middle East trip next week, aides said.
They said he would meet leaders in Saudi Arabia and then Egypt, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and Israel.
In Algeria, Islamic scholar Mustapha Cherif, a former minister, called for dialogue between the world's peaceful forces and for resistance "by civilized, legitimate and peaceful means".
In a contribution to the government paper El Moudjahid Cherif said the "vulgar" cartoons had led to "overkill and vague theories by those who believe in the shock of civilizations".
Cherif, who specifically identified Muslim fundamentalists and European Islamophobes, also warned that the row could lead to a crisis between the two sides of the Mediterranean.
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Denmark closes embassies, Mohammed cartoon protests ease
AFP
12 Feb 06
Denmark announced it had closed two more embassies in Muslim countries as protests eased in favor of official pressure to prevent a repeat of the furore over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Iran has demanded an emergency meeting of the 57 Muslim countries comprising the Organization of Islamic Council (OIC), which announced it would call on the European Union (EU) to pass laws to counter hostility to Muslims.
"The OIC member countries expect the EU to identify islamophobia as a dangerous phenomenon to be scrutinized and combated as is the case with xenophobia and antisemitism," the council said in a statement to AFP Saturday.
Europe had to create "appropriate mechanisms of surveillance and to look again at its legislation with the aim of preventing in the future repetition of recent unfortunate events," the statement said.
The EU's senior foreign policy official, Javier Solana, is due to meet OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Saudi Arabia on Monday in an attempt to defuse the crisis triggered by Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten's publication of 12 Mohammed drawings almost five months ago.
Considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, the cartoons were reprinted worldwide as the row exploded into an international incident pitting Western ideas of freedom of expression against Islamic beliefs.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Syed Hamid said his country as IOC head supported Iran's demand for a special meeting of foreign ministers.
"I think many countries are worried. The idea is how do we contain these feelings and emotions," he told reporters at an international conference.
Denmark said it had closed its embassies in Iran and Indonesia and ordered its diplomats to leave following "concrete threats" against its staff.
The closures follow that of its Syrian embassy on Friday and of its consulates in Lebanon and Tunisia.
Lars Thuesen, spokesman for the ministry's crisis unit, said the ambassadors and their staff had gone to other countries that Denmark did not wish to identify.
Muslims marched peacefully in several European cities Saturday as organisations sought to distance their outrage from violent protests in recent weeks which saw Danish and Norwegian diplomatic missions set on fire.
In Germany, about 2,000 people marched on the Danish consulate in Duesseldorf, while about 1,200 people protested in Berlin and about 130 in the northern city of Leer.
In London, where recent protests aroused controversy through some of the slogans used and the simulation of a suicide bomber's vest, between 3,500 and 10,000 people marched, according to police and organisers' estimates.
The mayor of London Ken Livingstone backed the protest.
"I am supporting this event because, unlike much of the media coverage, it will allow the views of the mainstream Muslim community to be properly heard," he said.
In France, where satirical weekly Charlio Hebdo republished the 12 cartoons last week, about 7,000 people demonstrated in Paris and more than 2,200 marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg, according to police.
"We want to show by demonstrating peacefully and legally that we have been deeply hurt by the publication of these caricatures," Union of Muslim Associations spokesman Faycal Menia told AFP in Paris.
An estimated 100 took part in Amsterdam in an unauthorised but peaceful demonstration, about 1,000 marched in Berne, in Switzerland, while other protests took place in Ireland, Austria and Belgium.
In Chad in central Africa police used tear gas to break up a demonstration in the capital Ndjamena. Two vehicles were set alight but calm had returned by early afternoon. In Asia, about 500 Muslim protestors rallied in the Indonesian capital Saturday, calling the cartoons part of a "war on Islam."
Members of Hizbut Tahrir (Party of Liberation) Indonesia massed in Jakarta's central traffic circle, waving signs that read "Stop propaganda against Islam" and "The cartoons are proof of Western enmity against Islam."
In Algeria, Islamic scholar Mustapha Cherif, a former minister, called for dialogue between the world's peaceful forces and for resistance "by civilized, legitimate and peaceful means."
In a contribution to the government paper El Moudjahid Cherif said the "vulgar" cartoons had led to "overkill and vague theories by those who believe in the shock of civilizations."
Cherif, who specifically identified Muslim fundamentalists and European Islamophobes, also warned that the row could lead to a crisis between the two sides of the Mediterranean.
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Danes warned off Indonesia as Muslims decry 'Islamophobia'
AFP
12 Feb 06
Denmark urged its citizens to leave Indonesia and closed two more embassies as Muslim countries pressured Europe to rein in the "Islamophobia" behind the publication of irreverent cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed.
Following 10 days in which Denmark has served as a lightning rod for Muslim fury over 12 cartoons first published by a Danish newspaper, Copenhagen told its nationals to leave the world's biggest Muslim nation, saying it had "credible information" they were being targeted by Indonesian extremists.
Danes should "leave Indonesia as soon as possible" because of "a significant and imminent danger for Danes and Danish interests in Indonesia", the foreign ministry said.
Denmark also said it had shut its embassies in Iran and Indonesia in response to "concrete threats" against staff, having already closed diplomatic outposts in Syria, Lebanon and Tunisia.
In Afghanistan Danish charity ASF Dansk Folkehjaelp pulled 10 of its staff out of the country after a senior Taliban leader offered gold rewards up to 100 kilos for anyone killing a Dane or one of the cartoonists.
Mollah Dadullah said 100 volunteers were ready to carry out suicide bombings in retaliation over the publication of the caricatures in the conservative Jyllands-Posten newspaper last September.
Considered by Muslims to be blasphemous, the cartoons were reprinted worldwide as the row exploded into an international incident pitting Western ideals of freedom of expression against Islamic beliefs.
The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Saturday urged the European Union to crack down on "Islamophobia", saying it should be equated with xenophobia and anti-Semitism.
"OIC member states expect the EU to identify Islamophobia as a dangerous phenomenon and observe and combat it like in the cases of xenophobia and anti-Semitism," the council representing 57 Muslim nations said in a statement.
It suggested "creating suitable observance mechanisms and revising its (EU's) legislation in order to prevent the recurrence of the recent unfortunate incidents in the future" -- echoing other Muslim calls for the West to outlaw religious irreverence.
The EU's senior foreign policy official, Javier Solana, is due to meet OIC secretary-general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu in Saudi Arabia on Monday in an attempt to defuse the crisis.
More Muslims marched in Europe Saturday, although organising bodies sought to distance their outrage from the violent protests that saw buildings housing Danish and Norwegian diplomatic missions set on fire in Damascus and Beirut last weekend.
In Germany, which has Europe's second biggest Muslim population behind France, about 2,000 people marched on the Danish consulate in Dusseldorf, 1,200 people protested in Berlin and about 130 in the northern city of Leer.
In London, where at a previous demonstration protesters waved placards calling on those who insult their religion to be butchered, between 3,500 and 10,000 people marched, according to police and organisers' estimates.
London mayor Ken Livingston said he supported the event because it would "allow the views of the mainstream Muslim community to be properly heard."
In France, about 7,000 people demonstrated in Paris and more than 2,200 marched in the eastern city of Strasbourg, according to police.
Two French Islamic groups, including umbrella organisation the French Muslim Council, announced they would take legal action against two French newspapers that reproduced the Danish drawings.
There were other protests in the Swiss city of Berne, in Ireland, Austria, Belgium and the northern Spanish city of Bilbao, and four were arrested in an Amsterdam protest.
In Montreal, Canada, about 500 people marched behind a banner saying "No to insults to our prophets Mohammed, Jesus, Moses".
Protests in Africa and Asia were smaller than on Friday. Police in the central African country of Chad used tear gas to break up a demonstration in the capital N'Djamena, while about 500 Muslim protestors rallied in the Indonesian capital, calling the cartoons part of a "war on Islam".
In Algeria, Islamic scholar and former government minister Mustapha Cherif called for dialogue and resistance "by civilized, legitimate and peaceful means".
Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen too, sought dialogue, saying he would meet members of a new group called Democratic Muslims on Monday to discuss the community's integration.
"Our aim is to show that there are a lot of Muslims in Denmark who are saddened to see their country being vilified abroad and who seek dialogue, not confrontation," group founder Fathi el-Abed told AFP.
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Denmark and Jyllands-Posten: The background to a provocation
By Peter Schwarz
10 February 2006
The basic lie in the controversy over the caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad published by Danish and European newspapers is the claim that the conflict is between free speech and religious censorship, or between Western enlightenment and Islamic bigotry.
The taz newspaper, which has close links to the German Greens, declared the conflict was about reducing the influence of all religions, including Christianity, “to a tolerable measure.” In Spiegel.online, Henryk M. Broder condemned the halfhearted apology made by the publishers of the Danish daily Jyllands-Posten, which unleashed the caricature controversy, as an “example of how democratic public opinion capitulates to a totalitarian standpoint.”
An examination of the prevailing political conditions in Denmark reveals how bogus such arguments are. One would be hard pressed to find another European country where political changes over the past few years have found such a clear—and repellent—expression.
In a country renowned for its tolerance and openness, the social crisis and the betrayals carried out by the old working class organizations have opened the way for the emergence of political forces which systematically encourage xenophobia and racism. The newspaper Jyllands-Posten has played a prominent role in this process.
Last autumn Jyllands-Posten assigned 40 prominent Danish caricaturists to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Twelve responded and the results were published on September 30. The project was deliberately designed to provoke.
According to the cultural editor of the newspaper, Flemming Rose, it was aimed at “testing the limits of self-censorship in Danish public opinion” when it comes to Islam and Muslims. He added: “In a secular society, Muslims have to live with the fact of being ridiculed, scoffed at and made to look ridiculous.”
When the anticipated reaction by the Muslim community failed to arise, the newspaper continued its campaign, determined to create a full-scale scandal. After a week had gone by without protest, journalists turned on Danish Islamic religious leaders who were well known for their fundamentalist views and demanded: “Why don’t you protest?” Eventually, the latter reacted and alerted their co-thinkers in the Middle East.
At this point the head of the Danish government, Andres Fogh Rasmussen, and the xenophobic Danish People’s Party, which is part of the ruling coalition, swung into action. Fogh Rasmussen demonstratively turned down appeals by concerned Arab ambassadors for talks to clarify the issue. Even after 22 former Danish ambassadors appealed to the prime minister to hold discussions with the representatives of Islamic states, Rasmussen maintained his stance, arguing that “freedom of the press” could not be a topic for diplomatic discussion.
The chairperson of the Danish People’s Party, Pia Kjaersgaard, insulted Danish Muslims who complained about the caricatures, publicly denouncing them as national traitors because they supposedly placed their religious beliefs above free speech.
From the start, the campaign had nothing to do with “free speech” and everything to do with the political agenda of the Fogh Rasmussen government, comprising of a coalition of right-wing neo-liberals and conservatives, together with the Danish People’s Party.
The latter rose to prominence in the 1990s when all of the country’s bourgeois parties—including the then-governing Social Democrats—responded to a mounting social crisis with xenophobic campaigns. The People’s Party declared at the time that Islam was a “cancerous ulcer” and “terrorist movement.” Kjaersgaard, notorious for her racist outbursts, declared that the Islamic world could not be regarded as civilized. “There is only one civilization, and that is ours,” she said.
Fogh Rasmussen, at that time the chairman of the right-wing Venstre party, adopted much of the racist demagogy of the People’s Party. In the election campaign of 2001he demanded, among other things, that “criminal foreigners” be thrown out of the country within 48 hours.
His campaign utilized an election poster featuring pictures of Muslim criminals to suggest that all Muslims were violent. Venstre won the election and, together with the traditional conservative party, formed a minority government, which was supported by the extremist People’s Party.
Danish politics lurched far to the right. The country’s immigration laws were drastically tightened, while spending for development aid was cut back. In the Iraq war, which was opposed by the majority of the Danish population, Fogh Rasmussen lined up behind the Bush administration and sent a contingent of Danish troops to help occupy the country.
The campaign unleashed by Jyllands-Posten is a continuation and intensification of this reactionary trajectory, aimed at bolstering the xenophobic policies of the government and strengthening its support for US imperialism.
The caricatures themselves are patently racist. They suggest that every Muslim is a potential terrorist. Reports and pictures of outraged Muslims protesting the defamation of their prophet are used to reinforce this slander.
Official politics and the media throughout Europe are increasingly preoccupied with such agitation. Muslims are collectively held responsible for acts carried out by terrorist groups, although they bear no responsibility for them. In the German state of Baden-Württemberg, Muslims seeking to stay in the country must answer a catalog of questions probing their religious beliefs.
Television news presenters regularly malign Muslims for being prepared to protest against the defamation of Muhammad, but not against acts carried out by terrorist groups in the name of Islam, suggesting that they secretly support such acts.
A campaign is emerging to depict Islam as an inferior culture that is incompatible with “Western values.” There are clear parallels here to the anti-Semitic caricatures that were spread in the 1930s by fascist newspapers such as the Nazi Stürmer. The depiction of Jews as sub-humans served as the ideological preparation for the Holocaust.
Today the systematic defamation of Muslims is being used to prepare public opinion for new wars against countries such as Iran and Syria—wars which will be even more brutal than the Iraq war, and could well involve the use of nuclear weapons.
It is no coincidence that it was the Jyllands-Posten that took up this initiative. The newspaper is notorious for its declarations of support for the Nazis in the 1930s, and has played a key role in Denmark’s recent shift to the right.
With editorial offices in the rural area of Arhus, Jyllands-Posten remained a relatively insignificant provincial newspaper until the beginning of the 1980s. At that time it began an aggressive policy of expansion. It bought up smaller regional and local newspapers and launched a price war with the two established newspapers in the Danish capital—Berlingske Tidende and Politiken—and rapidly built up its circulation to 170,000, becoming the biggest circulation newspaper in the country.
In the 1990s the decidedly conservative paper increasingly developed into a mouthpiece for openly xenophobic, right-wing forces. Nearly a quarter of the editorial board was dismissed, and the quality of the paper sank as its aggressiveness rose.
Shortly before the publication of the Muhammad cartoons, Jyllands-Posten ran a headline reading, “Islam is the Most Belligerent.” The newspaper ran an exposé about an alleged Muslim death-list of Jewish names—until it emerged that the whole thing was a fabrication.
One year ago the editor-in-chief resigned because the newspaper carried a report, in the midst of an election campaign, alleging the systematic abuse of welfare rights by asylum-seekers. The sensational charges were published against his will.
The notorious right-wing sympathies of Jyllands-Posten are no secret. The Süddeutsche Zeitung describes it as “a newspaper with an almost missionary zeal, boasting that it has been successful in breaking the ideological and political grip of left-wing liberals over Danish society.” According to the Süddeutsche Zeitung, it would be “an inadmissible simplification” to equate Jyllands-Posten with the People’s Party, but they are certainly “fellow combatants in the broader sense.”
The FrankfurtRundshau writes: “Connoisseurs of Danish media will note with no little irony that it is precisely Jyllands-Posten which is now considered to be a beacon for free speech, i.e., the most right-wing of the Danish newspapers, which normally thrashes anyone who dares to advance a different point of view.”
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Bush ignored CIA advice on Iraq, says former spy
Julian Borger in Washington
Saturday February 11, 2006
The Guardian
The CIA official in charge of intelligence on the Middle East until last year has accused the Bush administration of ignoring assessments that sanctions and weapons inspections were the best way to deal with Saddam Hussein, and that an invasion would have a "messy aftermath".
In an article in the next edition of the bimonthly journal, Foreign Affairs, Paul Pillar, has become the highest-ranking CIA official from the prewar period to accuse the White House of manipulating the intelligence on Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
The allegations contradict the findings of two official inquiries into the intelligence debacle, which have largely blamed the CIA and absolved the administration. They also emerged on the day it was reported that Lewis Libby, a former aide to Vice-President Dick Cheney, had told a grand jury that he had been "ordered" by "his superiors" to leak classified WMD information to the press to bolster the case for going to war.
The White House made no direct response to Mr Pillar's claims. Mr Pillar said the White House had simply ignored intelligence that did not conform with its intention to invade. "It went to war without requesting - and evidently without being influenced by - any strategic-level intelligence assessments on any aspect of Iraq." The "broadly held" intelligence assessment, he said, was that the best way to deal with the weapons problem was through an aggressive inspections programme to supplement the sanctions already in place.
"If the entire body of official intelligence analysis on Iraq had a policy implication, it was to avoid war - or, if war was going to be launched, to prepare for a messy aftermath."
Mr Pillar said a CIA assessment of the implications of a US-led occupation had "presented a picture of a political culture that would not provide fertile ground for democracy and foretold a long, difficult, and turbulent transition", including guerrilla attacks and sectarian conflict.
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British troops videoed 'beating Iraqi Teens'
Jo Revill and Ned Temko
Sunday February 12, 2006
The Observer
Details emerged last night of a shocking video which appears to show a group of British soldiers brutally beating and kicking defenceless Iraqi teenagers in an army compound.
The footage is said to show eight soldiers pulling four teenagers off the street following a riot and dragging them into their army base, before beating them with batons, as well as punching and kicking them.
An urgent Military Police investigation was under way last night into the events shown in the video. The Ministry of Defence issued the following statement: 'We are aware of these very serious allegations and can confirm that they are the subject of an urgent Royal Military Police investigation. We condemn all acts of abuse and treat any allegation of wrongdoing extremely seriously.'
But the emergence of the footage, given to the News of the World by an anonymous whistleblower, will spark a huge controversy about the conduct of the army in Iraq. There were also fears that it could lead to more attacks on the British soldiers currently serving there.
The MoD has repeatedly given assurances that Iraqis who are captured are treated with respect and decency by British troops. The Abu Ghraib prison scandal involving Americans, dating back to 2004, shocked the world but Downing Street was adamant that there could not be any similar scandal involving the UK forces. However, there have been investigations by MoD prosecutors into a series of serious allegations of abuse by its troops in southern Iraq.
The video was apparently shot in secret by a corporal at a time when troops around Basra were dealing on a daily basis with street riots and insurgencies. Taken from a rooftop, the footage is said to show troops engaged in a running battle with youths, who are seen throwing a grenade which hits their compound.
The footage shows soldiers in combat fatigues chasing the men away, but then cuts to eight soldiers who return with four prisoners, who are marched to the compound gate and dragged inside.
In one of the most brutal scenes, a soldier punches one of the prisoners in the head and the stomach. He is then headbutted and kicked further.
Another scene shows a soldier walking up to one of the boys and kicking him hard between the legs from behind. The boy is seen doubling up in pain.
In some of the worst footage, a prisoner is kicked in the back and the body six times by two soldiers. As he struggles on the floor, one of the soldiers grabs him again by the shoulder, kicks him twice and then begins to hit him on the legs with a baton.
According to the newspaper report, the video also shows shocking footage of a soldier drawing back the blanket over an Iraqi corpse to display it close up to the camera as if it is a trophy. Another scene is said to show an Iraqi man being grabbed by three soldiers and forced to kneel behind a wall where he is kicked hard in the chest.
The video, lasting just over three minutes, is said to show at least 42 blows rained upon the four teenagers. The cries of the prisoners can be heard clearly according to the newspaper report.
The News of the World said it had decided not to reveal the unit or regiment of the troops involved in the video for security reasons. A spokesman said they received the video a few days ago and had given a copy to the MoD.
The Attorney General Lord Goldsmith will also want to see that the fresh allegations of brutality are fully investigated. His office, along with the MoD, was made fully aware of the video last Friday when officials held discussions with News of the World over the contents. There appears to be little doubt on the part of officials that it is genuine footage.
The new allegations will put more pressure on the government to hasten the departure of troops from Iraq. At present, there are 8,500 troops serving in Iraq, and officials have said they plan to begin redeployment in the next few months, with a view to bringing some of them back home by the end of the year.
The whistleblower who gave the video to the News of the World told the paper his aim was to try to prevent further abuses. The informant is quoted as saying: 'These Iraqis were just kids. Most haven't even got shoes on.' He said the video had been shown by the corporal's friends at their home base in Europe.
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Army fears reprisals as Blair orders abuse video inquiry
Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian
Military commanders yesterday stepped up security for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in the wake of a video apparently showing soldiers brutally attacking defenceless Iraqi teenagers.
The video was shown on TV channels in the Arab world just as ministers and Muslim leaders are trying to dampen the row over the publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad, and when thousands of British troops are preparing to be deployed to the hostile environment of southern Afghanistan.
It has come at a "bad time", a senior defence source admitted. The Ministry of Defence, still reeling after a series of cases of alleged abuse of Iraqis by British troops, said that the video appeared genuine, describing it as "extremely disturbing", and saying military police had begun an urgent investigation.
The film is described as a "secret home video" which was obtained by the News of the World, and apparently was filmed from a rooftop for fun by a corporal who is heard laughing and urging on at least eight of his colleagues. It shows the troops repeatedly kicking and punching civilians with batons after seizing them following riots two years ago in the Basra region in which British forces were attacked. Another soldier, apparently a corporal, mocks the youths and urges his colleagues on. The newspaper declined to name the regiment, understood to be based in Germany, to try to avoid reprisals.
The 20 Armoured Brigade, based in Paderborn, Germany, was deployed in southern Iraq until April 2004, a period that covered the riots in March.
The brigade included the 1st Battalion Light Infantry, the 1st Battalion the Royal Regiment of Wales, the Queen's Royal Hussars, and 26 Royal Artillery. The brigade was replaced in April by 1 Mechanised Brigade.
The footage risks aggravating already delicate relations between British forces in southern Iraq and the local population. Last night, an ally of the radical Shia cleric Moqtada al-Sadr warned that demonstrators would take to the streets in Basra in protest at the apparent abuse.
Political sensitivity surrounding the damaging and highly embarrassing video was reflected in ministers, from Tony Blair down, rushing to join a combined exercise in damage limitation.
The only minister who did not do so was the defence secretary, John Reid, on the grounds that he could be part of the "chain of command" who could decide what punishment, if any, should be meted out to the soldiers.
Tony Blair said: "We take seriously any allegations of mistreatment and those will be investigated very fully indeed."
But he added that the "overwhelming majority" of British troops behaved properly and did a "great job for our country and for the wider world". They deserved the "fullest support" for their role in Iraq.
Speaking at a press conference in South Africa where he is attending a summit of centre-left leaders, the prime minister said: "Their presence there, under a United Nations resolution, helping Iraqis become the democracy they want to become, is of fundamental importance, not just to the security in Iraq but to the security of my country, Britain, and the wider international community."
The chancellor, Gordon Brown, said that if the allegations were true, they showed "unacceptable behaviour". Speaking on the BBC's Sunday AM programme, Mr Brown said the "loyal, hard-working, decent troops" in Iraq would see the allegations as a "slight on their great work". The shadow foreign secretary, Liam Fox, said British troops "must adhere to the highest possible standards" but added that the behaviour was not typical. The Liberal Democrat defence spokesman, Michael Moore, said that the allegations increased the urgency of setting a plan to pull troops out.
Sir Iqbal Sacranie, secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain, called the images "appalling" and said they would cause "enormous damage to our standing in the Muslim world".
He warned that it would put British troops "in greater peril". In Iraq, Akil al-Bahadily, an official from the Basra office of Moqtada al-Sadr, said: "This is good proof of the violations of human rights being committed by British troops in Basra."
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Revealed: the terror prison US is helping build in Morocco
Tom Walker Rabat and Sarah Baxter
12 Feb 2006
THE United States is helping Morocco to build a new interrogation and detention facility for Al-Qaeda suspects near its capital, Rabat, according to western intelligence sources.
The sources confirmed last week that building was under way at Ain Aouda, above a wooded gorge south of Rabat’s diplomatic district. Locals said they had often seen American vehicles with diplomatic plates in the area.
The construction of the new compound, run by the Direction de la Securité du Territoire (DST), the Moroccan secret police, adds to a substantial body of evidence that Morocco is one of America’s principal partners in the secret “rendition” programme in which the CIA flies prisoners to third countries for interrogation.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and other groups critical of the policy have compiled dossiers detailing the detention and apparent torture of radical Islamists at the DST’s current headquarters, at Temara, near Rabat.
A recent inquiry into rendition by the Council of Europe, led by Dick Marty, the Swiss MP, highlighted a pattern of flights between Washington, Guantanamo Bay and Rabat’s military airport at Sale.
French intelligence and diplomatic sources said the most recent such flight was in the first week in December, when four suspects were seen being led blindfolded and handcuffed from a Boeing 737 at Sale and transferred into a fleet of American vehicles.
Morocco’s membership of a so-called “coalition of the willing” has led to tension within the kingdom, where Mohammed VI, 42, is trying to suppress a wave of Islamic fundamentalism, most powerfully expressed in the Casablanca bombings of May 2003, in which 12 suicide bombers — all of them Moroccan — killed more than 40 people.
More than 3,000 suspected radical Islamists have been arrested since, but some of the country’s higher-profile Al-Qaeda sympathisers have been released, including Abdallah Tabarak, a former bodyguard of Osama Bin Laden.
While much of the media is said to have been infiltrated by the DST, a few publications that dare to question official policy have accused the government of allowing Morocco to become “the CIA’s dustbin”.
Donald Rumsfeld, the American defence secretary — who described Morocco and Tunisia yesterday as “long-standing friends and constructive partners” in the fight against terrorism — is due to visit today. Among the topics expected to be discussed with officials is the opening of a new FBI office in Morocco.
Last Friday the country witnessed its first protests against the Danish cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. They were highly organised and controlled but created a sense of apprehension in the capital before Rumsfeld’s talks.
Morocco has an estimated 30,000 policemen for a population of 30m and many people seem scared of speaking to strangers. A Sunday Times reporter was photographed by men with mobile phone cameras at least three times last week but was never directly challenged.
“It’s like a web — they let you spin away and like that they believe they get more information,” said the French intelligence source.
The presence of minders made asking questions around Ain Aouda almost impossible, but at a restaurant adjoining a newly built mosque nearby, elderly men supping mint tea while they watched the African Nations Cup were clearly angry about the project.
“We’ve seen nothing but Americans for five months,” complained one wizened figure before being told by his friends to be quiet.
There are no public access roads leading to the site, which can be seen at the moment only from a bend above the Korifla Gorge. The secluded forest setting is similar to that of Temara, 10 miles to the north.
Moroccan officials refused to make any comment about Ain Aouda. A spokeswoman for the American embassy said she had no information about the new building.
Temara itself already has a fearsome reputation among former inmates. Binyam Mohammed, an Ethiopian-born Briton later sent to Guantanamo Bay, told Amnesty International that interrogators there cut his chest and penis when he refused to answer questions.
Mohammed said he was held at Temara for 18 months before being flown to another “black prison” in Afghanistan in January 2004, and then on to Guantanamo Bay.
It is not clear how many suspects are being questioned in Morocco. The French intelligence source said the four brought to the country in December were all believed to be “high profile” but gave no further details.
Comment: Time for humanistic Europeans, especially the French, to boycott Morocco as a tourist destination...
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UN inquiry demands immediate closure of Guantanamo
By Con Coughlin
Defence and Security Editor in New York
13 Feb 06
A United Nations inquiry has called for the immediate closure of America's Guantanamo Bay detention centre and the prosecution of officers and politicians "up to the highest level" who are accused of torturing detainees. ...
Washington officials yesterday denounced it as "a hatchet job" when informed of the contents by this newspaper.
The UN Human Rights Commission report, due to be published this week, concludes that Washington should put the 520 detainees on trial or release them.
It calls for the United States to halt all "practices amounting to torture", including the force-feeding of inmates who go on hunger strike.
The report wants the Bush administration to ensure that all allegations of torture are investigated by US criminal courts, and that "all perpetrators up to the highest level of military and political command are brought to justice".
It does not specify who it means by "political command" but logically this would include President George W Bush.
The demands are contained in the final report of the commission's working group on arbitrary detention, which will be presented at its Geneva headquarters in the next few days. A copy of the report has been obtained exclusively by The Daily Telegraph.
The report is bound to intensify the already strained relations between the US and the UN over the Iraq war.
Washington officials yesterday denounced it as "a hatchet job" when informed of the contents by this newspaper.
"This shows precisely what is wrong with the United Nations today," said a senior official. "These people are supposed to be undertaking a serious investigation of the facts relating to Guantanamo.
"Instead, they deliver a report with a bunch of old allegations from lawyers representing released detainees that are so generalised that you cannot even tell what they are talking about.
"When the UN produces an unprofessional hatchet job like this it discredits the whole organisation."
The Bush administration has repeatedly called for the UN's wholesale reform, and the report is likely to lead to demands from Congress for a freeze on Washington's annual donations.
The authors question the right of America to classify the detainees as "enemy combatants" and argue that the "war on terror" is no justification for holding them indefinitely without charge.
The report is also deeply critical of the US over recent disclosures that some of the detainees have been subjected to force-feeding when they have gone on hunger strike.
The authors argue that force-feeding is akin to torture, and demands that "the authorities in Guantanamo Bay do not force-feed any detainee who is capable of forming a rational judgment and is aware of the consequences of refusing food."
But US officials refuted the suggestion that force-feeding is torture, arguing that they had a duty under international law to protect the lives of the detainees.
"We have a duty to prevent people killing themselves," said an official, "and we are proud of the fact that none of the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay has died since it opened."
The Guantanamo Bay detention centre was adapted to hold hundreds of al-Qa'eda fighters captured during the 2001 war in Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban.
More than 750 detainees have been processed by the facility during the past four years.
After interrogation by US intelligence officers, some have been released and others returned to their country of origin.
Because the al-Qa'eda fighters do not wear uniforms and have no allegiance to any government they are not covered by the Geneva Conventions.
And while there is insufficient evidence to charge most of the 520 detainees with war crimes, the US insists on the right to detain them to prevent them returning to the battlefield to carry out further attacks against the coalition.
There have already been at least 12 instances where released Guantanamo detainees have resumed attacks against the coalition.
US officials are also prepared to return detainees to their home countries, assuming those countries are prepared to receive them and that they will not be subjected to torture on their return.
While American officials are prepared to concede that there are conflicting interpretations over how the laws governing international conflict should be applied, they are furious at the way the investigation was conducted, especially the evidence that the four "special rapporteurs" who compiled the report have used to reach their conclusions.
Although Washington invited the group to visit Guantanamo at the end of last year to inspect the facility, the rapporteurs rejected the invitation after American officials made it clear that they would not be allowed to meet the detainees.
"They [the rapporteurs] were offered the same access as congressmen responsible for overseeing the facility, but they declined to take up the offer," said a government official. "And then they complain that they had no access to doctors or guards - all of which they were offered."
The Bush administration also challenges whether it is the responsibility of a body such as the UN Human Rights Commission to investigate Guantanamo.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the internationally recognised body responsible for monitoring detention facilities, visits Guantanamo on a monthly basis.
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Rumsfeld's first strike vision
By MARTIN SIEFF
UPI Senior News Analyst
9 Feb 06
WASHINGTON -- Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is developing an ambitious and highly controversial new preemptive strategy to try and counter the increasingly formidable measures that nations around the world are taking to protect their missiles from the U.S. ballistic missile defense systems now coming on line.
The new strategy is multi-pronged and is being developed by two of Rumsfeld's most favored and heavily funded institutions: U.S. Air Force Space Command and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
Curiously, while the concept has received major coverage in British defense publications this week, so far it has not attracted any significant attention in the U.S. media.
A major article published Monday on the British FlightInternational.com Web site documented the far-reaching and long-term scale of Rumsfeld's new vision.
The new program, FlightInternational.com said, is already scheduled to take 14 years to develop: Its goal is to develop a non-nuclear, conventional explosives weapons system that could hit a heavily defended major target such as a weapons of mass destruction launch site within hours or minutes of being ordered to do so.
"Dubbed the Prompt Global Strike (PGS) concept, the initiative will open new opportunities for ballistic or hypersonic vehicle technologies," the article said.
As previously reported in UPI's BMD Watch column, the U.S. Navy is already working on converting several of its Lockheed Martin Trident II D-5 submarine-launched nuclear missiles to carry conventional warheads. "That approach is intended to satisfy the immediate desire of U.S. Strategic Command for a near-term PGS strike option, but the Trident's ballistic trajectory is unlikely to meet long-term accuracy requirements," FlightInternational.com said.
Now Rumsfeld has turned to Air Force Space Command (AFSPC) and asked them to develop more effective delivery systems for such preemptive attacks. Late last month he issued a request to U.S. military-industrial companies asking their input in meeting the challenge.
Just as the Missile Defence Agency has been developing or exploring different anti-ballistic missile systems that could destroy ballistic missiles at different stages of their flights, Air Force Space Command is also seeking to explore simultaneously different options to achieve the PGS goal. Maj. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the command's director of requirements, told FlightInternational.com
These are, Shackelford said:
-- First, a next-generation intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). This, FlightInternational.com said, would be the technically the least ambitious and least revolutionary system to develop or a "low-end" concept.
-- Second, the most ambitious approach would involve the hypersonic Common Aero Vehicle and Small Launch Vehicle under development by DARPA's Falcon program.
-- Third, U.S. engineers are applying the same principle that Russia's Strategic Rocket Forces are working overtime to give the Multiple Independently-targeted Re-entry Vehicles (MIRVs) on their Bulava and Topol-M missiles maneuverable characteristics.
Shackelford told FlightInternational.com that U.S. forces are seeking develop a new conventional warhead for American ICBMs that can shape its own trajectory on re-entry, greatly improving its accuracy.
FlightInternational.com said the Department of Defence expects to receive responses back to its request from U.S. industry by March 14 and Air Force Space Command would then launch a two-year period of analyzing the different possible approaches for developing the new weapon.
The top officer at U.S. Strategic Command, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, reportedly sees this ability as vital if the United States receives fleeting intelligence about an important target, Inside Defense.com Newstand reported Feb. 3. Such a weapon might be used if North Korea prepares to launch a nuclear missile or if intelligence surfaces on a terrorist leader's whereabouts, the Web site said.
The most demanding scenarios under which the president might launch global-strike weapons are in cases of "no warning," U.S. defense officials told the web site.
The two-year review appears to be a setback for DARPA, despite the general strong support and generous budgets with which Rumsfeld has consistently favored it.
DARPA has pursued its Common Aero Vehicle based on the development of a new hypersonic glide vehicle, reflecting the agency's passion for new cutting edge technologies. But as FlightInternational.com pointedly noted, the hypersonic glide vehicle is "still-untested" and currently it "is not the presumed favorite candidate."
However, Gen. Shackelford told FlightInternational.com that "the results from the Falcon demonstration program, which involves a three-year series of flight tests on three increasingly capable versions of a hypersonic test vehicle, will be used to compete with the other candidates identified under the analysis of alternatives."
Although the new PGS system may be nearly a decade and a half away, even the coming debate over the best options to explore in developing it look likely to be charged with controversy.
For the very concept of the PGS, its critics claim, may push potential hostile nations to be prepared to launch nuclear-armed missiles with even less notice than before in order to avoid them being destroyed in any preemptive U.S. first strike. Therefore, they charge, far from making the American people and homeland safer, the development of such weapons could put them at even greater risk from thermonuclear attack.
As long as Rumsfeld remains at the Pentagon, however, the commitment to developing the PGS as energetically as possible looks unlikely to change.
© Copyright 2006 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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9/11 Rescuer Saw Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby
Killtown
10 Feb 06
In an exclusive Killtown interview, Ground Zero EMT Patricia Ondrovic talks about her harrowing day at the WTC on 9/11. Within minutes after the South Tower collapses, she witnessed the WTC 5 blowing up, cars exploding, and explosions inside the lobby of the WTC 6, all the while narrowly escaping with her own life. Patricia can be reached at: fieldangel911@yahoo.com
Arriving at the Scene
Killtown: Were you one of the Ground Zero rescuers on 9/11?
Patricia Ondrovic: Yes.
KT: What was your position and who did you work for?
PO: I was an emergency medical technician [EMT] with the Fire Department of New York.
KT: How did your day start off on Sept. 11 and when did you get called to the scene at the WTC?
PO: It started off like any other. I had dropped a patient off at Bellevue and one of the Doc's asked if I was going to respond to the WTC. I told him it was out of my area. I asked "why, what's going on?" He told me they were getting reports that "a helicopter" had crashed into one of the towers. I responded after both planes had hit. I was on scene approx 45 min before the first tower fell.
[The 2nd crash happened at approx 9:03 a.m. and the South tower fell at approx 9:59 a.m.]
KT: Was the WTC area part of your regular route?
PO: No, I worked in the Times Square area. The WTC was far downtown from where I was.
KT: What did you immediately do once you arrived at the scene and do you remember where exactly you arrived at?
PO: I reported to a staging officer who told me to park the ambulance along Vesey Street. I ended up parking along the street in front of the 6 World Trade with several other ambulances. We were going to get any injured people who were brought out of the burning buildings to transport to the hospital. I don't remember where we entered from as I was not so familiar with the area.
Another Airplane Warning
KT: Did you basically stay around that area before the South Tower collapsed at 9:59 am?
PO: Yes, we were staged waiting for the triage teams to bring us patients when an officer in a white shirt and blue pants (don't know from what agency) said that there was a radio transmission that stated, "Another plane was headed towards us!" We were told to get to our vehicles and get ready to move fast, but it wasn't fast enough. All of a sudden there was a lot of activity within the several agencies there and everyone started to scramble to ready their respective vehicles.
KT: When you were told another aircraft was approaching, was this right before the South Tower collapsed?
PO: Maybe 3 to 5 minutes prior. I don't know if that estimation is correct, but I remember we all had time to take a minute and look into the skies all around to see if we could see anything.
KT: Did you see any planes in the sky?
PO: No, there was nothing in the skies at that time.
KT: Did you happen to see any helicopters, military or non-military, flying around?
PO: I didn't see any helicopters at the time either.
KT: Where did they want you to move your vehicles too, any particular spot, or just "away" from the WTC?
PO: "Just get ready to move fast" is the phrase I remember.
KT: Did they want you to move away from the area right away, or just get ready to move if another plane was coming in?
PO: I don't know, they just told us to get our equipment, put it back in the vehicles and "get ready to move...fast". At that point, they seemed to realize it just wasn't a safe place to be.
KT: In retrospect, did it seem a little too coincidental that they told all of the rescuers to get ready to move out of the area minutes before the Tower collapsed?
PO: It was a bit eerie at the time as well. In that job, when someone tells you to "just move fast" there's nothing to question, you just move. We had been on scene for a while before just setting up and waiting for patients and all of a sudden there was so much activity. It did seem odd that after being there for some time all of a sudden everyone had to get ready to get out. I personally never expected the buildings to come down.
KT: Did you receive any direct warnings or hear any rumors that any of the towers might be coming down?
PO: We were not told the building was possibly going to collapse. I did not hear any rumors about a building collapse. I never heard anyone say anything to the effect that any of the buildings in the area were not stable at the time. We were simply told to get to our vehicles and get ready to move.
KT: Was Vesey Street blocked off between Church St and West St?
PO: Yes, I think all that were there were fire, police, EMS, and OEM [Office Emergency Management].
KT: Did you ever see any videos or cameras being confiscated from anyone that day?
PO: No.
KT: Did you see any newscasters or any other media people on or near Vesey taking any footage?
PO: No, none that I could see.
Cars Blowing Up
KT: What did you do when the South Tower started coming down?
PO: I didn't know what was happening, but there was a loud "roar" -- lots of crashing sounds. I was attempting to put my stretcher back into the vehicle. The ground was shaking and I saw a sea of people, mostly the various agencies on scene, Fire, Police, EMS, all running towards me. I had no idea what they were running from, but I decided I'd be ahead of them and just started running west towards the river. As I was running, parked cars were blowing up and some were on fire, the street was cracking a bit as well. Very shortly after I started running, everything became one big black cloud. I was near the West Side Highway and I couldn't see around me anymore.
KT: Before you heard the loud rumbling which was the South Tower coming down, do you remember hearing any strange noises like gunfire or crackling sounds?
PO: No.
KT: You talked about the cars blowing up in your WTC Task Force interview, correct?
PO: Yes.
KT: Can you estimate how many vehicles blew up around you?
PO: At least three and some were on fire as I was running by. I was still on the south side of Vesey running west. The burning cars were between my ambulance and about the middle of the 6 World Trade where the lobby doors were at.
KT: Where you running on the street, or up the sidewalk?
PO: Up the sidewalk.
KT: When these vehicles blew up, was it kind of like what you would see in the movies where the vehicle pops up in the air when it explodes with a fireball coming out?
PO: I remember parts flying off -- I think I got hit with a car door. I remember they were also on fire, but I don't specifically recall the movie type fireball, but there was a loud bang as the door flew off the one car I was running past.
KT: Do you have any idea what was causing these vehicles to catch on fire and/or explode? Was the air temperature really hot as you were running by these cars?
PO: I don't know what was causing them to blow up. I didn't know at the time that I was trying to outrun a skyscraper falling on me, but after I found out what I ran from. I figured it was the impact of the building falling and residual effect. I am not an engineer, so I can only guess at a probable cause. I don't remember feeling any extreme heat.
KT: Could you tell if the vehicles blowing up on the street were only parked next to the WTC 6?
PO: I was only paying attention to my immediate surroundings, if there were any vehicles not near me blowing up, I wasn't aware of them, just the ones closest to me.
KT: What type of vehicles were they (cars, SUVs, trucks -- civilian, non-civilian) that were on fire or had blown up?
PO: They were unmarked cars, most likely privately owned. I didn't see any SUVs, trucks or any "official" vehicles on fire.
KT: Were these cars all parked next to each other?
PO: They were parallel parked. There was no discernable order to what was on fire. It was all very chaotic.
Explosions Inside WTC 6 Lobby
KT: You mentioned you were running west on Vesey Street, what happened after that?
PO: I just kept running. I was aware there were other people running as well. After passing the cars on fire, I was trying to find someplace safe. I tried to run into the lobby of 6 World Trade, but there were federal police -- maybe 4 to 6 of them -- standing in the open doorways. As I tried to run in, they wouldn't let me, waving me out, telling me "you can't come in here, keep running." As I turned to start running west again, I saw a series of flashes around the ceiling of the lobby all going off one-by-one like the X-mass lights that "chase" in pattern. I think I started running faster at that point.
KT: Did you hear any "popping" sounds when each of these flashes in the WTC 6 lobby were going off?
PO: Yes, that part was like a movie. The pops were at the same time as the flashes.
KT: Can you estimate either how many flashes you saw or how many of these "pops" you heard inside this lobby?
PO: At least 6 before I was turned away.
KT: Could you still hear any of these explosions when you turned to run back out, or was the noise outside too loud?
PO: I don't recall hearing any more when I resumed running. It was very chaotic.
KT: Now to be clear, were you inside the Lobby of the WTC 6, or were you outside the building when you witnessed these what appeared to be explosions?
PO: I was in the doorway, but not inside the lobby. I remember being able to breathe the somewhat cleaner air coming from inside the building. They stopped me as I was trying to get past the threshold.
KT: Were the explosions going off as you were entering the lobby area, or did they seem to start going off after the police tried to turn you away?
PO: It all happened at the same time. As I got to the doorway, I was told not to come in. As the officer was telling me I couldn't get in the building the flashes starting going off.
KT: Where the police just right at the lobby door, or were some also way inside the building?
PO: There were probably 4-5 officers in the doorway. I could see a few others back in the lobby area.
KT: You said you saw "federal police." What exactly do you mean and did you find it strange they were in there and that they wouldn't let you in?
PO: Well, they were in light brown uniforms and "Smokey the bear" hats. I assumed they were federal police because NYC police don't look like that and I knew there was a lot of federal offices in the WTC as well as the surrounding area, so it wasn't strange to me to see them there, but I did find it very odd that they wouldn't let me in to get cover. But like I say, in that profession, someone tells you to go an opposite way you are going, you don't ask, you just go. I remember hoping they got out as I was watching whatever the small explosions were, because they stayed in the building. They weren't locking it up after evacuating or anything like that.
KT: Did you know which government agencies were in the WTC?
PO: I knew there were a lot of federal agencies in the WTC complex, but I don't know which ones specifically.
KT: Did these policemen run out of the WTC 6 lobby after these explosions occurred, or could you tell?
PO: It didn't look like they did. It looked like they were there making sure no one ran in like I tried to do. I remember seeing them in the doorway, but don't know what happened to them after that.
KT: Did you happen to notice if they were wearing any earplugs or any other uncommon protective gear?
PO: There was nothing that I could see. They appeared to be dressed to simply do lobby detail. No flack wear, no overcoats, no helmets. To this day, I still wonder if they got out.
KT: Did you think these explosions in the lobby were maybe lights popping out as in an electrical surge, or did they seem more like explosives going off in a timed manner?
PO: I immediately got the impression they were timed explosives. I have never thought they were anything else, not then, not now.
KT: Have you ever seen a building being demolished with explosives on TV and was the flashes and pops similar to that?
PO: It did remind me of just that. I had seen something on a Las Vegas casino being demolished and that's what it reminded me of.
KT: Can you try to describe what these "pops" you heard sounded like?
PO: They sounded like light bulbs popping, but there were no light fixtures where the explosions were coming from. The sound was not all that loud.
KT: Do you think these explosions you witnessed were loud enough to be heard on the street?
PO: Because of everything going on, I don't think these "pops" could have been heard from the street. It was definitely louder outside as a whole.
KT: At the time, who did you think planted these explosives in there?
PO: I didn't have any notions of where to put blame per se, but I remember thinking that it was possibly the same organization who tried to blow up the building back in 1993. I figured they came back to finish the job. At the time I was running, I remember thinking that "they" wired the whole area. At the time I wasn't aware that what made the towers catch fire were passenger jets crashing. I thought the buildings had bombs planted to go off that day. The idea of not only one passenger jet, but two took me a while to comprehend -- not to mention the pentagon as well.
KT: Can you estimate how long after you heard the load rumbling, which was the South Tower coming down, to when you witnessed these explosives going off in the WTC 6?
PO: Well, remember this was all on the same street I was parked. It is very difficult for me to estimate time with so much happening at once, but I want to say maybe 2 to 3 minutes from the rumbling and the ground, and the cars, and the fires, that I tried to run into 6 WTC for cover, which is when I saw those explosions.
KT: Did anybody else besides you and the police witness these explosions in the WTC 6 lobby?
PO: I imagine there must have been others to see, I wasn't the only one running up the street. I can't imagine being the only person to try to run for cover. I didn't see any "civilians" in the lobby of the 6, just the brown uniformed officers.
Motorola Radio Troubles
KT: After you witnessed the explosions in the lobby of the WTC 6, you started running in which direction and then what happened?
PO: I kept running west on Vesey. I got hit with the cloud shortly after being turned away from 6 WTC. I was probably at the corner of Vesey/West Street at that point running. I ran towards the West Side Highway -- there is a park area there. I remember running across grass and there was now lots of grey and black smoke. I was just trying to get to the water because nothing was exploding, or on fire from what I could see. There were lots and lots of people also running that way at this point.
KT: When were you able to escape the dust cloud and what happened after that?
PO: I was now at the water's edge. There were no boats I could see, so I started to run north along the side of the West Side Highway. I was about 9 or 10 blocks north of Vesey on the West Side Highway. I found the first FDNY EMS vehicle and knew the crew as they were also from my station. I remember not being able to breathe so well -- felt like someone was standing on my chest. When I looked back, I could see people coming out of the black cloud and continuing to run and walk north on the West Side Highway as well.
KT: Did you notice any firefighters or other rescuers having technical problems with their Motorola radios or any other equipment?
PO: Oh yeah, at one point there was a loud "buzzing" sound and none of the EMS radios worked for maybe 30 seconds? We all used Motorola radios and I believe our repeaters were on top of the towers, so when the tower came down our radios failed. I tried to use my cellphone, but that too did not work.
KT: Do you know if anybody's cellphone worked and were able to get through to anybody?
PO: A few of my co workers had Nextel phones. Theirs worked, but they couldn't talk to anyone who didn't have a Nextel because all the other services were out at the time.
KT: When did you get to leave the area to go home?
PO: I left by ambulance. A FDNY EMS supervisor came up to myself and my colleagues and told us to "go back in." I still wasn't aware of what I had come out of and I told him anyone who didn't get out isn't getting out and it's not safe to go back in. He yelled at me, demanding all 3 of us "go back in." I told him I was having chest pain and trouble breathing and my colleagues took me to St. Vincent's Hospital. I was on the stretcher with an oxygen mask on looking out the back windows as we were driving off and saw the other tower collapse. It didn't occur to me at the time that the other one was already gone and that's what I came out of. I don't remember when I got home. I had to walk over the Queensboro Bridge and it was dark out. I walked home from my station at Bellevue. I lived in Astoria, Queens at the time. All I wanted to do was get home and see my cats.
Bag & Tag at Ground Zero
KT: In the days after, did you have to go back at Ground Zero?
PO: Yes, I think my first day back was maybe 3 days later.
KT: What were your duties when you had to go back?
PO: We all took turns doing morgue detail, standby for anyone who got hurt going through the rubble. I did morgue detail a few times.
KT: Is this what is referred to as "bag & tag"?
PO: Yes, when you have to log any body parts, or personal effects in morgue work. It was important to try to document any remains we found.
KT: Now despite this being probably the most chaotic incident you had to work at, did you find any strange things when you're recovering evidence there?
PO: Well, I remember cataloging findings in the morgue log -- a tooth, an arm and such. Never catalogued watches, wallets or jewelry.
KT: You never found any jewelry on any of the victim's parts?
PO: I didn't, no. But I do recall at some point either in Brooklyn or Staten Island they had a facility where debris was trucked to and the contents sifted by hand for any evidence. That was some time after 9/11, maybe a few weeks after they started that.
KT: Did you find any personal belongings on the ground or buried under any debris?
PO: I didn't.
KT: What about things like office furniture, computers, and pictures -- things that would be in a normal office building?
PO: Everything was this sort of grey/black debris. I personally never saw anything definable like a chair, desk, or phone, but I never went into what was the base of the building itself, there could have been there. I remember everything being layered in grey soot and ashes everywhere and just debris. One thing I remember distinctly was on a corner adjacent to the towers a bike messenger's bicycle still chained to the lamppost covered in soot.
KT: Have you ever worked a recover detail where you didn't find any recognizable personal belongings or objects like interior furniture, say from the aftermath of a fire?
PO: I never worked a recovery detail before that. It wasn't customary for EMS to work recovery. From time to time we would have to transport a body to the morgue after an investigation was completed if the deceased was in public view. I worked in midtown. In the 12 years I was with EMS, I never responded to anything like that.
KT: A year after the attacks, a victim's family received an ATM card that belonged to their son who was supposedly on Flight 11 that crashed into the North Tower and was supposedly found in relative pristine condition by rescue crews at Ground Zero. Did you ever come across anything even remotely close to someone's personal item like this in any condition?
PO: I never came across any personal effects. The things I did find were charred, burnt, rubble covered in soot. I guess that's the needle in the haystack [the ATM card].
KT: So is it fair to say that you think something like this plastic ATM could not only not survive at Ground Zero, but not survive so well intact?
PO: I'd say it was a miracle.
Aircraft Wreckage
KT: Did you ever see any aircraft wreckage lying around on or after 9/11 at Ground Zero.
PO: Not on 9/11, but a bit after one day I was doing standby and there was a long flatbed truck bringing out a long piece of silver and charred metal, probably the length of 2 passenger cars, that one of the police officers doing standby detail with us brought to my attention and he said it was a piece of the plane.
KT: Could you at all tell what part of the plane this piece of debris you saw on this truck came from and could you see any windows or other discernable markings?
PO: No, it had to be brought to my attention what it was. In fact, I forgot I saw that until you asked the question. It would have stuck in my memory if it was a wing, or seats or anything like that. It was a somewhat long and curved at the edges piece of what looked like fuselage. I didn't see any company markings on it either.
KT: You mentioned this piece was silver in color. Did any part of that piece of silver debris you saw have any of the "shiny silver" you would see on your average American Airlines plane?
PO: Not when I saw it. The entire piece was dull and charred silver, but it definitely looked like part of a plane.
KT: Did anybody you know of who was at the WTC on 9/11 or at Ground Zero afterwards see or find any airplane debris?
PO: Not that I'm aware of. No one mentioned anything like that to me.
WTC Task Force Interview
KT: You were interviewed by the WTC task force afterwards. Did anybody else interview you about your experience at ground zero?
PO: The WTC Task Force was the only group that ever interviewed or debriefed me. They asked me to detail the events that day as well as mark on a map where I was parked and which way I ran.
KT: Who were the people at the WTC Task Force that interviewed you?
PO: I was told one was from the F.B.I., one was from D.O.I. [Dept. of Investigations], one was P.D. I recall there were 4 to 5 people involved. They were writing as well as voice recording.
KT: Do you know why some of the lines on pages 9, 12, 13 of your Task Force interview were blacked out?
PO: No, I never received a copy of my interview and I never read it. All I did was the one interview with them.
KT: When these officials were debriefing you, was this a normal routine after an incident?
PO: I had been on other calls that I was debriefed after (not many) and usually it was an EMS supervisor with P.D. if it was a crime scene, or if I had witnessed a crime, or incident in progress.
KT: Was your interview with the WTC Task Force more of a normal debriefing, or did you feel like you were being interrogated?
PO: I felt as if they were trying to pick apart every minute detail from every possible angle.
KT: Did you find that odd, especially having to trace your movements on a map?
PO: It was a crime scene, so much was lost. I figured they still had to recover equipment and needed to document. I think I was still a bit shell shocked to really consider it. There were so many things that were odd then, nothing was normal.
KT: Did you mention the flashes and explosions going off in the lobby of the WTC 6 to them?
PO: Yes, I did. I remember describing what looked like depth charges going off in the building I tried to run into, but I don't see it in the transcript of my interview.
KT: Did they ask you any follow-up questions about these explosions?
PO: No, they asked me to describe the events as I have described them to you here. I don't recall them asking any follow up questions. They simply took notes all the way through. The only specific questions I remember being asked was in regards to mapping out where my vehicle was and which way I ran.
WTC 5 Blowing Up
KT: On the Task Force interview, you said "I was still on Vesey, cause the building that blew up on me was on Vesey." Which building were you refereeing to?
PO: I don't know, but that is all WTC property. I'm not sure if that was 6 or just a part of the WTC complex.
KT: When you said the building "blew up" on you, are you talking about the explosions you saw in the WTC 6 lobby?
PO: No, this was directly behind my vehicle as I was trying to put the stretcher back in. I don't know if that was part of 6 though. I ran from what was blowing up and that's when I tried to run into the lobby of 6. The vehicles were parked backed up to the curb, not parallel parked, so the back doors of the ambulance were facing the building [WTC 6] on the south side of Vesey.
KT: Do you feel that it was either the WTC 5 or 6 that was blowing up?
PO: Yes.
KT: Was this before the cars started catching on fire and blowing up, or about at the same time?
PO: All at the same time. Everything happened very quickly. I couldn't say which came first.
KT: You mentioned in that interview that you thought one of the lobbies of the building behind you is what blew out. Was this the lobby of WTC 5 or 6?
PO: I'm not sure, but it was probably 5 because 6 was west of me and that's the lobby I tried to run into.
KT: Can you describe more about how the building blew up on you? Did you feel the shock wave from the explosion and/or debris falling down near you?
PO: Well, one second I was trying to put my stretcher into the ambulance, the next thing I know I am thrown to the ground as the ground was shaking. Debris was flying at me from where the building I was parked in front of. There was a continual loud rumbling, there was just debris flying from every direction and then everything being covered in the black and gray smoke.
KT: Let's recap real quickly; your ambulance was parked backed up against the WTC 6, near the 6's corner by the alleyway between the WTC 5 and 6. When you were trying to put your stretcher back in, you were knocked down to the ground by an explosion that you thought came from the lobby of WTC 5. When you got back up, you started running west up the sidewalk on Vesey St towards West Side Hwy and then these cars parked along the street started blowing up as you ran by and that's when you tried to duck into the WTC 6 lobby for cover, but these policemen inside where preventing you from coming in and that's when you saw the explosions inside the lobby of WTC 6?
PO: Yes.
KT: Did anybody else you know concur with you that either the WTC 5 or 6 was blowing up at the same time you heard the rumbling of the South Tower collapsing?
PO: No, it never came up in discussion.
KT: After the attacks when things were starting to settle down for you and after the government and media was telling us what had all happened, did you ever look back and think what were all those explosions from the WTC 5 and 6 you witnessed were all about and why there was never any official mention of them?
PO: No, I didn't watch the news. I was a bit shell shocked to say the least. In fact the very first time I have revisited that day was when I found your site.
WTC 7
KT: You mentioned you left the WTC area before the North Tower collapsed, when did you hear about the WTC 7 collapsing, in which you were parked across them street from?
PO: When I stumbled onto your site 3 weeks ago.
KT: Did that surprise you that you never heard about the WTC 7 collapsing afterwards?
PO: Actually, it did. It confused me somewhat because I don't remember seeing anything on the news about it, or even knowing it was in any type of unstable condition.
KT: So you weren't aware that another building had collapse (which was WTC 7) when you returned to Ground Zero for morgue detail?
PO: No I wasn't. There was so much debris and wreckage I couldn't tell what was what anymore.
KT: When you were on the scene on Vesey St that whole time, did you happen to notice anything commotion or anything strange going on near the WTC 7?
PO: No.
Colleagues Lost
KT: Were you ever invited to the 9/11 Commission hearings?
PO: No.
KT: Were you ever gagged by anybody from talking about anything related to 9/11?
PO: No, I wasn't.
KT: Are you concerned that you might loose your job by speaking out on these issues?
PO: No, not at this time.
KT: Have you suffered any health effects from working down at Ground Zero?
PO: I broke a couple of ribs, but didn't realize it till 3 days later. I had, like most of my colleagues, the "WTC cough" for several months. It was an extremely annoying dry hack that didn't produce anything, but acted more like "spasms" rather than a cough. You'd get woken up in the middle of the night with this cough that sometimes would have you near passing out and unable to catch your breath. Over time it has dissipated, thanks gods.
KT: Did you lose any colleagues at Ground Zero?
PO: I stopped counting at 60.
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Finding Unbiased Moussaoui Jury Not Easy
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Associated Press
Sun Feb 12, 9:47 PM ET
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the death penalty trial of Zacarias Moussaoui are searching for the perfect jury, poring through hundreds of questionnaires from potential jurors and looking for clues to their perceptions of the case.
Jury selection will be particularly difficult for the defense. The team must find an unbiased panel for a man who prosecutors say could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, just a few miles from the courthouse where the trial takes place.
"It'd be like trying Tim McVeigh in Oklahoma City," said criminal defense lawyer John Zwerling, referring the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. A federal judge moved McVeigh's trial to Denver.
Zwerling once waived his client's right to a jury trial in a terror-related case in Alexandria rather than risk jurors' visceral reaction to words such as al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden and Sept. 11.
"It's a problem everywhere, but it's a particularly difficult problem in the shadow of the Pentagon," Zwerling said.
Moussaoui pleaded guilty in April to conspiring with al-Qaida to use aircraft to destroy buildings in the United States. Moussaoui denies any involvement in Sept. 11 and says he was preparing to fly a plane into the White House as part of a second wave of attacks.
Prosecutors must directly link Moussaoui to the attacks to obtain the death penalty. They plan to do so by arguing that Moussaoui's lies to investigators when he was arrested in August 2001 prevented the FBI from thwarting the attacks.
Defense lawyers argue that the government knew more about al-Qaida's plans than Moussaoui ever knew and was still unable to prevent the Sept. 11 attacks.
Jeffrey Frederick, a jury consultant and director of jury research for the National Legal Research Group in Charlottesville, Va., said his death penalty research in recent year has found that people often cite Moussaoui's case as exactly the kind that warrants the death penalty.
"You have a situation where he is almost the poster child for the death penalty," said Frederick, who once worked with Moussaoui's defense on other jury issues but is no longer on the case.
Only after a jury determines Moussaoui is eligible for the death penalty can they hear testimony and arguments about whether Moussaoui deserves execution.
Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said that in most capital cases the question of eligibility is little more than a formality and the real battle is whether execution is deserved. In Moussaoui's case, the reverse is true and the eligibility phase presents their best hope to avoid execution.
If the case makes it to the second phase, prosecutors can present emotional testimony from the families of Sept. 11 victims, Dieter said. Defense evidence of Moussaoui's difficult childhood, for instance, will certainly pale compared with the impact of nearly 3,000 murders, he said.
Potential jurors were called in Feb. 6 to fill out 49-page questionnaires asking about religious practices, perceptions of Islam, reactions to Sept. 11 and feelings on the death penalty.
Individual questioning of jurors begins Wednesday, with opening statements from lawyers set for March 6.
Frederick said one question on which Moussaoui's defense team should focus involves jurors' views of the FBI's handling of investigations like the 2001 anthrax attacks and the 1996 Olympic bombing investigation - both cases for which the FBI has drawn criticism.
People with doubts about the FBI's handling of such cases, he said, might also be disinclined to believe that the FBI would have foiled the Sept. 11 attacks with Moussaoui's cooperation.
Comment: An unbiased jury?? With all the Bush regime's propaganda? Good luck!
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US Interests and Israel/Palestine
ifAmericansKnew
Although it is not often reported by the press, a large proportion of American diplomatic and military experts have long held that U.S. support of Israel is often contrary to and, in fact, extremely damaging to U.S. interests.
Support for Israel interferes with: American relations with the oil-producing nations, with whom we previously had friendly ties; with Muslim consumers, who represent 1.2 billion people world-wide; and removes much-needed money from domestic American requirements — tax revenues that could be addressed to domestic needs are instead sent abroad to prop up a system of discrimination that is antithetical to American principles of equality and democracy.
In addition, the ‘special relationship’ between the U.S. and Israel is increasingly imperiling American lives.
Why, then, is this done? Close examination of the history and current situation reveals that U.S. policies in the Middle East are rarely driven by U.S. interests. Rather, they are largely driven by two very different factors:
1. Special-interest lobbying of the sort that is common to Washington. The only difference from typical lobby groups is that this lobbying is on behalf of a foreign government. Fortune Magazine rates one of the many lobby organizations working on behalf of Israel, AIPAC, as the fourth most powerful lobby in Washington. In total, many experts rate the pro-Israel interest group as the most powerful lobby in Washington.
2. The efforts of a growing number of individuals with close ties to Israel (known as neoconservatives) who have attained key positions at high levels of the U.S. administration, State Department, and Pentagon.
Interestingly, the oil and weapons industries, although very influential over parts of American Middle East policy, are not responsible for our relationship with Israel. In fact, quite often both of these industries find our support for Israel undermines their corporate interests in the region.
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Brown: 'I warned White House about Katrina'
By LARA JAKES JORDAN
Associated Press
11 Feb 06
Top White House officials were warned that Hurricane Katrina would be "our worst nightmare" the day the storm roared ashore, former federal disaster chief Michael Brown says.
An assertive Brown told senators Friday that he described levee failures and massive flooding last Aug. 29 to chief of staff Andrew Card, deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin and others in the White House.
He said the Homeland Security Department was among a half-dozen government agencies that received regular briefings that day from him and other officials by way of video conference calls.
Administration officials have said they did not realize the severe damage Katrina had caused until after the storm had passed. But under oath, Brown told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee he could not explain why his appeals failed to produce a faster response.
"I expected them to cut every piece of red tape, do everything they could ... that I didn't want to hear anybody say that we couldn't do everything they humanly could to respond to this," Brown said about a video conference with administration officials _ in which President Bush briefly participated _ the day before Katrina hit. "Because I knew in my gut this was the bad one."
In the end, the hurricane claimed more than 1,300 lives, uprooted hundreds of thousands more and caused tens of billions of dollars worth of damage in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities.
Brown, in his second Capitol Hill appearance since Katrina, told his side to the senators five months after he quit under fire as chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
He agreed with some senators who characterized him as a scapegoat for government failures.
"I feel somewhat abandoned," Brown said.
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said he did not know that New Orleans' levees were breached until Aug. 30. Bush at the time said, "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
At an occasionally contentious White House briefing Friday, press secretary Scott McClellan said there were conflicting reports about the levees in the immediate aftermath of the storm.
"We knew of the flooding that was going on," McClellan said. "That's why our top priority was focused on saving lives. ... The cause of the flooding was secondary to that top priority and that's the way it should be."
After three hours of testimony, Brown was handed a subpoena ordering him to reappear in front of a House panel investigating the storm response. He is expected to be questioned by House investigators this weekend _ days before the panel plans to release its findings on the storm.
Recounting conference calls that described initial damage reports the day Katrina hit, Brown scoffed at claims that Homeland Security didn't know about the devastation's scope until the next day. He called those claims "just baloney."
Some senators suggested Brown look inward before pointing the finger elsewhere.
"You're not prepared to put a mirror in front of your face and recognize your own inadequacies," said Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn. "Perhaps you may get a more sympathetic hearing if you had a willingness to confess your own sins in this."
Brown responded: "That's very easy for you to say sitting behind that dais and not being there in the middle of that disaster watching that human suffering and watching those people dying and trying to deal with those structural dysfunctionalities, even within the federal government."
The disjointed federal response, Brown said, was in part the result of FEMA being swallowed in 2003 by the newly created Homeland Security Department, which he said was focused on fighting terrorism.
Natural disasters "had become the stepchild of the Department of Homeland Security," he said. Had there been a report that "a terrorist had blown up the 17th Street Canal levee, then everybody would have jumped all over that," he added.
Some senators attempted to trace the failures back to the White House.
"You quite appropriately and admirably wanted to get the word to the president as quickly as you could," Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., said in asking about Brown's conversation with Hagin on the evening of Aug. 29. "Did you tell Mr. Hagin in that phone call that New Orleans was flooding?"
Brown replied, "I think I told him that we were realizing our worst nightmare, that everything we had planned about, worried about, that FEMA, frankly, had worried about for 10 years was coming true."
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C.O.M.B.A.T. 4 Christ
Robotified America
I would like to take a moment of your time to introduce you to a ministry that the Lord has laid upon our heart. Seasoned in prayer and coupled with many hours of preparation, there has evolved a training course for Christian Youth and Young Adults.
I'm sure you have dealt with the anguish of preparing your youth to conform to the image of Christ. You have fought with Hollywood and the Music Industry to gain the minds and hearts of America's youth. Many today within the Church are ready to surrender our most valuable resource (our children) to the enemy's camp. I AM NOT! God has a work for the young men and women of today. A work that depends on us to train and lead them to "fight the good fight of faith."
Our Lord has developed within my heart a burden to train these young men and women. With this in mind, I began to draw upon my training as a Pathfinder in the U.S. Army. I reasoned that the methods employed in the Armed Forces of this nation had led to many victories and freedom to all. Why could we as Christians not glean the benefits of the same?
Laid within five sections of the C.O.M.B.A.T. course: COMMITMENT... OBEDIENCE... MIND... BODY... ATTITUDE... TESTIMONY..... We have constructed hands on object lessons that will educate, enlighten, and even entertain the young men and women who complete this course.
Within this Site you will find a brief description of the course. I truly feel this course will be a highlight of the youth program at your church. The course offers intense training, affordable pricing, and Truth that will be taken home and passed on to others.
In Christ Jesus our Lord,
Bryan Mowery
"The battle is in the field"
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Why We Fight
Karen Kwiatkowski
11 Feb 2006
Ike knew a thing or two about war, American government, and our nascent military-industrial complex. Eisenhower worried, but we weren’t paying attention – at least in 1961. When asked why he made the film, Jarecki said, “Americans [today] have a visceral sense that something is rotten, but no-one can seem to connect the dots…. I wanted to make this film because we need what Eisenhower called an ‘alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ to compel change, to improve the public’s ability to monitor those in power ”
Director Eugene Jarecki has put together a wonderful, moving and important film that examines the modern American military machine and the modern American militaristic mindset.
His film is the 2005 Sundance Film Festival’s Documentary Award-winning Why We Fight. The title of the film recalls Frank Capra’s World War II films – popular movies that promoted, eulogized and helped mythologize America’s participation and sacrifice in that war.
We fought in World War II for many reasons, but mostly it seems, because we believed.
Why We Fight carefully illustrates how our beliefs, our national character, our shared view of ourselves as Americans have changed since World War II. Jarecki utilizes President Eisenhower’s famous farewell speech of January 17th, 1961. In this speech, Ike warned of a growing military-industrial complex, and its possible negative impact on our democracy and our republic. As the late Colonel David Hackworth used to remind me, Eisenhower spoke of the dangers presented by military-industrial-congressional complex.
Eisenhower advised there was a “…danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.” He reminded us, “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together. He said,
…we – you and I, and our government – must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering for, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without asking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow.
I had never before watched Eisenhower’s farewell speech until I saw Why We Fight. Those who are today manning the ship of state in Washington, D.C., like people my age, completely missed this prophetic speech. As Ike passed the presidential baton to a fresh new face, a youthful George W. Bush, like most of his generation, was focused on high school shenanigans, and the American people basked in long-awaited economic prosperity.
Ike knew a thing or two about war, American government, and our nascent military-industrial complex. Eisenhower worried, but we weren’t paying attention – at least in 1961. When asked why he made the film, Jarecki said, “Americans [today] have a visceral sense that something is rotten, but no-one can seem to connect the dots…. I wanted to make this film because we need what Eisenhower called an ‘alert and knowledgeable citizenry’ to compel change, to improve the public’s ability to monitor those in power ”
Why We Fight is filmed in a new kind of America. It is still filled with everyday people pulling together for glory, Capra-style. But this documentary carefully and intelligently reveals the present-day fruition of Ike’s darker vision.
Many everyday Americans are featured in Why We Fight. A father who lost his son in the Twin Tower attacks on 9-11. Workers making armaments on massive factory floors, and workers writing global engagement policy prescriptions from inside carefully appointed urban thinktanks. Politicians and contractors and military recruiters and soldiers. These simultaneously common and uncommon people are key to the film’s humanity and its directness – because these people are us.
However, Jarecki’s steady hand reveals that while we are indeed Frank Capra’s Americans, we are today, in Jarecki’s words, “ …caught in a vortex of spiraling militarisation and moral and economic bankruptcy, and [we] feel remote from and powerless to change those forces.”
Why We Fight grapples with this sense of moral and economic bankruptcy that many feel as we stay the course and fight wars in Iraq, and elsewhere. The film illuminates the “insolvent phantom of tomorrow” that Ike foretold, and it attempts to get underneath the superficial explanations, and ideological perspectives. In Jarecki’s words, “We tend to hunt for heroes and villains, rather than study roots of the problem. I wanted to make a film that goes beyond the focus on the individual.”
Jarecki gets it. He understands and clearly articulates how the care and feeding of the American military leviathan has been, and remains, a shared role of both Democratic and Republican Parties. There hasn’t been an antiwar party at the national level for decades, and it is easy to see why. What Cold War competition, massive federalization and sophisticated and relentless government agitprop pitting “us” against “them” has produced is summed up in a Raytheon worker’s reflection on her job. She pauses for a moment, and says, “I’d really rather be making toys for Santa.” But she isn’t.
Will Washington, D.C. like the film? It is hard to predict whether the Bush Administration or the loyal opposition in Congress will be first to launch a stone at Why We Fight. Jarecki has provided an apolitical history and an apolitical reality, portraying an America evolved in a direction that Eisenhower almost exactly foretold.
Can the military-industrial-congressional complex be reined in? Should it be? To the extent that Jarecki passes judgment on the latter question, he defers to Eisenhower in the affirmative. It should be “compelled” and controlled by an alert and knowledgeable citizenry, such that “security and liberty” may prosper together. But can it be?
The film is perhaps less optimistic of whether it can be reined in, as an interesting clip with Senator John McCain discussing the growth of the military industrial complex is cut short by an urgent phone call from the former CEO of Halliburton, and Vice President of the United States.
But what I really find inspiring about Why We Fight is that we see the words, thoughts and deeds of the average American in this movie – the factory worker, the fathers and mothers and sons and daughters, the backbone of this nation. To a person, it is these Americans who exude patriotism and deep abiding love for this country. It is these Americans who, with all their faults, are founts of common decency and morality. Jarecki is excruciatingly fair in his portrayal of war promoting policy wonks and war policy beneficiaries like Richard Perle, Bill Kristol, Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. But the fact remains that these policy designers simply don’t make a hell of a lot of sense.
Jarecki has both artfully and scientifically pulled away the curtain that currently shields the pillars of the present-day American military-industrial-congressional complex. For this reason, the film will be downplayed by the leadership in Washington, D.C., on both sides of the aisle.
But Why We Fight will be watched by millions and millions of Americans who are now weary of strange endless wars in far away places and an economy wasting under the demands of voracious spending on “defense.” These American, as I did upon watching the film, will begin to really think about what we have become. These Americans will become newly awake, newly alert, newly watchful. These Americans will begin to embrace and assert, as did our forefathers, the blessed idea that we are governed and directed by our own consent, and none other. Eisenhower would certainly approve.
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The Battle of Athens, Tennessee As Recently As 1946, American Citizens Were Forced To Take Up Arms As A Last Resort Against Corrupt Government Officials.
Published in Guns & Ammo October 1995, pp. 50-51
On August 1-2, 1946, some Americans, brutalized by their county government, used armed force as a last resort to overturn it. These Americans wanted honest open elections. For years they had asked for state or federal election monitors to prevent vote fraud (forged ballots, secret ballot counts and intimidation by armed sheriff's deputies) by the local political boss. They got no help.
These Americans' absolute refusal to knuckle under had been hardened by service in World War II. Having fought to free other countries from murderous regimes, they rejected vicious abuse by their county government.
These Americans had a choice. Their state's Constitution -- Article 1, Section 26 -- recorded their right to keep and bear arms for the common defense. Few "gun control" laws had been enacted.
These Americans were residents of McMinn County, which is located between Chattanooga and Knoxville in Eastern Tennessee. The two main towns were Athens and Etowah. McMinn County residents had long been independent political thinkers. For a long time they also had: accepted bribe-taking by politicians and/or the sheriff to overlook illicit whiskey-making and ; financed the sheriff's department from fines-usually for speeding or public drunkenness which promoted false arrests; and put up with voting fraud by both Democrats and Republicans.
The wealthy Cantrell family, of Etowah, backed Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1932 election, hoping New Deal programs would revive the local economy and help Democrats to replace Republicans in the county government. So it proved.
Paul Cantrell was elected sheriff in the 1936,1938 and 1940 elections, but by slim margins. The sheriff was the key county official. Cantrell was elected to the state senate in 1942 and 1944; his chief deputy, Pat Mansfield, was elected sheriff. In 1946 Paul Cantrell again sought the sheriff's office.
At the end of 1945, some 3,000 battle-hardened veterans returned to McMinn County; the GIs held Cantrell politically responsible for Mansfield's doings. Early in 1946, some newly returned ex-GIs decided to challenge Cantrell politically by offering an all-ex-GI, non-partisan ticket. They promised a fraud-free election, stating in ads and speeches that there would be an honest ballot count and reform of county government.
At a rally, a GI speaker said, "The principles that we fought for in this past war do not exist in McMinn County. We fought for democracy because we believe in democracy but not the form we live under in this county" (Daily Post-Athenian, 17 June 1946, p.1 ). At the end of July 1946, 159 McMinn County GIs petitioned the FBI to send election monitors. There was no response. The Department of Justice had not responded to McMinn County residents' complaints of election fraud in 1940, 1942 and 1944.
FROM BALLOTS TO BULLETS
The primary election was held on August 1. To intimidate voters, Mansfield brought in some 200 armed "deputies." GI poll-watchers were beaten almost at once. At about 3 p.m., Tom Gillespie, an African- American voter was told by a sheriff's deputy that he could not vote. Despite being beaten, Gillespie persisted. The enraged deputy shot him. The gunshot drew a crowd. Rumors spread that Gillespie had been shot in the back; he later recovered (C. Stephen Byrum, The Battle of Athens, Paidia Productions, Chattanooga, TN, 1987; pp. 155-57).
Other deputies detained ex-GI poll-watchers in a polling place, as that made the ballot counting "Public" A crowd gathered. Sheriff Mansfield told his deputies to disperse the crowd. When the two ex-GIs smashed a big window and escaped, the crowd surged forward. The deputies, with guns drawn, formed a tight half-circle around the front of the polling place. One deputy, "his gun raised high...shouted: 'If you sons of bitches cross this street I'll kill you!'" (Byrum, p.165).
Mansfield took the ballot boxes to the jail for counting. The deputies seemed to fear immediate attack by the "people who had just liberated Europe and the South Pacific from two of the most powerful war machines in human history" (Byrum, pp. 168-69).
Short of firearms and ammunition, the GIs scoured the county to find them. By borrowing keys to the National Guard and State Guard armories, they got three M-1 rifles, five .45 semi-automatic pistols and 24 British Enfield rifles. The armories were nearly empty after the war's end. By 8 p.m. a group of GIs and "local boys" headed for the jail but left the back door unguarded to give the jail's defenders an easy way out.
Three GIs alerting passersby to danger were fired on from the jail. Two GIs were wounded. Other GIs returned fire.
Firing subsided after 30 minutes; ammunition ran low and night had fallen. Thick brick walls shielded those inside the jail. Absent radios, the GIs' rifle fire was uncoordinated. "From the hillside fire rose and fell in disorganized cascades. More than anything else, people were simply shooting at the jail" (Byrum, p.189).
Several who ventured into the street in front of the jail were wounded. One man inside the jail was badly hurt; he recovered. Most sheriff's deputies wanted to hunker down and await rescue. Governor McCord mobilized the State Guard, perhaps to scare the GIs into withdrawing. The State Guard never went to Athens. McCord may have feared that Guard units filled with ex-GIs might not fire on other ex-GIs.
At about 2 a.m. on August 2, the GIs forced the issue. Men from Meigs County threw dynamite sticks and damaged the jail's porch. The panicked deputies surrendered. GIs quickly secured the building. Paul Cantrell faded into the night, having almost been shot by a GI who knew him, but whose .45 pistol had jammed. Mansfield's deputies were kept overnight in jail for their own safety. Calm soon returned. The GIs posted guards. The rifles borrowed from the armory were cleaned and returned before sunup.
THE AFTERMATH: RESTORING DEMOCRACY
In five precincts free of vote fraud, the GI candidate for sheriff, Knox Henry, won 1,168 votes to Cantrell's 789. Other GI candidates won by similar margins.
The GI's did not hate Cantrell. They only wanted honest government. On August 2, a town meeting set up a three-man governing committee. The regular police having fled, six men were chosen to police Etowah. In addition, "Individual citizens were called upon to form patrols or guard groups, often led by a GI... To their credit, however, there is not a single mention of an abuse of power on their behalf" (Byrum, p. 220).
Once the GI candidates' victory had been certified, they cleaned up county government, the jail was fixed, newly elected officials accepted a $5,000 pay limit and Mansfield supporters who resigned were replaced.
The general election on November 5 passed quietly. McMinn County residents, having restored the rule of law, returned to their daily lives. Pat Mansfield moved back to Georgia. Paul Cantrell set up an auto dealership in Etowah. "Almost everyone who knew Cantrell in the years after the Battle' agree that he was not bitter about what had happened" (Byrum pp. 232-33; see also New York Times, 9 August 1946, p. 8).
The 79th Congress adjourned on August 2, 1946, when the Battle of Athens ended. However, Representative John Jennings Jr. from Tennessee decried McMinn County's sorry situation under Cantrell and Mansfield and the Justice Department's repeated failures to help the McMinn County residents. Jennings was delighted that "...at long last, decency and honesty, liberty and law have returned to the fine county of McMinn.. " (Congressional Record, House; U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1946; Appendix, Volume 92, Part 13, p. A4870).
THE LESSONS OF ATHENS
Those who took up arms in Athens, Tennessee, wanted honest elections, a cornerstone of our constitutional order. They had repeatedly tried to get federal or state election monitors and had used armed force so as to minimize harm to the law-breakers, showing little malice to the defeated law-breakers. They restored lawful government.
The Battle of Athens clearly shows how Americans can and should lawfully use armed force and also shows why the rule of law requires unrestricted access to firearms and how civilians with military-type firearms can beat the forces of government gone bad.
Dictators believe that public order is more important than the rule of law. However, Americans reject this idea. Brutal political repression is lethal to many. An individual criminal can harm a handful of people. Governments alone can brutalize thousands, or millions.
Law-abiding McMinn County residents won the Battle of Athens because they were not hamstrung by "gun control " They showed us when citizens can and should use armed force to support the rule of law.
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The Political Power of Truth - In recent years, failure and incompetence have been trounced by fear at the ballot box. But reality may be making a comeback.
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Feb. 6, 2006 issue
- Strangely enough, we may look back on Thursday, Jan. 26, 2006, as the day America found its moral compass, long buried at the bottom of the national dirty-linen bag. To win the midterm elections in November, the Democrats, whose motto might as well be "So Lame for So Long," will need to make sure the country focuses on that compass. By "moral" I'm not talking just about the "culture of corruption" in Washington. I'm talking about restoring a reasonable respect for at least minimum standards of truth.
As usual, the iconic moment took place not in the capital but at the heart of the entertainment-industrial complex—in this case, "Oprah." As it happens, I had just been to a screening the night before of "Thank You for Smoking," the forthcoming movie based on the Christopher Buckley book. The story is a hilarious and gloriously politically incorrect sendup of Washington's culture of shameless spin. But the theme depressed me. The satire was all too real—more proof that "truth" and "reality" were not just pretzels to be twisted for commercial purposes but thoroughly devalued coins of the media and political realm. James Frey and Doubleday were just the latest to lie all the way to the bank.
Until Thursday. Something happened in that studio that went beyond "good TV." Such is the power of Oprah that her moment of truth seemed to shame the American public into more respect for the actual facts of a situation. As if to prove the synchronicity, there was even some truth breaking out in the White House press room at the very moment Oprah was airing live in the Midwest. Reporters were pressing President Bush hard. James Gerstenzang of the Los Angeles Times asked Bush if he subscribed to President Nixon's notion that "when the president does it, it's not illegal." This was, indeed, the essence—the truth—of the president's position on the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping, which violates a 1978 law. Instead of the issue being framed in Karl Rove's phony and demagogic terms—where anyone who opposes the president's power grab doesn't want to protect us from Al Qaeda—we were edging our way toward a more accurate depiction of the controversy.
The news conference wasn't a complete truthfest. No reporter managed to ask the president about his statement of April 24, 2004, when Bush told a Buffalo audience: "Any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires—a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so." This statement was false, and Bush knew it when he said it. The president lied in Buffalo, just as surely as Bill Clinton lied when he said: "I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Ms. Lewinsky." Of course, Bush's Buffalo lie got a tiny fraction of the airplay of Clinton's Lewinsky lie.
The reason goes beyond Clinton's more colorful finger-wagging and sex with an intern. For four and a half years, Bush has politicized 9/11. His political motto has been "The only thing we have to use is fear itself." He was at it again last week, claiming with zero evidence that congressional scrutiny of the illegal NSA wiretapping would "give the enemy a heads-up on what we're doing." The media and the Democrats have both been intimidated by this devastatingly effective political strategy. It won the 2002 and 2004 elections for the Republicans and will continue to be their game plan for this November.
At first glance, making the Democrats seem soft on "terrorist surveillance" looks like another winner for the GOP. For Democrats to explain that they don't oppose all eavesdropping but object to the way it was done is a two-step answer that's too complicated to fly. A better approach would be to argue that Bush's NSA program has been a failure because it has threatened civil liberties and violated the law without doing anything to catch Osama bin Laden. The NSA obviously hasn't been eavesdropping on the right suspects.
This would fit with the Democrats' idea of fighting fear with failure—Bush's failure. New polls show his approval ratings in the dismal low 40s, with strong majorities believing he has failed on every score except keeping the country safe. (A majority of those polled not surprisingly support Bush on eavesdropping on terror suspects domestically. So do I. But when the constitutional questions are raised, his numbers drop.) To confront the security issue, Wesley Clark is chairing a PAC to help the nine Iraq and Afghanistan combat veterans running for Congress as Democrats (versus one as a Republican). The idea is to adopt the Rovean strategy of attacking your opponent's strength.
Will it work? In recent years, failure and incompetence have been trounced by fear at the ballot box. The former is based on reason and an examination of the facts; the latter on emotion, with 9/11 as a trump card. But now reality may be making a comeback, as Bush's authority breaks into a million little pieces.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
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Violent Crime Rising Sharply in Some Cities
By KATE ZERNIKE
February 12, 2006
MILWAUKEE — One woman here killed a friend after they argued over a brown silk dress. A man killed a neighbor whose 10-year-old son had mistakenly used his dish soap. Two men argued over a cellphone, and pulling out their guns, the police say, killed a 13-year-old girl in the crossfire.
While violent crime has been at historic lows nationwide and in cities like New York, Miami and Los Angeles, it is rising sharply here and in many other places across the country.
And while such crime in the 1990's was characterized by battles over gangs and drug turf, the police say the current rise in homicides has been set off by something more bewildering: petty disputes that hardly seem the stuff of fistfights, much less gunfire or stabbings.
Suspects tell the police they killed someone who "disrespected" them or a family member, or someone who was "mean mugging" them, which the police loosely translate as giving a dirty look. And more weapons are on the streets, giving people a way to act on their anger.
Police Chief Nannette H. Hegerty of Milwaukee calls it "the rage thing."
"We're seeing a very angry population, and they don't go to fists anymore, they go right to guns," she said. "A police department can have an effect on drugs or gangs. But two people arguing in a home, how does the police department go in and stop that?"
Here in Milwaukee, where homicides jumped from 88 in 2004 to 122 last year, the number classified as arguments rose to 45 from 17, making up by far the largest category of killings, as gang and drug murders declined.
In Houston, where homicides rose 24 percent last year, disputes were by far the largest category, 113 out of 336 killings. Officials were alarmed by the increase in murders well before Hurricane Katrina swelled the city's population by 150,000 people in September; the police say 18 homicides were related to evacuees.
In Philadelphia, where 380 homicides made 2005 the deadliest year since 1997, 208 were disputes; drug-related killings, which accounted for about 40 percent of homicides during the high-crime period of the early 1990's, accounted for just 13 percent.
"When we ask, 'Why did you shoot this guy?' it's, 'He bumped into me,' 'He looked at my girl the wrong way,' " said Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson of Philadelphia. "It's not like they're riding around doing drive-by shootings. It's arguments — stupid arguments over stupid things."
The police say the suspects and the victims tend to be black, young — midteens to mid-20's — and have previous criminal records. They tend to know each other. Several cities said that domestic violence had also risen. And the murders tend to be limited to particular neighborhoods. Downtown Milwaukee has not had a homicide in about five years, but in largely black neighborhoods on the north side, murders rose from 57 in 2004 to 94 last year.
"We're not talking about a city, we're talking about this subpopulation, that's what drives everything," said David M. Kennedy, director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. "When they calm down, all the numbers go down. When they heat up, all the numbers go up. They hurt each other over personal stuff. It's respect and disrespect, and it's girls."
While arguments have always made up a large number of homicides, the police say the trigger point now comes faster.
"Traditionally, you could see the beef growing and maybe hitting the volatile point," said Daniel Coleman, the commander of the homicide unit in Boston. "Now we see these things, they're flashes, they're very unpredictable. Even five years ago, in what started as a fight or dispute, maybe you'd have a knife shown. Now it's an automatic default to a firearm."
In robberies, Milwaukee's Chief Hegerty said, "even after the person gives up, the guy with the gun shoots him anyway. We didn't have as much of that before."
Homicide rates are driven by different factors in each city, but even cities whose rates have fallen have seen problems with disputes, though those disputes are often about drugs or gangs. "As the murder universe continues to shrink in New York, the common denominators remain consistent," said Police Department Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne. "In most instances, killers and victims knew each other, each had criminal records, and they were engaged in disputes, usually over narcotics."
Nationally, the homicide rate peaked in 1991, declined steadily after 1993 and has remained essentially flat since 1999. But in the first six months of 2005, according to preliminary statistics from the F.B.I., the number of homicides nationwide rose 2.1 percent, with the greatest increase, 4.9 percent, in the Midwest.
Yet many cities have seen far steeper increases. In Boston and San Francisco the number of homicides last year was at its highest in a decade, and in Prince George's County, Md., outside Washington, it was the highest ever.
In St. Louis, the number of homicides rose to 131 last year from 113 in 2004. Tulsa had 64 murders, 2 more than in 1993. Charlotte jumped from a record low of 60 homicides in 2004 to 85 in 2005. And the murder rate for 2005 was above the 15-year average in Kansas City, Mo., and Nashville.
A large part of the problem, the police say, is simply more guns on the streets as gun laws have loosened around the country. In Philadelphia, Commissioner Johnson said, since the state made it easier to get a gun permit in 1985, the number of people authorized to carry a gun in the city has risen from 700 to 32,000.
But the police also blame lax sentences and judges who they say let suspects out on bail too easily. Here, Deputy Chief Brian O'Keefe recalled a man who was released from prison on an armed robbery conviction after two years, with five years' probation, and killed someone within three months. In Nashville, Chief Ronal W. Serpas recalled an 18-year-old who had been arrested 41 times but was out on bail when he killed a bystander in a fight over a dice game.
"We have people who've done two, three, four, five shootings who are back on the streets," said Kathleen M. O'Toole, Boston's police commissioner. "Unless we have bail reform, unless these impact players with multiple gun arrests are kept off the streets, we won't reverse this problem."
Still, some of the problems are hard to address with tougher laws.
The neighborhoods with the most murders tend to be the poorest. In Milwaukee, Mallory O'Brien, an epidemiologist brought in to direct the new homicide review commission, said suspects and victims tend to have been born to teenage mothers. The city has one of the nation's highest teen pregnancy rates for blacks, and among black men, one of the lowest high school graduation rates. An industrial base that used to provide jobs for those without a high school diploma has shrunk.
Chief Corwin of Kansas City said that in the hardest-hit neighborhoods, people had explained it as a "lack of hope." "If I don't have skills, I don't have training, my socioeconomic situation looks desperate, do I really have hope?" he said. "I think that ties into the anger. If the only thing I have is my respect, that's what I carry on the street. If someone disrespects me, they've done the ultimate to me."
Those who study crime debate whether the cities where homicide is rising represent a trend.
"It's a couple of cities with bad luck and with local problems which are very real, but not necessarily part of a national pattern," said Franklin E. Zimring, a law professor at Berkeley who is writing a book on the crime drop of the late 1990's.
But Mr. Kennedy, at John Jay, said the decrease in homicides in big cities has obscured the problem in many other places.
"In many places — both cities and increasingly suburban and rural settings — things never got as good as they did nationally," he said. "Even if things got better, they didn't get as better as they did in Los Angeles or New York. In many places, they're getting worse."
Certainly, the number of homicides is lower than its peak in the early 90's — Milwaukee had 168 killings, not including Jeffrey Dahmer's serial murders, in 1991. But the number is far higher than in recent years, and alarming to a public that has gotten used to good news. Boston, which peaked with 151 murders in 1990, had declined to 31 in 1999. Nashville in 2004 had its lowest homicide rate in the history of city government, with 58 murders, before jumping to 99 last year.
"Because for this decade the sense is that crime is down, it's very hard to speak out about it and not look as though you're doing something wrong," said Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a research and public policy group in Washington. "People's expectation of crime has significantly changed."
In some of the cities, overall crime has declined, thanks to a significant drop in property crimes. But the rise in homicides and robberies causes alarm.
"It's hard for people to look at it in depth and understand that they're not likely to be a victim if they get along with their family members and neighbors and don't live a high-risk lifestyle," said Darrel Stephens, the police chief in Charlotte.
Cities say they are going after illegal guns and are trying to stop disputes from becoming homicides. Kansas City used to investigate only some aggravated assaults; now it follows up on all cases, on the theory that next time, the assault might be a homicide. Boston and Philadelphia are sweeping neighborhoods for people who have violated warrants. In St. Louis, the police have put cameras in high-crime neighborhoods and have sent gang units to talk to parents of chronically truant students.
But recognizing that the problems have deep roots, cities are also going beyond traditional law enforcement, trying to involve churches, schools and social service agencies. In Boston, the neighborhood sweeps are followed by work crews that repair potholes, trim trees and remove graffiti.
Here in Milwaukee, the police are tagging "M.V.P.'s," or major violent players — people with several arrests, who are more likely to be involved in arguments and homicides, according to Ms. O'Brien's analysis. Those names are announced at daily police briefings.
The city has also put prosecutors and probation and parole officers on patrol with police officers, because they have more immediate power to rein in chronic offenders by enforcing curfew, nuisance laws, and restrictions against alcohol or drug use and association with gang members.
The homicide review commission has frequent, formal meetings with corrections officers, prosecutors and social service agencies to identify problem families, and is meeting with schools to assess what they are teaching about conflict resolution and how to reduce truancy.
Next month, police officials say, they will have the first of several town hall meetings with the neighborhoods with the highest homicide rates, to get residents' ideas on how to stop the killings.
"We didn't get here in a day," said Ms. O'Brien, the epidemiologist. "There's no simple solution."
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9 Inmates Hurt in Latest L.A. Jail Riot
AP
Sun Feb 12, 1:48 AM ET
LOS ANGELES - The latest outbreak of racially charged rioting at a Southern California jail sent eight inmates to the hospital Saturday with minor injuries, officials said. A ninth inmate was treated at the scene.
The fight erupted at a housing dorm where 86 black and Hispanic inmates were separated by race, sheriff's spokesman Deputy Luis Castro said. Guards fired sting balls at the inmates to break up the riot. No deputies were hurt.
Dozens of inmates have been injured and one killed since clashes between Hispanic and black inmates began Feb. 4 at the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic, about 40 miles outside Los Angeles.
Small brawls followed throughout the week, including a Friday fight among 73 inmates that took an hour to quell.
The latest rioting took place despite a lockdown of all 19,000 inmates in the Los Angeles County jail system.
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Woman, 3 Kids Found Dead in Western Ohio
By JAMES HANNAH
Associated Press
February 12, 2006
PHILLIPSBURG, Ohio - A woman and her three children were found shot to death Saturday in their western Ohio home, officials said.
A handgun was found in the neat and orderly home, and investigators were interviewing the woman's boyfriend, who had recently moved out, Montgomery Sheriff's Maj. Ed Copher said.
"I wouldn't call anybody a suspect at this time," Copher said.
Tonya Hawks, 31, and her three sons, ages 2, 4 and 5, had moved into the rented house last summer. The bodies were found in various locations in the house and appeared to have been dead for several days, Copher said.
"The house was secure. Nothing would suggest that it was an intruder," he said. "It didn't appear there was a struggle or anything."
Copher declined to say where or how many times they were shot, and would not release the names of the boyfriend, the boys or their fathers.
Concerned neighbors had called Clay Township police because they saw no activity for four days, and the house remained dark even though the family's car was parked outside.
While police were on the way, a woman looked in the window and saw one of the boys lying still. Another neighbor kicked in the door, thinking the boy needed help, Copher said.
"That's when they saw there was blood," said Janet Naylor, a next-door neighbor in the one-stoplight bedroom community on a two-lane highway.
Naylor said the family was quiet and friendly. The boys were well-mannered and played in her front yard, greeting adults in the neighborhood with, "Hi, neighbor!"
"It's your worst nightmare," Naylor said. "They were just so funny."
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6 Inmates Escape Illinois Jail, All are Captured
By CARLA K. JOHNSON
Associated Press
February 13, 2006
CHICAGO - Six inmates who escaped from jail were back in custody after the final two fugitives surrendered early Monday, ending a standoff at an apartment where they sought refuge with a woman and five children. No one was injured.
Their escape late Saturday - which began when an inmate threw hot, soapy water in the face of a lone guard at a jail shower - was the second in two days at the Cook County Jail, which officials said was short-staffed.
About three dozen police had surrounded the apartment building where the last two inmates had holed up. One of the men faced armed robbery charges and the other was accused of aggravated kidnaping and attempting escape from a courthouse; they talked intermittently with police negotiators.
"They had nowhere to go," Cook County Sheriff Michael Sheahan said. "They were desperate but they weren't that desperate that they'd try to run."
A third fugitive, who was charged with murder, surrendered from the apartment late Saturday, bringing two of the young children with him.
Officers also led out the woman in handcuffs and took the last child from the apartment. Authorities said all five children were placed in the custody of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services.
Two other inmates were captured Sunday about 7 miles from the jail in Oak Park. Another inmate was arrested Sunday evening, said Chicago police spokeswoman JoAnn Taylor.
The men escaped from a special unit for inmates with disciplinary problems. One guard was on duty instead of three because of staffing shortages, said county Sheriff's Department spokesman Bill Cunningham.
One inmate threw hot water from a shower on the guard and held him at bay with a homemade knife, then handcuffed the guard and put on his uniform, officials said.
That inmate was immediately caught after opening doors to let the other six inmates out. They got over a barbed wire fence and onto the streets.
On Friday, an inmate facing armed robbery charges broke out by apparently slipping into a laundry truck. He was arrested Saturday at a suburban motel, authorities said.
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Spurious George On His Own
Karen Kwiatowski
9 Feb 06
Bush's latest lie, however, is different. "I don't know Abramoff" marks a new phase for our disingenuous president. It's almost as if he is lying about sex, given the "who cares" factor, massive evidence to the contrary, and the sheer stupidity of the denial. This Bush lie cannot be explained away by the incompetence of the CIA, or fabrications of his war-hungry neoconservative advisors, or even the verbal screwups his defenders find so charming. ...in Year Six of Our President, George may be emerging from his shell, coming into his own as a liar.
When George W. Bush tells lies to the American people, he usually has an official and patriotic-sounding excuse. The country forgave him for the disastrous trillion dollar invasion of Iraq. That was just bad intel from the Agency and stupid advice from Chalabi and Wolfowitz. The poor planning in occupied Iraq was all Rumsfeld's fault, you see.
Incredibly, much of America is still willing to follow salivating and bloodthirsty chicken hawks like Richard Perle into Iran. In fact, many seem to feel, as Perle recently noted, that the bad intelligence we had on Iraq in 2002 only PROVES we ought to invade Iran right away, before we know any more, and take Khuzestan, home to 90 per cent of Iran's oil.
Bush's latest lie, however, is different. "I don't know Abramoff" marks a new phase for our disingenuous president. It's almost as if he is lying about sex, given the "who cares" factor, massive evidence to the contrary, and the sheer stupidity of the denial. This Bush lie cannot be explained away by the incompetence of the CIA, or fabrications of his war-hungry neoconservative advisors, or even the verbal screwups his defenders find so charming.
Deny, deny, deny and deny again is the Rovian battlecry, and a time tested political strategy. But knowing or not knowing Abramoff isn't a national security issue, or a budgetary issue, or a social security reform issue, or a Medicare debacle issue. It has nothing to do with FEMA's incredibly screwy Katrina response. It does not relate to the ongoing destruction of the United States military capability, accompanied by a record-breaking and secretive military budget. It doesn't have to do with torture of illegally held and uncharged detainees. It doesn't concern illegal electronic sweeps conducted and analyzed by the NSA on the President's orders in lieu of FISA court orders. It doesn't have a thing to do with what young George was or was not drinking and snorting when he was assigned to the National Guard in the early 1970s.
Now - all of these things are important enough that the president felt he had to lie, early and often. So why in everything that is sacred in Washington should the President lie about knowing Abramoff? Some may think that Bush is a man overcome by the habit of lying. Others might conclude that his advisors are frozen in the lie-deny mode and in the heat on the White House with investigations at Justice and in the House, they reverted to type. Still others may believe that Bush's denial of a friendly relationship with Abramoff is a sign the White House sees an iceberg of scandal that could rip their ship of state wide open.
But I think the story of the unknown Abramoff is just a cute little lie that Bush thought up all by himself. Bush has been a bush-league fabricator, more often than not a slave to verbal dyslexia, and the mendacity of his speechwriters and his Vice President. But in Year Six of Our President, George may be emerging from his shell, coming into his own as a liar. I'm really looking forward to hearing Bush expatiate on how he saved Los Angeles through his illegal domestic surveillance program, how he brought democracy to the Iranian oil fields, and how he singlehandedly won the Long War. Aren't you?
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Three More Lawmakers Linked to Abramoff
By TONI LOCY and PETE YOST
Associated Press
Feb 11, 2006
Two of the elected officials referred to in Friday's filings have been identified in published reports as Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, the two representatives wrote to the GSA in September 2002, urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals for the Old Post Office.
WASHINGTON - Three members of Congress have been linked to efforts by lobbyist Jack Abramoff and a former General Services Administration official to secure leases of government property for Abramoff's clients, according to court filings by federal prosecutors on Friday.
The filings in U.S. District Court do not allege any wrongdoing by the elected officials but list them in documents portraying David Safavian, a former GSA chief of staff, as an active adviser to Abramoff, giving the lobbyists tips on how to use members of Congress to navigate the agency's bureaucracy.
Abramoff is cooperating with federal investigators in a wide-ranging probe of corruption on Capitol Hill that threatens several powerful members of Congress and their staff members. Last month, he pleaded guilty to federal charges of conspiracy, tax evasion and mail fraud.
Safavian is charged with lying to a GSA ethics officer when he said Abramoff was not seeking business with the agency at the time the lobbyist paid for Safavian and several others to go on a golf outing to Scotland in August 2002.
At the time of the trip, prosecutors said, Abramoff was trying to get GSA approval for leases of the Old Post Office Pavilion in Washington for an Indian tribe to develop and for federal property in Silver Spring, Md., for use by a Jewish school.
Two of the elected officials referred to in Friday's filings have been identified in published reports as Reps. Steven LaTourette, R-Ohio, and Don Young, R-Alaska. According to Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, the two representatives wrote to the GSA in September 2002, urging the agency to give preferential treatment to groups such as Indian tribes when evaluating development proposals for the Old Post Office.
LaTourette maintains he did nothing improper by advocating special opportunities for certain small businesses in areas known as HUBzones, or Historically Underutilized Business zones. His spokeswoman, Deborah Setliff, said that the letter was reviewed by Young's chief of staff and counsel and that it did not advocate any particular business over another.
A spokesman for Young did not return telephone calls.
Friday's filings by prosecutors refer to a third member of Congress, Rep. Shelly Moore Capito, R-W.Va. Her name appears in e-mails that suggest she was trying to help Abramoff secure a GSA lease for land in Silver Spring for a religious school.
Capito claims to know nothing about the effort. "The action taken by her former chief of staff was done without her knowledge, approval or consent," said her spokesman, Joel Brubaker. "She was not aware of any contact with GSA of any type on this matter."
Mark Johnson, Capito's former chief of staff, said he did not bring the issue to Capito's attention. He said he was contacted by Neil Volz, a colleague of Abramoff's and a former chief of staff for Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio.
Johnson said Volz asked him to check on the status of a project involving the GSA. Johnson said he believes he called a friend at the GSA but doesn't recall the outcome.
Prosecutors included the e-mails in documents filed in response to a request by Safavian's lawyers to dismiss the indictment against him. Safavian's lawyers want a federal judge to throw out the charges on grounds there is no evidence of wrongdoing.
In their filing, prosecutors laid out a series of contacts between Abramoff and Safavian that show the former GSA official gave inside information and advice to the lobbyist.
Safavian used his personal e-mail during business hours to communicate with Abramoff several times, according to prosecutors. He also edited the draft of a letter that was probably sent under LaTourette and Young's names.
And Safavian advised Abramoff to tell his wife to use her maiden name during a meeting with GSA officials so she wouldn't draw attention to her politically connected husband's involvement in the project.
In a July 23, 2002, e-mail to a GSA official, Safavian discussed getting information about the Silver Spring site to Capito's office. But Volz discovered a complication the next day.
Volz told Abramoff that someone at the GSA wanted the congresswoman to put her request in writing. "We can't ask the most vulnerable Republican incumbent member of Congress in the House to put something in writing that can be made public," Volz wrote. "The congresswoman's office has already put the request in and you would think that would be enough!!!"
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U.S. newspaper publishes photo showing Bush and indicted lobbyist
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-12 03:29:05
WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 (Xinhuanet) -- The New York Times on Sunday published a photo showing U.S. President George W. Bush and the now indicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff at a gathering in May 2001.
In the picture, the authenticity of which the newspaper said had been confirmed by the White House, Bush was shaking hands with Raul Garza, chief of the Kickapoo Indian tribe in Texas, and a small, partly obscured image of Abramoff was looking on from the background.
The White House has declined to release pictures of Bush and Abramoff, a leading Republican fund-raiser who helped raise more than 100,000 U.S. dollars for the president's re-election campaign.
Bush has said he did not recall having met with Abramoff, although the White House has not disputed accounts that the lobbyist visited the White House on several occasions.
Abramoff pleaded guilty to corruption-related federal charges last month and agreed to cooperate in a corruption investigation that could implicate as many as 20 lawmakers.
The picture, albeit an opaque one, provided a window into Abramoff's efforts to sell himself to Indian tribes as a man of influence who could open the most secure door in Washington to them, the newspaper reported.
It was not clear how the disgraced Abramoff and the tribal chief, whom the lobbyist was trying to sign as a client, gained access to a meeting on the White House grounds that was ostensibly for a group of state legislators who supported Bush's 2001 tax cut plan, the report said.
The photo was provided by Garza, who was under indictment on federal charges of embezzling money from his tribe, the report said.
A lawyer of Garza told the Times that Abramoff arranged for the chief to attend the meeting, in a conference room in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House. The meeting took place at a time when the lobbyist was seeking a contract to represent the 800-member tribe and its casino. Abramoff never got the contract, the report said.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan denied last Friday that the presence of Abramoff and the tribal leader at the meeting suggested the lobbyist had any special influence at the White House, according to the report.
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White House says Bush-Abramoff photo is authentic Previously Denied Meeting
USAToday
12 Feb 06
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Sunday acknowledged the authenticity of the first photograph made public that shows President Bush and embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, while stressing it does not mean the two had a personal relationship.
Originally, the White House said it had no record of Abramoff's attendance at the meeting.
The photo, published by The New York Times and Time magazine, shows Bush shaking hands with an Abramoff client, chairman Raul Garza of the Kickapoo Indian tribe in Texas. Abramoff's bearded face appears in the background, small and slightly blurry.
White House spokesman Allen Abney said the photo was taken in 2001, when the president dropped by a meeting of about two dozen state legislators to thank them for supporting tax relief.
Originally, the White House said it had no record of Abramoff's attendance at the meeting.
"We now know that Mr. Abramoff attended this meeting," Abney said Sunday. "The president has taken tens of thousands of pictures. This does not mean he has a personal relationship with each individual that is in those pictures."
The White House would not release the photo or any others that Bush had taken with Abramoff, who helped raise more than $100,000 for the president's re-election campaign. Abramoff has since pleaded guilty to federal charges related to an influence-peddling scandal on Capitol Hill.
Bush has said that he had his picture taken with Abramoff an unknown number of times, but he doesn't remember any of them.
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Cheney Complains "National Security Leaks Are Endangering America. Unless, Of Course, He's Doing The Leaking"...
Maureen Dowd
New York Times
February 11, 2006
Vice President Dick Cheney bitterly complains that national security leaks are endangering America. Unless, of course, he's doing the leaking, tapping Scooter Libby to reveal national security information to punish a political critic.
President Bush says he will not talk about specific security threats to America. Unless, of course, he needs to talk about a specific threat to Los Angeles to confuse the public and gain some cheap political advantage.
The White House says it has done everything possible to protect the homeland. Unless, of course, it hasn't. Then it can lie to hide the callous portrait of Incurious George in Crawford as New Orleans drowned.
The attorney general can claim that torture and warrantless wiretapping are legal, and can mislead Congress. Unless, of course, enough Republicans stand up and say, as Arlen Specter told The Washington Post, that if that lickspittle lawyer thinks all this is legal, "he's smoking Dutch Cleanser."
The president doesn't know the Indian Taker Jack Abramoff. Unless, of course, W. has met with him a dozen times, invited him to Crawford and joked with him about his kids.
The Bushies can continue to claim that the invasion of Iraq was justified because Saddam was a threat to our security. Unless, of course, he wasn't, and the Cheney cabal was simply abusing the trust of Americans to push a wild-eyed political scheme.
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Whistleblowers Are Not Protected, Mr. Goss
by Sibel Edmonds
11 Feb 06
Sir, as you must very well know after your years in Congress as a representative and as a member of the intelligence committee, there are no meaningful legal protections for whistleblowers. What is troubling is that while you are well aware of the fact that there are no meaningful or enforceable laws that provide protection to national security whistleblowers, you nevertheless state that such workers are covered by existing laws. That is simply false.
Dear Mr. Goss, the timing of your recent op-ed in the New York Times interestingly coincides with the upcoming congressional hearing by the House Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats & International Relations on National Security Whistleblowers. Your comments are predictably consistent with the pattern of "preemptive strikes" you and the administration have been keen on maintaining. I do not blame you for your opposition to legislation to protect courageous whistleblowers, which will enable the United States Congress to reclaim some of its authority and oversight that it has given up for the past five years. No sir, you have all the right and reason to be nervous. However, I must take issue with your attempt to mislead the American public – another habit of your heart – by presenting them with false information and misleading statements.
Sir, as you must very well know after your years in Congress as a representative and as a member of the intelligence committee, there are no meaningful legal protections for whistleblowers. What is troubling is that while you are well aware of the fact that there are no meaningful or enforceable laws that provide protection to national security whistleblowers, you nevertheless state that such workers are covered by existing laws. That is simply false. You state that "the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act was enacted to ensure that current or former employees could petition Congress, after raising concerns within their respective agency, consistent with the need to protect classified information." The Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, which appears to be the legal channel provided to national security employees, turns out on closer inspection to be toothless. Please refer to the recent independent report issued by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) on National Security Whistleblowers on December 30, 2005. The report concludes that there currently are no protections for national security whistleblowers – period. Let me provide you with a recent example illustrating the fallacy of your claim:
In December 2005, Mr. Russ Tice, former National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence analyst and action officer, sent letters to the chairs of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees, and requested meetings to brief them on probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while he was an intelligence officer with the NSA and DIA. In his letter Mr. Tice, as a law abiding and responsible intelligence officer, stated "Due to the highly sensitive nature of these programs and operations, I will require assurances from your committee that the staffers and/or congressional members to participate retain the proper security clearances, and also have the appropriate SAP cleared facilities available for these discussions." On January 9, 2006, the NSA sent an official letter to Mr. Tice stating "neither the staff nor the members of the House or Senate Intelligence committees are cleared to receive the information."
Now, Mr. Goss, please explain this to the American public: What happened to your so-called appropriate congressional channels and protections available to national security whistleblowers? Mr. Goss, what "protected disclosure to congress"? According to the NSA no one in the United States Congress is "cleared enough" to hear reports from national security whistleblowers. Please name one whistleblower to date who has been protected after disclosing information to the United States Congress; can you name even a single case? Or, is that information considered classified? How do we expect the United States Congress to conduct its oversight responsibility and maintain the necessary checks on the Executive Branch, when agencies such as yours declare the members of congress "not cleared enough" to receive reports regarding conduct by these agencies? Where do you suggest employees like Mr. Tice go to report waste, fraud, abuse, and/or illegal conduct by their agencies? Based on your administration’s self-declared claim of inherent power and authority of the executive branch overriding courts and the United States Congress, what other channels are left to pursue?
Okay, now let’s move to this notion you and the administration seem to be so very keen on: Classified & Sensitive Information. Let’s start by asking how we define "classified & sensitive information," and who decides what is classified and sensitive? According to the statement by Thomas S. Benton, National Security Archive, on March 2, 2005, during the congressional hearing on "Emerging Threats: Overclassification & Pseudo-Classification," the deputy undersecretary of defense for counterintelligence and security declared that 50% of the Pentagon's information was over-classified, and the head of the Information Security Oversight Office said it was even worse, "even beyond 50%." Don’t you find the percentage of falsely classified information appalling? Well, you should; it is your responsibility, because the executive branch, under the office of the United States President, is solely responsible for classification or pseudo-classification of information. Now, based on this knowledge, what should happen when you tell the public, when you tell the United States Congress and the media "Oh, you are not allowed to have this information; this information is highly sensitive and classified"? This is what should happen: we, the people, the Congress, and the media, should first ask you for the merits of the classification; have you prove to us that the information in question should in fact be classified; and you, the executive branch, have the obligation to truthfully respond.
On the issue of classification in your op-ed you go further and cite the cost of unauthorized disclosure to the American taxpayer, "unauthorized disclosures have cost America hundreds of millions of dollars." Since you brought up the issue, let’s explore it fully and give the American people the real facts, shall we? The Office of Management and Budget report on classification costs to U.S. agencies (the CIA's are still classified; but of course!), gave us a benchmark number and some sense of comparative expense to the taxpayer – the reported dollar figure was over $6.5 billion in fiscal 2003. Now, since the percentage of falsely classified data has been determined to be in the range of 50%, the cost of our agencies’ pseudo classification to the American taxpayer amounts to over $3 billion. Mr. Goss, you do the math; do you really want to attempt to twist and misuse the cost of classification to try to strike a chord with the taxpayers? It is not going to stick; wouldn’t you agree?
Let’s try your security angle on the subject of classification, where you state "disclosure of classified intelligence inhibits our ability to carry out our mission and protect the nation." The entire 9/11 Commission report includes only one finding that the attacks might have been prevented (Page 247 & 376). They quote the interrogation of the hijackers' paymaster, Ramzi Binalshibh, who commented that if the organizers, particularly Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, had known that the so-called 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, had been arrested at his Minnesota flight school on immigration charges, then Bin Laden and KSM would have called off the 9/11 attacks, because news of that arrest would have alerted the FBI agent in Phoenix who warned of Islamic militants in flight schools in a July 2001 memo; a memo that vanished into the FBI's vaults in Washington. The Commission's wording is important here: only "publicity" could have derailed the attacks. Classification is indeed a very important mechanism, if it is applied diligently and wisely; however, as illustrated above, in certain circumstances, even with respect to national security information, classification can run counter to our national interests.
Mr. Steven Aftergood, the Director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists, so very eloquently stated "the information blackout may serve the short-term interests of the present administration, which is allergic to criticism or even to probing questions. But it is a disservice to the country. Worst of all, the Bush administration's information policies are conditioning Americans to lower their expectations of government accountability and to doubt their own ability to challenge their political leaders. Information is the oxygen of democracy. Day by day, the Bush administration is cutting off the supply."
Mr. Goss, since you proudly quoted from the Rob-Silberman Report released in March 2005, let me do the same and present you with another quote: "In just the past 20 years the CIA, FBI, NSA, DIA, NRO, and the Departments of Defense, State, and Energy have all been penetrated. Secrets stolen include nuclear weapons data, US cryptographic codes and procedures, identification of US intelligence sources and methods (human and technical), and war plans. Indeed, it would be difficult to exaggerate the damage that foreign intelligence penetrations have caused." It appears that the only ones not privy to our so-called sensitive government and intelligence information are the American citizens, since our enemies and allies have been successfully penetrating all our intelligence agencies (including yours sir) and nuclear labs and facilities. Sir, with all due respect, you have not even succeeded in protecting your own agencies, offices and facilities against foreign penetration; you seem to be incapable of conducting appropriate background checks on your own employees; you failed to protect us against the 9/11 attacks; and you have failed in gathering intelligence and reporting it accurately on the Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. With this kind of record how can you go on lecturing the Congress and the American people on your superiority and inherent authority to do whatever you wish, however you wish, and without having to provide any report or any answer to anybody, including the United States Congress?
Last year, the CIA, your agency, classified the entire findings of the Inspector General’s investigation into the failures of CIA managers prior to 9/11. Sir, I believe you made the case for this classification based on your intention to protect the wrongdoers within the CIA bureaucracy from being "stigmatized." Is this what your op-ed intended to say? Did you mean to say that these national security whistleblowers may end up stigmatizing the wrongdoers and incompetents within the rank and file of the CIA by divulging information that you decided to classify to prevent exposure of embarrassing and criminal activity? Was that a Freudian slip, since nowadays the lines get blurry between classification for national security purposes and classification to protect the agency’s bureaucrats?
Mr. Goss, I cannot attribute this misleading op-ed to your ignorance, since you were a member of Congress until recently and are surely aware of the lack of meaningful protection for national security whistleblowers; so I won't. I will not attribute it to your stupidity, since obviously our Congress confirmed your position and I do not intend to insult their wisdom and intelligence. Thus, it must be your arrogance, nurtured and fed by your boss on your purported inherent and limitless authority and power, leading you to treat us, the American Public, as stupid.
Sincerely,
Sibel Edmonds
A Proud National Security Whistleblower
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Senators: Cheney Should Be Probed in Leak
Associated Press
12 Feb 06
WASHINGTON - Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald should investigate Vice President Dick Cheney and others in the
CIA leak probe if they authorized an aide to give secret information to reporters, Democratic and Republican senators said Sunday.
Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., called the leak of intelligence information "inappropriate" if it is true that unnamed "superiors" instructed Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, to divulge the material on
Iraq.
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., said a full investigation is necessary.
"I don't think anybody should be releasing classified information, period, whether in the Congress, executive branch or some underling in some bureaucracy," said Allen, who appeared with Reed on "Fox News Sunday."
According to court documents disclosed last week, Libby told a federal grand jury that he disclosed in July 2003 the contents of a classified National Intelligence Estimate as part of the Bush administration's defense of intelligence used to justify invading Iraq.
Fitzgerald said in the documents it was his understanding that "Mr. Libby testified that he was authorized to disclose information about the NIE to the press by his superiors."
The White House has refused to comment on the case.
"I think this calls into question in terms of Fitzgerald's investigation of the conduct of the vice president and others," Reed said. "I think he has to look closely at their behavior."
Allen expressed confidence in Fitzgerald, whom he called "a very articulate, professional prosecutor."
"And I think the facts will lead wherever they lead, and I think he will prosecute as appropriate," Allen said.
Libby, 55, was indicted on charges that he lied to
FBI agents and the grand jury about how he learned CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity and when he told reporters. He is not charged with leaking classified information.
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The Shoe (Bomb) on the Other Foot
By Jonathan Alter
Newsweek
Feb. 10, 2006
Feb. 10, 2006 - Poor Porter Goss. First, the longtime Florida congressman leaves his safe seat to become director of the CIA, only to find that he’s been neutered by a new bureaucratic setup where he reports to John Negroponte, the director of national intelligence. Then he writes an op-ed piece decrying intelligence leaks in The New York Times on Friday, the exact same day as a story appears identifying today’s biggest leaker of antiterrorism secrets in Washington—President George W. Bush.
For crass political reasons—namely to advance his position on the National Security Agency spying story—the president chose to use a speech to the National Guard Association to disclose details of a 2002 “shoe bomb” plot to blow up the U.S. Bank Tower, the tallest building in Los Angeles. While the plot had been revealed in general terms in the past, the White House this week arranged for Bush’s counterterrorism adviser, Frances Fragos Townsend, to explain to reporters in a conference call exactly the kind of details that Goss claimed on the op-ed page helped the enemy. “We are at risk of losing a key battle,” Goss wrote. “The battle to protect our classification system.”
That system is at particular risk when it is exploited for political purposes. The president is allowed to declassify whatever he wants; that’s one of the privileges of being president. So in this case—unlike the NSA’s warrantless eavesdropping—there is no issue of Bush breaking the law. But let’s be clear on what this was: a deliberate effort to use declassification for partisan purposes, in this case, defending the administration’s policy on NSA surveillance, which Karl Rove says publicly will be a big part of the 2006 midterm campaign.
The White House made perfect political use of the twilight zone of intelligence. While Townsend did not explicitly claim that the NSA surveillance program had foiled the Los Angeles plot, she tried to imply that it might have played a role. “We use all available sources and methods in the intelligence community but we have to protect them,” she told reporters. “So I’m not going to talk about what ones we did or didn’t use in this particular case.”
Let’s get this straight. The president and administration officials will suddenly talk about details of the foiled plot—details that were highly classified until now. But they won’t say if the controversial NSA program was involved. Given their new willingness to talk at length about the case, can anyone seriously doubt that had the NSA eavesdropping cracked this case, they would have mentioned that? Simply saying that the NSA helped foil the plot—if it had—would not have compromised “sources and methods.” You can bet that if this were an NSA case, we’d know it.
The chronology of Bush’s politicizing of intelligence goes something like this: First, the president discloses classified information without any good reason to do so. Why now? It’s not as if Los Angeles is hosting the Olympics or under some new threat. (To understand how hurried and political this disclosure was, consider the fact that Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a Democrat, wasn’t briefed on the foiled plot and has been stiffed in his efforts to meet with the president about homeland security in his city, a problem that New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other Republican mayors do not have). Then, by implying without stating that the NSA may have been involved, the White House uses sensitivity about classified information as a shield against finding out whether the NSA is relevant to the Los Angeles plot in the first place.
Goss, meanwhile, is left hanging out to dry: he seems to be calling for more criminalization of intelligence leaks in one part of the paper while the president leaks like a sieve in the other. Elsewhere, he makes a big distinction between whistleblowers who seek accountability through proper channels (they’re right) and those who go to the media (obviously wrong). Feeling some pressure three quarters into his op-ed piece to offer even one example of how media coverage has jeopardized an intelligence operation, Goss hauls out the same chestnut Bush used in a press conference last month—the revelation that Osama bin Laden’s satellite phone had been tapped. The implication was that once the evil American media revealed this fact, bin Laden stopped using the phone and was harder to catch. In fact, bin Laden gave up his satphone after President Bill Clinton used coordinates from the phone to bomb him in 1998. It was Clinton’s missiles, not the media, that convinced the Al Qaeda leader he needed a more secure way to communicate.
Will the White House get away with using intelligence as a political weapon? Probably. Imagine if it were Clinton, not Bush, who decided to reveal classified information about the plot against Los Angeles in a politically convenient way. The rightwing gabfests would be having a field day, as well they should. But now the shoe bomb is on the other foot.
© 2006 Newsweek, Inc.
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Cheney Shoots Fellow Hunter in Texas Accident
Companion in Intensive Care With Upper-Body Wounds
By Shailagh Murray and Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, February 13, 2006
Vice President Cheney accidentally sprayed a companion with birdshot while hunting quail on a private Texas ranch, injuring the man in the face, neck and chest, the vice president's office confirmed yesterday after a Texas newspaper reported the incident.
The shooting occurred late Saturday afternoon while Cheney was hunting with Harry Whittington, 78, a prominent Austin lawyer, on the Armstrong Ranch in south Texas. Hearing a covey of birds, Cheney shot at one, not realizing that Whittington had startled the quail and that he was in the line of fire.
Whittington was treated on the scene by Cheney's traveling medical detail before being taken by helicopter to a Corpus Christi hospital. He was in the intensive care unit at Christus Spohn Health System and listed in stable condition yesterday evening.
Katharine Armstrong, the ranch's owner, saw what happened Saturday and told reporters yesterday that Cheney was using a 28-gauge shotgun, which shoots fewer pellets and has a smaller shot pattern than a 12-gauge shotgun, making it harder to hit the target. Whittington was about 30 yards away when he was hit in the cheek, neck and chest, she said.
According to Armstrong's account, she was watching from a car while Cheney, Whittington and another hunter got out of the vehicle to shoot at a covey of quail. Whittington shot a bird and as he went to retrieve it, Cheney and the third hunter discovered a second covey.
Whittington "came up from behind the vice president and the other hunter and didn't signal them or indicate to them or announce himself," Armstrong said, according to the Associated Press.
It was Armstrong's decision to alert the news media. Cheney's office made no public announcement, deciding to defer to Armstrong because the incident had taken place on her property. Armstrong called the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, and when a reporter from the paper called the White House, the vice president's office confirmed the account.
Cheney's office referred other reporters to Armstrong for a witness account, but after speaking to some members of the media yesterday afternoon, Armstrong stopped returning phone calls.
She told reporters that the small shotgun pellets "broke the skin" and that the blast "knocked him silly. But he was fine. He was talking. His eyes were open. It didn't get in his eyes or anything like that."
"Fortunately, the vice president has got a lot of medical people around him and so they were right there and probably more cautious than we would have been," she said. "The vice president has got an ambulance on call, so the ambulance came."
The International Hunter Education Association, which represents safety coordinators for fish and wildlife agencies and tracks incident reports by state, said on its Web site that hunting accidents in the United States have declined about 30 percent over the past decade. In 2002, the most recent year for which data were available, 89 fatal and 761 nonfatal incidents were reported. In 26 of the cases, including one fatality, the intended target was quail.
"The vice president visited Harry Whittington at the hospital and was pleased to see that he's doing fine and in good spirits," Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride said yesterday. Cheney returned to Washington last night.
"The vice president was concerned," said Mary Matalin, a Cheney adviser who spoke with him yesterday morning. "He felt badly, obviously. On the other hand, he was not careless or incautious or violate any of the [rules]. He didn't do anything he wasn't supposed to do."
White House aides said President Bush was notified about the incident, although he had not spoken to Cheney as of late yesterday afternoon. "The president was informed after the accident and received updates today," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday.
Whittington is well known around Austin, an old-school Texan whose friends include a retired Catholic bishop and who plays cards with a former Texas Supreme Court chief judge. Feisty and outspoken, he is a millionaire real estate investor who is known for a reformer's streak through his service on the Texas Board of Criminal Justice, which oversees the state prison system, and the Texas Funeral Service Commission.
"His dignified presence belies a fierce competitive spirit and antipathy toward government power," the Austin American-Statesman wrote in a profile of Whittington published last July.
Cheney, an avid hunter, usually visits the 50,000-acre Armstrong Ranch, settled in 1882, once a year. He also hunts regularly at sites in Georgia and South Dakota.
The Armstrong family has a long history in Texas Republican politics and has been close to the Bush family, as well as to the vice president.
Tobin Armstrong, Katharine Armstrong's father, was a Pioneer, an elite fundraiser for Bush. After Tobin Armstrong died last October, Cheney spoke at his funeral. Tobin Armstrong described previous outings with Cheney in an Associated Press interview in 2000: "We go out when the dew is still on the grass, and then hunt until we shoot our limit. Then we pick a fine spot and have a wild game picnic lunch."
His wife, Anne Armstrong, served as co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, White House counselor to President Richard M. Nixon, ambassador to Britain for President Gerald R. Ford, and co-chairman of Ronald Reagan's presidential campaign. Bush put her on the board of Texas A&M University when he was governor, and she was on the board of Halliburton when the company hired Cheney.
Katharine Armstrong also was a Bush Pioneer, along with her now ex-husband, Warren Idsal, according to Texans for Public Justice, which monitors political fundraising.
As governor, Bush appointed Katharine Armstrong to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, which regulates hunting, among other duties. People familiar with the Saturday outing said that Cheney had obtained the proper seasonal license.
Some Cheney critics pointed out that this is not the first Cheney hunting controversy. Two years ago, the vice president was criticized for going duck hunting with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia soon after the court had agreed to hear Cheney's appeal in an lawsuit related to his energy task force. A month earlier, he had bagged about 70 stocked pheasants at a private shooting club in Pennsylvania.
"Cheney needs to start setting a less violent example by switching to target practice and leaving animals and people in peace," PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement.
"We'd advise him to pursue a less violent form of relaxation and get on with the important business of leading the country," Wayne Pacelle, president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States, said in a statement.
Staff writer Sylvia Moreno in Austin contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
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QUESTIONS ABOUT THE VEEP WHO COULDN'T SHOOT STRAIGHT: WHAT REALLY HAPPENED IN DICK CHENEY'S HUNTING "ACCIDENT"?
February 13, 2006
The entire Cheney hunting accident story stinks. The delay in announcing it is suspicious, obviously. I'll bet Cheney had a few beers in him, but I'm not sure that is illegal in Texas (drinking and hunting is illegal in most states, but I couldn't find out if that includes Texas).
But a few other points that may be worth noting...
1.The news reports say the accident happened "around 5:30 pm" on Saturday. In Texas, quail can be hunted until 30 minutes after sunset. Sunset on Saturday, in Corpus Christi, was at 6:18, which means they were legal until 6:48. The "around" is suspicious.
2. The news reports say that after Whittington (left) had gotten off his shot and went looking for his bird, Cheney and the other hunter went to another spot where they saw a covey of quail. Texas quail might be different from Iowa quail, but in Iowa when a shotgun goes off, every quail within earshot flutters away. The story doesn't make sense.
3. None of the stories have commented on the fact that they were "road hunting", or hunting from a car. That is just about the lowest kind of low-rent, dishonorable kind of hunting there is (the phrase "road hunting" is often used synonymously with "poaching").
When I was growing up in Iowa, I went pheasant or quail hunting on scores of occasions with my Dad and others. We never would have hunted from a vehicle and it was an insult to even suggest that someone might. It was considered dangerous and declasse, as it was too great an advantage for the hunter to be "fair". It most states, including Texas, it is also illegal: Shotgun
"It is unlawful to hunt from or by means of motor-driven vehicles and land conveyances or aircraft of any kind except paraplegics and single or double amputees of legs may hunt from stationary motor-driven vehicles or land conveyances."
However, Texas exempts private property owners from the prohibition when they are on their own land and Cheney was with the property owner on his ranch. But it is still really tacky.
4. Hunting quail in Texas requires an "Upland game bird stamp", which costs $7. This is a relatively new requirement, but I'll bet Cheney didn't have one.
5. The spin is that Whittington "came up from behind the Vice President", implying that he snuck up on him or was somehow partially responsible because Cheney didn't know he was there. When hunting, it is bad form to walk in front of someone's gun. When given a choice, one would always approach another hunter from behind.
Cheney has gotten negative press in the past for participating in "canned hunts" and a couple of years ago he got really negative press for going on a canned pheasant hunt in Pennsylvania where he got between 70 and 95 birds (depending on which report is to be believed). The typical daily limit in places like Iowa and South Dakota, where we have many more pheasants than Pennsylvania, is 3 or 5 per day and a possession limit of 15 or 20.
To many of our milieu, hunting is hunting is hunting and the distinctions noted above aren't that big of a deal. To hunters, these are important distinctions. Hunting regulations are strictly enforced in most states and every sixpack Joe knows he better abide by them or he'll get in trouble. Most hunters aren't affluent suede vest guys, they are working class guys within a couple of generations of agriculatural roots. The gluttony of shooting 70 pheasant in a day is almost impossible for them to comprehend.
Focusing on the kill rather than the hunt is frowned upon. Killing more than you can eat is frowned upon. Canned hunts and that kind of over-indulgence is for the Rambo hunters, who are not thought highly of by the old-fashioned Izaak Walton league type of guys, like my Dad.
Someone should be asking if Cheney was drinking, if he was properly licensed with his Upland Game Bird Stamp, when (and if) the hunting accident was actually reported to the authorities and if anyone has investigated why the quail in Texas seem to have gone deaf.
Ms. Armstrong claims to have been in the car, but to have witnessed the shooting. If so, that would mean the hunters were fairly close, within eyeshot, which makes it even less likely that Whittington had gotten off a shot at a quail and then there were other quail still waiting around for Cheney to find them. It just does not make sense.
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Trying to Sort Out the Discrepancies in Cheney Shooting Story
Michelle Pilecki
13 Feb 06
The scoop on the shooting accident involving Vice President Cheney belongs to the political reporter at the Corpus Christi Caller-Times who "had built up a strong source relationship" with the owner of the ranch where the shooting occured, according to Editor & Publisher. The reporter, Jaime Powell, then confirmed the report with Cheney's office in Washington.
E&P notes: "The Cheney spokesman Powell spoke with, Lea Anne McBride, would not comment on whether the White House would have ever released the information had the Caller-Times not contacted them."
That seems to be the top question, right up there with: why was there an 18-hour delay in reporting the story? It's not like the Caller-Times beat reporters weren't checking with law enforcement on their usual regular basis, E&P says.
[Beth] Francesco, at the Corpus Christi paper, said she felt it was a bit odd that her newsroom had not received any information about the shooting since "we often call law enforcement in area, even on weekends. We checked in and didn’t hear anything about it."
Also odd was the story that the shooting victim, Harry Whittington, 78, was "bruised more than bloodied" according to the Houston Chronicle, and "his pride was hurt more than anything else." Yet, notes E&P, he was airlifted to a hospital and had spent more than a day in an intensive care unit. By the time the story went national, the prominent Austin lawyer was reported as being in stable condition.
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Hey There, You With the Sun In Your Eyes
Jane Hamsher
Feb 13 06
Washington is abuzz with the speculation that the GOP will use this little caged birdie shoot-a-thon-gone-wrong as an excuse to get rid of Dick Cheney. It sounds entirely plausible, especially since George Allen was on Fox News Sunday morning calling for investigation into the declassification of the NIE. The GOP obviously knew the shooting had happened and after putting so much energy into spreading the meme that Cheney had the absolute right to have Scooter do what he did they wouldn't allow Allen off the reservation like that without some sort of larger purpose. Maybe it was only a trial balloon, but still.
The fact is that they do not know what will happen in the fall of 2006, and should the Democrats take either of the houses of Congress the stone wall they've been able to erect in front of all their crimes suddenly begins to crumble. With subpoena power the Democrats could start to dismantle the GOP crime family and there could be a whole lot more people than Scooter Libby in need of pardoning.
Who will play the Gerald Ford in all of this? Who could be counted on to be loyal and pardon them all? Allen himself would be a prime contender, as would McCain or McConnell. Though after the drubbing that BushCo. has delivered to McCain if it were me I sure wouldn't want to put him in the position of holding my life in his hands, paybacks being a bitch and all.
And then there is Condi, probably the one who could most reliably be counted upon to be the good soldier in the situation. We could be knee deep in people scrambling for power real soon.
But we do have to ask: who thought it was a good idea to put a gun in the hands of a fat, drunken, ill-tempered gimp with a bad heart in the first place?
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Cheney steps up war on lawyers
U.S. Vice-President accidentally shoots hunting buddy
Mary Vallis
National Post, with files from news services
Monday, February 13, 2006
Mr. Cheney's past escapades have raised the ire of both animal activists and political watchdog groups. In December, 2003, he visited a game farm in Pennsylvania. When gamekeepers released 500 pen-reared pheasants, he shot 70 and ordered them plucked and vacuum-packed. The Humane Society of the United States exposed Mr. Cheney's "canned hunt."
Another trip a few week later raised allegations of conflict of interest. In early 2004, it was revealed Mr. Cheney had gone on a duck hunt in southern Louisiana with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an old friend. The trip took place in January, 2004, three weeks after the high court agreed to hear a controversial case involving the Vice-President.
"Vice-President Cheney continues to demonstrate terrible misjudgment with his hunting behaviour," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said in an interview last night.
Mr. Pacelle said Mr. Cheney's hunts represent the worst aspects of the sport -- the "good-ol'-boy network," the use of an "unethical" hunting facility, as well as harming a companion.
"Now he's shot a hunting partner. We really don't understand what his obsession with shooting animals is. Certainly he has plenty of other things to keep him busy."
Dick Cheney, the Vice-President of the United States, accidentally shot and wounded a 78-year-old hunting buddy while hunting at a Texas ranch this weekend.
Mr. Cheney, 65, was out with friends at a private ranch in Kenedy County late on Saturday afternoon when he accidentally sprayed an elderly companion with shotgun pellets at about 5:30 p.m.
"It appears he was peppered with a shotgun while hunting for quail," Peter Banko, an administrator at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, said in an interview.
Mr. Banko said the victim, lawyer Harry Whittington of Austin, Tex., suffered wounds to his face, neck and chest. He was in stable condition in the trauma intensive care unit late yesterday.
Katharine Armstrong, whose family owns the ranch, was a member of the hunting party and witnessed the accident.
She said Mr. Cheney, an experienced hunter, did not realize Mr. Whittington had rejoined the group without announcing himself, which is proper protocol among hunters.
"They had no idea he was there," Ms. Armstrong said.
"A bird flew up, the Vice-President followed it through around to his right and shot, and unfortunately, unbeknownst to anybody, Harry was there and he got peppered pretty good with a spray of 28-gauge pellets," Ms. Armstrong said.
"He was turning, facing the Vice-President, but turning to the right, and it sprayed him across the right side of his face, his shoulder, his chest and along the rib cage area," she said.
Ms. Armstrong said Mr. Cheney's medical team attended to Mr. Whittington before he was taken to the hospital.
She described Mr. Cheney as "an excellent, conscientious shot."
"The person who is not doing the shooting at the point is just as responsible, and should be, as the person actually shooting," Ms. Armstrong said.
Mr. Whittington, a wealthy Republican and donor to the presidential campaigns of George W. Bush, was taken to hospital at 8:15 p.m. on Saturday.
Local media reported that officials with the Kenedy County Sheriff's Office were investigating the incident.
Mr. Cheney visited Mr. Whittington at the hospital for about 20 minutes yesterday afternoon, Mr. Banko said. The victim's wife and family members spent the day at the hospital.
"Nobody wants this to happen, but it does," Lea Anne McBride, the Vice-President's spokeswoman, told the local newspaper.
Mr. Cheney is an avid hunter and frequent visitor to the Armstrong Ranch, a sprawling, 20,000-hectare spread in south Texas. In October, he spoke at the funeral of Tobin Armstrong, the family's patriarch.
Mr. Cheney's past escapades have raised the ire of both animal activists and political watchdog groups. In December, 2003, he visited a game farm in Pennsylvania. When gamekeepers released 500 pen-reared pheasants, he shot 70 and ordered them plucked and vacuum-packed. The Humane Society of the United States exposed Mr. Cheney's "canned hunt."
Another trip a few week later raised allegations of conflict of interest. In early 2004, it was revealed Mr. Cheney had gone on a duck hunt in southern Louisiana with Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, an old friend. The trip took place in January, 2004, three weeks after the high court agreed to hear a controversial case involving the Vice-President.
"Vice-President Cheney continues to demonstrate terrible misjudgment with his hunting behaviour," Wayne Pacelle, president of the Humane Society of the United States, said in an interview last night.
Mr. Pacelle said Mr. Cheney's hunts represent the worst aspects of the sport -- the "good-ol'-boy network," the use of an "unethical" hunting facility, as well as harming a companion.
"Now he's shot a hunting partner. We really don't understand what his obsession with shooting animals is. Certainly he has plenty of other things to keep him busy."
© National Post 2006
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Turkish rush to embrace anti-US film
By Sarah Rainsford
BBC News in Istanbul
It is rabidly anti-American, and it is the biggest draw in town.
With a budget of $10m (£5.7m), Valley of the Wolves Iraq is the most expensive film ever made in Turkey - and it is pulling record crowds.
At one of Istanbul's biggest multiplex cinemas the blockbuster is showing on five separate screens and nearly all the seats are sold out. It's the same story across the country.
"I'm back to see it for the second time already," says one student, waiting impatiently outside Screen 10.
"It is anti-American, but we already know what they've done in Iraq. That's the reality. Now we can see it on screen."
The movie opens with a real-life incident: the arrest in July 2003 of Turkish special forces in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq.
The soldiers were led out of their headquarters at gunpoint, with hoods over their heads. America later apologised, but it appears the offence ran deep.
At the time Turkey took the incident as national humiliation. In this film the fictional hero sets out for revenge.
From then on, the action pits good Turks against very bad Americans, in a mix of fact and fiction with a deeply nationalistic flavour.
US violence
In one scene, trigger-happy US troops massacre civilians at a wedding party.
In another they firebomb a mosque during evening prayer. There are multiple summary executions.
And for the first time, the real-life abuses by American soldiers at Abu Ghraib prison are played out on the big screen.
Even the doctor - played by Gary Busey - is evil, removing human organs from Iraqi prisoners to send to patients in the US, Israel and Britain.
"Our film's a sort of political action," explains script-writer Bahadir Ozdener at the production company's stylish office on the Asian side of Istanbul.
"Maybe 60 or 70% of what happens on screen is factually true. Turkey and America are allies, but Turkey wants to say something to its friend. We want to say the bitter truth. We want to say that this is wrong."
In a mainly Muslim country that has enjoyed a long strategic partnership with the US, Valley of the Wolves has sparked intense interest.
The US ambassador to Ankara was quizzed for his reaction to the film on a major news channel; even Turkey's foreign minister has felt moved to comment on it. Both were anxious to appear conciliatory.
But the film clearly capitalises on a wave of anti-American feeling that peaked with the Sulaymaniyah controversy, but began to swell with preparation for the invasion of Iraq.
Middle East expert Cengiz Candar says the incident in Sulaymaniyah added deep insult to injury in Turkey, where there was already strong opposition to the war across the border.
Fears of nationalism
Cengiz Candar feels relations had started to improve. Now he fears Valley of the Wolves will reignite the embers, with all its talk of defending Turkish honour and pride.
"This film poisons the climate in a way that enhances jingoistic nationalism among Turks," Cengiz complains.
"It's pushing society to be inward-looking and hostile to our allies and would-be allies. This kind of mentality will do no good for Turkey."
Part of the pull for the crowds flocking to cinemas here is certainly the Turkish actors involved.
The film is a spin-off from a cult TV series from the same producers.
That show pitted the all-action hero Polat against the Turkish mafia. But in changing the enemy and the location, the team behind the film appear to have judged the public mood well.
Back at the multiplex there was an all-round vote of approval from the audience for the movie, and general disapproval for the US.
"Everything we've been hearing on the news about Iraq is in this film," one woman says as she emerges from the auditorium.
"We condemn this war and will continue to condemn it. But I don't see America as our fundamental enemy," she adds.
"I'm really upset after this, really upset," an older man says, as rushes away.
"If I see an American when I get out of here I feel like taking a hood and putting it over their head."
The film is due for release in Europe soon. Then it is off to the US.
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Brazil poised to join the world's nuclear elite
By Jack Chang
Knight Ridder Newspapers
10 Feb 06
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil - While the world community scrutinizes Iran's nuclear plans, Latin America's biggest country is weeks away from taking a controversial step and firing up the region's first major uranium enrichment plant.
That move will make Brazil the ninth country to produce large amounts of enriched uranium, which can be used to generate nuclear energy and, when highly enriched, to make nuclear weapons.
Brazilians, who have long nurtured hopes of becoming a world superpower, are reacting with pride to the new facility in Resende, about 70 miles from Rio de Janeiro.
Other countries enriching uranium on an industrial scale are the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Russia, China and Japan.
The plant initially will produce 60 percent of the nuclear fuel used by the country's two nuclear reactors. A third reactor is in the planning stages. The government hopes to increase production eventually to meet all of the reactors' needs and still have enough to export, Brazilian officials said.
"We want to build new power plants and grow our enrichment program to be self-sufficient," said Odair Dias Goncalves, the president of Brazil's National Nuclear Energy Commission. "In the whole world, there's a big reinvestment in this area. Countries are turning back to nuclear energy."
The Resende plant's inauguration had been set for Jan. 20, but was delayed because construction wasn't completed, Dias Goncalves said. The plant may begin uranium enrichment without the hoopla later this month, officials said.
Unlike Iran, Brazil is considered a good global citizen that isn't seeking nuclear weapons, although its military ran a secret program to develop a nuclear weapon as recently as the early 1990s.
Still, some U.S. observers fear Brazil's program will encourage more countries to make nuclear fuel, raising the danger of nuclear weapons proliferation.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, earlier this month reported Iran to the U.N. Security Council for failing for three years to disclose all aspects of its nuclear program to agency inspectors. Iran responded by restricting IAEA inspections, a move that stymies efforts to determine whether it's producing fuel for power plants or developing nuclear weapons.
Brazil's nuclear fuel needs, more than 120 tons of enriched uranium a year, don't warrant the country launching an industrial facility like Resende, especially with global supplies of the material running high, said Lawrence Scheinman, a former U.S. arms control official.
"There really isn't much justification for new enrichment facilities unless countries have a very substantial number of reactors to be serviced and don't want to depend on outside suppliers," he said. "Neither Brazil nor Iran are in those positions."
Despite the criticisms, Brazil's program hasn't drawn the outcry that Iran's nuclear plans have. Disagreements between the IAEA and Brazilian officials in 2004 over access to the Resende facility were resolved within months.
Like Iran, Brazil has signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, the global agreement to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons. All of Brazil's 20 facilities using nuclear material are under IAEA safeguards.
Brazilian officials have worked closely with the IAEA throughout Resende's planning and construction, Dias Goncalves said. IAEA inspectors have visited the facility 32 times.
Iranian officials, on the other hand, hid their uranium enrichment work for 18 years and obtained much of their technology from a Pakistani-led smuggling ring. Iran's leaders also have called for the destruction of Israel and are known sponsors of terrorism.
"There is no way to doubt the intent of our plans because they are completely open," Dias Goncalves said. "We have to take account of every gram of uranium used."
The road to Resende did hit a few bumps in 2004 when Brazil refused to let inspectors view centrifuges used in the enrichment process, saying they had to protect Brazilian-designed innovations vulnerable to industrial espionage.
After months of negotiations, the two sides agreed to a confidential inspection regime, which is still in place, an IAEA official said.
That agreement allows IAEA inspectors to examine material coming in and out of the centrifuges but not the equipment itself, which is covered by opaque panels, said Edson Kuramoto, president of the non-governmental Brazilian Nuclear Energy Association.
Brazilian energy adviser Rogerio Cezar Cerqueira Leite said the Resende plant will allow Brazil to sell to growing markets for enriched uranium and fuel a domestic nuclear program that's bound to expand.
"Without enriched uranium, you don't have nuclear technology," Cerqueira Leite said. "It's not just national prestige. If you don't make it yourself, you will always be behind in the nuclear race."
Many Brazilians see the eventual opening of Resende as the first step in the country becoming a world leader in nuclear research, said Cerqueira Leite. Brazil has the world's sixth largest deposit of uranium.
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Report attacks France's human rights record
Kim Willsher in Paris and Nick Watt in Brussels
Monday February 13, 2006
The Guardian
· Overcrowded jails and police brutality exposed
· Immigrant quota system described as 'shocking'
France's record on human rights has been condemned in a leaked report exposing police brutality, chronically overcrowded prisons and the jailing of children with adults. It also had harsh words for the country's immigration policy.
The 200 pages of damning criticism produced by the influential Council of Europe, due to be released on Wednesday, were leaked to Le Parisien at the weekend.
According to the leaked extracts, the report warns there is a "very large gulf" between what the law requires and common practice in France. The situation is so bad, it adds, that the country that prides itself on being the cradle of the droits de l'homme is increasingly finding itself hauled before the European Court of Human Rights.
The report, by Alvaro Gil-Robles, the council's human rights commissioner, is based on inspections of French prisons and police stations in September 2005. According to Le Parisien, Mr Gil-Robles said the difficulties in France were "persistent, even recurrent".
French media, which ran extracts, said the report reserved some of its strongest criticism for the police, who were apparently described by the Council of Europe as operating with a "sense of impunity".
Le Parisien said the report denounced a culture among officers that hindered investigations into cases of police brutality and violence. Highlighted abuses included claims that arrested suspects were not being automatically allowed legal representation during police interrogations and cited the numerous restrictions that made the lawyer's role "very limited".
"A democratic society has nothing to fear from the presence of responsible lawyers ... during [a suspect's] detention," read one extract from the report.
Mr Gil-Robles said he was "shocked by the lamentable state" of certain police cells where "detainees even sleep on the floor and are not given any mattress or bed linen". He said it was a "sad fact" that chronic overcrowding and a lack of money in French prisons "deprived a large number of detainees from exercising their basic rights" and made their incarceration a "double punishment".
A spokesman for Mr Gil-Robles said the French media reports were accurate: "This is an accurate copy based on our draft - though not final - report. It reflects the tenor of the report accurately."
The report is due to be presented on Wednesday to the committee of ministers.
Le Parisien said the council's report also criticised the fact that prisoners who misbehaved could be placed in punishment cells for up to 45 days.
The Council of Europe is a 46-member international body founded in 1949 and based in Strasbourg, France. It focuses on democracy, the rule of law, human rights, discrimination and other problems facing European society.
Mr Gil-Robles told France-Info radio: "For me the most important thing is that the prison route is not a route of vengeance but a route to obtain justice - to give criminals a punishment and afterwards allow them to be reintegrated into society ... In France that is not possible."
Mr Gil-Robles had harsh words for France's immigration policy and the announcement last year by the French interior minister, Nicolas Sarkozy, of a 50% rise in expulsions of illegal immigrants.
"The very fact of announcing quotas is a shocking practice," Mr Gil-Robles said.
Only last week French government ministers considered new proposals from Mr Sarkozy to establish immigration quotas based on a points system. According to Le Monde, the report denounced the "penalisation" of foreigners in France because of the "hardening of immigration policies" that could "lead to the stigmatisation of asylum seekers suspected of being economic migrants".
The report also criticised the fact that those demanding asylum had to fill in forms in French. Detention centres for foreigners awaiting expulsion were said to be of varying quality, but the one in the Palais de Justice in Paris was described as "catastrophic and shameful to France".
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'Buy us back Chirac!': appeal from New Orleans
NEW ORLEANS, Feb 12, 2006 (AFP)
New Orleans' first parade since Hurricane Katrina rolled through chilly French Quarter streets Saturday night, greeted warmly by cheering crowds embracing the spirit of Carnival in a flood-damaged city.
Powered by brass bands and mule-drawn floats, costumed members of the Krewe du Vieux parade organization tossed beads and toys to spectators, drinking cold beer or hot coffee.
Locally renown for its adult humour and biting satire, the "krewe's" brightly lighted floats poked fun at the government's handling of the worst natural disaster in US history.
"Buy us back, Chirac!" begged the sign on one float, which featured a man costumed as a French artist trying to "escape" from a tall plastic case.
Some spectators missed the historical reference to France's sale of New Orleans to the United States, in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Others laughed and clamoured for "Buy Us Back, Chirac!" bumper stickers.
"Since the federal government isn't taking care of us, our best strategy may be to sell Louisiana back to France and hope that President (Jacques) Chirac and the French Government can do a better job," joked Keith Twitched, a spokesman for the Krewe du Vieux.
The parade's overall theme "C'est Levee" took aim at the US Army Corps of Engineers. The federal agency has admitted failing to adequately maintain the city's protective levee system, which Katrina punctured on August 29, flooding most of the city.
Hundreds drowned; thousands were rescued and tens of thousands were displaced. Looting, fires and deprivation followed. An acute lack of housing and healthcare persist. The city is still less than half of its pre-Katrina population of 460,000.
At the parade, however, the shivering crowds seemed to enjoy the respite of the krewe's dark humour. One float titled "The 'Corpse' of Engineers presents: 'A Day at the Breach'" showed water cascading over a levee with two beach chairs in front of it.
Another float 'LEWDers Gone Wild!' suggested a city happily consumed by sexual appetites, rather than by post-Katrina looters.
Jimmy Roberts, 50, a native New Orleanian smiled widely as spectators and revellers danced to the pulsating music of the brass bands. Roberts, a vending machine service operator, wore a necklace of silver stars he caught from a krewe member. "Life is good," he said. "I feel sorry for the people who can't come back."
The Krewe du Vieux is the only one of the 34 Carnival parade organizations in New Orleans that still uses mule-drawn floats.
Because of its small size, the krewe also is the only Carnival parade allowed to march through the French Quarter, says Carnival historian Errol Laborde. "I love this parade," Laborde said. "This is what the early Mardi Gras parades must have been like in the early 1800s, when small bands of people marched in the streets."
Krewe du Vieux parades a week before the beginning of the Carnival season as defined by city ordinances, Laborde said. "Technically, it's not a 'Carnival' parade. But it's one of the greatest parades in terms of capturing the true spirit of Carnival."
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Sharon critical after 40 days in coma
AFP
February 12, 2006
JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon remains critically ill in hospital, the day after undergoing emergency surgery to remove part of his intestines as he entered his 40th day in a coma.
Officials at Jerusalem's Hadassah hospital said Sharon's life was not in danger following the four-hour stomach surgery needed to repair damage to his digestive system which doctors said was indicative of a wider systemic collapse in the 77-year-old patient.
"The prime minister remains in a critical but stable condition. His life is not in danger after yesterday's intervention," said Hadassah spokesman Ron Krumer.
The operation to extract around a third of his largest intestine came after doctors detected significant swelling to his abdomen.
Despite the success of the surgery, hospital director Shlomo Mor Yosef emphasised that the abdominal problems were merely a further complication to a patient who has still to emerge from the coma that was medically induced after he suffered a massive brain haemorrhage on January 4.
"It is important to re-emphasise that the general problem is his coma. It is not his abdominal pain," he said on Saturday night. "Every day that passes, his chances of recovering are reduced."
Ehud Olmert, who has taken over the reins of power, put a positive spin on the latest bulletin from the Hadassah.
"We are encouraged by the reports from the hospital on the state of the prime minister's health following his operation yesterday," he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
"The entire government embraces (Sharon's sons) Omri and Gilad who are sitting at their father's bedside day and night."
While the days stretch into weeks, Israelis have become increasingly accustomed to the idea that the era of Sharon -- who dominated the political scene like no other prime minister -- is well and truly over.
Rather than sink in the absence of its skipper, Sharon's newly-formed Kadima party has sailed serenely on in the last 40 days.
The latest batch of opinion polls have all forecast that Kadima should win around double the number of votes of its nearest rivals when Israel holds a general election on March 28
Lior Horev, one of Sharon's senior advisors, said Kadima's strong lead in the polls showed that accusations that it was a one-man band were wide of the mark and its wider political platform was a vote-winner.
"The prime minister's state of health is not of primary importance from the electorate's point of view," Horev told Israeli radio.
In his first interview last week since taking over from Sharon, Olmert indicated that he planned to carry out more unilateral pullouts from the West Bank along the lines of Sharon's "disengagement" from the Gaza Strip last year.
He also pledged to strive to "redefine the borders of the state of Israel" in the coming years if elected -- a project that Sharon was widely expected to have embarked on had he not collapsed 40 days ago.
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Major Anomaly In Chandler's Wobble - 2005/2006 - The Earth’s Wobble Has Paused What this portends, no one knows.
Michael Mandeville
February 8, 2006
For at least three and a half weeks there has been almost no movement of the spin axis in the normal spiral track of Chandler’s Wobble.
Have we come to a profound change in the geophysics of the Earth? Why this sudden change in what usually has been for the past 100 years or more a fairly regular, fairly predictable wobble track.
As is well known, the wobble is generated by the differential pulling of the Moon and the Sun on the Earth's equatorial bulge (and any other concentrations of mass in or on the Earth). This differential pulling is caused by the oblique angles of the orbital planes which bring the Sun and the Moon alternatively above and below the equator, thus tending through orbital time to push one side of the Earth or the other to move faster or slower than the other side to the North or to the South.
The Earth's Wobble has a 7 year cycle which produces two extremes, a small spiraling wobble circle and a large spiraling wobble circle, about 3.5 years apart. The Earth was in October 2005 moving into the small spiraling circle (the MIN phase of the wobble), which should have slowly unfolded during 2006 and the first few months of 2007. (Each spiraling circle takes about 14 months).
But suddenly at the beginning of November 2005, the track of the location of the spin axis veered at a very sharp right angle to its circling motion. The track of the spin axis began to slow down and by about January 8, 2006, it ceased nearly all relative motion on the x and y coordinates which are used to define the daily changing location of the spin axis.
One can see this effect by looking at the graphs on this page. [...]
The current cessation is clearly the result of a strong contending vector of push or pull which is counteracting the driving forces of the Sun and Moon. Since orbital motions have not changed in any significant way, these orbiting influences are the same as they always have been. The “change” in gravitational vectors (or spin vectors) MUST be in the Earth, somewhere or somehow. What is this shift?
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Earthquake detected under Lake Erie
February 12, 2006
MENTOR-ON-THE-LAKE, Ohio (AP) - Another small earthquake has been detected beneath Lake Erie, the third so far this year.
According to initial data from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources, the earthquake hit Friday morning about three miles northwest of Mentor-on-the-Lake in Lake County and measured two-point-six magnitude. No damage was reported.
Ohio has recorded more than 185 earthquakes since 1776, but only 15 of them have caused damage. The most seismically active regions are along Lake Erie.
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Stranger in the sky
PRERNA SHAH
India Times
February 10, 2006
What grabbed their attention was the fact that the object managed to manoeuvre the tricky mountain slope with amazing ease.
"It was like a head made of balloons, with a body that had no arms. The four-foot long object even started changing colour from white to black, as the sun shone on it," recalls Kulkarni.
"But as soon as we got nearer, it stopped, turned, changed back to its white colour, rose in the air and then beat a hasty retreat and disappeared."
"It could not be a weather balloon because it went against the wind direction. We also contacted robotics laboratories but have not found any man-made machine that manoeuvres such complex moves.
Neither can we co-relate it with the existing technological devices or with unmanned spy machines," says a perplexed Kulkarni.
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Bright lights spotted in night skies
By Mason Lerner
The Daily News
February 11, 2006
NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said NASA had received a handful of calls inquiring about the light. That might not be a surprise, because it is probably fair to say this is the type of thing inquiring minds want to know about.
Clem said she had no information on the object.
Dawna Carroll doesn’t believe in little green men. But she does believe in really “hot” aliens. And she said she has been waiting for them to show up on earth for quite some time.
That might be why she has been so curious about the bright light she has seen in the eastern skies recently.
Carroll drives a street-sweeping truck during the night shift for a company in La Porte. She said the job gives her plenty of time to study the night sky.
“I’m a stargazer,” she said. “But I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
NASA spokeswoman Kylie Clem said NASA had received a handful of calls inquiring about the light. That might not be a surprise, because it is probably fair to say this is the type of thing inquiring minds want to know about.
Clem said she had no information on the object.
“It wasn’t anything we were tracking,” she said.
She said it was possible people were seeing some natural phenomenon.
Caroll said she is able to see the bright light at the beginning of her shift all the way until she makes her nightly journey down the isolated stretch of Red Bluff that leads to her home in Bacliff.
“I don’t want to say it’s a UFO, but hey, I’d buy it,” she said.
Caroll described the object as looking like a big peace sign.
“It has two rays of light that make it look like one of those peace signs we used to make in the ’60s,” she said.
Is it possible that it was something she did in the ’60s that is making her see peace signs hanging in the air in the 21st century?
“I did hang out with a lot of people that liked to feel good,” she said.
Carroll admitted she has been intrigued by extraterrestrial life for a long time. She said it would be arrogant to assume we are alone in the universe. She added that she believes the aliens will look a lot different than the depictions we are used to.
“They will be much more beautiful than us,” she said.
Space Center Houston Spokesman Roger Bornstein said he didn’t field any phone calls about the unidentified shining object. He said he does get similar phone calls from time to time though, and usually there is a simple explanation.
Does he think that means it won’t be necessary for Galveston County residents to stock up on food and water just in case there is an alien armada on the horizon poised to invade?
“I think we’ve done that enough this year,” he said.
Wasn’t that for the hurricanes?
“That’s what you say,” he said with a chuckle.
Comment: The tone of this report is right in line with what we have come to expect about such anomalies, but the exchange right at the end is curiously prescient even if it was a joke:
Space Center Houston Spokesman Roger Bornstein said he didn’t field any phone calls about the unidentified shining object. He said he does get similar phone calls from time to time though, and usually there is a simple explanation.
Does he think that means it won’t be necessary for Galveston County residents to stock up on food and water just in case there is an alien armada on the horizon poised to invade?
“I think we’ve done that enough this year,” he said.
Wasn’t that for the hurricanes?
“That’s what you say,” he said with a chuckle.
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Ark's Quantum Quirks
SOTT
February 13, 2006
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Bird flu reaches western Europe, another death in Asia
AFP
12 Feb 06
The potentially deadly strain of H5N1 bird flu reached western Europe, with outbreaks reported in Italy and Greece, as well as Bulgaria, while the death toll increased in Asia.
There were more disturbing signs in Nigeria, where the first outbreak on the African continent was reported earlier this week, that the virus is spreading.
Meanwhile the bird flu death toll rose in Asia with the announcement Saturday of the death of a 27-year-old Indonesian woman who had tested positive, according to hospital staff.
Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace said the highly pathogenic strain, responsible for the deaths of some 90 people, mainly in Asia, had been found in a total of 21 dead swans on the island of Sicily and elsewhere in the south of the country.
"Twenty one swans were infected by the virus, five of them with a virulent form," he told reporters.
The European Commission reacted calmly to the news that the virus had crossed into the 25-member bloc, after having previously infected birds as close as Romania and killed four people in Turkey.
Storace tried to calm fears by saying that so far no one had caught the virus directly from wild birds.
"We are relatively unworried as regards human health but there are reasons for concern for animal health," he said.
Germany and Austria said Saturday they were watching closely developments in Italy.
Emergency measures introduced by Italy include the establishment of a high-risk area (three-kilometer-two mile protection zone) around each of the outbreaks and a surrounding surveillance zone of 10 kilometers, the European Commission said. Poultry in the zones will be kept indoors and only allowed to be transported to slaughterhouses.
The measures had already been agreed by Greece following the discovery of dead swans in the northern Salonika region, which were confirmed Saturday to have been carrying H5N1.
In Brussels the European Commission said the H5N1 strain had also been found in wild swans in the Bulgarian wetland region of Vidin, close to the Romanian border, last week.
In Romania, health officials on Saturday ordered tests after a possible new case of bird flu of the H5 strain was detected at a farm in the Danube delta, the agriculture ministry said.
The avian influenza situation in Italy and other affected countries will be reviewed by the EU's Standing Committee on the Food and Chain and Animal Health which meets Thursday and Friday.
The latest Indonesian victim died late Friday after being on a ventilator since Tuesday, said Ilham Patu, the spokesman of Jakarta's Sulianti Saroso hospital where the patient had been treated.
Tests conducted by the health ministry, which are normally accurate, showed that the woman had bird flu.
On Thursday a 22-year-old Indonesian woman died after local tests showed she had the virus.
Samples from the two women have been sent to a Hong Kong laboratory accredited by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for confirmation.
If confirmed, they would be Indonesia's 17th and 18th fatalities from the H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus. China announced Friday that a 20-year-old woman in the central province of Hunan had died of bird flu, bringing the country's death toll from the virus to eight.
Nigerian officials battled to contain the outbreak amid reports that it is spreading rapidly through poultry flocks and approaching the Niger border.
Agricultural officials were preparing to quarantine and disinfect two farms where tens of thousands of birds have died on the outskirts of Kano, a city of several million people sitting astride a major trade route.
But even as the clean-up team donned their protective suits, officials 170 kilometres (80 miles) further north warned of another suspected outbreak of H5N1 avian flu in Katsina, a short distance from Nigeria's northern frontier.
Group of Eight industrial powers meeting in Moscow warned Saturday of the risk of a bird flu pandemic, moments before the news broke that the deadly H5N1 virus had spread to Greece and Italy.
"We acknowledge the risk of a possible avian flu pandemic and its potential economic and financial impacts," said a G8 statement by Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States.
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Suspected fowl bird flu cases found in Romania
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-13 18:29:29
BUCHAREST, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- Cases of suspected bird flu in fowl were found in a village close to Romania's Black Sea port of Constanta, authorities said on Monday.
Rapid tests on two dead hens found in a courtyard led to suspicion of the presence of the H5 type of the virus in the Topraisar village in Constanta county, a local veterinarian said.
The village is 40 km north of the border with Bulgaria.
Avian flu has been discovered in 29 villages in Romania since the virus was first detected in the Danube delta last October. Butno human cases have been reported in the country.
On Saturday, authorities found new suspect bird flu cases in the delta and confirmed the presence of the virus in a nearby village.
The H5N1 virus has killed at least 80 people and caused the death of millions of birds since 2003.
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6th swan tests positive for H5N1 in Italy
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-13 19:08:58
ROME, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- A sixth wild swan which died in Italy has tested positive for the virulent H5N1 of bird flu in a specialist lab in Padua late Sunday, local press reports said on Monday.
Tests were still under way in the lab to determine whether dozens of other swans found dead in the south of the country carried the H5N1 strain that can infect humans, the reports said.
More than 20 swans found dead in Puglia and Calabria regions and on the island of Sicily were infected by the bird flu, Italian Health Minister Francesco Storace said on Saturday.
The Italian authorities had put emergency measures into place, including setting up protective zones and increasing agricultural and veterinary checks.
Greece and Bulgaria, where H5N1 was detected in other wild swans, have also taken similar emergency measures. Slovenia reported a case of an H5 bird flu, but had not yet confirmed whether it was the H5N1 strain.
Only migratory birds, and no domestic poultry, had been affected so far in Italy, authorities said.
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Group of Eight powers warn of energy threat to world economy
AFP
12 Feb 06
Oil prices and energy security dominated Russia's first hosting of G8 policymakers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
Group of Eight finance chiefs wrapped up "stormy" talks at a hotel near Red Square, warning that wild energy prices threaten prospects for solid world economic growth in 2006.
"Overall global growth remains solid and this is expected to continue in 2006," the G8 finance ministers said in a final communique released after heavily guarded, closed-door talks.
"Risks remain, including high and volatile energy prices," the major economic powers warned.
In a bitterly cold Moscow, the Russian authorities laid on strict security for the meeting.
Sidewalks around the hotel, overlooked by the towering spires of the Kremlin, were blocked off to the public and guarded by police with dogs. Army trucks were seen delivering police reinforcements.
Oil prices and energy security dominated Russia's first hosting of G8 policymakers from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.
High oil and gas prices have delivered a windfall to Russia, the world's second biggest oil exporter, giving it greater economic clout than in the past.
Russia's G8 partners were deeply concerned, however, when Moscow turned off natural gas supplies to Ukraine in January to push through sharply higher prices. Kiev complained the demand was politically motivated.
"On some topics the discussions were stormy," the host, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin, told Ria Novosti news wire.
Asked to explain further in the closing news conference, Kudrin said: "Of course, the discussions between the ministers are fairly tense. It is a struggle over opinions. There is not always a complete resolution."
As expected, there was no mention in the statement of pressure on Russia to ratify a 1991 energy charter aimed at facilitating gas flows across Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Moscow has given no date for ratification.
"At this point, Russia is still not ready to ratify the treaty," French Finance Minister Thierry Breton said. But Breton said talks would press ahead on the treaty, which is of intense interest to Europe.
US Treasury Secretary John Snow and other ministers smiled and joked as they took a brief break from their talks to pose for photographs. But the topics for discussion were grave.
Besides energy, the G8 ministers also pondered how to combat infectious diseases, interrupt terrorist financing and inject life into bogged-down world trade talks.
In their final communique, the G8 ministers:
-- Called for aid to developing countries battling the deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu just days after the virus spread to Africa for the first time. "We call on the donor community to provide financial suppport to poor countries fighting the epidemic," it said.
-- Pressed for more action to spark life into World Trade Organization negotiations aimed at opening up international trade. The ministers called for "significant progress" in freeing trade in agriculture, industrial products and services, including financial services.
-- Vowed to beef up the fight against networks which finance terrorism. "We are committed to strengthening our systems for freezing assets, information sharing, and multilateral financial tools to disrupt criminal and financial activities," the statement said.
Russia's leadership of the G8 this year has thrown into relief tensions with the West.
Critics accuse Putin of enacting policies that concentrate too much power in the Kremlin, that curb civil society in Russia and amount to a rollback of democratic gains since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
Discussion of technical issues such as currency markets traditionally addressed by G7 finance ministers were skipped to avoid insulting the host, Russia, which is excluded from such discussions.
President Vladimir Putin told journalists on the final day that he believed the work of the G8 "would be more efficient if Russia took part fully, including in the G8 financial" talks. France and Germany each backed Moscow's bid for full participation.
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Renminbi Yuan rises to new high vs dollar
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-13 13:23:00
BEIJING, Feb. 13 (Xinhuanet) -- China's currency strengthened to its highest level against the U.S. dollar on Monday since its July 21 revaluation.
The China Foreign Exchange Trade System announced that the central parity rate for the dollar was 8.0472 yuan -- less than 8.05 yuan for the first time.
The Chinese currency has gained an accumulated 2.77 percent against the dollar from its before-revaluation value.
The People's Bank of China (PBoC), the country's central bank, early this year began a new policy of calculating the Renminbi yuan's value against the US dollar using a weighted average of theprices given by major banks. The highest and lowest offers are excluded from the calculation.
Giving banks a role in setting the new daily benchmark, or the central parity rate, is seen as a sign that the central bank is willing to allow market forces a greater role in daily trading, analysts acknowledge.
The United States argues that the yuan is artificially low, giving Chinese exporters an unfair advantage, contributing to U.S.trade deficits and hurting U.S. labor markets.
China has said it places priority on promoting balanced international payments this year.
Earlier government figures show China's trade surplus came to 100 billion U.S. dollars in 2005 amid increasing trade disputes.
As a result, the country's foreign exchange reserves surged to 818.9 billion dollars by the end of last year, second only to Japan.
The PBoC has underscored that a floating yuan is not simply one that will appreciate, but the prevailing view among industry watchers is that the yuan will strengthen gradually in 2006.
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China to cut dependence on oil
www.chinaview.cn 2006-02-13 08:04:38
BEIJING, Feb. 13 -- The central government is working on a long-term plan to increase the use of alternative fuels to reduce the dependence on oil.
Coal gas and renewable energy sources such as biomass and solar power are expected to become "major alternatives," according to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC).
Wu Yin, a senior energy official with NDRC, said at a weekend meeting that the recommendations of a national leading group from several cabinet departments are part of an "oil alternative strategy."
He said "the essence of the report" will be incorporated in China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), which will be discussed at the annual session of the National People's Congress the supreme legislature next month.
China aims to raise the ratio of renewable energy in total consumption to 13 per cent by 2020, up from the current 7 per cent.
Zhang Guobao, vice-minister of the NDRC, said the key to achieve the goal is to increase the use of nuclear, wind and solar energy so that dependence on coal and oil could be cut.
The use of renewable energy has been growing at more than 25 per cent in China the highest in the world and Zhang said solar power consumption in the country accounted for 40 per cent of the global total at the end of 2004.
The government has decided to significantly raise the availability ethanol as vehicle fuel, which is currently being used in five provinces. Corn, wheat, potatoes and sugarcane are major raw materials for the alternative fuel.
Given the abundance of reserves in the country, coal liquefaction a clean and relatively efficient way of producing synthetic products is also high on the agenda.
China Oil News reported last week that the government plans to spend US$15 billion to build plants that annually manufacture 16 million tons of oil products from coal in the next five to 10 years.
The plants will be located in coal-rich Shanxi, Shaanxi and Yunnan provinces, as well as the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
According to earlier reports, Shenhua Group, the nation's largest coal producer, is building a 24.5 billion yuan (US$2.96 billion) coal liquefaction plant in Inner Mongolia, the first of its kind in the country.
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CRACKDOWN On Holocaust Revisionists: OMEN OF COMING PERSECUTION
Feb 10, 2006
By Rev. Ted Pike
Today Canadian Christians who publicly criticize homosexuality or blame Jewish leaders for the crucifixion are likely to be indicted as "hate criminals." But in 1971 when B'nai B'rith Canada and the Canadian Jewish Congress persuaded Parliament to enact their national anti-hate law, these Jewish organizations were wary of alarming Christians. Instead, they began anti-hate law enforcement by going after those least likely to be defended by society: Holocaust reductionists - those who reduce the six million figure of Jewish Holocaust dead.
During the following 30 years, the Canadian public watched passively as Malcolm Ross, Doug Collins, Ernst Zundel, etc., were pilloried by the press and financially exhausted by the courts for the "hate crime" of inquiring whether the number of Jewish Holocaust dead might be less than six million.
Then, around the turn of the century, B'nai B'rith's hate crimes gestapo turned on Christians. More cases have now been prosecuted against Christians (primarily critics of homosexuality) in the last five years than of Holocaust reductionists in the previous 30.
Today holocaust reductionists, Ernst Zundel and Germar Rudolf, have been deported from what they thought was safe haven in America. They face prosecution in Germany for violation of its B'nai B'rith anti-hate law which makes it a "thought crime" to diminish the six million figure of Jewish Holocaust victims.
David Irving, perhaps the world's best-known and respected Holocaust reductionist was arrested and imprisoned several days ago in Austria under its B'nai B'rith hate law.
Also, lesser-known Belgian reductionist Siegfried Verbeke has been arrested in Holland and is awaiting deportation to Germany. Although not a German citizen, a German judge issued an international arrest warrant against him for the German crime of Holocaust reduction.
And, on September 19, Belgian reductionist Vincent Reynouard's house was ransacked by police. He was subjected to more than three hours of detention and hostile questioning. He is free on probation only if he submits to a psychiatric examination and ceases all Holocaust reductionist activities.
Long Arm of Zionist "Justice"
On June 20, 2004 the Jerusalem Post reported that Israel's Knesset empowered the State of Israel to criminalize anyone in the world who publicly reduces the six million figure. The government is now authorized to request extradition to Israel of such alleged "hate criminals" from any nation. Israel can also seize, prosecute, and imprison them should they set foot in Israel.
After Rudolf and Zundel have been tried in German and Austrian courts, Israel can request that they be extradited to stand trial in Israel for their "hate crimes." The American government, not having hate laws, acceded to deportation of Rudolf and Zundel. Germany and Austria, with hate laws in place, are much more likely to comply with Israel's possible demand.
Clearly, we are in the first stages of implementation of the Knesset deportation program. The public is being conditioned to approve the seizure and deportation of anyone who questions Zionism's dubious "Holocaust reality."
Yet tomorrow it will not just be Holocaust reductionists but also Christians who will be shipped to foreign courts. For Knesset, there exists a much greater crime, a crime they believe has caused unimaginable physical and mental Jewish suffering through the last two millennia. This is the accusation, rooted in the New Testament, that Jews were responsible for the crucifixion of Christ. Knesset believes the Holocaust was the result of centuries of New Testament bias, calling Jews "Christ-killers."
Of course, the New Testament does lay blame for Christ's death on Jewish leaders and the mob they incited (Acts 2:36, 3:13-15, etc.). Consequently, evil Jewish leaders today consider the New Testament "hate literature." Millions of Christians who believe the New Testament are thus considered anti-Semites.
Who Will Be Deported Next?
Today, Knesset wants Holocaust reductionists persecuted and shipped to Israel. But what of tomorrow? Considering the much greater offense of "Christian anti-Semitism," it is inevitable that Knesset should also declare such anti-Semites to be criminals.
It is highly significant that Christ, describing last days' persecution of believers, states that such oppression will originate with evil Jewish leaders and that Christians may be deported to Israel for prosecution. He said they will "deliver you to the courts (Sanhedrin), and you will be flogged in the synagogues…" (Mark 13:9, NAS).
Yet according to ADL/B'nai B'rith's "Report on Global Anti-Semitism," ghostwritten for the U.S. State Department's new Dept. of Anti-Semitism, B'nai B'rith says that not only are those who claim Jews killed Christ 2,000 years ago anti-Semitic but so are all "strong" critics of Jews, matters Jewish, Jewish leaders, and the state of Israel.
This means that not only courageous Christians and pastors but also talk show hosts, publishers, anti-war activists, etc. will be liable for imprisonment or deportation. This is not a theoretical danger; it has already happened to those who reduced the number of Holocaust victims.
We Must Identify our Enemy
ADL/Knesset will not be restrained by protests to the U.S. Department of Immigration, the Supreme Court, or Germany. They will, however, be thwarted by massive public awareness of their role in the creation of hate crime/deportation laws.
This can be done through talk shows, the Internet, letters to the editor, calls to Congress, and discussions in conservative groups and Sunday school classes. Documentation of ADL invention of hate laws is found in my video, "Hate Laws: Making Criminals of Christians," and at www.truthtellers.org or www.adl.org.
ADL's program to destroy Christian civilization can only go forward deceptively, behind the scenes. If patriotic Americans only react to the effects of ADL initiatives yet do not identify the source of these evils, ADL's power is not curtailed. It is not enough to chop off tentacles of evil ADL legislation because, like the proverbial octopus, ADL continues working in Congress and the media, regenerating assaults on freedom.
We must go to the very eye of this anti-Christ beast, courageously raising understanding of ADL/Knesset inspiration behind hate laws and resulting deportation demands. Only by massive public awareness of the ADL/Knesset threat can our nation resist increasing global pressure to submit to international hate crimes jurisdiction.
Evil Jewish leaders over the past century have, as "God's chosen people," enjoyed immunity from criticism by most evangelicals. That must change. It's time for the unholy alliance between Christians and such leadership to end. If it doesn't, the monster we have helped create will devour us.
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UKRAINE'S YUSHCHENKO HONORS ANTI-SEMITE IN YET ANOTHER BETRAYAL OF THE 'ORANGE REVOLUTION'
Doug Ireland
February 04, 2006
Remember all the frothy praise of Viktor Yuschenko and what a great democrat he was -- back when he was the leader of the so-called Orange Revolution that toppled Kuchma the corrupt Ukrainian regime of President Leonid Kuchma -- from George Bush, the neocons, Freedom House, and the Western press in general? Well, this week a little-noticed dispatch from the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (the worldwide Jewish news service founded in 1917) related how now-President Yushchenko has just awarded Ukraine's highest honor -- the "Hero of Ukraine" medal -- to a notorious anti-Semite, Ivan Spodarenko. But not a word of this outrage has appeared in the major U.S. dailies.
"Spodarenko, a Socialist lawmaker, is the head of the editorial board and former longtime editor of Silski Visti. In 2004, the newspaper published an article asserting Silski_visti that 400,000 Jews served in Nazi SS forces during the German invasion of Ukraine in World War II," the JTA reported. "With its circulation of 500,000, Silski Visti is one of the most widely read Ukrainian newspapers, catering mainly to rural readers. In 2002 and 2004, the newspaper published a series of anti-Semitic articles that outraged the Jewish community. The paper was sued over anti-Semitic articles in 2004 but the case was closed in 2005 without a verdict. Last April, Spodarenko was among the signatories of an anti-Semitic letter calling 'to stop the criminal activities' of the organized Jewish community in Ukraine.'"
The leader of the Social Democratic Party of the Ukraine (SDPU), Victor Medvedchuk has also denounced the awarding of the country's most important decoration to Spodarenko. . "I am ashamed of Yushchenko who conferred the title to this person who is known for his xenophobic ideas just a few days before the International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Today the whole world is mourning over the Holocaust victims. And our 'moral' authorities confer the country’s highest title on the person who is widely known for his chauvinism and anti-Semitism, the leader of the scandalous newspaper known for its libels,” said the SDPU chief in a release on his website. The SPDU is the Ukrainian affiliate of the Socialist International, the world-wide federation of democratic socialist parties.
During the presidential election runoff that resulted in his victory, Yushchenko -- in December 2004 -- tried to calm Jewish fears about his accepting support from anti-Semites by visiting the central synagogue in Kiev, donning a yarmulke, and lighting a menorah. But the award to Spodarenko turns that campaign appearance into a masterpiece of hypocrisy. Indeed, the British Helsinki Human Rights group reported at the time that "Western media and governments...edited out the manifestations of extreme nationalism and anti-Semitism which disfigure the Ukrainian opposition’s rabble-rousing, but history will record that, in the run up to the disputed presidential elections, key opposition leaders, including Viktor Yushchenko, Julia Timoshenko and Alexander Moroz, defended anti-Semitic publications [including Spodarenko's Silski Visti] and accepted the backing of neo-Nazi groups ...Nor were the anti-Semitic apologetics of the Ukrainian opposition unknown to key OSCE observers and European Union parliamentarians who nonetheless ignored the dark shadow across Yushchenko’s campaign, preferring instead to abuse his rival."
Is it Back to the Future time in Ukraine? Elections are schedule for the end of March, and yesterday's Times of London reported, under the headline "Ukraine turns back to Moscow as Orange Revolution is betrayed," that the man Yushchenko defeated for president -- Kuchma's hand-picked successor and the pro-Russian pawn of Vladimir Putin, Victor Yanukovych -- is making a comeback, so great is the disillusionment with the corrupt and bumbling Yushchenko regime. Yanukovych "is on the verge of snatching back power from under the noses of the Western governments that so enthusiastically embraced the Orange Revolution," the Times of London reports. Corruption is so rampant that Yushchenko fired his hand-picked Prime Minister, Julia Timoshenko, an oil business millionaire, "when civil servants in Ms Tymoshenko's inner circle blew the whistle on corruption among key figures in President Yushchenko's clique, including steel baron Viktor Pinchuk [Kuchma's son-in-law -- D.I.]," the E.U. Observer noted in an interview published Friday with the ex-P.M., who has now founded her own party and joined the opposition.
Yushchenko's failings also extended to his choice of a Justice Minister who never apologized for being very economical with the truth when he claimed he had an MA and PhD from Columbia University -- he didn't -- and who had zero legal experience. And Yushchenko's giving away the store to the corporate oligarchs and the multinationals hasn't helped Ukraine's sagging economy.
"The latest polls give Yanukovych's Party of the Regions 25 per cent of the vote, Yushchenko's Our Ukraine party only 15 per cent and Mrs Tymoshenko’s bloc 12 per cent," the Times of London reported.
Another Bush foreign policy "success" down the drain.....
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Political whodunit takes an eerie twist
CNN
10 Feb 06
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama -- More than five years ago, Rod Spraggins made a sensational charge at a candidate forum, publicly accusing a political opponent of murder with nothing to back up the allegation except, it turns out, a vision.
Now police say Spraggins was right.
Barry Waites, Spraggins' opponent in the 2000 race for Lanett City Council, was arrested this week on murder charges in the 1998 slaying of his wife, who was found dead in their split-level home in this sleepy town of 8,000 along the Georgia line.
In 2000, Spraggins, a bail bondsman, stunned a crowd of 100 when he accused Waites of killing his wife and dared the man to sue him for slander if he was wrong.
Waites was not at the forum, never responded publicly to the accusation and never sued.
In an otherwordly turn to the saga Friday, Spraggins disclosed that he never had any evidence to make the accusation and that it was based entirely on Mrs. Waites' appearing to him in a series of dreams.
"She started appearing to me within the first weeks of her death," said Spraggins, adding that the dreams prompted him to enter the City Council race for the sole purpose of making the accusation.
Both he and Waites lost their bids for the City Council amid the controversy, but Spraggins said he got what he wanted in the end.
"I hate it for his family. ... I hate it for Charlotte's family. But I'm glad justice is finally going to be served," he said in a telephone interview.
Waites, 58, was arrested Thursday at a clothing store he runs with his current wife. He was jailed on $150,000 bail. It was not immediately known whether he had hired a lawyer.
Police Chief Ron Docimo would not comment on exactly what led to the arrest, saying only that it was a "culmination of years of following up on leads and tips."
Waites was serving as interim mayor when 49-year-old Charlotte Waites was found strangled and with a blow to the head.
The victim's brother, Gene Brown, said police told him within a week of the slaying that Waites was the prime suspect.
Brown said that the couple had numerous financial problems during their 28-year marriage and that he believes an argument over money resulted in her death.
In 2002, Waites was sentenced to six months in jail after pleading guilty in an ethics case that was uncovered during an investigation of his wife's killing. He admitted taking money from a National Guard armory where he worked.
Brown credited Spraggins with keeping up public pressure on police to solve the murder case.
"Rod had it pegged from the beginning," Brown said. "I had doubts about his methods. But he's got guts."
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Spiritual healer steals $1 million, police say - Allegedly promised lottery winnings via numbers pulled from boiled eggs
Associated Press
Feb. 10, 2006
UNION CITY, Calif. - A self-proclaimed spiritual healer bilked at least $1 million from 20 San Francisco Bay area residents then fled without fulfilling his promises to give out winning lottery numbers and heal their ailments, police said.
The man, who called himself Iqbal, ran radio ads targeting South Asian clients on Radio Humsafar. He was described by police as an Indian man in his mid-30s who limped and recited passages from the Quran during healing sessions. He also claimed to practice black magic.
Victims were told they would win $1 million in the California lottery for every $10,000 they gave him, said Lt. Jim Bizieff.
The scam involved a magic trick in which Iqbal said he would pull winning lottery numbers from boiled eggs. At least 20 people gave him between $10,000 and $200,000 each, but the scam artist never delivered any winning numbers and left his rented Union City house in January.
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Burglar Checks Email
By DON BEHM
dbehm@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 8, 2006
A hungry burglar took the time to make coffee, cook and eat meals, take showers, pick out a change of clothes, watch television and check his e-mail while inside three residences the suspect recently struck in Washington County, authorities said Wednesday.
Investigators are seeking a suspect willing to eat leftovers, said Sheriff Brian Rahn.
"He took clothes and meals," he said. "Whatever he was finding in those refrigerators, he was filling up on it."
But the burglar was not smart enough to cover his tracks: He left his Yahoo account open after checking his personal e-mail on the home computer of Lori and Donald Menzel in the Town of Kewaskum, Lori Menzel said.
He broke into the home early in the afternoon of Feb. 3.
"He went to adult porn sites," she said in describing his computer use. "He never logged out."
"He made himself at home here," Lori Menzel added. "He spent some time in our bedroom trying on my husband's clothes. I could tell he went through some of my clothes."
Rahn said investigators believe they know the burglar's identity, but the man had not been taken into custody as of Wednesday evening.
Although the burglar raided refrigerators of cranberry and other fruit juices and helped himself to hardboiled eggs and sausage, he left behind valuables, including jewelry, firearms and electronic equipment, Rahn said.
The five burglaries occurred between Feb. 2 and Sunday at three homes and two taverns in rural areas of Washington County.
An undisclosed amount of cash was stolen from the taverns, according to Sheriff's Capt. Dale Schmidt.
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