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Editorial: Where Is The Voice Of Sanity
By Paul Levy
Information Clearing House
06/13/06
A little while ago I ran into a friend I hadn't seen for awhile. He asked me what I had been up to. I told him that I was writing a book about the collective psychosis that was wreaking havoc on our planet. He asked me what made me think there was a collective psychosis going on. His question left me speechless, literally not knowing what to say. What made him think that there wasn't a collective psychosis, I wondered. You could look in any direction and find endless examples which proved that our species has gone out of our minds. There was so much overwhelming evidence for the collective psychosis that I didn't even know where to start. To see our collective madness, all we have to do is simply look at what we're doing to each other, not to mention the very planet we depend upon for our very survival. We seem to have gone so crazy that many people haven't even noticed, as our madness has become normalized, which is just further proof of our collective psychosis.
Where is the voice of the psychiatric establishment in pointing out the obvious situation: not only that our leader is mad, but that Bush's madness is a reflection of the fact that we, as a species, have fallen into a collective psychosis? In a personal conversation I had with the late Harvard psychiatrist John Mack about exactly this point, he expressed his opinion that the psychiatric community doesn't see it as their job to deal with collective pathological situations such as we are in. Amazingly, Mack was pointing to the fact that the psychiatric community doesn't see it as their responsibility to track collective psychic epidemics.
On the one hand, there is psychiatrist Justin Frank, author of the fine book Bush on the Couch. Dr. Frank has my utmost respect for his incisive psychoanalytic study of Bush, pointing out Bush's pathological condition in a lucid and indisputable manner. Frank's analysis is extremely important and very brilliant, illumining Bush's pathology in relationship to the dysfunctional family system of which he is a part. Frank points out, both in Bush's family as well as writ large on the world stage in the form of the media and his supporters, the undeniable signs of the "enabling" behavior typically seen in the disease of family alcoholism.
Frank's work has reached a very important edge, however, and is calling to be unfolded further. By viewing Bush in relationship to his family system, Frank reaches the limits of an understanding based solely on family dynamics. Like a traditional psychoanalyst, Frank considers Bush as a "separate self" existing apart from the greater unified and unifying field, that is to say the entire universe, of which he is a part. And yet, at the same time that Bush exists as a separate self who is autonomous and independent from the world at large, he is interdependently embedded in and an expression of the universe.
As long as psychoanalysis contemplates Bush as solely a "separate self," however, it is under a form of illusion, as we don't exist in isolation from each other, but rather, in relation to each other. Though Frank's analysis of Bush in his identity as a discrete, independently-existing person has tremendous value, analogous to how the mechanical models of classical physics have great general utility in understanding the workings of our world, any analysis of an object or person isolated from the universe of which they are an interconnected part is of necessity incomplete. As quantum physics points out, we simply do not exist, in the ultimate sense, as isolated entities who are separate from each other or our environment. Having reached the edge of psychoanalysis, and limited by its worldview, it is not within the scope of Frank's analysis to address the inherent psycho-spiritual condition that pervades the underlying field, both in our country and our world at large, of which Bush is merely a symbolic expression. I imagine that Frank himself would be the first to admit this, and would enthusiastically encourage others to further unfold and place his findings in a larger psycho-spiritual context.
Frank points out the unconscious collusion in the silence and collective denial towards Bush's behavior that pervades the field. Constrained by the traditional discipline that he so faithfully represents, however, it is not within Frank's purview to diagnose our species as a whole as being in the midst of a psychic epidemic.
Frank's analysis is the pinnacle of psychoanalysis, beautifully illumining Bush's pathology on the "personal" level. Because of the fact that Frank is viewing Bush as an isolated person distinct and separate from the world around him, he doesn't address the deeper level of the unifying field in which we're all interconnected and interdependent. Ultimately, we are not able to contemplate Bush's madness without looking in the mirror. Bush's madness is truly our own.
Frank's analysis of Bush's "personal" pathology inspires and places a demand on us to catapult off of his insights, like a springboard, into the higher-order of the "transpersonal" (beyond the personal) dimension. Adding a transpersonal viewpoint, which recognizes that we are fundamentally and ultimately interconnected parts of the whole, actually complements and completes Frank's analysis of Bush's "personal" psychology. Both of these perspectives, the personal and the transpersonal, are incomplete by themselves. When neither of these perspectives are marginalized, but are simultaneously viewed together as both being true, they synergistically cross-pollinate and illumine each other. The personal and transpersonal interpenetrate each other so fully that they are not two separate perspectives joined together, but are two aspects of a deeper unified field which contains and unifies them.
Seen transpersonally, the figure of Bush is a symbol which re-presents and reveals the collective psychosis that we have all fallen into. The figure of Bush is a portal which simultaneously feeds and is an expression of the collective madness that is in everyone. Bush is merely a symptom, an embodied reflection of a deeper underlying pathology that exists in the collective unconscious of humanity which is giving shape to and in-forming world events. Seen transpersonally, the figure of Bush is revealing something to us about ourselves.
We are all complicit in the madness that is playing out in our world. Shedding light on our shared responsibility for the deeper underlying psychological roots of collective world events helps us to become truly empowered agents of change in our world who can truly make a difference.
If the psychiatric establishment doesn't see it as their job to illumine the fact that we are in the midst of a collective psychosis that is potentially destroying our species, the question then arises: whose job is it? Cultural anthropologists? Sociologists? Where is the voice of sanity who is pointing out the collective madness that our species has fallen into? Who are the people who study mass psychological events? What is playing out in the world has its origins in the unconscious psyche of humanity. Whose job is it to map, articulate and shed light on the psychic origins of collective world events?
A year or so ago I received an email from an irate Jungian analyst who was very critical of my work. She expressed her outrage by saying "How dare I write about Jung if I'm not a trained and certified Jungian analyst!" It was her non-negotiable opinion that it was simply "wrong" that I should be writing an analysis of the deeper, underlying psychological roots of world events if I wasn't a professionally authorized "psychologist." I never wrote her back because I felt there was no space for dialogue with her. Now I know what I would say to her: I wouldn't write about Jung's brilliant insights that illumine and heal the pathological aspects of our current world situation if the people who's job it is to write about such things, such as herself, would simply do their job. If people such as psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and the mental health community as a whole would shed sufficient light on the collective psychosis that is potentially destroying our species, I would be happy to do other, much more fun-filled activities.
As people who recognize the insane nature of our situation, which is to be sane in a world gone mad, it is our job to come to terms and deal with the collective psychosis that is wreaking havoc on our planet. It is our job, our calling, our vocation to deal with the indisputable fact that we are being ruled by people who have fallen into a state of collective madness. It is our responsibility to deal with the fact that everyone who supports Bush in his madness: his administration, the corporate, congressional, judicial, military industrial complex, the media, the voters that allegedly put him into office, and ourselves as well if we are doing nothing about our situation, have all fallen prey to a psychic epidemic that threatens the entire planet. If we continue to insist on being under-employed by not stepping into our power and creatively speaking our true voice to the abuse of power, we have no one to blame but ourselves.
The evil that is being enacted on our planet could only happen because of a sufficient number of people who are passively standing on the sideline and doing nothing about it. Not doing anything about the evil we see being acted out in the world is to ourselves become an unwitting instrument of evil, as our in-action allows, enables, and feeds the further propagation of evil in the field. Evil is truly calling us to pick up an empowered role, whatever that is, and "act," as if we are actors in a play or characters in a dream. Recognizing our responsibility for the collective situation we find ourselves in, we access our ability to respond creatively in the world and act-ively do something about it.
Something is being revealed to us about ourselves by the fact that we are being ruled by people who are mad. Imagine, what would we do if we truly recognized that our government is being run by people who have collectively gone mad? What would we do if we realized that the leader of the most powerful nation on the planet, the person with his finger on the button, is a genuine psychopath? This is not a make believe question: How would we respond if enough of us not only recognized that our leaders were truly insane, but that we urgently needed to do something about it? What do we imagine we would do? This is a very relevant question, as this is the true nature of our current situation.
Do we go belly-up, imagining that there is nothing that we could possibly do about our insane situation? Do we imagine ourselves collapsing into impotence, being totally dis-empowered, unable to do anything about being ruled by a bunch of psychopaths? Or do we imagine that enough of us, realizing the gravitas of our situation, connect with each other and access our collective genius so that we can truly make a positive change in the world? The question is: Will the darkness that is manifesting in our world destroy our species or wake us up to our true nature? The choice, and responsibility, is truly ours.
Paul Levy, is the author of The Madness of George Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis, which is available at his website www.awakeninthedream.com. paul@awakeninthedream.com;
[ Original ]
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Editorial: The Flag of the Corporate States of America
By Charles Sullivan
Information Clearing House
06/14/06
This, I know, is bound to be an unpopular
essay that is likely to incite intense emotions and harsh
accusations against me. Yet I feel compelled to express my
thoughts on the matter in part because the commercial media does
not allow dissenting views to be heard. Also, the majority of my
fellow citizens have been drinking the mind altering kool-aide
that distorts reality into fabulous forms that bears little
resemblance to reality. Added to the formula is the fact that so
many of us choose to live in denial rather than face the
haunting specter of American history that might prove too
disturbing for us to acknowledge.
Far too many Americans are so thoroughly indoctrinated in
popular myths and propaganda that they are unable to recognize
reality when they see it. They desperately need to cling to the
absurd myths conjured by our rulers and deny the most criminal
and unethical behavior upon which this nation was founded. Aided
by a bogus educational system, we then contort them into virtue.
Thus, murderers and robber barons are celebrated as self made
industrialists who built America into a world class power. But
as Thoreau stated, "Any truth is better than make believe."
Unlike the majority of my fellow citizens, I do not take pride
in the American flag. I do not get choked up when I see 'old
glory' flapping in the breeze. My understanding of American
history does not permit such unfounded patriotic stirrings. Too
many atrocities have been committed under the flag for me to see
any beauty in it, especially under the Bush regime. Indeed,
seeing the flag often flushes me with shame and regret. I refuse
to pledge allegiance to any flag. However, I pledge to live by a
credo of social justice that does not recognize national
borders. We are all one big family.
Historian Howard Zinn wrote, "There is no flag large enough to
cover the shame of killing innocent people." I am inclined to
agree.
For most Americans the flag stirs elements of sentimentality and
reverence. It is celebrated as a symbol of freedom and
democracy, the triumph of justice over injustice; good over
evil. But symbols of noble ideals vanish into the mist when one
critically examines the historical evidence. Millions of
innocent people have died under the flag, including those who
have carried it into battle in the belief that they were
fighting for something nobler than corporate profits (see USMC
General Smedley Butler's 1933 essay "War
is a Racket)."
To me the flag symbolizes much that is wrong with America. The
flag is used as another clever marketing ploy against the people
to manipulate and to control them, selling them a fictionalized
version of history. The flag has been used, like the idea of
patriotism, to motivate men to commit horrible crimes against
earth and humankind. Rather than conjuring images of freedom and
peace in my mind, it portrays the darkest side of human nature
such as conquest, invasion and occupation. It reveals a litany
of crimes against nature and humanity that I cannot dismiss from
memory. Critical thinking demands that one weigh the evidence
and draw one's own conclusions based upon the facts, whether
they contradict our preconceived notions or not.
I keep another flag, one that more accurately portrays the truth
about America, in the trunk of my car, which I carry at anti-war
rallies and demonstrations. Like the American flag, this pennant
is red, white and blue. In place of the fifty stars there are
corporate symbols that depict the corporate states of America.
My flag portrays the reality of what the American flag really
stands for. It is all about corporate power, global conquest,
death, destruction and oppression. What do these have to do with
democracy and freedom? What do they have to do with social
justice?
Once again the people were sold a vision that is at odds with
reality. The truth is that America is the polar opposite of
everything we have been told she is. That is why so much of the
world is aligned against us. They see us as we are, not merely
as what we pretend to be. Most of the world's 192 nations have
been the recipients of our benevolence in the form of CIA
interventions, land mines and carpet bombs.
When I see old glory fluttering in a brisk breeze I hear the
lies of an imperialist dictator named George Bush and all the
horrors they have wrought for so many echoing across the tides
of time. I recall the brazen lies of Dick Cheney, Donald
Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, and the entire neocon cabal that has
resulted in the criminal invasion and occupation of Iraq, Abu
Griab, and the inhumane horrors enacted daily at Guantonimo Bay,
the massacre of innocent civilians by U.S. marines and the
attendant cover up. I see the theft of Iraqi oil by U.S. forces
handed over to oil companies and defense contractors on a silver
platter. I see the entire civilized world held at gun point,
stripped of its dignity and its freedom by the largest crime
syndicate the world has ever known. It is hard to get all puffed
up and to take pride in that.
I recall the overthrow of democratically elected governments
around the world by an imperialist nation, particularly in Latin
America; the assassination of populist leaders who refused to be
puppets for U.S. corporations. Chile's Salvador Allende'
provides an example. Visions of Columbian death squads trained
at the School of the Americas move like ghosts in my mind. They
are not to be ignored. I perceive the threatening overtures
directed at true democratic socialist governments in Venezuela
and Bolivia that I know will probably result in the eventual
assassinations of Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales. These threats and
violent overtures are part of a familiar historical pattern. It
is not difficult to imagine what will follow. Democracy is a
threat to corrupt power and it must be assassinated. Power in
the hands of the people will not be tolerated by the Plutocracy.
Under the red, white and blue profits matter more than people.
They always have.
The historical evidence demonstrates that populist movements and
true democracy are the avowed enemies of the corporate states of
America and the ruling Plutocracy. We have a long history of
destroying democratic, left wing governments. When has America
ever over-thrown an oppressive right wing government? Death
squads do not exist to celebrate democracy or to liberate the
oppressed.
We have troops stationed at permanent bases all over the world
and they are not fostering democracy, they are suppressing it.
These acts are committed under the banner of the stars and
stripes and given noble explanations in the commercial media.
Every day the madmen who are running the government are planning
new horrors, an endless litany of death and mayhem to be
committed in our name for corporate profits. So forgive me if I
do not pledge allegiance to the flag of the corporate states of
America. Pardon me if I do not get choked up with pride when I
see a bumper sticker that reads, "These colors don't run." Most
people, it seems to me, have no clue about the atrocities that
are being committed by their government. They do not want to
know.
Charles Sullivan is a photographer, free lance writer and
social activist residing in the hinterland of West Virginia. He
welcomes your comments at earthdog@highstream.net.
[ Original ]
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Editorial: Bush, scripted and unscripted
Thursday June 15, 2006
The Guardian
A selection of quotes, scripted and unscripted, that issued from the mouth of the "great liberator". Read them, and realise that the domestic and foreign policies of modern day America are clearly not being dictated by a commander in chief who can barely string a coherent sentence together on his own.
So who really runs America?
Scripted: The success of America has never been proven by cities of gold, but by citizens of character. Men and women who work hard, dream big, love their family, serve their neighbour. Values that turn a piece of earth into a neighbourhood, a community, a chosen nation. (June 1999, when Bush announced his candidacy)
Unscripted: Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we. (August 2004)
Scripted: War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder. This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way and at an hour of our choosing. (Mourning service in Washington following September 11 attacks)
Unscripted: There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on. (July 2003)
Scripted: The advance of human freedom, the great achievement of our time and the great hope of every time, now depends on us. Our nation, this generation, will lift the dark threat of violence from our people and our future. We will rally the world to this cause by our efforts, by our courage. We will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. (Joint session of Congress, September 2001)
Unscripted: The point now is how do we work together to achieve important goals. And one such goal is a democracy in Germany. (May 2006)
Scripted: States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. (State of the Union Address, January 2002)
Unscripted: I was not pleased that Hamas has refused to announce its desire to destroy Israel. (May 2006)
Scripted: I know that some of my decisions have led to terrible loss, and not one of those decisions has been taken lightly. I know this war is controversial, yet being your president requires doing what I believe is right and accepting the consequences. (Oval Office speech, December 2005)
Unscripted: I would say the best moment of all [in office] was when I caught a 7.5 pound largemouth bass in my lake. (May 2006)
Original
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Land of the Free
US seen as a bigger threat to peace than Iran, worldwide poll suggests
Thursday June 15, 2006
The Guardian
- Findings also show fall in support for war on terror
- Decline in America's image 'all to do with Iraq'
George Bush's six years in office have so damaged the image of the US that people worldwide see Washington as a bigger threat to world peace than Tehran, according to a global poll.
The Washington-based Pew Research Centre, in a poll of 17,000 people in 15 countries between March and May, found more people concerned about the US presence in Iraq than about Iran's alleged nuclear weapons ambitions.
The Pew Centre said: "Despite growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions, the US presence in Iraq is cited at least as often as Iran - and in many countries much more often - as a danger to world peace."
The survey, carried out annually, shows a continued decline in support for the US since 1999. The US image for most of the 20th century has been relatively positive, being regularly identified with democracy, human rights and openness in spite of criticism from the left, which reached a height during the Vietnam war, and a residual suspicion in the Muslim world.
But even in the UK, Washington's closest ally, favourable ratings have slumped from 83% in 1999 to 56% this year. The pattern is similar in France, down from 62% to 39%, Germany 78% to 37%, and Spain 50% to 23%.
In Muslim countries with which the US has traditionally enjoyed a good relationship, such as Turkey - a member of Nato - and Indonesia, there have also been slumps. In Indonesia favourable ratings for the US have dropped from 75% to 30%, and in Turkey from 52% to 12%.
"It's all [because of] Iraq," Carroll Doherty, associate director of the Pew Centre, said. He added that it was a sign of how "dangerous Iraq is to the US image" that, in spite of common cause between the US and Europeans on Iran, there had been no improvement in the American position in Europe.
Mr Doherty said: "Short-term measures do have an effect. The outpouring of US tsunami aid helped in Indonesia and India but that faded quickly, and now we see US aid for Pakistan earthquake victims only helping at the margins." Favourable ratings of the US in India dropped over the year from 71% to 56%.
He said US domestic polling indicated that Americans were well aware of how the country was perceived abroad. The US image has become a political issue, with Republicans saying it doesn't matter as long as the correct policies are being pursued overseas, while Democrats argue that repairing the country's image and relationships will be a priority for the next president in 2009.
The poll provides little comfort for Condoleezza Rice, who has worked hard at improving relations with Europe since becoming Secretary of State last year.
As part of the overall decline in US support, the survey also records a drop in support for the US-led "war on terror", even in countries such as Spain, in spite of the Madrid bombings two years ago by al-Qaida that left 192 dead. Support for the "war on terror" dropped in Spain from 26% last year to 19% this year.
Throughout the period the poll was conducted the crisis over Iran's nuclear programme, intensified by hardline comments from its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was repeatedly in the news. Iraq, too, has been in the news on an almost daily basis, with the formation of a new Iraqi government being accompanied by fears of a civil war.
Only in the US and Germany is Iran seen as a greater danger than the US in Iraq. Public opinion in 12 of the other countries - Britain, France, Spain, Russia, Indonesia, Egypt, Jordan, Turkey, Pakistan, Nigeria, India and China - cite the US presence in Iraq as being the greater danger. Opinion in Japan was evenly divided.
As well as Iraq and Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also high on the list of issues that present a danger to world peace. Public opinion in about a third of the countries polled put it at the top of their list of threats.
In the UK, the second biggest contributor of troops in Iraq, 60% said the Iraq war had made the world more dangerous. Only 30% said it had made the world safer, and 41% of British people said the US presence in Iraq represented a great danger to world peace, with 34% citing Iran as a big threat.
By contrast, concern about Iran has almost doubled in the US over the past two years. Some 46% of Americans view Mr Ahmadinejad's government as "a great danger" to stability in the Middle East and world peace, up from 26% in 2003. The concern in the US is shared in Germany, where 51% see Iran as a great danger to world peace, against 18% three years ago.
Comment: How is it that the greatest democracy on earth is widely seen as the greatest threat to world peace? The answer is simple, American democracy is a lie. It simply does no exist. The people of the world are less hoodwinkable than Dick Cheney would like to believe.
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Bush's Speechwriter Leaving The White House
By Peter Baker
Washington Post
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Michael J. Gerson, one of President Bush's most trusted advisers and the author of nearly all of his most famous public words over the past seven years, plans to step down in the next couple of weeks in a decision that colleagues believe will leave a hole in the White House at a critical period.
Gerson said in an interview that he has been talking with Bush for many months about leaving for writing and other opportunities but waited until the White House political situation stabilized somewhat. "It seemed like a good time," he said. "Things are back on track a little. Some of the things I care about are on a good trajectory."
Since first joining the presidential campaign as chief speechwriter in 1999, Gerson has evolved into one of the most central figures in Bush's inner circle, often considered among the three or four aides closest to the president. Beyond shaping the language of the Bush presidency, Gerson helped set its broader direction.
He was a formulator of the Bush doctrine making the spread of democracy the fundamental goal of U.S. foreign policy, a policy hailed as revolutionary by some and criticized as unrealistic by others. He led a personal crusade to make unprecedented multibillion-dollar investments in fighting AIDS, malaria and poverty around the globe. He became one of the few voices pressing for a more aggressive policy to stop genocide in Darfur, even as critics complained of U.S. inaction.
"He might have had more influence than any White House staffer who wasn't chief of staff or national security adviser" in modern times, said William Kristol, who was top aide to Vice President Dan Quayle and now edits the Weekly Standard. "Mike was substantively influential, not just a wordsmith, not just a crafter of language for other people's policies, but he influenced policy itself."
"He is the best and most influential presidential speechwriter since Ted Sorenson," said Peter H. Wehner, director of White House strategic initiatives, referring to the adviser to President John F. Kennedy. "Mike is one of the key intellectual architects of the Bush presidency, whether we're talking about compassionate conservatism at home or the freedom agenda abroad."
Gerson is the latest in a series of longtime Bush aides to leave, following White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. But newly installed Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said in an interview that the departure is not part of his broader shakeup of the president's operation. No one is being tapped to take Gerson's most recent assignment as senior adviser.
"He's one of the few people who is irreplaceable," Bolten said. "He's a policy provoker, a grand strategist and a conscience who in many cases has not only articulated but reflected the president's heart."
Gerson, 42, said he had originally planned to leave after Bush's 2004 reelection but decided to stay when he was asked to shift from chief speechwriter to senior adviser with an office a few doors from the Oval Office. He had a heart attack in December 2004 but said his health is now fine and was not an issue in his decision. "It was never my intention to stay to the end," Gerson said.
He plans to look at writing, speaking and think-tank opportunities, with help from Robert B. Barnett, the high-powered lawyer who represents major figures such as former president Bill Clinton and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.).
Gerson stood out in a White House known for swagger. A somewhat slight, pale, bespectacled and soft-spoken Midwesterner, he nonetheless forged a strong bond with the outgoing, backslapping Texan president, in part through their shared conservative Christian faith. He found a way to channel Bush's thoughts, colleagues said, transforming a sometimes inarticulate president into an occasionally memorable speaker.
Gerson wrote or co-wrote every major speech Bush gave since announcing his candidacy, including convention and inaugural addresses and State of the Union messages. He crafted the two speeches after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks that will probably be recorded as Bush's signal moments of national leadership: the service at the Washington National Cathedral and the address to Congress.
He crafted the State of the Union language that labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea an "axis of evil" and the inaugural address that committed the United States to "ending tyranny in our world." He came up with the phrase "soft bigotry of low expectations" to focus on minority education problems.
Gerson believed strongly in the "compassionate" part of Bush's "compassionate conservatism," saying he wanted to pursue liberal goals through conservative means. To that end, he helped promote the president's No Child Left Behind education initiative, the Medicare prescription drug program and grants to faith-based charities. "It's a more activist approach," Gerson said. "That was a major change from what came before."
He also pushed for a $15 billion program to combat HIV and AIDS worldwide, telling Bush in the Oval Office that they would never be forgiven if they passed up the chance. Although he kept a hand in major speeches during the second term, he became increasingly focused on Africa and traveled there four times to see Darfur and other places firsthand, returning to describe searing scenes to his White House colleagues.
While toiling for an uncommonly polarizing president, he made few, if any, enemies, even finding admirers in circles often not friendly to Republicans.
"Mike Gerson has been an important voice," said the Rev. David Beckmann, president of Bread for the World, a global anti-poverty organization.
Although groups have grievances about how some programs have been administered, it did not redound on Gerson, said David Gartner, policy director for the Global AIDS Alliance. "He's been committed and effective," Gartner said. "To get a moral issue the kind of attention it deserves, I'm sure is not easy to do."
Comment: "Gerson is the latest in a series of longtime Bush aides to leave, following White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr., press secretary Scott McClellan and Treasury Secretary John W. Snow. But newly installed Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten said in an interview that the departure is not part of his broader shakeup of the president's operation."
When the speechwriter who crafted Bush's "Axis of Evil" speech jumps ship, you know something is up...
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Bush signs law hiking TV, radio indecency fines
Thursday, June 15, 2006; Posted: 11:38 a.m. EDT (15:38 GMT)
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- President Bush Thursday signed into law legislation that raises fines tenfold on radio and television broadcasters that violate U.S. decency standards by airing extensive profanity or sexual content.
The new law, which boosts fines to as much as $325,000 per violation from $32,500, could help congressional Republicans woo conservatives in a tough election year as they have faced ebbing support from key core constituencies.
The Christian Coalition had placed legislation to increase the fines as the No. 5 item on its 2006 legislative agenda. The new law also caps any continuing violations from an incident at $3 million.
The drive for the higher fines came when pop singer Justin Timberlake ripped off part of duet partner Janet Jackson's costume and briefly exposed her breast during the 2004 Super Bowl football halftime entertainment show aired on national television.
Television and radio broadcasters are barred from airing obscene material and are limited from broadcasting indecent material between the hours of 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., times when children are likely to be in the audience.
Those restrictions do not apply to cable or satellite services. That prompted radio shock jock Howard Stern to move his show to satellite radio to avoid the federal regulations since his antics led to fines against stations that aired his show.
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Lawsuit: CIA defines who's a news outlet
By FRANK BASS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
Wednesday, June 14, 2006 · Last updated 1:57 p.m. PT
WASHINGTON -- The CIA has adopted internal rules allowing it to define what constitutes a news organization and what doesn't, a Washington-based research group contended in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The lawsuit by the National Security Archive, which operates the largest non-governmental library of declassified documents, says the spy agency has begun charging illegal search and duplication fees under the federal Freedom of Information Act.
The act requires government agencies to waive fees if the request is considered to be a matter of public interest or contributes to public understanding of governmental operations. Waivers are generally granted to news organizations. Depending upon the scope of the request, search and duplication fees can run hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The archive has won rulings in federal district and appeals courts that require government agencies to treat it as a member of the news media. The archive shared an Emmy award last year for its work on a documentary dealing with President Nixon's 1972 trip to China, and it has won other major journalism awards.
It's also frequently clashed with the CIA. Earlier this year, the archive gave the CIA its "Rosemary Award" for the federal agency with the worst FOIA record. In its citation, the archive noted that the CIA had already begun to deny fee waiver requests based on its perception of their newsworthiness, and the archive predicted the action would "lead to wasteful re-litigation of a settled issue."
In its lawsuit, the archive said the CIA rejected immediate waivers for 42 FOIA requests over the last year, demanding in many cases to know how its requests were related to current events. The delayed FOIA requests dealt with issues such as U.S. assistance to Afghan rebels after the 1976 invasion by the Soviet Union and CIA daily briefings for the Truman White House.
The CIA told the archive that it wouldn't waive search and duplication fees because many of the requests wouldn't interest the general public. Thomas Blanton, the archive's executive director, said the response was illegal and potentially dangerous for the entire FOIA process.
"This means they get to decide what's news," Blanton said.
Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Arlington, Va.-based Reporter's Committee for Freedom of the Press, said she hasn't heard of the CIA making similar responses to other news organizations, but she called the response "horrifying" and said it sets a bad precedent.
"It's not up to the CIA to decide what's newsworthy," Dalglish said.
A CIA spokesman said the agency would have no comment.
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Employee verification system would affect all workers, privacy experts say
By Lisa Friedman, Staff Writer
WASHINGTON - Remember the Department of Homeland Security's "no-fly'' lists that erratically flagged 3-year-old children and dozens of men named David Nelson as terrorists seeking to board commercial airplanes?
Well, now privacy experts are warning America to prepare for the "no-work'' list.
As Congress debates immigration reform, experts say a little-discussed aspect of the bill, mandatory employee eligibility verification, is likely to have a colossal impact on the lives of every person in the U.S. labor market -- citizen and foreigner alike.
"Everyone who wants to work will feel this provision,'' said Tim Sparapani, legal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. "People are just beginning to understand the implications of it, and they're big.''
The need for a nationwide system through which employers can verify whether potential workers are citizens or legal residents has been the one element of the pending immigration reform upon which Republicans and Democrats have largely agreed.
But privacy advocates say the rush to mandate widespread eligibility checks is being done with little understanding of the technical snafus that could wrongly put thousands of people out of work each year while leading to rampant discrimination.
And, they warn, the government may also begin to compile new and vast stores of knowledge on every employable man, woman and child.
Department of Homeland Security officials and advocates of the employer verification system say privacy activists are fanning overblown fears.
No personal information is stored or tracked, they maintain, and the program is devised to protect employees from being left jobless while waiting for a green light from the system.
Currently that system is called the Basic Pilot Program, and it is voluntary. About 6,000 participating employers use it annually to electronically check workers' I-9 forms against Social Security and visa info.
Should the system go national, it will have to accommodate a U.S. work force of about 144 million people.
About 57 million people, according to the Department of Labor, take new jobs each year, 13.4 million in Western states alone.
Mark Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said most Americans wrongly think they will be exempt from verification.
"Generally speaking, people who aren't in the immigrant community assume it won't affect them. But for the system to work, it has to encompass the entire American work force,'' he said.
The bills, he said, "put the Social Security Administration and the Department of Homeland Security in the middle of every employment decision in the United States.''
Under the Senate bill, employers would be required to use the system to check every new employee, while the House requires employers to check current workers as well as prospective ones.
"This is many orders of magnitude greater than what currently exists,'' Sparapani said. "As a computer network problem, that's a massive undertaking.''
Chris Bentley, spokesman for the U.S. Department Citizenship and Immigration, which oversees the program, said he is confident the Basic Pilot Program could rapidly expand if required.
"Absolutely,'' he said.
Bentley noted that the system is not a database that needs to be created, but rather an interface that can access information from the Social Security Administration and USCIS records.
Ramping up the system, then, would require money and resources to accommodate the heavy influx of new users.
Currently, when employers enter a workers' Social Security or visa number along with other identifiers such as birth date, the system either confirms an employee's eligibility or issues what is called a "tentative non-confirmation.''
Employers are required to notify workers, who then have 10 days to contest it.
During that time, employers are prohibited from firing, suspending or docking pay. Bentley also noted that employees must already be hired and working before the verification can be done, so that employees are not waiting on the wheels of bureaucracy to turn in order to feed their families.
"No one is in a holding pattern here,'' he said.
But reality does not always conform to law.
According to the UCSIS's own 2002 study, employers do use the pilot system to screen applicants. And when they receive a tentative non-confirmation, "job applicants are unlikely to be notified,'' the study found.
Moreover, 67 percent of employees who contested a non-confirmation reported being suspended, docked pay or having their job training delayed while they sorted out their records.
A 2004 agency report found that erroneous non-confirmations for foreign born workers was "unacceptably high'' and "higher than desirable'' for U.S.-born workers.
The errors, it found, are largely the result of data entry mistakes and accuracy problems with either the Social Security or USCIS databases.
"This creates burdens for employees and employers, increased verification costs for the government and led to unintentional discrimination against foreign-born persons,'' the study found.
These days the USCIS pegs the overall error rate as low as 1.4 percent.
But extrapolated to 54 million workers in a mandatory national system, and that could result in more than 750,000 people each year wrongly told they aren't eligible to work.
Sparapani likened it to DHS's no-fly list, which led to dozens of men named David Nelson being detained at airports because one man named David Nelson apparently was listed as a potential terrorist.
"I've called this system the 'no-work list,''' Sparapani said.
"Pick your common surname. It's a nightmare for the system. And imagine not being able to work and provide for your family,'' he said.
While the Senate bill provides employees with broader ability to contest and appeal their finding, the House version does not.
But accuracy could have its dangers as well.
The more information the government collects in the name of preserving accuracy and preventing identity fraud, the more information the government has on all of us, experts point out.
"It's the government creating another system of identification'' Rotenberg said.
While DHS officials maintained that no employment data is tracked or stored, Rotenberg and others predicted it someday would be. And without privacy restrictions on how the information is used, they warned, numerous agencies could potentially tap into the data at any time.
Ultimately, though, immigration experts said the employer verification program, even with its faults, is the best way to block illegal immigration.
"There are legitimate concerns in terms of privacy and the rights of individuals to access and correct their records,'' said Deborah Meyers, a senior policy expert at the Migration Policy Institute.
But, she said, "ultimately, from an immigration perspective, only an employer verification system has the potential to reduce illegal immigration to the United States, because ultimately it's the job magnet that draws illegals to the U.S.
"The deterrent has to be the inability to get a job,'' she said.
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Sweep nets nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants
By ANDREW RYAN
Associated Press
Thu Jun 15, 2006
BOSTON - A blitz by federal agents during the last three weeks captured nearly 2,100 illegal immigrants across the country in raids targeting child molesters, violent gang members and past deportees who re-entered the country.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials credited the roundup to a network of 35 fugitive apprehension teams.
"This is a massive operation," said Marc Raimondi, a spokesman for immigration enforcement or ICE, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security. "We are watching the country's borders from the inside."
The crackdown, dubbed "Operation Return to Sender," kicked off May 26. An Associated Press reporter and photographer accompanied a fugitive task force as it made raids Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
A swarm of immigration agents had sped silently, headlights off, down a Boston side street and surrounded an apartment house.
"Police! Policia! Police!" Monico yelled, holding his badge to a window where someone had pulled back the curtain. "Open the door!"
Soon agents led a dazed-looking Jose Ferreira Da Silva, 35, out in handcuffs. The Brazilian had been arrested in 2002 and deported, but had slipped back into the country. He now faces up to 20 years in prison.
"This sends a message," said Daniel Monico, a deportation officer, after a successful raid early Wednesday. "When we deport you, we're serious."
The operation has caught more than 140 immigrants with convictions for sexual offenses against children; 367 known gang members, including street soldiers in the deadly Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13; and about 640 people who had already been deported once, immigration officials said. The numbers include more than 720 arrests in California alone.
More than 800 people arrested already have been deported.
ICE's 2006 budget increased the number of fugitive task forces to 52, and the Bush administration is pushing for 70 by 2007. The teams face a mounting challenge.
There are more than 500,000 "fugitive aliens" who have been deported by judges and either slipped back into the country or never left. There is often a disconnect between local and state prisons and the federal government that allows illegal immigrants to serve time and be released without being transferred to federal officials for deportation.
The government has conducted large scale sweeps from time to time, including on April 20, when Homeland Security Secretary
Michael Chertoff announced a new get-tough policy. That day, agents rounded up 1,100 illegal immigrants in 40 cities.
During the raid late Tuesday, the federal squad, which includes a Boston police sergeant detective, wore bulging bulletproof vests and stiff Kevlar gloves to protect their hands from needles, knives and rusty fences.
Badges dangled on chains around their necks as they passed around wanted posters and shined flashlights on the face of a 24-year-old Latvian man who had served prison time for assaulting a police officer.
The team moved in the dark, climbing fences and hiding behind parked cars to encircle a three-story house in Boston's Allston-Brighton neighborhood. All at once they emerged from the shadows. A half-dozen agents filled the front porch, their knocks on the door echoing down the block. The target had moved, the agents learned, and a team split off and caught him in Weymouth, about 15 miles south of the city.
Another man caught in the recent blitz was a Salvadoran gang member who was convicted in a stabbing that left a 13-year-old boy paralyzed. Agents caught him working at Budget Rental Car at Boston's Logan Airport.
"The problems with immigration aren't going to be solved overnight," Raimondi said as the team sped toward another raid. "You start chipping away at it ... The more teams we get up and running, the more dangerous people we are going to get off the streets."
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New Jersey officials sued by federal government over phone records access
By MARK SHERMAN
Associated Press
Wed Jun 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - The federal government sued the New Jersey attorney general and other state officials Wednesday to stop them from seeking information about telephone companies' cooperation with the National Security Agency.
The unusual filing in U.S. District Court in Trenton, N.J., is the latest effort by federal authorities to halt legal proceedings aimed at revealing whether and how often AT&T, Verizon and other phone companies have provided customer records to the NSA without a court order.
New Jersey Attorney General Zulima Farber, a Democrat, and other officials sent subpoenas to five carriers on May 17, asking for documents that would explain whether they supplied customer records to the NSA, the lawsuit said.
The subpoenas followed by a few days a USA Today report that the phone companies had complied with the secretive agency's request for the phone records of millions of ordinary Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The companies' deadline to respond to the subpoenas is Thursday, the federal lawsuit said.
Farber subpoenaed the phone companies for information because she suspected state consumer protection laws may have been violated if in fact the phone companies were turning over such records, Farber spokesman David Wald said.
"The phone companies were turning over information without any notice to consumers," Wald said. "We were seeking to protect the people of New Jersey."
The Justice Department said more than 20 lawsuits have been filed around the country alleging that the phone companies illegally assisted the NSA. The government says sensitive national security information would be revealed if judges allow those cases to proceed.
The American Civil Liberties Union also has filed complaints in more than 20 states, including New Jersey, asking state utility commissions and attorneys general to investigate.
In this matter, the federal government said the New Jersey officials are treading on federal turf and that the companies, if forced to comply with the subpoenas, would be confirming or denying the existence of the program.
President Bush and other top federal officials have refused to do that.
Assistant Attorney General Peter Keisler also warned lawyers for the phone companies that responding to the subpoenas "would violate federal laws and executive orders."
A separate letter that Keisler, head of the department's Civil Division, sent to Farber made the same points, but it took a softer approach.
"We sincerely hope that you will withdraw the subpoenas, so that litigation over this matter may be avoided," Keisler said.
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North Dakota Primary Elections: Marine wins GF council Ward 2 race from Iraq
By Tu-Uyen Tran
Herald Staff Writer
Wed, Jun. 14, 2006
"We've got a raid going on right now, and I can't do anything for another 90 minutes. Can I call you then or is it too late?"
Thus went the e-mail from Maj. Mike McNamara from Fallujah, Iraq, replying to a request for an interview following his victory in the Grand Forks City Council Ward 2 race.
The race had been an intense one with four other candidates fighting for the same office and all of them having the advantage of being in town during the campaign.
Not that Mac, as he is often known, didn't have advantages of his own being both a local media celebrity - he's the host of "Mac Talk" on KNOX radio - and a Marine in a time when the military enjoys the most prestige it's had since World War II.
As things turned out, he had no problem wooing the voters. Mac got 49 percent of the 695 votes cast in Ward 2, the city ward with the biggest voter turnout. His closest rival was Jon Dorner, who had 19 percent of the vote.
Mac's wife, Susan, who went door-to-door on his behalf with their children and other volunteers, said no one they spoke with thought his being away was a problem. She said it would be no different than when current council members are away during meetings: They call in.
Mac is scheduled to return in 93 days, according to his Web site, VoteMcNamara.com.
Ward 2 wasn't the only race, of course, just the most intense. In Ward 4, Council President Hal Gershman was unchallenged and, in Ward 6, former council member Art Bakken is back after four year's absence. Bakken won 54 percent of 441 votes cast.
While he and his erstwhile rival Tom Potter were of different political orientations - Bakken a conservative and Potter a liberal - the two shared very similar views on the major issues.
"A lot of it is just common sense," Bakken said.
Both said they wanted to put a freeze on property taxes and both thought the city needs to explore other options for its proposed landfill, which is now in litigation.
But Bakken might not be around very long. Depending on the direction the city is going in four years, the 60-year-old said, he might just step aside and let someone younger run.
Comment: "... [Mac is] a Marine in a time when the military enjoys the most prestige it's had since World War II."
At a time when most Americans are fed up with Bush, the military is enjoying quite a lot of support from the people. General Honore rode in on his white horse to save New Orleans after Katrina, barking orders at troops and police officers to lower their weapons. National Guard troops are presently securing US borders. Hayden, a retired Navy admiral, is now running the CIA. Yes indeedy, it seems the military is on its way up the popularity ladder...
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US emergency rooms in crisis, reports find
By Maggie Fox
Reuters
Wed Jun 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - U.S. emergency rooms are understaffed, overwhelmed and could not cope with a crisis, whether a pandemic, attack or natural disaster, according to three reports released on Wednesday.
Americans rely heavily on emergency departments and emergency medical services to save their lives when sudden illness or disaster strikes, yet these services are not properly funded and often do not live up to expectations, the reports from the independent Institute of Medicine found.
"We are definitely not prepared for the onslaught we would receive today in the event of an emergency (such as) a hurricane, bioterrorist attack ... or a pandemic," Dr. Brent Eastman, Chief Medical Officer of Scripps Health in San Diego, told a news conference.
"We hope that this report will astonish the nation."
The Institute, an independent body that advises the federal government on health matters, issued three reports on the fragile status of emergency care in the United States. It noted that emergency services are the primary source of health care for many uninsured people or on evening and weekends when clinics are closed.
"Each year in the United States approximately 114 million visits to emergency department occur, and 16 million of these patients arrive by ambulance. In 2002, 43 percent of all hospital admissions in the United States entered through the ED," one of the reports reads.
LACK OF TRAINING, SUPPLIES
Despite increasing attention placed on emergency and disaster preparedness in the United States after the September 11 attacks, emergency services received only 4 percent of $3.38 billion distributed by the Homeland Security Department for emergency preparedness in 2002 and 2003, the Institute said. The report did not give figures for 2004 or 2005.
"The result is that few hospital and EMS professionals have had even minimal disaster preparedness training," one report said.
"Even fewer have access to personal protective equipment; hospitals, many already stretched to the limit, lack the ability to absorb any significant surge in casualties; and supplies of critical hospital equipment, such as decontamination showers ... ventilators, and intensive care unit beds, are wholly inadequate."
Experts say none of the complaints are new and yet little has been done to address the problem, perhaps because the U.S. healthcare system relies heavily on private enterprise.
"Hospitals must be reimbursed for the significant amounts of uncompensated emergency and trauma care they provide. To do otherwise threatens to destroy the critical emergency care infrastructure that all Americans depend on," said Dr. Rick Blum, president of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
The reports call for a pool of $50 million to pay for this.
State and federal governments must also work to ensure that hospitals and emergency medical services can communicate with police, fire departments and other emergency responders -- something many cannot do now.
Some of the nation's emergency medical services are municipally managed, others are privately owned. Some are organized under fire departments, while others are operated by hospitals or other medical organizations and they all need to coordinate better, the panel said.
It recommended that Congress allocate $88 million for projects to find ways to do this.
Hospitals also have to stop diverting patients to the emergency room, get patients out of the ER and into hospital rooms so they do not clog up the system, and learn to communicate with one another better, the committee said.
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Dollars and Nonsense
Senate rebuffs Bush on war budgeting
By Vicki Allen
Reuters
Wed Jun 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Senate voted unanimously on Wednesday to force President George W. Bush to submit a budget for the
Iraq and Afghanistan wars instead of financing them in emergency bills that are pushed through Congress with minimal scrutiny.
As Congress prepared to pass an emergency bill with $65.8 billion the Pentagon urgently wanted for the wars, the Senate voted 98-0 to end the practice and make the administration lay out the wars' expected costs in its annual budget submitted to Congress in February.
The vote came on an amendment to legislation spelling out defense policies for next year that is expected to trigger a broader debate on Iraq. Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts said he would push an amendment calling for the withdrawal of U.S. troops by the end of this year, while other Democrats are considering measures calling for a phased withdrawal.
Including the latest emergency bill, the wars' cost will reach $420 billion, said Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who sponsored the amendment.
"We're adding hundreds of billions to conveniently named emergency expenditures" that do not have to be accounted for in the budget, he said.
The amendment would only apply to war spending and would allow additional emergency Pentagon spending with justification.
The House of Representatives passed its version of the defense authorization bill in May without a similar measure to end the war supplementals.
Democrats and a number of Republicans have complained that the administration has sought to conceal the mounting red ink caused by the wars and diminish Congress' role in budget decisions by rolling the war spending into periodic supplemental bills.
Because the emergency bills are not offset by spending cuts, they add to the burgeoning federal debt.
The administration has resisted putting war spending through the regular budget process, arguing that the uncertainty of war means it cannot foresee many costs.
"The White House has shown no sign that it will take the fiscally responsible course of beginning ... to budget for the cost of the wars," said Sen. Robert Byrd (news, bio, voting record) of West Virginia, top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee that oversees federal spending.
McCain has frequently complained that the war supplementals -- nine since the September 11, 2001, attacks -- have become vehicles for billions of dollars in spending on lawmakers' pet projects. Routine military spending also increasingly has crept into the emergency bills, he said.
Bush threatened to veto the Senate's version of the latest emergency bill that had swelled by $14 billion beyond the $94 billion Bush wanted for the wars and for rebuilding in the hurricane-ravaged U.S. Gulf Coast. But lawmakers trimmed the costs in a House of Representatives-Senate negotiation.
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Congress Gives Itself 7th Straight Pay Raise
The Boston Channel
13/06/2006
WASHINGTON -- Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday embraced a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500.
The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate.
Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.
In the early days of GOP control of Congress, lawmakers routinely denied themselves the annual COLA. Last year, the Senate voted 92-6 to deny the raise but quietly surrendered the position in House-Senate talks.
As part of an ethics reform bill in 1989, Congress gave up their ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless the lawmakers voted otherwise.
The pay issue has been linked to the annual Transportation and Treasury Department spending bill because that measure stipulates that civil servants get raises of 2.7 percent, the same as military personnel will receive. Under a complicated formula, the increase translates to 2 percent for members of Congress.
Like last year, Matheson led a quixotic drive to block the raise. He was the only member to speak on the topic.
"I do not think that it is appropriate to let this bill go through without an up or down vote on whether or not Congress should have an increase in its own pay," Matheson said.
But by a 249-167 vote, the House rejected Matheson's procedural attempt to get a direct vote on the pay raise.
The pay raise would also apply to the vice president - who is president of the Senate - congressional leaders and Supreme Court justices.
This year, Vice President Cheney, House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Chief Justice William Rehnquist receive $212,100. Associate justices receive $203,000. House and Senate party leaders get $183,500.
President George W. Bush's salary of $400,000 is unaffected by the legislation.
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House, Senate Members Disclose Finances
By MARY DALRYMPLE
AP
June 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - Lawmakers caught up in ethics investigations have plenty of cash - just in case they someday face hefty lawyers' bills.
House and Senate members detailed their finances Wednesday in the midst of public and government scrutiny of certain dealings that have caused Congress' popularity to drop.
The reports require lawmakers to list last year's assets and debts, along with any income beyond the $162,100 salary for the rank-and-file House and Senate members. Rules require lawmakers to donate their speaking fees to charity and to limit gifts from any individual to $100 in a year.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., holds blind trusts worth $7.5 million to $36 million. He reported making $5 million last year from the largest, worth between $5 million to $25 million.
Frist faces a Securities and Exchange Commission insider trading investigation over selling stock in a hospital company his family founded. He denies any wrongdoing and said he ordered the sales to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest as he considers running for president in 2008.
Rep. Charles Taylor, R-N.C., founder and chairman of Blue Ridge Savings and Loan in Asheville, N.C., reported stock in a holding company for the bank worth more than $50 million. He also purchased 80 percent of a Russian bank and founded a Russian investment company.
State Democrats have called for congressional ethics and conflict of interest investigations into Taylor's banking activities and links to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in a federal bribery investigation.
Republican Tom DeLay of Texas, who resigned his House seat last week, showed his legal troubles have led him into sizable debt. DeLay reported owing $250,001 to $500,000 to four separate lawyers and law firms.
DeLay also reported individual and corporate contributions to a legal defense fund worth $588,320. He has predicted that legal bills will cost him $3 million.
Not every lawmaker under ethical scrutiny, who might amass large legal bills, can count on large bank accounts.
Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio, under investigation at the Justice Department and the House ethics committee for his ties to Abramoff, reported no major assets or liabilities, nor any major outside sources of unearned income.
Ney, one of the recipients of an Abramoff golfing trip to Scotland, also reported no privately funded travel. He and his staff have said they stopped allowing any outside groups to pay for trips.
Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., under investigation by the FBI for bribery, owns two tracts of farmland in Louisiana, each worth $50,001 to $100,000. He loaned $100,001 to $250,000 each to his mayoral and gubernatorial campaigns, as well as $50,001 to $100,000 to "Jefferson Interests." His office would not provide additional details.
Jefferson also reported three major liabilities. He owes between $50,001 and $100,000 each to Dryades Bank and Noah Samara, chairman and CEO of Worldspace Satellite Radio. He also has a $15,001 to $50,000 loan from Liberty Bank of New Orleans.
The FBI claims agents found $90,000 in bribe money stashed in Jefferson's home freezer. Jefferson has not been indicted and has denied all wrongdoing in connection with a federal investigation.
Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-W.Va., this week acknowledged some inaccuracies in past financial statements and amended reports dating back to 2000, but he has denied improperly benefiting from his office. He reported owning part or all of properties in West Virginia, Washington and North Carolina, and he earned rent from several of those properties.
Books proved a lucrative source of income for multiple lawmakers.
Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., earned $103,095 in royalties for "Losing America: Confronting a Reckless and Arrogant President." He used the money to pay for medical care for his wife, Erma, who died in March, spokesman Tom Gavin said.
Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., made $872,891 from her memoir, "Living History." She has reported earning $8.7 million from the work in prior years. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., reported royalties and a book advance. He revealed that with permission of the Senate Ethics Committee, he agreed with Random House to a $1.9 million advance against royalties for writing two nonfiction books and one children's book. He intends to donate $200,000 to charity.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., received an advance of $42,500 to write a book titled, "Take This Job and Ship It: How Corporate Greed and Brain Dead Politics is Selling Out America." Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., earned $5,175 in royalties for a reprinting of his 2003 book, "A Call to Service."
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., received royalties worth $15,001 to $50,000 from publication of "Speaker: Lessons from Forty Years of Coaching and Politics." Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., received a partial book advance of $106,210.
Some lawmakers were lucky last year. House Majority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, took home $2,700 in slot machine winnings. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., won an $853,492 share of a $340 million multistate Powerball lottery jackpot.
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Goldman 2nd-Qtr Net More Than Doubles, Led by Trading, M&A
Bloomberg
June 13, 2006
Goldman Sachs Group Inc., the world's biggest securities firm by market value, said fiscal second- quarter profit more than doubled on higher revenue from trading securities and arranging mergers.
Net income climbed to $2.31 billion, or $4.78 a share, in the quarter ended May 26 from $865 million, or $1.71, a year earlier, Goldman said today in a statement. Earnings got a boost from the sale of a power plant to General Electric Co. Profit exceeded the $4.28-a-share mean estimate in a Thomson Financial survey of 19 analysts.
While Goldman's profits were its second-best ever, shares of the New York-based firm fell 3.3 percent yesterday on concern that tumbling stocks and rising interest rates will limit profit growth. Lloyd Blankfein, Goldman's former trading chief, is taking over as chairman and chief executive officer from Henry Paulson, who was nominated as next U.S. Treasury Secretary on May 30 after leading the firm to record profits the past two years.
"There's a low level of confidence about the sustainability of trading profits,'' said Les Satlow, who helps oversee $370 million at Salem, Massachusetts-based Cabot Money Management, which owns Goldman shares. "A lot of the areas where Goldman has been very successfully trading have been areas of the greatest pullback,'' he said before figures were released.
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., the fourth-largest U.S. securities firm, yesterday reported a 47 percent increase in second-quarter profit. The company's stock fell the most in almost four years after Lehman officials said a prolonged market decline may slow the pace of equity underwriting.
The 12-member Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index declined 3.2 percent yesterday, the most since September 2004.
Power Plant
"Over the last couple of quarters, everything has been working,'' said Michael Hecht, an analyst at Banc of America Securities in New York, who has a "neutral'' rating on Goldman. "As markets start to soften, everything could start to fall off.''
In the first quarter, Goldman earned $2.48 billion, the most in the history of the securities industry.
The firm's biggest unit -- fixed-income, currencies and commodities, or FICC -- generated $4.32 billion of revenue, up from $1.52 billion a year earlier. That included a gain from the sale of a 940-megawatt power plant in Linden, New Jersey, to a unit of General Electric for an undisclosed sum. Merrill Lynch & Co. analyst Guy Moszkowski estimated the sale would produce a $700 million gain.
Commodity prices, including those of copper, gold and zinc, reversed course in May. The Reuters/Jefferies CRB Futures Price Index of 19 commodities fell 1.4 percent in May after rising more than 5 percent in the first four months of the year.
Trading Revenue
Revenue from equity trading increased to $2.35 billion from $1.11 billion a year earlier. After advancing in the first four months of the year, the Standard & Poor's 500 Index slid 3.1 percent in May, the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index declined 5 percent, Japan's Nikkei 225 dropped 8.5 percent, and emerging markets in Russia, Brazil and India fell even more.
While prices are lower, the volatility in markets is rising, providing Goldman and its competitors more opportunities to make money from trading. The Chicago Board Options Exchange SPX Volatility Index rose to 21 yesterday from an average 12.7 in the three months ended May 31. Goldman typically relies on stock trading and commissions for almost 25 percent of its revenue.
Goldman was the top adviser on takeovers completed in the past fiscal quarter, closing 65 transactions valued at $204 billion, up from 63 deals worth $92.9 billion a year earlier, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
Stock Sales
The firm also managed the most share offerings during the three-month period, arranging $24.5 billion worth of stock sales compared with $8.4 billion a year earlier, according to Bloomberg data. In fixed income, Goldman managed $28 billion of dollar- denominated bond sales, up from $19 billion a year ago.
Goldman's profit fell short of expectations in two of the past five quarters, according to Bloomberg data. Analysts, thrown off by unpredictable trading revenue, underestimated first- quarter earnings per share by more than 50 percent.
Shares of Goldman are still up almost 14 percent this year after yesterday's slide, compared with the 3.4 percent gain of the Amex Securities Broker/Dealer Index.
Only Bear Stearns Cos. has risen more of the five biggest U.S. securities firms, up 14 percent. Shares of Merrill are up 1.3 percent; Morgan Stanley is up 2.6 percent; and Lehman is down 3.2 percent.
Paulson, 60, was nominated May 30 by President George W. Bush to succeed John Snow as Treasury Secretary. His confirmation by the U.S. Senate probably will occur in the next two months.
Blankfein, a 24-year veteran of Goldman who has been president since 2003, was named on June 2 to succeed Paulson. Analysts including UBS AG's Glenn Schorr expect that Blankfein, 51, will name co-presidents. Among the leading candidates are Jon Winkelried, 46, co-head of investment banking; Gary Cohn, 45, co- head of equities as well as fixed-income, currencies and commodities trading; and J. Michael Evans, 48, a trading co-head leading Goldman Sachs Asia.
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N.Y. OKs $1.6B in bonds for 3 WTC towers
AP
June 14, 2006
NEW YORK - A state agency on Wednesday approved using $1.6 billion in tax-exempt bonds to build three office towers at the World Trade Center site.
The Empire State Development Corp. approved use of the Liberty Bonds for towers that are under private developer Larry Silverstein's control. Silverstein retained control of those towers after his lease was renegotiated earlier this year.
The federal government issued a total of $8 billion in Liberty Bonds after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to provide tax-exempt financing for downtown Manhattan rebuilding.
The city intends to issue $920.9 million in Liberty Bonds under its control to build the three towers next month.
The remaining $3.35 billion in Liberty Bonds will go to the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is paying to build the symbolic Freedom Tower and another building at the trade center site.
Silverstein spokesman Bud Perrone said the developer is working with three architects on designs for the three towers and "with financing in place, will begin construction of those towers as soon as the sites are made available."
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Keeping Iraq's Oil In the Ground
By Greg Palast
AlterNet
06/14/06
Did the U.S. invade Iraq to tap its oil reserves or to make sure they stayed under the sand?
World oil production today stands at more than twice the 15-billion a-year maximum projected by Shell Oil in 1956 -- and reserves are climbing at a faster clip yet. That leaves the question, Why this war?
Did Dick Cheney send us in to seize the last dwindling supplies? Unlikely. Our world's petroleum reserves have doubled in just twenty-five years -- and it is in Shell's and the rest of the industry's interest that this doubling doesn't happen again. The neo-cons were hell-bent on raising Iraq's oil production. Big Oil's interest was in suppressing production, that is, keeping Iraq to its OPEC quota or less. This raises the question, did the petroleum industry, which had a direct, if hidden, hand, in promoting invasion, cheerlead for a takeover of Iraq to prevent overproduction?
It wouldn't be the first time. If oil is what we're looking for, there are, indeed, extra helpings in Iraq. On paper, Iraq, at 112 billion proven barrels, has the second largest reserves in OPEC after Saudi Arabia. That does not make Saudi Arabia happy. Even more important is that Iraq has fewer than three thousand operating wells... compared to one million in Texas.
That makes the Saudis even unhappier. It would take a decade or more, but start drilling in Iraq and its reserves will about double, bringing it within gallons of Saudi Arabia's own gargantuan pool. Should Iraq drill on that scale, the total, when combined with the Saudis', will drown the oil market. That wouldn't make the Texans too happy either. So Fadhil Chalabi's plan for Iraq to pump 12 million barrels a day, a million more than Saudi Arabia, is not, to use Bob Ebel's (Center fro Strategic and International Studies) terminology, "ridiculous" from a raw resource view, it is ridiculous politically. It would never be permitted. An international industry policy of suppressing Iraqi oil production has been in place since 1927. We need again to visit that imp called "history."
It began with a character known as "Mr. 5%"-- Calouste Gulbenkian -- who, in 1925, slicked King Faisal, neophyte ruler of the country recently created by Churchill, into giving Gulbenkian's "Iraq Petroleum Company" (IPC) exclusive rights to all of Iraq's oil. Gulbenkian flipped 95% of his concession to a combine of western oil giants: Anglo-Persian, Royal Dutch Shell, CFP of France, and the Standard Oil trust companies (now ExxonMobil and its "sisters.") The remaining slice Calouste kept for himself -- hence, "Mr. 5%."
The oil majors had a better use for Iraq's oil than drilling it -- not drilling it. The oil bigs had bought Iraq's concession to seal it up and keep it off the market. To please his buyers' wishes, Mr. 5% spread out a big map of the Middle East on the floor of a hotel room in Belgium and drew a thick red line around the gulf oil fields, centered on Iraq. All the oil company executives, gathered in the hotel room, signed their name on the red line -- vowing not to drill, except as a group, within the red-lined zone. No one, therefore, had an incentive to cheat and take red-lined oil. All of Iraq's oil, sequestered by all, was locked in, and all signers would enjoy a lift in worldwide prices. Anglo-Persian Company, now British Petroleum (BP), would pump almost all its oil, reasonably, from Persia (Iran). Later, the Standard Oil combine, renamed the Arabian-American Oil Company (Aramco), would limit almost all its drilling to Saudi Arabia. Anglo-Persian (BP) had begun pulling oil from Kirkuk, Iraq, in 1927 and, in accordance with the Red-Line Agreement, shared its Kirkuk and Basra fields with its IPC group -- and drilled no more.
The following was written three decades ago:
Although its original concession of March 14, 1925, cove- red all of Iraq, the Iraq Petroleum Co., under the owner- ship of BP (23.75%), Shell (23.75%), CFP [of France] (23.75%), Exxon (11.85%), Mobil (11.85%), and [Calouste] Gulbenkian (5.0%), limited its production to fields constituting only one-half of 1 percent of the country's total area. During the Great Depression, the world was awash with oil and greater output from Iraq would simply have driven the price down to even lower levels.
Plus ça change...
When the British Foreign Office fretted that locking up oil would stoke local nationalist anger, BP-IPC agreed privately to pretend to drill lots of wells, but make them absurdly shallow and place them where, wrote a company manager, "there was no danger of striking oil." This systematic suppression of Iraq's production, begun in 1927, has never ceased. In the early 1960s, Iraq's frustration with the British-led oil consortium's failure to pump pushed the nation to cancel the BP-Shell-Exxon concession and seize the oil fields. Britain was ready to strangle Baghdad, but a cooler, wiser man in the White House, John F. Kennedy, told the Brits to back off. President Kennedy refused to call Iraq's seizure an "expropriation" akin to Castro's seizure of U.S.-owned banana plantations. Kennedy's view was that Anglo-American companies had it coming to them because they had refused to honor their legal commitment to drill.
But the freedom Kennedy offered the Iraqis to drill their own oil to the maximum was swiftly taken away from them by their Arab brethren.
The OPEC cartel, controlled by Saudi Arabia, capped Iraq's production at a sum equal to Iran's, though the Iranian reserves are far smaller than Iraq's. The excuse for this quota equality between Iraq and Iran was to prevent war between them. It didn't. To keep Iraq's Ba'athists from complaining about the limits, Saudi Arabia simply bought off the leaders by funding Saddam's war against Iran and giving the dictator $7 billion for his "Islamic bomb" program.
In 1974, a U.S. politician broke the omerta over the suppression of Iraq's oil production. It was during the Arab oil embargo that Senator Edmund Muskie revealed a secret intelligence report of "fantastic" reserves of oil in Iraq undeveloped because U.S. oil companies refused to add pipeline capacity. Muskie, who'd just lost a bid for the Presidency, was dubbed a "loser" and ignored. The Iranian bombing of the Basra fields (1980-88) put a new kink in Iraq's oil production. Iraq's frustration under production limits explodes periodically.
In August 1990, Kuwait's craven siphoning of borderland oil fields jointly owned with Iraq gave Saddam the excuse to take Kuwait's share. Here was Saddam's opportunity to increase Iraq's OPEC quota by taking Kuwait's (most assuredly not approved by the U.S.). Saddam's plan backfired. The Basra oil fields not crippled by Iran were demolished in 1991 by American B-52s. Saddam's petro-military overreach into Kuwait gave the West the authority for a more direct oil suppression method called the "Sanctions" program, later changed to "Oil for Food." Now we get to the real reason for the U.N. embargo on Iraqi oil exports. According to the official U.S. position:
Sanctions were critical to preventing Iraq from acquiring equipment that could be used to reconstitute banned weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs.
How odd. If cutting Saddam's allowance was the purpose, then sanctions, limiting oil exports, was a very suspect method indeed. The nature of the oil market (a cartel) is such that the elimination of two million barrels a day increased Saddam's revenue. One might conclude that sanctions were less about WMD and more about EPS (earnings per share) of oil sellers.
In other words, there is nothing new under the desert sun. Today's fight over how much of Iraq's oil to produce (or suppress) simply extends into this century the last century's pump-or-control battles. In sum, Big Oil, whether in European or Arab-OPEC dress, has done its damned best to keep Iraq's oil buried deep in the ground to keep prices high in the air. Iraq has 74 known fields and only 15 in production; 526 known "structures" (oil-speak for "pools of oil"), only 125 drilled.
And they won't be drilled, not unless Iraq says, "Mother, may I?" to Saudi Arabia, or, as the James Baker/Council on Foreign Relations paper says, "Saudi Arabia may punish Iraq." And believe me, Iraq wouldn't want that. The decision to expand production has, for now, been kept out of Iraqi's hands by the latest method of suppressing Iraq's oil flow -- the 2003 invasion and resistance to invasion. And it has been darn effective. Iraq's output in 2003, 2004 and 2005 was less than produced under the restrictive Oil-for-Food Program. Whether by design or happenstance, this decline in output has resulted in tripling the profits of the five U.S. oil majors to $89 billion for a single year, 2005, compared to pre-invasion 2002. That suggests an interesting arithmetic equation. Big Oil's profits are up $89 billion a year in the same period the oil industry boosted contributions to Mr. Bush's reelection campaign to roughly $40 million.
That would make our president "Mr. 0.05%."
A History of Oil in Iraq
Suppressing It, Not Pumping It
1925-28 "Mr. 5%" sells his monopoly on Iraq's oil to British Petroleum and Exxon, who sign a "Red-Line Agreement" vowing not to compete by drilling independently in Iraq.1948 Red-Line Agreement ended, replaced by oil combines' "dog in the manger" strategy -- taking control of fields, then capping production--drilling shallow holes where "there was no danger of striking oil."1961 OPEC, founded the year before, places quotas on Iraq's exports equal to Iran's, locking in suppression policy.1980-88 Iran-Iraq War. Iran destroys Basra fields. Iraq cannot meet OPEC quota. 1991 Desert Storm. Anglo-American bombings cut production. 1991-2003 United Nations Oil embargo (zero legal exports) followed by Oil-for-Food Program limiting Iraqi sales to 2 million barrels a day. 2003-? "Insurgents" sabotage Iraq's pipelines and infrastructure.2004 Options for Iraqi OilThe secret plan adopted by U.S. State Department overturns Pentagon proposal to massively in crease oil production. State Department plan, adopted by government of occupied Iraq, limits state oil company to OPEC quotas. This article is excerpted from Greg Palast's new book, "Armed Madhouse" (Dutton Adult, 2006).
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The Case of the Missing $21 Billion
By DAVE LINDORFF
Baltimorechronicle.com
15/06/2006
Who's Following the Iraq Money?
During the days of the Nixon Watergate scandal investigation, reporter Bob Woodword was famously advised by his mysterious source, Deep Throat, to "follow the money" as a way of cracking the story.
Well, there is a lot of money to follow in the current scandal that can be best described as the Bush/Cheney administration, and so far, nobody's doing it.
My bet for the place that needs the most following is the more than $9 billion that has gone missing without a trace in Iraq--as well as $12 billion in cash that the Pentagon flew into Iraq straight from Federal Reserve vaults via military transports, and for which there has been little or no accounting.
As word of massive corruption began to surface in 2003, Congress passed legislation creating an office of Inspector General, assuming that this new agency would monitor the spending on the occupation and reconstruction, and figure why all so much taxpayer money was disappearing, and why only minimal reconstruction was going on in destroyed Iraq, instead of a massive rebuilding program as intended. Bush named an old friend and supporter, Stuart Bowen, to the post--a move that should have put Congress on alert, given this administration's long history of putting cronies in positions of authority.
When the Coalition Provisional Authority was terminated in late 2004, with corruption still rampant and growing, Congress redefined Bowen's position as Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction.
Bowen, went to work. He uncovered some corruption in a report in early 2006 that sounded scathing enough. Bowen found cases of double billing by contractors, of payments for work that was never done, and other scandals. But he never came up with more than $1 billion or so worth of problems--a small fraction of the total amount of money that was vanishing.
Now we know why so little was done.
It turns out that Bowen was never really looking very hard.
When the Boston Globe, this past April, broke the story that President Bush has been quietly setting aside over 750 acts passed by Congress, claiming he has the authority as "unitary executive" and as commander in chief to ignore such laws, it turned out that one of the laws the president chose to ignore was the one establishing the inspector general post for Iraq. What the president did was write a so-called signing statement on the side (unpublicized of course--though it was quietly posted on the White House website), saying that the new inspector general would have no authority to investigate any contracts or corruption issues involving the Pentagon.
As the signing statement puts it:
Title III of the Act creates an Inspector General (IG) of the CPA. Title III shall be construed in a manner consistent with the President's constitutional authorities to conduct the Nation's foreign affairs, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and as Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. The CPA IG shall refrain from initiating, carrying out, or completing an audit or investigation, or from issuing a subpoena, which requires access to sensitive operation plans, intelligence matters, counterintelligence matters, ongoing criminal investigations by other administrative units of the Department of Defense related to national security, or other matters the disclosure of which would constitute a serious threat to national security.
Well, since most of the missing money has been going to or through the military in Iraq, and since the president can define just about anything having to do with Iraq as "national security," that pretty much meant nothing of consequence would be discovered by the inspector general in Iraq.
Bowen simply never mentioned to anyone that he was not doing the job that Congress had intended.
You might think that the inspector general himself would have complained about such a restriction on his authority to do the job that Congress had intended, but this is a man who has a long history of working as a loyal manservant to the president. Bowen was a deputy general counsel for Governor Bush (meaning he was an assistant to the ever solicitous solicitor Alberto Gonzales). He did yeoman service to Bush as a member of the team that handled the famous vote count atrocity in Florida in the November 2000 election, making sure every vote wasn't counted, and then worked under Gonzales again in the White House during Bush's first term, before returning briefly to private practice.
Bowen simply never mentioned to anyone that, courtesy of an unconstitutional order from the president, he was not doing the job that Congress had intended.
The deception was far-reaching. When Thomas Gimble, the acting inspector general of the Pentagon, was asked in 2005 during a congressional hearing by Christopher Shays (R-CT), chair of the House government reform subcommittee, why the Pentagon had no audit team in Iraq to look for fraud, the facile Gimble replied that such a team was "not needed" because Congress had set up the special inspector general unit to do that. He conveniently didn't mention that the president had barred the special inspector general from investigating Pentagon scandals.
This would all be pretty funny except for two things.
First of all, Americans and Iraqis are dying in droves because of the chaos that the U.S. invasion and occupation have created in Iraq--a problem that that $9 billion in missing Congressionally allocated funds, and the bales of US dollars, were supposed to have solved.
Second, and I admit this is pretty speculative on my part, money being like water, it tends to flow to the lowest level, which, from a moral and ethical standpoint, would be the Bush/Cheney administration and the Republican Party machine that put them, and the do-nothing Congress that covers up for them, into office.
My guess is that a fair piece of those many billions of dollars is sloshing around back in the U.S. paying for things like Republican Party electoral dirty tricks, vote theft, bribing of Democratic members of Congress, and god knows what else.
If this seems far-fetched to anyone, remember that this administration has included a number of people who were linked to the Reagan-era Iran-Contra scandal, when the creative--and criminal--idea was conceived of secretly selling Pentagon stocks of shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, and using the proceeds to secretly fund the U.S.-trained and organized Contra fighters who were fighting to topple the Sandinista government in Nicaragua (Congress had inconveniently banned any U.S. aid to the Contras).
It seems to me inconceivable that this corrupt and obsessively power-mad administration would have passed up an opportunity to get its hands on some of the easy money flowing into Iraq over the course of the last three years.
Given all this, it seems almost unfathomable that Democratic Party leaders would be insisting that there would be no impeachment hearings in Congress if Democrats were to succeed in winning back Congress this November.
Given all this, it seems almost unfathomable that Democratic Party leaders would be insisting, as have Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV), Democratic leaders of the House and Senate, that there would be no impeachment hearings in Congress if Democrats were to succeed in winning back Congress this November.
What better way to follow that money than an old-fashioned impeachment hearing into why the president unconstitutionally subverted the intent of Congress in establishing an office of special inspector general for corruption in Iraq?
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Japan's central banker apologizes for scandal-tainted investment
AFP
Thursday June 15, 2006
Japan's embattled central bank chief Toshihiko Fukui has apologized for keeping a scandal-tainted investment and pledged to improve transparency as the opposition urged him to quit.
Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi, in likely his last parliamentary debate before he steps down later this year, stood by Fukui in a show of support in an often tense three-and-a-half-hour session.
Fukui has faced a torrent of criticism for putting 10 million yen (87,700 dollars) into the fund of controversial investor Yoshiaki Murakami -- arrested last week on allegations of insider trading -- and keeping it even after his appointment as governor.
The silver-haired 70-year-old, wearing a green ribbon on his suit indicating he had been summoned, told the upper house budget committee he would not personally take the profit from the investment.
"First, I want to say I am sorry for disturbing the public with this case. I apologize whole heartedly," Fukui said in parliament, which recesses Sunday.
"If there is a profit, I have no plan to use it for myself. I want to use it in a way everybody can agree on," Fukui said.
He agreed with calls to bring Japan in line with many other developed nations which require their central bank chiefs to disclose their private investments.
"We should hurriedly begin considering if there can be room for further improvement of the current rules so that they can meet the demands of our time and the future," Fukui said.
Koizumi, who appointed Fukui in 2003 and retires in September, told the committee: "I think Governor Fukui has explained himself fine."
But opposition lawmakers -- whose previous attempts to discredit the popular Koizumi have failed -- demanded Fukui's resignation and said the premier bears part of the responsibility.
"It is inappropriate for you to continue being the governor of the Bank of Japan," Tatsuo Hirano, a lawmaker of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, told Fukui.
Fukui, whose term ends in 2008, declined to respond directly, saying: "I may have to reflect on a lot of things but no matter what, I don't want to lose the spirit of supporting ambitious young people."
Top ministers and the head of the Tokyo Stock Exchange have all rushed to the defense of Fukui, who has been the toast of the markets for helping steer the Japanese economy out of more than a decade of doldrums.
Fukui, who has spent most of his career in the Bank of Japan, also advised Murakami, a former bureaucrat turned shareholder activist, after Fukui resigned in 1998 over an unrelated bribery scandal at the central bank.
Fukui only cancelled his investment contract in February, around the time Murakami came onto the authorities' radar as they investigated fraud allegations at Internet firm Livedoor.
Fukui said that when he cancelled the funding contract, "I did not imagine any violations of the law."
Murakami, who had been seen as a trailblazer for launching Japan's first aggressive takeover bid, was arrested last week on allegations, which he denies, of insider trading.
Newspapers have speculated that the scandal could weaken Fukui's position ahead of his expected decision to end the bank's five-year zero-interest rate policy, which he argues has run its course in light of the economic recovery.
Fukui appeared in parliament just after he led a policy board meeting that voted unanimously to keep interest rates effectively at zero, in line with market expectations.
The government says it is too early to end the policy as the economy remains fragile.
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Saudi to build 8-billion-dollar economic city in north
by Suleiman Nimr
AFP
Tue Jun 13, 2006
HAIL, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia unveiled plans to build a northern economic city at a cost of eight billion dollars (6.4 billion euros), the latest massive project in the oil-rich kingdom.
The city, announced by King Abdullah at a night ceremony in Hail, 720 kilometers (450 miles) north of Riyadh, will be built over 10 years and host agricultural and mineral industries, an education zone and a residential area with 30,000 housing units.
Saudi Arabia, reaping a windfall from record high oil prices, announced in December a plan to build the "King Abdullah Economic City" north of the Red Sea port of Jeddah with investments of 26.6 billion dollars.
The "Prince Abdul Aziz bin Musaed Economic City," named after the first governor of the Hail region, an agricultural area rich in mineral resources that counts some 600,000 inhabitants, will have its own airport, a railway service and a dry dock, according to a leaflet and film released at the ceremony.
The city will cost 30 billion riyals (eight billion dollars), according to a source in Rakisa Holding, the company which will oversee the project along with the Saudi investment authority SAGIA and the High Commission for Hail Development.
Some 80,000 people are expected to take up residence in the new city, which will have business and leisure centers.
Extending over 156 million square meters, it will also house 3,000 office units and a "logistical supply and services center."
The venture, whose cost was confirmed by other officials at the launch, is part of efforts to boost less developed regions of the Gulf country and was announced by the Saudi monarch after a visit to the oil-rich Eastern Province during which a number of economic projects were launched.
"The state is making sure to allocate a large part of the budget surplus to development projects in the regions which did not get their full share," Abdullah told Hail residents attending the ceremony.
The planned economic city will provide "a strong boost to development in the area," he said, adding that it will create 30,000 jobs.
Saudi Arabia posted a record budget surplus of 57 billion dollars in 2005 on the back of surging crude prices and is channeling billions into development projects.
But Riyadh is still struggling to provide work for its unemployed nationals despite a "Saudization" policy whereby employers have to hire a specific percentage of locals, and it continues to rely heavily on some six million expatriate workers, mostly poorly paid Asians.
Unofficial estimates put the unemployment rate at around 20 percent of the male population, while only 10 percent of women of working age have a job in the conservative Muslim kingdom.
During his visit to Hail, King Abdullah is also due to lay the cornerstone for the first university in the area.
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A World Gone Mad
Disabled kids said hurt in shock therapy
By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press
June 14, 2006
ALBANY, N.Y. - A state report on a Massachusetts school for the disabled said electric shocks were administered to students - sometimes as they bathed - for offenses as minor as nagging, swearing and sloppy appearance.
"Various injuries to students have been reported" at the Judge Rotenberg Center, according to the report released Wednesday by the New York Education Department.
The school in Canton, Mass., receives $50 million a year from New York state to care for and educate about 150 youths because there is no space available in New York for the intensive treatment.
The education department said in a written statement the school must "cease certain interventions that threaten the health and safety of students at the school. Failure to do so would affect its approval to serve New York state students."
The center's attorney, Michael Flammia, called the allegations "absolutely not true" and said the state ignored its own November report that determined the center was doing an excellent job. He alleged the most recent evaluation was biased and prompted by a parent's lawsuit.
Education Department spokesman Alan Ray disputed Flammia's characterization of the earlier report, saying that it found compliance only in a limited number of areas.
The Rotenberg Center provides an intensive, 24-hour program that begins with a typical school setting, but about half the residents require the "aversive therapy" of electric shock, according to Rotenberg staff. The center describes the one- to two-second shocks as similar to a bee sting.
For years, the state has contracted with the facility, where autistic and other disabled students wear backpack-like devices that shock them when they misbehave.
Some New York parents said electric shock helped improve their children's behavior. Some of the youths had repeatedly bitten themselves or slammed their heads against walls so violently there was a concern they could blind themselves.
"It all comes down to a philosophical opposition to this form of treatment," Flammia said.
Comment: "For years, the state has contracted with the facility, where autistic and other disabled students wear backpack-like devices that shock them when they misbehave."
Isn't modern medicine amazing?
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Man faces charges after stabbing 2 sons
By DEANNA MARTIN
Associated Press
Wed Jun 14, 2006
BLACKHAWK, Ind. - A man stabbed his two young sons and dragged them into a lake, leaving one dead, hours after taking them from his father-in-law's house at knifepoint, police say.
Police with search dogs were combing Dean's Lake for Katron Walker on Tuesday night when he ran out of an abandoned trailer and into the murky water, dragging his naked children with him, authorities said. Officers rescued 2-year-old Monte Walker; divers later found the body of his 4-year-old brother, Collin.
Anita Joy Smothers, who lives nearby, said she went into the water in an attempt to help the children and demanded to know where Walker had dropped Collin. "He's grinning and he goes, 'He's probably at the bottom of the lake by now,'" she said.
Police said Walker, 32, had self-inflicted stab wounds in his chest and marijuana and methamphetamine in his system. He and his younger son were hospitalized and expected to survive.
Walker faces charges of murder and attempted murder.
Despite the knifepoint abduction, it took seven hours for authorities to issue an Amber Alert. The process was slowed because Indiana does not normally issue Amber Alerts in child custody cases, police said.
Bill Bergherm, Terre Haute assistant chief of detectives, said there was not "a lot of delay" in issuing the alert. Police first had to determine whether they had enough information to issue it, he said.
Walker's wife, Theresa, had told him on Sunday she wanted a divorce and moved into a shelter with her sons, authorities said. She filed an order of protection against him Tuesday morning, saying she had received a threatening call from him, police said.
Later that day, Smothers said, she saw the boys and their father at the lake, where they had been fishing and eating hot dogs. "All day I heard them say, 'I love you, Dad,'" Smothers said.
Smothers' family called police later after seeing the Amber Alert on TV.
Authorities surrounded the lake, and Walker jumped into the water with his children, police said. Monte had neck and puncture wounds in his chest; Collin was found in 12 feet of water with his throat slashed and his chest marked with puncture wounds. The coroner said it appeared Collin had been stabbed to death.
Blood and a steak knife were found in the trailer Walker fled, investigators said.
Vigo County court records show Walker was convicted of methamphetamine possession in 2003 and placed on probation.
The Amber Alert system, created in 1996 in response to the kidnapping and death of a 9-year-old Texas girl, is designed to notify communities of children's abductions. Each state has its own rules for issuing alerts.
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Homeless man arrested for NYC stabbings
By ADAM GOLDMAN
Associated Press
June 14, 2006
NEW YORK - A homeless man was arrested Wednesday in the stabbing of four people, including three tourists, who were attacked in a 12-hour span in Manhattan.
Investigators were questioning the 21-year-old man but did not have a motive.
Two of the four victims were stabbed near a Times Square hotel; the others were attacked inside the subway system. Three were hospitalized, and police said they were expected to survive.
Police spokesman Paul Browne said the suspect admitted stabbing two Canadians, a Mexican immigrant and a young man from Texas.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there was no evidence to suggest the man was targeting tourists. He said investigators recovered the folding knife used in at least two of the attacks when they arrested the suspect.
Charges were pending against Kenny Alexis, who had been living in a shelter.
Police said two Canadian women were each stabbed in the back about 4 a.m. by a man who had engaged them in a short conversation near the W Hotel.
Two hotel security officers tended to the women and called 911, while two doormen followed the man to a nearby McDonald's. Officers nabbed the suspect as he was leaving the restaurant, police said.
An hour earlier, a 30-year-old man was stabbed twice in the stomach a few blocks away as he and a friend waited on a subway platform in Rockefeller Center. Police said the attacker was after a cell phone.
On Tuesday afternoon, Christopher McCarthy of Houston was knifed by a man sitting across from him in a subway car on Manhattan's Upper West Side, an attack police said was random and apparently unprovoked.
McCarthy was in critical but stable condition after barely surviving the deep wound to his chest, doctors said. His father, Joe, said his son had forgiven the assailant and hopes the attacker "can get help."
Alexis also wielded the knife when a store employee confronted him about stealing two beers from a market Wednesday, the commissioner said. No one was hurt in that incident.
Despite the attacks, some tourists said New York still feels safe.
"There are a lot of police around. I don't think these stabbings are just random acts," said Scott McCoig, 24, of Detroit.
McCoig said he will still use the subway. "It's the best way to travel," he said.
The attacks drew comparisons with the 1990 killing of a 22-year-old tourist from Utah who was stabbed in a subway station while defending his mother during a robbery. Seven youths were convicted in the murder; all were sentenced to maximum terms of 25 years to life in prison.
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Violence Hits Cup Clash
Sky News
Wednesday June 14, 2006
The World Cup has been marred by its first serious violence - with fighting breaking out ahead of Germany's match against Poland.
Hundreds of hooligans have been arrested after clashing with police in Dortmund.
Trouble flared in the city centre where thousands of supporters had spent the afternoon drinking in a square.
Hundreds of riot police were deployed as thugs threw bottles at each other and the police.
There was more violence as large numbers of fans moved to a nearby giant screen televising the match.
Dortmund police spokeswoman Inspector Saskia Schneider said: "About two hours before the game some people known to be violent were about to be arrested.
"During that process police were massively attacked by the violent perpetrators.
"This whole situation spilled over to other fan groups. They got involved and started attacking each other.
Earlier, 55 Poles were arrested at the train station and in the city as a "preventative" measure.
Germany won the match 1-0 through a 90th minute Oliver Neuville goal.
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Mine blast kills 64 on bus in Sri Lanka
By Anuruddha Lokuhapuarachchi
Reuters
June 15, 2006
ANURADHAPURA, Sri Lanka - Suspected Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger rebels killed 64 people on Thursday when mines blew up a bus in the worst attack since a 2002 truce, officials said, prompting a wave of air strikes on rebel positions.
The government said the rebels used two mines side by side, peppering the packed bus with ball bearings on an isolated road near rebel territory. At the hospital in the north central town of Anuradhapura, some mourned the loss of whole families.
"The bus was blown over," 37-year-old survivor Chintha Irangani told Reuters. She was taking her three children to a clinic. All of them died.
"There was blood and body parts everywhere. I fell unconscious. I saw my children's bodies at the hospital."
A Reuters Television cameraman said the road beside the overturned bus was covered with glass and blood. In the hospital, he saw torn and burned corpses including many women and children. Officials said 13 children were among the dead.
Most on the bus were from the island's majority Sinhalese community. The government said the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) wanted to provoke an ethnic backlash against minority Tamils to support their demands for a separate Tamil homeland.
"We have to seriously consider the ceasefire agreement and possibly restructure it," government spokesman Kehilya Rambukwella told a news conference.
The Tigers denied involvement in the attack. Few have believed their denials of responsibility for similar attacks on the military. More than 500 people have died since early April, and many fear the island risks a return to civil war.
"We have no involvement whatsoever in this killing of innocent civilians," said head of the Tiger peace secretariat S. Puleedevan. "The Sri Lankan government has a responsibility to investigate law and order in their territory."
Sri Lanka's stock market closed down almost three percent on the news, with traders fearing a return to war could see Black Tiger suicide bombers hit the streets of the capital, sending investors fleeing from the $20 billion economy.
CIVILIANS IN SIGHTS
"The message coming out is that they will not stop at anything," said Jehan Perera, national director of think-tank the National Peace Council. "They are saying they will also target civilians if their demands are not met. Or they could be trying to push the government into a war."
The rebels said the government launched air raids on northeastern coastal areas of rebel territory. There were casualties, they said, but gave no further details.
The government refused to comment on any retaliation, but a military source said Israeli-built Kfir fighter bombers were being used to hit rebel targets. They were the first air strikes on the rebels since early May.
Many fear the peace process is reaching its endgame. The Tigers pulled out of peace talks in April but had agreed to talks last week in Oslo over the safety of ceasefire monitors. But on arrival, they refused to meet the government.
Mediator Norway last week wrote to both sides asking them to recommit themselves to the truce. The government replied and said it was committed, but the Tigers have yet to respond.
But diplomats say neither the government nor the Tigers have shown sufficient flexibility and fear that if violence continues the country will gradually fall back into a war that has already killed more than 64,000 people.
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WHO confirms bird flu death in Indonesia
Reuters
June 15, 2006
JAKARTA - The World Health Organization has confirmed an Indonesian girl who died last month was infected with bird flu, a health ministry official said on Thursday, bringing Indonesia's total confirmed bird flu deaths to 38.
Samples from the 7-year-old girl from Pamulang, on the outskirts of Jakarta, were sent to a WHO laboratory in Hong Kong after local tests showed that she had tested positive for bird flu. Local tests are not considered definitive.
Indonesia attracted international attention last month when the H5N1 virus killed as many as seven members of a single family in north Sumatra. Experts said there could have been limited human-to-human transmission in this cluster case.
Nyoman Kandun, a director-general at the health ministry, said the WHO laboratory's results were based on tests from fluid from the girl's lungs.
"An earlier WHO test of the girl's nasal swab and fluid from her throat had showed up negative. But then we sent another specimen of fluid from her lung membrane. And that is positive," Kandun told Reuters.
Another health ministry official had earlier said that two days before the girl died, her 10-year-old brother had also died after showing flu-like symptoms, but health officials did not manage to obtain his samples.
The family reported that a number of chickens near their house died before the children fell sick.
Indonesia has seen a steady rise in the number of human infections and deaths since its first known outbreak of H5N1 in poultry in late 2003.
Bird flu remains essentially an animal disease, but scientists are worried the virus could mutate to a form easily transmitted between humans. That could trigger a pandemic and kill millions.
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Four die, 14 hurt in Mass. building fire
By RAY HENRY
Associated Press
Thu Jun 15, 2006
FALL RIVER, Mass. - A fire ripped through a community center where people were preparing for a Portuguese religious feast Wednesday night, killing four and injuring 14, authorities said.
Bristol County District Attorney Paul F. Walsh Jr. said witnesses told police a votive candle accidentally ignited a ceremonial paper tree, sparking the blaze that gutted the building's first floor.
The four dead were found on the first floor and all appeared to be middle-aged adults or older, Walsh said, although he cautioned that they had not yet been positively identified.
"They didn't have a chance," said Walsh.
Nelson Raposo, 31, lives in a second-floor apartment above the community hall and felt an explosion rattle his floor at about 6:45 p.m. "We just heard the big bang and felt the pressure," said Raposo. "I opened the front door but all I saw was smoke."
As the smoke rose in the hallway, Raposo led his family out a window and onto the roof. The family had to climb down through a tent that had been set up in the back parking lot for the festival.
Another neighbor, David Martin, 31, said he saw a man fleeing the three-story structure with his shirt on fire. The man screamed that his wife was trapped, and he tried to run back inside before he was stopped by firefighters, Martin said.
Police blocked off streets surrounding the building. Neighbors gathered at the yellow caution tape, some whispering in Portuguese and weeping.
Seven burn victims, including a firefighter, were taken to Charlton Memorial Hospital, said spokeswoman Joyce Brennan. None was in critical condition.
Four more victims were taken to Saint Anne's Hospital. Conditions of those patients were not released. Where the remaining injured people were being treated was not immediately clear.
Fall River is located in far southeastern Massachusetts.
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Striking teachers clash with police in Mexico
www.chinaview.cn 2006-06-15 10:41:19
MEXICO CITY, June 14 (Xinhua) -- Clashes erupted between striking teachers and riot police in the southern Mexican city of Oaxaca on Wednesday and strikers said that four had been killed in the conflict.
The clashes broke out when 2,000 police tried to evict striking teachers from the main square in Oaxaca where they had been camped for three weeks, demanding higher wages.
Enrique Rueda Pacheco, an organizer of the strikes, said that police had shot and killed two teachers and two minors.
Ulises Ruiz, state governor, denied that any deaths had taken place and demanded the teachers show the bodies.
Rueda claimed that police had removed the bodies from the scene.
Local media said more than 30 people had been injured and that over 50 strikers had been arrested.
Some 40,000 teachers took part in the protests on Wednesday. They initially gained the upper hand, driving police into the Palace Museum but they were then dispersed with tear gas.
Oaxaca, a city that is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations, is capital of the southern Mexican state of the same name.
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Afghan bus bomb kills 10 as NATO vows to fight terrorism
by Nasrat Shoib
AFP
June 15, 2006
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - A bomb ripped through a bus in southern Afghanistan, killing 10 workers at a coalition-run airport, as NATO warned it would not let the country revert to a "training camp for terrorists."
The morning rush-hour blast in the middle of volatile Kandahar city appeared to have been caused by explosive material on the minibus which detonated after it was accidentally hit by another vehicle, police Colonel Shir Shah said.
"Ten people were killed and 15 wounded," said the city's deputy police chief Abdul Hakim Angar.
The dead included labourers and cleaners who took the bus every day to work at the airport, which is run by a US-led coalition that has been in Afghanistan since helping to topple the extremist Taliban government in late 2001.
It was the highest civilian death toll in months of regular attacks in Afghanistan, mostly blamed on Taliban insurgents. There was however no word from the Taliban after Thursday's blast.
"The explosion was huge," said witness Tahir Shah, who helped to carry three wounded people and five bodies from the minibus. Shops and vehicles nearby were damaged and blood and flesh were scattered at the site, witnesses said.
The heavily secured airport, which employs hundreds of Afghan civilians, handles no civilian aircraft, only military planes or those from the United Nations and other aid groups.
Kandahar city sees regular deadly attacks blamed on insurgents fighting for the Taliban movement that was toppled in an invasion led by a US-led coalition.
The Taliban rose up in Kandahar province in the chaos of civil war in the early 1990s and took control of the central government by 1996.
It sheltered the Al-Qaeda network and was removed when it failed to surrender the group's chief Osama bin Laden following the September 11, 2001 suicide attacks on US cities.
Despite the efforts of thousands of Afghan and foreign troops, fighters from the Taliban and other Islamic outfits, including Al-Qaeda, are able to launch increasingly organised attacks, mostly in their traditional strongholds in the south.
NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said in televised remarks in Canada Wednesday that international forces could not fail in Afghanistan as this would allow it again to become a breeding ground for Islamist militants behind terror strikes across the world.
If "we fail there, and if we have the Taliban get it their way, Afghanistan will again become a training camp for terrorists," de Hoop Scheffer told Canadian television network CBC.
"Suppose that Afghanistan would become the black hole again, the failed state it was or failing state under the Taliban ... Where were the terrorists trained? In Afghanistan," he said.
Coalition and Afghan forces in mid-May launched their biggest anti-Taliban operation yet in the southern provinces, which are due in the coming weeks to come under the command of an expanding NATO-led force.
Operation Mountain Thrust, backed by more than 10,000 Afghan and coalition troops, is part on an "ongoing campaign to disrupt enemy forces, interdict safe havens, extend the reach of the government of Afghanistan," a coalition statement said Thursday.
It also aimed to "facilitate good governance, reconstruction and humanitarian assistance." The operation was also intended to "set conditions" for the takeover by NATO's International Security Assistance Force.
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Bush's Idea of "Justice"
We wouldn't be allowed to treat animals like this
June 14, 2006
TheAge.au
On the 12 June 2006, the ABC's Four Corners featured a program on the experiments of American psychologist Professor Harry Harlow. He is best known for his experiments on maternal deprivation and the outcomes for infant monkeys having to bond with bare wire versus soft terry-clothed surrogates. We learnt that Professor Harlow also attempted to scientifically study the development of abject depression by subjecting monkeys to what he coined "the pit or dungeon of despair and the hell of loneliness". Here monkeys were placed in isolation for up to 12 months in wire cages where they were unable to get out, were denied all sensory stimulation and had no human or animal contact other than seeing the researcher's hands when they were fed. The result was extreme psychosis, depression and self-abuse.
These cruel experiments in the 1970s brought rise to the animal rights and liberation movement and the end of sanctioning such experiments. However, we now read of the suicide of the three subjects exposed to similar experimental conditions at Guantanamo Bay. These deaths were being described as "a PR stunt" or an "act of warfare" rather than the obvious results of extreme deprivation and desperation.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, on the ABC's Lateline program on Monday, dismissed claims of a similar risk of suicide in the case of David Hicks because "he has a bed, toilet and books and gets to mix with others from time to time". Mr Downer then went on to acknowledge that Hicks is kept in isolation for 22 hours a day and that this is "consistent with maximum-security environments that exist in the United States".
Hicks and others have now been subject to extreme deprivation without any end in sight for four years. It would appear that the inhumane science of the past is now being justified by the political expediency of the present. Our governments are condoning such treatment on humans in the name of the war on terror, when any ethics committee would deem such deliberate sensory deprivation on animals and its known effects as unacceptable.
Sue Green, Wattle Glen
Hicks is being tortured
DAVID Hicks is being subjected to sensory deprivation having been returned to solitary confinement in a concrete cell after previously surviving 244 nights and days without sunlight or human contact. This is in clear violation of the third Geneva Convention. The Howard Government, then, is party to what the International Red Cross has concluded is the "construction of a system that cannot be considered other than an international system of cruel, unusual and degrading treatment and a form of torture".
Britain's Attorney-General, Lord Goldsmith, has called for the closure of the prison, as have Germany and the European Parliament. Even Saudi Arabia has joined the protest and has won the release of 16 more Saudi citizens.
By failing to honour its commitment under domestic and international law to protect the human rights of all its citizens and treating David Hicks as an outcast, Australia now risks making itself a pariah in the community of nations by supporting the Bush Administration's decision to make torture a permanent weapon in the arsenal of American power, according to US history professor Alfred McCoy in his essay "The outcast of Camp Echo" in the current issue of The Monthly.
Mary Rimington, Ascot Vale
I'D LIKE to congratulate Rear Admiral Harry Harris, the head of the Guantanamo Bay re-educational facility and holiday camp, for coming out and saying openly what any right-thinking person already knows - that the suicides at Guantanamo are part of an ongoing attack on the US (The Age, 12/6).
Admiral Harris reports that of the 460 residents of Guantanamo, only between 30 and 40 attempted suicides have been officially reported, so that means that less than 10 per cent of the residents had officially tried to kill themselves and less than 10 per cent of those who officially tried officially succeeded. Hopefully those who officially failed to kill themselves have been punished severely so as to dissuade them from attacking the US in this way again.
To look at a wider context, in Iraq it is obvious that the terrorists are deliberately arranging for themselves to be tortured and shot so as to emotionally break the poor innocent US soldiers. And how could so many innocent women and children be killed as collateral damage to perfectly legitimate use of massive force if the terrorists weren't deliberately putting them there?
I can only say that if the terrorists continue to use such unfair tactics against US forces, they will only have themselves to blame if the US massively retaliates.
Stephen Ransom, McKinnon
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Postmark Guantánamo: Why is the Pentagon keeping prisoners' mail from their lawyers?:
In These Times
12/06/2006
Paracha, 58, decided to write a letter to 98 U.S. senators describing his plight. The senators haven't responded, though it's hard to blame them. They don't know the letters exist. The Department of Defense won't release them for delivery.
After the U.S. Senate voted last year to strip Guantánamo detainees of the right to habeas corpus, you'd think it would have dashed the hopes of the desperate prisoners that the world's greatest deliberative body would prove their salvation. But Saifullah Paracha is apparently an eternal optimist. In March, after 18 months in Guantánamo, Paracha, 58, decided to write a letter to 98 U.S. senators describing his plight. The senators haven't responded, though it's hard to blame them. They don't know the letters exist. The Department of Defense won't release them for delivery.
"He lived in the United States," says Paracha's lawyer G. T. Hunt. "He's a pro-American person. He believes in American justice. He believes that if he can get a hearing he'll get out."
In 1986, after studying and working in New York for 16 years, Paracha moved back to Pakistan, to Karachi where he and his wife raised four children and he managed several business ventures. In July 2003, Paracha traveled to Bangkok for what he thought was a meeting about a business opportunity. He never made it out of the airport. Masked men abducted him, taking him to Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan where he was interrogated and, according to Hunt, imprisoned in a cell with no toilet. His family spent a month with no idea of his whereabouts, until the International Committee of the Red Cross notified them he was in U.S. custody. After a year in Bagram, he was sent to Guantánamo in September 2004.
The United States believes that both Paracha and his son Uzair aided several Pakistani men alleged to be al Qaeda operatives. In November, Uzair was convicted in federal court of providing the operatives with "material support" and now faces up to 75 years in jail. Uzair maintains his innocence. He says he was an unwitting accomplice, merely helping his father's business associates with their U.S. immigration papers. Saifullah says he does have a relationship with the alleged terrorists, but only knew the men as investors, not al Qaeda operatives. Unlike his son, he hasn't been afforded an opportunity to make his case in court.
The rules guiding attorney/client correspondence at Guantánamo are frustratingly vague, lawyers for the detainees say, and the processing delays are maddening. Mail routinely arrives six months after it's been sent, if it arrives at all. "For months I sent him letters and he sent me letters and they were all just impounded," Hunt says. "Now, I think my letters get through but they take their sweet time about it."
The ostensible reason for the backlog is security. "The attorney/client communications go to a secure facility, which happens to be here in Washington," Hunt says. "And they can't leave there until the government clears it and says it's not sensitive and not classified."
In order to read Paracha's correspondence, Hunt must go to the secure location-"a grim featureless office, with blinds drawn 24 hours a day"-where he's allowed to read Paracha's letters to him before placing them back in a safe. Last month he saw the 98 letters, painstakingly copied in longhand, which Paracha had sent to him to review and distribute. But Hunt was told he couldn't remove them from the safe. He can't disclose what's in the letters-"it's a state secret," he quips-but says "the person with the right authority could sit down, take a glance at them and then say, 'OK they can go out.' "
A Pentagon spokesperson wouldn't comment directly on Paracha's letters but said that over a six-month span in 2005, there were 10,000 pieces of mail sent to or from detainees. The detainees are "in close contact with family and friends if they choose to be," the spokesperson said.
After Hunt sent an email to his fellow Guantánamo lawyers about the detained letters, several of them contacted their senators to inform them they had mail the Pentagon wasn't letting them read.
This prompted an indignant letter from Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), who wrote to Rumsfeld on June 5, asking if the Department of Defense has a "written or unwritten policy prohibiting all persons detained at Guantánamo Bay from writing to, or communicating in any manner with, Members of Congress?"
If so, "please explain what legal authority supports such a policy."
On the bottom of the letter, Leahy scrawled in pen: "Is this really happening!"
Paracha must be asking himself the same question.
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Religious Leaders Urge U.S. to Ban Torture
06/13/06
Washington Post
Titled "Torture is a Moral Issue," the statement says that torture "violates the basic dignity of the human person" and "contradicts our nation's most cherished values." "Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation.
Twenty-seven religious leaders, including megachurch pastor Rick Warren, Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel and Cardinal Theodore E. McCarrick of Washington, have signed a statement urging the United States to "abolish torture now -- without exceptions."
The statement, being published in newspaper advertisements starting today, is the opening salvo of a new organization called the National Religious Campaign Against Torture, which has formed in response to allegations of human rights abuse at U.S. detention centers in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
Titled "Torture is a Moral Issue," the statement says that torture "violates the basic dignity of the human person" and "contradicts our nation's most cherished values." "Nothing less is at stake in the torture abuse crisis than the soul of our nation. What does it signify if torture is condemned in word but allowed in deed?" it asks.
The signers come from a broad range of denominations and include notable religious conservatives, such as the Rev. Ted Haggard, president of the National Association of Evangelicals; Archbishop Demetrios, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America; and the Rev. William J. Byron, former president of Catholic University.
By suggesting that recent abuse of prisoners may not be just an aberration but a reflection of U.S. policy, the statement contains an implicit challenge to the Bush administration, according to some signers.
"I'm not persuaded that this issue has been put to bed yet by the Bush administration," said David P. Gushee, a philosophy professor at Union University in Tennessee who wrote an influential article against torture this year in Christianity Today, an evangelical magazine. "I'm worried that we still don't truly know what is going on in all our detention centers around the world."
Deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said the administration has "the utmost respect for all these religious leaders." But, she said, "I'll simply repeat what the president has said many times, which is that this government does not torture, and we adhere to the international conventions against torture. That is our policy, and it will remain our policy."
On its Web site, the National Religious Campaign Against Torture urges Congress and the president to "remove all ambiguities" by prohibiting secret U.S. prisons around the world, ending the rendition of suspects to countries that use torture, granting the Red Cross access to all detainees and not exempting any arm of the government from human rights standards.
McCarrick said last night that he had signed on to "the general principle" that torture is unacceptable but had not seen the new organization's specific proposals. Gushee said he is "not sure that everyone who signed the statement would concur with that platform," though he said he, personally, does.
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Doctors forbid roles in harsh interrogations
Reuters
13/06/2006
The 544-member house of delegates, which sets policy for the leading U.S. physicians group, voted at its annual meeting to approve a seven-page report that outlined a physician's duty "as healer" not to take any part in interrogating prisoners.
The American Medical Association on Monday voted to refine its ethical guidelines that forbid doctors from participating in torture or "coercive" interrogations of prisoners.
The action was prompted by unconfirmed allegations that physicians or psychiatrists played roles in harsh interrogations conducted at the U.S. prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, or abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
The 544-member house of delegates, which sets policy for the leading U.S. physicians group, voted at its annual meeting to approve a seven-page report that outlined a physician's duty "as healer" not to take any part in interrogating prisoners.
Other stipulations called for doctors to provide medical care to detainees as they would to any patient -- in strict confidence.
Similarly, doctors are not ethically permitted to participate in executions, or to heal an inmate to make him well enough to be put to death, the AMA said.
"Physicians must not conduct, directly participate in, or monitor an interrogation with an intent to intervene, because this undermines the physician's role as healer," one of the report's recommendations said.
"The development of this new ethical policy removes ambiguity for physicians who must make decisions about their involvement in interrogations," the report said. "This policy builds on previous AMA efforts to assist physicians in the military who encounter such issues."
"We have to promote compassion, not coercion, wherever we find it," said Dr. Priscilla Ray, chairman of the AMA's Council on Ethical and Judicial Affairs, which wrote the report
Comment: And are we to assume that when a stack of bills is shoved under certain doctors' noses that they will not decide to turn a blind eye? Sadly, such people exist, and they tend to hold positions of power and control over others.
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EU, US "Partners" on CIA Flights: Amnesty
Reuters
06/14/06
BRUSSELS - Amnesty International urged European states on Wednesday to stop being "partners in crime'' with the United States over the alleged kidnapping of terrorism suspects and their transfer to countries that use torture.
In a report and a letter addressed to EU leaders meeting on Thursday and Friday in Brussels, the human rights group backed accusations that the CIA ran secret transfer flights known as ''renditions,'' and that European countries were aware of them.
"There is irrefutable evidence of European complicity in the unlawful practice of renditions,'' Amnesty said in the letter.
"The European Council must therefore put a resolute stop to the attitude of see no evil, hear no evil that has prevailed so far,'' Amnesty said, referring to the EU summit.
The human rights group urged EU leaders to say in their meeting this week that the so-called rendition flights were ''unacceptable'' and to make sure their airspace and airports were not used for such flights in the future.
It asked EU leaders to raise the issue with President Bush when they meet him in Vienna on June 21, saying the bloc's credibility was at stake.
Amnesty's report draws largely the same conclusions as those issued by EU lawmakers on Monday, and last week by the Council of Europe, a European human rights watchdog. None produced hard evidence.
The Council of Europe report said more than 20 mostly European countries colluded in a "global spider's web'' of secret CIA jails and flight transfers of terrorist suspects that stretched from Asia to Guantanamo Bay.
In a new report published on Wednesday, the Council's Secretary General Terry Davis said additional information from member states confirmed that many countries lacked adequate safeguards against human rights violations by foreign agents.
"Very few countries appear to have adopted adequate and effective procedures to monitor whether aircraft transiting through their airspace are used for purposes incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights,'' it said.
Davis would shortly make recommendations on legal measures that could be taken on the national and European levels to reinforce existing protection against rendition and illegal detention, the Council of Europe said.
Amnesty reported on six suspected cases of abuses by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in which it said seven countries -- Germany, Italy, Sweden, Britain, Bosnia, Macedonia and Turkey -- were involved.
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Ireland threatens to search US planes
The Guardian
Thursday June 15, 2006
The Labour party's foreign affairs spokesman, Michael D Higgins, demanded to know whether this was an isolated incident. "What reliability can be placed on assurances by the US authorities that Shannon is not being used to facilitate the extraordinary rendition of prisoners?"
Random inspections may be carried out on US aircraft, the Irish government has warned, after a handcuffed and manacled marine was discovered by cleaners on board a military charter flight at Shannon airport.
The transfer of the prisoner - deemed illegal because permission had not been sought in advance from Ireland's justice department - has aggravated the political row over CIA renditions of terrorist suspects through European airspace.
The US ambassador, James Kenny, was summoned to the Irish foreign affairs department to explain the failure to comply with regulations required under international law. He has been asked to produce a report on the incident.
Article continues
A report by the Council of Europe earlier this month named Ireland as one of 20 countries that had colluded in a "global spider's web" of CIA jails and clandestine transfers of terrorist suspects. The government has accepted Washington's insistence that there have been no US rendition flights through Irish airports.
Opposition parties and human rights groups are pressing for police checks on US military and charter flights stopping at Shannon airport, near Limerick, which is used as a refuelling point for flights between the US and the Middle East.
"We will look at all options, including if necessary, random inspections," Dermot Ahern, the republic's foreign affairs minister, said. "Given the fact that an incident like this has happened we would put the [police] on notice that perhaps they should start inspecting on a case-by-case basis."
The handcuffed US marine was found on board an Omni Air International plane along with 180 military personnel en route from Kuwait to the US city of Royston, Georgia. The prisoner had reportedly been convicted of stealing clothing and was being repatriated to serve his sentence. His presence was only reported after cleaning staff boarded the aircraft.
The Labour party's foreign affairs spokesman, Michael D Higgins, demanded to know whether this was an isolated incident. "What reliability can be placed on assurances by the US authorities that Shannon is not being used to facilitate the extraordinary rendition of prisoners?"
The US ambassador insisted that there had been no intention to break the law. "Unfortunately permission from the Irish government was not sought for the transit of this person," he told Irish papers. "We regret this incident and are reviewing procedures to ensure that this does not happen again.
Comment: Of course, absolutely NO reliablitity can be placed on assurances from US authorities that any airport is not being used to facilitate the extraordinary rendition of prisoners, because the US government lies at every opportunity.
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Bush urges world to financially help Iraq
www.chinaview.cn 2006-06-15 00:05:48
WASHINGTON, June 14 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President George W. Bush on Wednesday urged the world to financially help the fledgling Iraqi government to succeed.
"Earlier, the international community pledged about 13 billion dollars to help this new government, and they've only paid about 3 billion dollars. And so we're going to help encourage those who've made a pledge to pay up to help the new government succeed," Bush said at a press conference in the White House.
Bush said he would designate Deputy Treasury Secretary Bob Kimmitt to lead the efforts on behalf of the United States.
"He'll be supported by State Department Counselor Phil Zelikow and other senior officials. And they will soon travel to the United Nations and then to Baghdad for consultations. And then they're going to travel across Europe and Asia and the Middle Eastto discuss the compact and secure support from governments for this new government," he said.
Bush added that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was working to develop "an international compact," under which Iraq would take a series of steps in the political, economic and security areas, and then the international community would provide more robust political and economic support.
Bush has vowed that U.S. troops will not leave Iraq until the new Iraqi government can sustain and defend itself.
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Police don't have to knock, justices say
Thursday, June 15, 2006; Posted: 12:22 p.m. EDT (16:22 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police armed with a warrant can barge into homes and seize evidence even if they don't knock, a huge government victory that was decided by President Bush's new justices.
The 5-4 ruling clearly signals the court's conservative shift following the departure of moderate Sandra Day O'Connor.
The case tested previous court rulings that police armed with warrants generally must knock and announce themselves or they run afoul of the Constitution's Fourth Amendment ban on unreasonable searches.
Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said Detroit police acknowledge violating that rule when they called out their presence at a man's door then went inside three seconds to five seconds later.
"Whether that preliminary misstep had occurred or not, the police would have executed the warrant they had obtained, and would have discovered the gun and drugs inside the house," Scalia wrote.
But suppressing evidence is too high of a penalty, Scalia said, for errors by police in failing to properly announce themselves.
The outcome might have been different if O'Connor were still on the bench. She seemed ready, when the case was first argued in January, to rule in favor of Booker Hudson, whose house was searched in 1998.
O'Connor had worried aloud that officers around the country might start bursting into homes to execute search warrants. She asked: "Is there no policy of protecting the home owner a little bit and the sanctity of the home from this immediate entry?"
She retired before the case was decided, and a new argument was held so that Justice Samuel Alito could participate in deliberations. Alito and Bush's other Supreme Court pick, Chief Justice John Roberts, both supported Scalia's opinion.
Hudson's lawyers argued that evidence against him was connected to the improper search and could not be used against him.
Scalia said that a victory for Hudson would have given "a get-out-of-jail-free card" to him and others.
In a dissent, four justices complained that the decision erases more than 90 years of Supreme Court precedent.
"It weakens, perhaps destroys, much of the practical value of the Constitution's knock-and-announce protection," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote for himself and the three other liberal members.
Breyer said that police will feel free to enter homes without knocking and waiting a short time if they know that there is no punishment for it.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, a moderate, joined the conservatives in most of the ruling. He wrote his own opinion, however, to say "it bears repeating that it is a serious matter if law enforcement officers violate the sanctity of the home by ignoring the requisites of lawful entry."
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Around the World
China hosts summit to rival US
Jonathan Watts in Shanghai
Thursday June 15, 2006
China ramped up its role as a global player on Thursday by hosting a summit of states encompassing almost half the world's population and some of Washington's most prominent opponents.
The Chinese president, Hu Jintao, said the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation - which brought together the leaders of 10 nations in and around central Asia - is designed to promote peace and stability in a region that has become an increasingly important source of oil and gas.
But the group's potential role as a counterweight to the US was underlined by the presence of the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who received a warm welcome in Shanghai despite his country's standoff with international nuclear inspectors over Tehran's uranium enrichment program.
Mr Ahmadinejad said his country's participation could "turn the SCO into a strong, influential economic, political and trading institution at both regional and international levels and prevent the threats of domineering powers and their aggressive interference in global affairs".
The growing power of China has prompted a rethink in Washington, where rightwing analysts now speak of the SCO as an embryonic rival to Nato. Their fears have been strengthened in the past two years by the inclusion in the SCO of Iran, Pakistan, India, Mongolia and Afghanistan as either observer or guest nations.
But it is in the field of energy that the SCO appears to be most powerful. The countries gathered in Shanghai control almost a quarter of the world's oil supplies and are building a series of pipelines across the region. A pipeline is being planned from Iran to China that would cross Pakistan, whose president, Pervez Musharraf, yesterday requested to be admitted as a full member of the SCO.
Mr Ahmadinejad called for a meeting of SCO energy ministers to discuss closer cooperation in exploration, development and shipping. "The SCO groups both energy-producing nations and energy-consuming ones," he said. "Energy has been playing an increasing rule in national development and progress."
His comments are likely to rankle in Washington. Last week the US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, criticised China and Russia for backing Iran's participation in the summit, saying he found it strange to bring the "leading terrorist nation in the world into an organisation that says it's against terror".
Participants dismissed fears that the SCO was a rival to the US. "Our actions are not aimed at the interests of other countries and do not signal the formation of another bloc," the president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, said.
Chinese officials describe this week's summit as their most important diplomatic event of the year. An unprecedented security operation has shut down a large part of the usually bustling Pudong district near the conference centre and millions of the city's residents have been given a special three-day holiday. Such is the attention to detail that windows on part of the leaders' route have been screwed shut and police have instructed locals not to leave flower pots on balcony ledges in case they fall.
The SCO - one of the world's youngest international groupings - began life 10 years ago as a forum for settling border disputes between its core members: China, Russia and four Central Asian states - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Although its activities have expanded to cover anti-terrorism exercises, energy cooperation and banking in the five years since it became a formal institution in 2001, most western commentators have dismissed the SCO as a dictators' club that is long on style and short on substance.
On Thursday the leaders signed a joint statement on information security, economic cooperation and cross-border military exercises. "It remains the top priority of the organisation to combat the threats posed by terrorism, separatism and extremism as well as drug trafficking, which have not diminished but aggravated in scale and degree," the statement noted. Human Rights Watch say the member countries use this as a pretext to crack down on legitimate and peaceful protests.
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Behind the Terror-arrests in Toronto
By Abid Ullah Jan
06/14/06
Are the 17 Muslim men arrested in Toronto on June 3, 2006 innocent until proven guilty? Theoretically, yes. But practically, they are absolutely not
Perceptions are more powerful than the reality. Much damage from these arrests has already been done, and it continues to mount. Opportunists among Muslims and extremists among non-Muslims are pushing their agendas harder than ever.
Can we hope that when, or if, any of them are proven guilty in a court of law, Canada's Muslims will not be found guilty by association? The answer, again, is absolutely not. We see with our own eyes what the mainstream media has been doing since the arrests. From the top of the political leadership to the editorial boards of most "mainstream" newspapers, everyone is simultaneously cementing the "us" and "them" mindset, and mainstreaming the rancid notions of "Islamism" and "Islamists."
The answer to the commonly asked question, why were a few Canadian Muslim youth trying to make a political statement using violence instead of the peaceful means available in a liberal democracy like Canada? is simple and straightforward. They are not yet guilty. It is wrong to assume that Canadian Muslims were trying to make a political statement through violence. Even if they are found guilty, we are in no position to uncover the scope of the operation behind the arrests, which clearly involved the provision by government agents of all the incriminating physical evidence. It is a clear case of entrapment.
It is naive to expect that the justice system will accord these individuals transparency and due process. Justice can never beat such meticulously crafted entrapment operations. When you follow an individual, or group of individuals, with the intent is to frame them; when you have the means to provide tonnes of explosives; when you have a whole machinery behind you that is determined to gather evidence to incriminate your targets in a court of law, your victims will never be able to prove that they were lured into thinking about a crime.
There is no denying that the alleged 17 will not have said and done what is being alleged. So, the questions are: Who is the instigator? Who is the motivator? Who is providing logistical support? We need to remember that the suspects are teenagers and men in their 20s-they are immature and emotional, and thus clearly prone to entrapment. The delivery of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate to the group was part of an undercover police sting operation.[1] There are clearly forces involved which are keeping their motivation alive and facilitating planning for the crime.
This brings us to ask the right questions. Why are a few Muslims, in Canada or in any other country, prone to being turned, with little motivation or facilitation, into criminals? Why can't they resist being tempted into committing a heinous crime against humanity? Is it simply a social phenomenon, that they are not fully integrated in society?
It would be naive to blame Islam or a "poisonous interpretation" of Islamic sources. It is equally wrong when Islamophobes jump to the conclusion that the problem exists because Islam has not been sufficiently modernized. Apologists and opportunists on the Muslim side offer the irrelevant argument that minorities are often excluded from full participation in the life of the host country and as a result become highly self-conscious social units whose sense of belonging to a group is coloured by the feeling of being distinct from society's dominant majority. Is this enough for one to forget the basic teachings of his religion and prepare to commit heinous crimes against humanity? Lack of assimilation and integration is a just a ruse to push personal agendas.
The other argument, used by almost all shades of immigrant Muslims is that Muslims import extremist religious and political ideologies from their (or their parents') countries of origin. As a result there has been division, fragmentation, increased isolation, and in a few instances, destructive fanaticism.
The problems that Muslims are facing all over the world did not arise overnight. They have deep historical roots. The most important is the never-ending colonialism. The pathetic situations of Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan are no different than those of Pakistan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and other Muslims countries. Some countries are under direct military occupation and some are reeling under de facto colonization. The colonizers never gave their colonies full independence. They just performed a strategic withdrawal. Most Muslim states are ruled by puppets working directly or indirectly for their colonial masters abroad.
The question is, what has this to do with "terrorism" in the West? The answer is simple. It develops a mindset. Just as none of the "mainstream" newspapers see anything but Islam as the root cause of the problem after the arrests in Toronto, the Muslim mind sees nothing but the lack of freedom and independence in their home countries as the root cause. Then, just as non-Muslims have extremist minds among them-minds which create lies to justify wars of aggression and genocidal sanctions which take the lives of millions-Muslims also have weak-minded individuals among them who are prone to reacting with violence.
If you approach these weak-minded, immature, and emotional Muslims and provide them the opportunity to react, they will definitely react. It is a part of human nature. Not everyone is alike. This is how some minds react. If a soldier in Iraq feels himself on a noble mission when he massacres women and children and tortures innocents to death, so may any Muslim feel he is on a noble mission to exact revenge for all the wrongs to Muslims.
We need to address the root cause of this mindset in the Muslim and non-Muslim world. Of course, the solution to the problems Muslims are facing today is not to bomb innocents in Western cities. Similarly, the solution to what the non-Muslim extremists consider a problem is not found in the wars of aggression, the occupations, and the never-ending colonization of the Muslim world. The solution lies in checking progress of colonialism, which is turning fascists with each new adventure since it started "helping" the little brown brother abroad.
Irrespective of the how much we discuss the issue of "terrorism" and regardless of the band-aid measures we take, the problem will persist as long as its root causes give extremists in both the Muslim and non-Muslim world the justification to commit crimes against humanity. For example, the extremists in the United States backed Israel's right to kill children in the name of defence,[2] after Israel itself admitted (before exonerating itself) that the ship that fired on women and children at the beach was not under attack.
Many of the "brown-skinned peoples cooking strange foods and not exactly maintaining Germanic standards of hygiene"[3] are not in the West by choice. They would leave in a second if the oppressors in their homelands were no longer supported and sustained by colonialists in the West. The problem is not the lack of Muslim assimilation and integration. The British never integrated into South Asian society and culture despite staying there for close to 150 years. The invaders and occupiers from Europe never integrated into the local cultures of the Americas or Australia. Instead they harassed and killed many of the native people, and limited the remainder to reservations. In some cases, children were forcefully removed from their families to assimilate them into the culture and values of the invaders.
The warmongers, the prophets of hate, and Islamophobes of different kinds must make us believe that the problem is because of "us" and "them." But none of "us" are totally innocent, and none of the "them" are totally responsible for all crimes and problems. We all have our extremists. We need to address the roots which trigger these extremists into action.
On the part of Muslims, it can be said with certainty that no amount of cover-up can hide the facts-related to past and present colonial adventures, oppression, and the interference in Muslims' internal affairs-from the Muslim mind. These facts will not only trigger the emotional, immature, uneducated, and extremist minds among Muslims in the West, but they will push even the sanest minds (which are at the forefront of bearing the brunt of illegitimate wars and occupations) into reaction.
On the part of non-Muslims, it is the responsibility of the peace-loving intellectuals and activists to step back, relax, and find out what is pushing some of them into "civilizing" missions in the Muslim world in particular. Why is it that the Western extremists' crimes against humanity, their genocides, and their terrorism are not considered problems? Why has a majority in the West assumed that the more than 400 years of colonial adventures and illegitimate wars have had absolutely no side effects or repercussions?
Of course, every resident in the West needs to stand behind their security forces and governments in their desire to protect their countries. The question is, will the Western village stand up and answer the aforementioned questions and start hitting the beast in the head? The cosmetic measures suggested by Muslim opportunists and non-Muslim extremist are not going to bring any change at all.
For a real change, the first step the Western public can take is to force the extremists among them to reconsider the de facto colonization and start a real withdrawal from all Muslim countries, because the West is in the position of power at the moment. The colonialists strategic withdrawal of the 20th century has given rise to new problems. The Western public has to force the colonizers to consider a real withdrawal, and a return to Muslims the right to self-determination and self-rule. Without taking these real steps, it is impossible to keep the extremist minds from committing heinous crimes against humanity.
The focus on Muslim extremists alone will lead to more entrapments-some allowed to reach the bloody conclusion as we witnessed on July 7, 2005 bombing in England and 9/11 in the U.S. and some entrapments mercifully wrapped up before they reach the massacre stage as in the case in Toronto. The war on symptoms will lead to more wars abroad, to mass arrests and internments and deportations at home. A free hand to Western extremists will ultimately lead to Muslim holocaust and a mass exodus from the West in the not too distant future. But none of these will bring peace. None. Period. The solution must begin with a war on the mindset that justifies colonizing and "civilizing" the Muslim world. A realistic assessment suggest that the Western colonial and totalitarian adventures continue with the same fervor as when they started hundreds of years ago.
Racial profiling, assimilation strategies, smart and forced integrations, ban on immigration, deporting "extremists," more entrapments, more security certificates and more wars for democracy (see Afghanistan and Iraq) will never make any difference as long as the extremists in the West are not shown a mirror and stopped from their crimes against humanity, which date back to the beginning of European colonization in 1492. The trouble will continue as long as Western puppets are imposed upon Muslim masses. By not giving Muslims the right to self-rule and self-determination, Western extremists are only digging deeper hole for themselves and their victims.
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Iraq conflict fuels rise in global refugees to 12 million: survey
by P. Parameswaran
AFP
Wed Jun 14, 2006
WASHINGTON - The global refugee population has begun to rise for the first time in four years, largely due to instability in Iraq, a US group said in a survey, which saw refugee protection deteriorating by all measures.
The number of refugees and asylum seekers increased to 12 million in 2005 from 11.5 million a year earlier, according to "World Refugee Survey 2006" of the US Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI), a non-profit group tracking the problem worldwide.
The survey counted 644,500 more Iraqi refugees in Jordan and
Syria in 2005 and indicated a "more significant outflow" in the future.
"The deteriorating situation in Iraq has led to the refugee outflow some predicted at the onset of the war, which has only now materialized," the USCRI said.
Over 40 percent of Iraqi professionals have fled the insurgency-wracked nation since the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, it said.
Syria now hosts 351,000 Iraqi refugees and has the largest population of Iraqi Shiite Muslims outside Iraq, while Jordan hosts 450,000 Iraqi refugees, many of whom are Christian minorities, according to the report.
It said that the Middle East and Africa continued to host the largest number of refugees, and that eight million or two-thirds of the world's refugees remained "warehoused" or deprived of basic human rights as enshrined in the UN Refugee Convention for five years or more.
Neither Jordan nor Syria, said the report, recognized the UN's call for temporary protection of refugees and "both refuse entry to many new arrivals.
"We are concerned that protection for Iraqis is deteriorating," USCRI President Lavinia Limon said.
"Syria has begun to require residency authorization so many refugees are forced to live underground. Jordan is not granting refugee status to Iraqis and refusing entry to many," Limon said.
USCRI anticipates even "a more significant outflow" of Iraqi refugees in the near future, based on Baghdad's issuance of two million passports over the last 10 months.
According to the survey, the global refugee population begun to fall after hitting 14.9 million in 2001 but showed an uptrend again last year.
USCRI's 12 million global refugee figure for 2005 was far higher than the 8.4 million cited by the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) last week.
The UNHCR had said that the number of refugees who fled their homeland dropped to its lowest level in almost three decades last year, adding however that there was an alarming rise in the total displaced within their own country.
The UNHCR did not take into account Palestinian refugees, who came under the jurisdiction of the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), USCRI spokeswoman Sarah Petrin said.
There are almost three million Palestinian refugees in 2005 based on USCRI figures, she told AFP.
In addition, the UN did not take into account the newly arrived Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria, both of which did not recognize UN protection of Iraqi refugees, Petrin said.
For the second year, USCRI graded policies of countries that host refugees, including whether they gave basic physical protection and allowed them to work and move about freely.
"By all measures, refugee protection has deteriorated worldwide," said Gregory Chen, USCRI's director of policy analysis and research.
"Far too many governments forced refugees back to unsafe home countries where they faced persecution, fighting and conflict," he said.
Among the worst government offenders last year were Russia, China, Tanzania, Nepal and Kenya, USCRI said.
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Iraq seizes al-Qaida crucial document: official
www.chinaview.cn 2006-06-15 17:29:21
BAGHDAD, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Iraqi security forces have seized a key document containing valuable information on the al-Qaida network in Iraq after a raid against the safe house of top al-Qaida leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi last week, Iraqi official said on Thursday.
"We managed to confiscate some flash disks, laptop and other documents belong to the al-Qaida in Iraq and insurgents," Iraqi National Security Adviser Mouwafaq al-Rubaie told a news conference.
The seizure of the document was believed to be the beginning of the end of al-Qaida in Iraq, he added.
Rubaie praised the security forces for their role in fighting insurgency in Iraq, saying "they did not anticipate how powerful the Iraqi security forces are."
On June 7, Iraqi most wanted man Zarqawi was killed in a U.S. air raid in Hibhib, about 40 km northeast of Baghdad.
Comment: Gee, first they "get" Zarqawi, and now they have gotten a document "containing valuable information! The tide is turning in Iraq! It's so good, it almost reads like a Hollywood script.
Wonder why that is????
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Canadians go to Washington over terrorism-related concerns
Last Updated Thu, 15 Jun 2006 07:49:50 EDT
CBC News
The heads of Canadian agencies, led by Canada's ambassador to the U.S., will meet with American lawmakers in Washington Thursday to try to refute recent allegations that Canada has become a safe haven for terrorists.
Michael Wilson will take the delegation - which includes CSIS director Jim Judd, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli and Canada Border Services Agency president Alain Jolicoeur and Deputy Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Janice Charette - to congressional offices on Capitol Hill.
The arrests of 17 people on terrorism-related charges earlier this month prompted some U.S. officials to complain about Canada's immigration policy.
New York Rep. Peter King, chairman of the U.S. homeland security committee, claimed that " there is a large al-Qaeda presence in Canada." He blamed the country's "very liberal immigration laws" and "how political asylum is granted so easily."
During a hearing on Capitol Hill last Thursday, Republican Congressman John Hostettler said Canada is in denial about the threat of terrorism within its own borders.
He said Canada "hosts an abundance of terrorists and as many as 50 terrorist organizations."
He said he was concerned about the "porous border between the United States and Canada."
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Labour's top brass condemns UK military aid to Colombia
Will Woodward, chief political correspondent
Thursday June 15, 2006
British military aid to Colombia is condemned today in a letter to the Guardian signed by two-thirds of Labour's ruling body.
Twenty-two members of the party's national executive committee, and senior Labour figures including three former Foreign Office ministers, say the aid should be diverted into social and economic development.
Among the signatories are Dennis Skinner MP, Michael Cashman MEP, trade unionist Jack Dromey and ex-ministers John Battle, Tony Lloyd and Doug Henderson.
"Colombia is the most dangerous place to be a trade unionist in the world. In the last 15 years over 3,500 have been assassinated - virtually all murdered by the Colombian military or army-backed paramilitary death squads," the letter says.
"We are concerned that the UK government refuses to disclose the total value of its aid to the Colombian military or where it goes. Without knowing which military units the assistance goes to, we cannot be sure that it is not reaching units implicated in human rights violations."
Mr Lloyd said: "There is a human rights crisis there and the army, which works hand in glove with the paramilitaries, has been heavily implicated.
"We believe that until Colombia has fully implemented the UN's human rights recommendations and tackled these abuses, it is not appropriate to give direct aid and assistance to their military."
A Commons early day motion calling for an end to military aid has been signed by another 22 MPs who are on the government's payroll vote as parliamentary private secretaries to ministers.
They include Mark Hendrick, aide to the foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, Ann Keen, who is Gordon Brown's PPS, and Wayne David and Jim Sheridan, who are both PPSs in the Ministry of Defence.
This month the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions reported that 70 union members were murdered in Colombia last year. The Justice for Colombia campaign puts that figure at 74.
In a written answer in April, the defence minister Adam Ingram acknowledged that training was being provided by the UK to Colombia to tackle the drugs trade but said he was withholding information on it because "its disclosure would be to the detriment of the safety of individuals, the prevention and detection of crime, and international relations".
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: "UK military assistance to Colombia is primarily concerned with military education, emphasising human rights and with training the Colombian armed forces in the disposal of a variety of explosive devices.
"The UK government believes that stopping aid would be detrimental to the very people we want to help: those at risk of death or injury by explosive devices targeted against them - not only the authorities but also ordinary civilians.
It also enables displaced families to return to their homes and continue with their lives once the explosive devices have been cleared."
Comment: Guess who is funding the Columbian death squads? Here's a clue, they're curently funding death squads in Iraq also.
Business as usual for the Pathocrats
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Mother Nature
Alberto spawns tornadoes in South Carolina
By BRUCE SMITH
Associated Press
Wed Jun 14, 2006
CHARLESTON, S.C. - After splashing ashore in Florida without much punch, the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto churned northward Wednesday, bringing much-needed rain to the Southeast but also spawning damaging tornadoes.
By early Wednesday, Alberto had weakened from a tropical storm to a tropical depression over the Carolinas and all tropical storm warnings were discontinued.
But as it headed up the East Coast, the storm still pushed nasty weather ahead of it, and was blamed for at least one death.
At least six small tornadoes were reported in South Carolina, one in downtown Charleston that broke car windows during the evening rush hour Tuesday and another that caused injuries. Wind gusts over 40 mph knocked down trees and power lines in three counties. Several regions were under flood warnings.
The storm was expected to move off the coast Wednesday night, after dumping up to 5 inches of rain on parts of Virginia and Maryland.
By midday, its center was slowly moving north of Raleigh, N.C., where as much as 5 inches of rain fell and the storm was blamed for the drowning death of a 13-year-old boy.
Authorities said Molton Watson IV was playing in a mobile home park about 30 miles northeast of the city when he chased a ball into a flooded culvert. The swift current sucked the boy into a drainpipe.
"His friend was right there with him, but he just couldn't grab him," Franklin County Sheriff Jerry Jones said.
In downtown Raleigh, a shopping mall was closed because of flooded parking areas and roads.
National Weather Service meteorologist Brandon Vincent in North Carolina said the threat of tornadoes would continue as high-level winds continued to swirl.
"These remnant tropical systems, even though it may not be windy at the ground, it's kind of hard to kill the circulation aloft," Vincent said. "The winds above the ground can still be kind of strong."
After last year's record 28 named storms and 15 hurricanes, Alberto's approach over the Gulf of Mexico caused a brief scare and prompted a call for more than 20,000 people to evacuate Florida's gulf coast. But no serious injuries or widespread damage was reported there, and officials said it was a good tune-up for the long hurricane season ahead. It was the first named storm of the June-November Atlantic hurricane season.
Alberto's winds were about 50 mph when it came ashore near Adams Beach, Fla., still strong enough to be a tropical storm, but well below the 74-mph threshold for a hurricane.
Instead of a disaster, Alberto's rainfall may turn out to be a blessing for Florida's efforts to battle wildfires and for farmers in Georgia who were worried about drought.
"It's definitely a million-dollar rain," said Joe McManus, a marketing specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau in Macon. "It could save some cotton and peanut fields."
Officials said the storm also gave them real-world practice on the lessons learned from the slow response to some of last year's storms. Hurricane specialists said they ran into a few computer glitches but nothing that couldn't be fixed before the next storm.
"You can train all you want, but nothing beats the real deal," said Florida Emergency Management spokesman Mike Stone.
In Crystal River, Fla., water was thigh-high in the heart of the town on Tuesday as the storm hit, but it had receded by Wednesday. Many people seemed to accept flooding as part of coastal life - and sighed with relief that it wasn't worse.
"I think overall it could have been worse," said Leslie Sturmer, whose Cedar Key, Fla., neighborhood was briefly cut off from the rest of the state by flooding. "We would have evacuated if there was a serious storm, but this wasn't."
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Earthquake shakes parts of California
June 15, 2006, 8:17AM
SAN MARTIN, Calif. -- A magnitude 4.7 earthquake struck the south San Francisco Bay area early today, but there were no reports of injuries or damage, authorities said.
The quake struck at 5:24 a.m. PDT about 6 miles east of San Martin, a town of 4,200 people in a rural part of southern Santa Clara County, and was followed by three smaller quakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The quake could be felt in San Francisco, about 70 miles north of the epicenter.
No one was hurt and there were no reports of damage, according to the Santa Clara County sheriff's department and police in Gilroy, about 8 miles from where the quake struck.
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Geese blamed for Lake Tahoe pollution
AP
Wed Jun 14, 2006
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Officials are looking to capture some of Lake Tahoe's biggest polluters: Canada geese.
A sewage spill at the lake last summer "is nothing compared to what's happening with these geese," said Jack Spencer, a federal Department of Agriculture wildlife biologist.
Spencer said the bottom of Lake Tahoe is covered by up to two inches of goose feces in some areas.
A 10-pound Canada goose can produce four pounds of nitrate- and phosphate-rich feces every day it waddles across the beaches, lawns and golf courses of Tahoe.
The birds find refuge on Tahoe, one of the most protected lakes in the nation, when they molt their primary wing feathers in the spring and can't fly.
Spencer and other biologists from USDA Wildlife Services hope to trap up to 400 Canada geese at several Tahoe locations this week, at the request of property owners and managers.
"We only work where we are wanted, where there is damage occuring," Spencer said.
The geese will be innoculated for disease and released to a wildlife management area in eastern Nevada. About 1 percent of juveniles may return, and about 15 percent of adults will return.
The birds are protected by the Federal Migratory Bird Act, but can be hunted. In recent years, rules have loosened to help urban areas deal with the birds.
The Tahoe roundup is part of a regionwide effort. The geese also pose a threat to jets flying in and out of the Reno Airport, Spencer said.
Canada geese have stopped migrating in a triangle that includes Tahoe, Reno and Carson City. Abundant food sources from turf landscaping has resulted in increased densities within that triangle.
"I guarantee you, in the old days, Lake Tahoe was just a stopover place," Spencer said.
Fifteen agencies are involved in the roundup, including the Humane Society, which will provide food for the captured birds.
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Highest Alert Raised Again For Mt Merapi
AFP
Jun 15, 2006
Mount Merapi, Indonesia - Indonesian scientists on Wednesday once again placed Mount Merapi on its highest alert level only a day after the volcano had been downgraded, meaning they believe an eruption is imminent. Potentially deadly heat clouds streaming from Merapi's peak caused panic among some villagers living around the volcano's slopes who had just begun returning to their homes after weeks of uncertainty.
"The 'beware' status was reimposed at close to 3:00 pm (0800 GMT) after flows of clouds descended on the southern slopes, reaching about six kilometers (four miles)," said Triyani, a scientist from the volcanology office in Yogyakarta, the main city south of Merapi.
The red alert had been downgraded Tuesday morning after the volcano's activities appeared to be slowing.
But on Wednesday at around midday, it sent searing clouds - indicative of a typical eruption at Indonesia's second most active volcano - down a gully running down the southern slope for about 30 minutes, Triyani said.
Almost three hours later, the volcano spewed a continuous cascade of clouds that reached up to six kilometers down the same gully - one kilometre further than earlier.
"The first thing is that the clouds have now reached six kilometers (down the slopes)," the head of the Merapi monitoring section at the vulcanology office in Yogyakarta, Subandriyo, told ElShinta radio when asked about the reasons behind the reinstatement of the alert.
"The other important thing is that clouds are descending continuously."
Subandriyo said the clouds had left deposits behind, making the natural channels they were following shallower and allowing them to reach further down the slopes.
He said authorities had been asked to re-evacuate residents from the earlier danger zone and all those living within a radius of seven kilometers from the peak.
"We began re-evacuating people again at around 4:00 pm this afternoon," said Warsito, an official from the district disaster management center in Sleman, one of three affected districts.
Agus Pujiwinarno, head of Kepuharjo village in Sleman, said he had received unverified reports that two buildings had been burned by the clouds. If confirmed, it would be the first damage to property caused by Merapi.
"I have received reports, which although I have not yet verified appear to be true, saying that two buildings at the Bebeng volcano observation site have been burned by clouds," he said.
The buildings - an open hall and vulcanoloy post - were just over six kilometres from the peak, he said.
"But there were no victims, as everyone had already vacated the site."
ElShinta radio reported that panic gripped people at Srumbung in Magelang district on Merapi's western slopes, an area not declared under threat, when they saw the clouds being carried by the wind towards them.
Villagers elsewhere fled back to the safe shelters they had left just a few hours earlier, it reporter without giving figures. Scientists initially declared a top alert on Merapi on May 13.
Merapi has shown fluctuating volcanic activity since then but had notably declined since a lava dome that was forming at its peak partially collapsed last Friday.
Its deadliest eruption was in 1930 when more than 1,300 people were killed.
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Alarm Bells Sound For European Water Supply As Hot Weather Looms
by Richard Ingham and Anne Chaon
AFP
Jun 15, 2006
Paris - Summer has still to make its official start in Europe, yet many countries are sweating - and it has less to do with the immediate temperature than out of worry for their water supplies.
If the sun god Apollo decides to put on a show similar to the heatwave that held western Europe in a molten grip in 2003, half a dozen countries are on course for water shortages that will be socially disruptive and economically costly, experts and officials say.
Southern Spain, southeastern England and western and southern France are viewed as chronically vulnerable, while eyes are anxiously following water availability in parts of Portugal, Italy and Greece, incompletely recovered from the scorcher of three years ago.
Several years of above-average temperatures, below-average rainfall and extraction of water for farms, holiday homes and population densification are driving the big crunch.
"You're talking about the ideal conditions for a drought, of a lack of water and rising temperature," said Carlo Lavalle, an expert in risk analysis at the European Union's Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy.
In Spain, reservoirs and water tables are at their lowest levels in 10 years, failing to recharge after last year's drought, which was the worst since reliable record-keeping began in 1947.
The worst exposed region is the south, which has developed fast in the past two decades with thirsty irrigated crops, golf courses and tourist resorts.
In southeastern England, reserves of water are only at 54 percent of capacity, after the driest winter since 1963-4.
Specialists say 10 weeks of intense rain are needed to redress the balance; a damp May, which gave twice that month's average rainfall, has not even made a significant dent in the problem.
As a result, drought orders and other restrictions have been issued to 13 million people for the first time in this region in 11 years, amounting to bans on hosepipes, sprinklers, car washing, the filling of swimming pools and other non-essential uses.
Local suppliers are scrambling for alternative sources, looking at the possibility of transporting water by tanker ship from Scotland and Norway - and even of building a desalination plant for London.
In France, the authorities have for months been building public awareness that the Atlantic and Mediterranean regions face big problems of water scarcity.
On June 7, Agriculture Minister Dominique Bussereau revived a national drought committee to monitor water availability for farms. Water restrictions have already begun in rural areas of the Charente-Maritimes and Deux-Sevres department in the west, and in the Tarn department, in the southwest.
In Italy, most of the country has still to recover from the 2003 drought, a smaller version of which hit northern regions again in 2005. The country is officially classified along with Cyprus, Italy and Spain as "water-stressed," meaning that withdrawal of water is 20 percent more than totally available supplies.
In Portugal, 2005 brought the worst drought in 60 years, prompting the government to propose a programme of dam construction and improved water management.
The 2003 drought hit continental central and western Europe for much of July and August that year.
It inflicted economic costs, mainly in shrivelled crops and burned forests, of more than 12 billion euros (15.6 billion dollars), according to the European Commission. The heatwave also cost tens of thousands of lives, principally among the elderly and poor in health.
Ronan Uhel, head of spatial analysis at the European Environment Agency (EAA) in Copenhagen, said the data pointed to a trend that had been continuing for at least a decade - and global warming is a clear factor.
"Summers are getting hotter, demand for water is increasing and at the same time, rainfall is decreasing," he said.
The shift in precipitation has been especially felt in the Iberian peninsula, western France, southern Britain and Ireland, which get their rainfall from the warm, moist winds off the Atlantic.
On the other hand, northern latitudes and central and eastern Europe, as well as northern Britain, have had normal or even above-average rainfall this year.
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Astronomer apologizes for meteorite fuss
Thursday June 15 2006
Aftenposten English Web Desk
A professor at the Institute for Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo has issued an editorial apology for what he called "exaggerated explosive force" linked to reports of the recent meteorite strike in Norway.
The story of the meteorite impact in northern Norway made international headlines, no doubt due to the comparison with the force of the atom bomb detonated over Hiroshima.
In an editorial at Norwegian science news site forskning.no, Professor Kaare Aksnes said it was regrettable that this comparison had been made, and that it was extremely exaggerated. Aksnes also said it was regrettable that the statement had apparently emanated from the Institute.
Aksnes goes on to explain that a meteor capable of a Hiroshima-like impact would almost completely burn up as it entered Earth's atmosphere, and that the remnants would hit the earth far too slowly - though impacts of that intensity have of course occurred. He estimates the North Troms impact to have been comparable to "a powerful conventional bomb".
The original reactions to the witness reports of the meteor, also reported on forskning.no, are attributed to popular astronomer Knut Jørgen Røed Ødegaard, and were slightly guarded and very excited. Røed Ødegaard wrote the original report about the meteorite on the Institute's web site.
"We cannot be completely sure, but the light and sound phenomena were exceptional. It indicates that there has been a great deal of energy involved," Røed Ødegaard said then.
Seismic research center NORSAR registered powerful sound phenomena at their Karasjok measuring station, as well as seismic disturbances.
"We have run out of words for how exciting this is," Røed Ødegaard said at the time.
"There is midnight sun in the area and objects in the sky must therefore shine very strongly to be visible at all. The object is descried as a reddish ball of fire and lit up like a powerful flash. The brightness must have been exceptional," Røed Ødegaard said.
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Israel vs. Palestine
Israeli court orders to tear down W. Bank fence near settlement
www.chinaview.cn 2006-06-15 19:23:57
JERUSALEM, June 15 (Xinhua) -- Israeli High Court of Justice on Thursday ordered the state to dismantle a section of the separation fence and change its route around the West Bank settlement of Tzofit, local Ha'aretz newspaper reported.
The court made the decision in response to a petition filed by a human rights organization and Palestinian residents, saying that the state must dismantle the fence within six months from the day an alternate fence route is built.
The court ruled that what the state was considering at the time to determine the fence's route around Tzofit was not security but political factors.
The separation fence borders the east side of Tzofit, which is located near the Palestinian city of Qalqilyah, and cut into lands belonging to the Palestinian villages of Jayous and Azoun, according to the report.
The fence encompasses a planned industrial zone which had not been legally approved at the time of the petition, the report added.
In 2002, the petition was first filed against the routing of the fence around Tzofit and the state gave a security-related rationale for running the fence in this area, which prompted the high court then to reject the petition.
However, the state admitted about a year ago that the considerations that determined the fence route in the area were not strictly security related.
The High Court of Justice was due on Thursday to hear seven other petitions protesting the route of the separation barrier in Gush Etzion, a Jewish settlement between the West Bank cities of Hebron and Bethlehem.
Israel began to construct the separation fence in 2002 as a means to stop suicide bombing attacks, which the Palestinians view as a land grab.
Israeli former Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said in April that total length of the separation fence will reach 870 km and some 335 km are currently operational.
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Witnessing the Destruction of Gaza
By Remi Kanazi
06/14/06
poeticinjustice.net
On Tuesday, June 13, Israeli missile fire killed seven Palestinian civilians in Gaza City. Among the dead were two children. The strike follows an Israeli assault on a Gaza beach late last week which claimed the lives of seven family members-including five children. In a report released on June 11, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights documented the killing of 14 Palestinians in a 24 hour period due to Israeli attacks. Since the start of the month, Israeli forces have killed more than 30 Palestinians. Apparently, "the most moral military in the world," as Israeli leaders like to refer to it, has been slipping up lately.
It also appears that the liquidation of the seven Palestinian civilians on June 13 was not newsworthy enough to make the front page of CNN.com- which features Latest News headlines and World News headlines. Nor did the story appear on Yahoo's "in the news". By Tuesday night, Yahoo had the audacity to feature-in its "in the news" section-an article entitled, "Sderot is Israel's ghost town on Gaza frontline." A day in which eleven Palestinians were killed, Yahoo is reporting on Israel's impending "security crisis." The lack of coverage was not due to a global disinterest in the conflict. The Gaza story appeared throughout the day on Google News. The story had more "related articles" than any other featured on Google News today. While this event has killed more civilians than most suicide bombings have in the last couple of years, the story has not been reported in the US press with the intensity that a suicide bombing taking place in Israel normally is.
The Israeli/Palestinian conflict is one of the most pressing issues in international politics. The loss of Palestinian life, however, is not a pressing issue, nor does it seem to be a concern of the US media. The killing of the family last week was a rare instance in which the US media decided a Palestinian tragedy was news. Maybe the outlets realized that blowing up a family picnicking on a beach can cause quite a media firestorm and they didn't want to miss out on the coverage. Granted, the articles had the usual section addressing how "brutal" the Palestinian "terrorist" groups are, while describing the reign of rocket fire "bombarding" Israel (which have killed a couple of civilians in the last nine months). It would be interesting if CNN, in reporting an attack on Israel, also reported on Israel's illegal confiscation of Palestinian land, their policy of slow ethnic cleansing, non-recognition of the Palestinian people, and ruthless military and settler occupation that disregards the Geneva Conventions and international law. I know that CNN doesn't claim to be "fair and balanced" but maybe the "most trusted name in news" should give it a try.
Where is the world community's condemnation of Israel's military actions? Where are the words of reprobation from the European Union-the champion of democracy? I know the death of Palestinians is not as interesting as the World Cup-but this is getting a bit ridiculous. The West has sided against the Palestinian people-hoping the move will cause the collapse of the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority. Should the death of innocent Palestinians be considered the necessary collateral damage for the fall of Hamas? If so, how many Palestinians will suffice? In the last five years, Israeli forces killed four women and children a week on average, with barely a peep coming from the international community. If an increase in internal strife is necessary for this collapse, who is to lead the Palestinian people after the fall? How can one expect Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen to come to the aid of Palestinians? While Abu Mazen slammed the actions of Israel today as "state terrorism," it is he who benefits from the discord in Palestinian society.
The international community and Israel elected Abu Mazen as the new negotiator for peace. Yet, this only occurred after the world powers and Israel refused to consider him a partner during the 14 months following the passing of Yasser Arafat. No matter how many hoops Abu Mazen jumped through it was never enough, and his charades to appease the West and Israel were a contributing factor in the collapse of Fatah, his ruling party. Suppose Abu Mazen gained power with a newly emplaced Fatah-led government, would peace be around the corner? With the construction of Oslo, it is Abu Mazen who helped create the trenches Palestinians stand in today. It is the Oslo period which led to the biggest expansion of settlements in Israeli history. Why should Palestinian society bring back Fatah's financial corruption, disingenuous promises of prosperity, and inept policy that miserably failed for fifteen years?
Abu Mazen should begin to realize that he was elected to lead the Palestinian people to a better future. He was not elected to align his political agenda with Western interests. The international community's firm stand against Palestinian society and democracy is a position that will fail. Hamas is not going anywhere and neither is the will of the Palestinian people. Political ploys and maneuvering by Israel and the West will fall short. This lesson should have been learned after Hamas' sweeping victory in the parliamentary elections. The Palestinians are at their strongest when they unify-this is a fact Abu Mazen must come to grips with. It is also what Israel and America fear the most.
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Think-tank warns of danger of civil war among Palestinians
14/06/2006
Reuters
JERUSALEM - The Palestinian territories were in a state of near civil war, and just one act of violence, such as a high-profile assassination, could trigger mayhem, an international think-tank said yesterday.
Israel killed nine Palestinians, including two children, and wounded 30 in a missile strike on a van in Gaza yesterday in one of the deadliest attacks in nearly four years. It said the van was carrying militants and rockets.
The think-tank, the International Crisis Group, said President Mahmoud Abbas' determination to hold a referendum on July 26 on a statehood proposal that implicitly recognises Israel risked igniting more fighting with the ruling Hamas militant group. Abbas and the Hamas government have been locked in a power struggle since Hamas took office after trouncing the Fatah movement in elections.
"Today the situation is but one tragic step - the assassination of a senior Fatah or Hamas leader, for example - from all-out chaos," said the report from the Brussels-based think-tank, an organisation that seeks to prevent and resolve conflict.
Fatah gunmen set fire to the West Bank office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader, on Monday after a day of running clashes. More clashes were expected despite a call from Abbas for calm. Fighting in Gaza has killed 20 people in the past month.
"In this increasingly bloody power struggle, both camps are mobilising armed militias, stockpiling weapons, resorting to killings and spreading bedlam," the report said.
Abbas's referendum on a manifesto penned by Palestinian prisoners in an Israeli jail is at the heart of the tension. Hamas, which is sworn to destroy Israel, has labelled the referendum a mechanism to topple it.
The proposal calls for a Palestinian state in the entire West Bank and in Gaza, thus implicitly recognising Israel. Hamas refuses to recognise the Jewish state.
"We are slowly, slowly heading towards civil war," said Mohammad Dahlan, an Abbas ally, in the Palestinian parliament.
Although the International Crisis Group's report said Hamas needed to heed international demands and change its stance on Israel, it also said the Palestinians were facing one of the most hostile external environments in their history. The US, the European Union and Israel have cut aid to the government.
Comment: The International Crisis group which produced the abovementioned report, claims that it is:
"an independent, non-profit, multinational organisation, with 100 staff members on five continents, working through field-based analysis and high-level advocacy to prevent and resolve deadly conflict."
In reality most of its US board members have been at the forefront of creating deadly conflict over the past few decades. U.S. board members include:
Morton Abramowitz
, Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State and Former U.S. Ambassador to Turkey
Kenneth Adelman, Former U.S. Ambassador and Director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency
Zbigniew Brzezinski, Former U.S. National Security Advisor to the President
Wesley Clark, Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander
Stanley Fischer, Vice-Chairman, Citigroup Inc. and former First Deputy Managing Director of International Monetary Fund
Carla Hills, Former U.S. Secretary of Housing; former U.S. Trade Representative
George Soros, Chairman, Open Society Institute
This group of ignoble "thinktankers" concluded that the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories "is but one tragic step - the assassination of a senior Fatah or Hamas leader, for example - from all-out chaos"
This analysis comes across as a prediction more than anything else, and with Hamas effectively being controlled by Israel, we probably wont have to wait very long for this prophecy to come true. After all, Israel has always been seeking a final solution to its Palestinian problem, and if the Israeli Pathocrats can't wipe out the Palestinians, then the next best thing is to create "civil war".
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Israeli Law and Order
June 14, 2006
By JONATHAN COOK
Imagine the following scenario. A Palestinian gunman boards a bus inside Israel and rides it to the city of Netanya. Close to the end of the line, he walks over to the driver, levels his automatic rifle against the man's head and pumps him with bullets. He turns and empties the rest of the magazine -- one of 14 in his backpack -- into the passenger behind the driver and two young women sitting across the gangway.
As bystanders in the street outside look on in horror, our gunman then reloads his weapon and sprays the bus with yet more fire, injuring 20 people. He approaches a woman huddled beneath a seat, trying to hide from him, lowers the gun to her head and pulls the trigger. The magazine is empty. As he tries to load a third clip, she grabs the burning barrel of the gun while other passengers rush him.
Seeing their chance, the onlookers storm the bus and fuelled by a mixture of passions -- fury, indignation and fear of further attack -- they beat the gunman to death.
As the news breaks, Israeli TV prefers to continue its coverage of a local football match rather report the killings. Later, when the channels do cover the deaths, they start by showing the picture of the gunman with the caption "God bless his soul" -- in the same manner as they would normally relate to the victim of a terror attack.
Despite the Prime Minister denouncing the gunman as a terrorist to the world, domestically the media and police concentrate instead on the "lynch mob" who killed the gunman. The police launch a secretive investigation which after 10 months leads to the arrests of seven men on charges of murdering him, and the promise of more arrests to come. A police spokesman describes the men's act against the gunman as one of "cold-blooded murder".
Fanciful? Ridiculous? Well, exactly these events have unfolded in Israel over the past year -- except that the location was not the Jewish city of Nentanya but the Arab town of Shafa'amr in the Galilee; the gunman was not a Palestinian but an Israeli soldier using his army-issue M-16; and the victims were not Israeli Jews but Israeli Arabs.
See how it now starts to make sense.
The killing of four Palestian citzens of Israel by the 19-year-old soldier Eden Natan Zada on 4 August last year, shortly before the disengagement from Gaza, has been quietly forgotten by the world. After the Arab victims were buried, the only question that concerned Israelis was who killed Zada. Yesterday they appeared to get their answer: seven men from Shafa'amr were rounded up by Israeli police to stand trial for his "cold-blooded" murder.
No one was interested in the official neglect of the families of Shafa'amr's dead, all of whom were denied the large compensation payments given to Israeli victims of Palestinian terror. A ministerial committee ruled that, because Zada was a serving soldier, his attack could not be considered a terrorist incident. Apparently only Arabs can be terrorists. To this day the state has not given the families a penny of the compensation automatically awarded to Jewish families.
There was no investigation of why Zada, well-known for his extremist views, had been allowed to go AWOL for weeks from his unit without attempts to trace him. Or how his family's repeated warnings that he had threatened to do something "terrible" to stop the disengagement had been ignored by the authorities. No one questioned why, a few days before his attack, the police had sent Zada away after he tried to hand in his gun.
Even more disturbingly, no one discussed why Zada, who openly belonged to a racist and outlawed movement, Kach, which demands the expulsion, if not eradication, of Arabs from the Holy Land, had been allowed to serve in the army. How had he and thousands of other Kach supporters been left in peace to promote their obscene ideas? Why were these Kach activists, mostly young Israelis, demonstrating openly against the Gaza disengagement, assaulting policemen and soldiers, when the group was supposedly underground?
And why did the authorities not round up and question Zada's Kach friends in his West Bank settlement of Tapuah after the attack? Why was their possible involvement in its planning never considered, nor their role in inciting him to his deed?
The point was that the Israeli authorities wanted Zada to be dismissed as a lone, crazy gunman -- like Baruch Goldstein before him, the army doctor who in 1994 opened fire in the Palestinian city of Hebron, killing 29 Muslim worshippers at the Tomb of the Patriarchs and wounding 125 others.
Although Yitzhak Rabin, the prime minister then, denounced Goldstein as an "errant weed", a shrine and park was built for him nearby, in the settlement of Kiryat Arba, venerating him as a "saint" and "a righteous and holy man". Far from being isolated, his shrine regularly attracts thousands of Israeli Jews who congregate deep in Palestinian territority to honour him.
Instead of seeking out and eradicating this growing strain of Jewish fundamentalism in the wake of the Shafa'amr terror attack, Israel claimed that finding and punishing the men who killed Zada was the priority. It was a matter of law and order, said Dan Ronen, the police force's northern commander. He told the Hebrew media: "In a country with law and order, despite the sensitivity, people can't do whatever they see fit. I hope the Arab sector will display maturity and responsibility."
This sounds like an outrageous double standard to the citizens of Shafa'amr, and to the country's more than one million Palestinian citizens. Enforcing the law has never been a major consideration when the offenders are Jewish and the victims are Arabs, even when the killings occur inside Israel.
Arab citizens have not forgotten the massacre of 49 men, women and children by a unit of soldiers who enforced a last-minute curfew on the Israeli village of Kfar Qassem in 1956, executing the villagers -- Arabs, of course -- at the checkpoint one by one as they innocently returned home from a day's work in the fields.
During their trial, the Haaretz newspaper reported that the soldiers received a 50 per cent pay increase and that it was obvious the men were "not treated as criminals but as heroes". Found guilty of an "administrative error", the commander was given a one penny fine.
Nor was anyone held to account when six unarmed Arab citizens were shot dead by the security services in the Galilean town of Sakhnin in 1976 as they protested against another wave of land confiscations that deprived rural Arab communities of their farm land. The prime minister of the day, Rabin again, refused even to launch an investigation.
Some 25 years later, an inquiry was held into the killing by the police of 13 unarmed Arabs in the Galilee in October 2000 as they protested the deaths of Palestinians at the Noble Sanctuary in Jerusalem -- the trigger for the intifada. Six years on, however, not a single policeman has been charged over the deaths inside Israel. Even the commanders who illegally authorised the use of an anti-terror sniper unit against demonstrators armed only with stones have not been punished.
Israel's Arab citizens are also more than familiar with the story of the "Bus 300 affair" of 1984, when two Palestinian gunmen from the occupied territories were captured after hijacking a bus inside Israel. Led away in handcuffs by the Shin Bet security service, the two men were later reported dead.
No one was ever charged over the killings, even though it was widely known at the time who had killed the men and later one senior Shin Bet operative, Ehud Yatom, admitted breaking the men's skulls with a rock. In 1986, to forestall the threat of any indictments, the president of the day, Chaim Herzog, gave all the Shin Bet agents involved an amnesty from prosecution.
If it is shown in court that Zada was in fact beaten to death after the crowd knew he had been restrained, then this history -- of the state's repeated denial of justice to the Arab victims of its violence -- must be taken into account. No one can reasonably have expected the onlookers to stay calm knowing that Zada, like other Jewish emissaries of the state before him, would receive either no punishment or a few years of jail and a pardon because he killed Arabs rather than Jews.
Israel has shown time and again that it selectively enforces law and order, depending on the ethnicity of killer and victim.
Commander Ronen observed at a press conference after the Shafa'amr arrests: "Since October 2000 we have come a long way in our relations with the Arab sector." If that is true, which is doubtful, the authorites have again made every effort to tear apart what little is left of that trust.
Jonathan Cook is a writer and journalist based in Nazareth, Israel. He is the author of the forthcoming "Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish and Democratic State" published by Pluto Press, and available in the United States from the University of Michigan Press. His website is www.jkcook.net
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Hamas seeks cease-fire with Israel
Thursday, June 15, 2006. 10:23pm (AEST)
The Palestinian Government says it wants a cease-fire with Israel and is willing to speak to Palestinian militant factions in Gaza to get them to stop firing rockets at the Jewish state.
But the Government, which is ruled by militant Islamist group Hamas, says Israel has to stop military activity in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank first.
Hamas ended a 16-month truce with Israel last Friday, after seven Palestinian civilians were killed on a beach. Israel has denied responsibility for the deaths.
Hamas's military wing responded by launching a barrage of makeshift rockets at the Jewish state from the Gaza Strip, but the group says it is willing to call for calm.
"I spoke today with the Prime Minister and he said we definitely want quiet everywhere," Palestinian Government spokesman Ghazi Hamad said.
"We are interested in a cease-fire everywhere."
His remarks follow a drop in militant rocket fire from Gaza.
Earlier this week, a senior member of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's party threatened Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas with assassination if the group renewed suicide bombings in Israel.
Weapons concerns
Hamas has also warned that international efforts to bolster rival security forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would worsen an already violent power struggle.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has approved the first shipment of weapons to Mr Abbas, saying he wants to help the moderate leader against the Hamas-led Government.
Major Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth has reported Israel has transferred 950 M16 rifles from Jordan to Mr Abbas's forces.
The Palestinian Government is demanding an explanation from the President.
An aide to Mr Abbas denies any weapons have been shipped.
Western powers want to ensure Mr Abbas emerges victorious in any power struggle with Hamas.
Palestinian officials and western diplomats have said Jordan and Egypt would provide weapons, ammunition and training for Mr Abbas's presidential guard.
Around 20 people have been killed in clashes between Hamas and Abbas loyalists in Gaza in the past month.
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Olmert hails French fight against anti-Semitism
PARIS, June 15, 2006 (AFP)
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert paid tribute Thursday to France's efforts to combat anti-Semitism, after meeting leaders of the country's 600,000-strong Jewish community.
Speaking on the second day of a state visit to Paris, Olmert praised President Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin as "firm and courageous fighters against anti-Semitism."
"It is a war without mercy that we must wage against the hatred of Jews," he told a 300-strong assembly including members of the Representative Council of French Jewish Institutions (CRIF) and France's chief rabbi Joseph Sitruk.
The Israeli prime minister also paid tribute to the memory of a young Jewish man, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered by a gang from the Paris suburbs this year in a suspected anti-Semitic crime that shocked the country.
French-Israeli relations have often been strained over the question of anti-Semitism - France is home to the world's second largest Jewish community outside Israel, as well as Europe's largest Muslim population, at five million.
In incendiary comments made in 2004, Israel's former prime minister Ariel Sharon urged France's Jews to emigrate immediately to Israel, due to the threats he said they faced at home.
Olmert stopped well short of any similar appeal - but stressed that all Jews, including those living in France, were welcome in Israel.
"You live in a wonderful country, but you have a home - it is the state of Israel - and we hope that one day the world's Jews will come there to live."
He notably called on French parents to allow their children to visit Israel "to get to know the country, to study there and one day to live there."
Olmert also sought to defend his plan to set Israel's borders in the West Bank unilaterally if talks with the Palestinians fail.
"If if is a choice between the 'Greater Israel' and a Jewish state with a Jewish majority, living inside safe and recognised borders, I choose the second option," he said.
If talks fail, Israel "will take its fate into its own hands," he said.
Comment: Which means, "OK, we play the game as long as we have to, then, we'll take it all for ourselves."
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Nukuler News
British PM Blair Defends Support For Nuclear Energy
AFP
June 15, 2006
London - Prime Minister Tony Blair Wednesday defended his support for a new generation of British nuclear power plants, arguing that they will be necessary for Britain to meet its future energy needs. Blair also warned of the "absolute necessity" to tackle climate change and urged the international community to reach an agreement on the issue.
Challenged on his decision to consider the nuclear option at weekly prime minister's questions in parliament, he said it would help resolve concerns about energy supply, rising fuel costs and global warming.
"Energy prices are rising the entire time which is why the whole issue to do with nuclear energy is back on the agenda not just of this country but many other countries round the world," Blair told MPs.
He said 50 to 60 nuclear power stations were being built around the world this year including one in Europe.
"When we look at our own self-sufficiency in energy we're about 80-90 percent sufficient in oil and gas - over the next 15-20 years that's going to reverse. We'll have to import it," the prime minister said.
"I am not saying only nuclear is the answer - of course it's not, there are renewables, there is energy efficiency, there is everything else - but I still think that that has got to be at least part of the debate and argument if we are to make sure that our energy needs are properly and cleanly met."
Environmentalists oppose the development of new nuclear power stations to replace old ones. They argue that Britain can meet its future energy needs and cut polluting emissions without such a move, especially since no conclusive solution has been found to deal with the problem of radioactive waste.
Britain, which is undertaking a major energy policy review, has about a dozen nuclear power stations, most of them built in the 1960s and 1970s.
Turning to climate change, which featured prominently at a summit of the Group of Eight (G8) world powers last July hosted by Britain, Blair warned that the process of global warming may be happening faster than anticipated.
"My greatest worry is that there is a mismatch between the timing of the international community to get the right agreements in place and the absolute necessity of taking urgent action now," he added.
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Russia's Putin Says Iran Has Right to Use Nuclear Energy
Created: 15.06.2006 15:51 MSK (GMT +3)
MosNews
Russian President Vladimir Putin is confident that all countries, including Iran, have the right to fulfill their plans in the field of high technologies observing the non-proliferation regime.
"As for the nuclear issues, you are well aware of our position. We are certainly the only country that cooperates actively and openly with Iran in the peaceful use of nuclear energy and fully meets its commitments," Putin was quoted by Itar-Tass as saying at a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"We believe that all countries in the world, including Iran, have the right to fulfill their plans in the use of high technologies for the benefit of their development," he pointed out.
"But it should be certainly done in the way to fully eliminate concerns of the world community on the non-proliferation issues," Putin said.
"Russia has always been a persistent and reliable partner of Iran," the Russian president remarked. "I am confident that you have no doubts about it," Putin told the Iranian leader.
Putin offered to discuss the proposals made by the six mediators to settle the situation around the Iranian nuclear program. "I would like to learn your view on those proposals that were made," he added.
Putin also brought up Russia's offer to set up a uranium enrichment joint venture, as well as the global initiative to create a network of international nuclear centers. "The access to technologies should be equal, free and non-discriminatory, and the control should be effective," he said.
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North Korea 'to test long-range missile'
Justin McCurry in Tokyo
Thursday June 15, 2006
Speculation mounted on Thursday that North Korea is preparing to test-launch a long-range ballistic missile capable of hitting the US mainland.
The South Korean TV network KBS, citing an unnamed government official, said the north was within a week of being ready to launch a Taepodong-2 missile that can strike Japan and parts of the western US.
South Korea is understood to have urged its neighbour not to go ahead with the test, which could take place as soon as the launch pad is completed and the missile injected with solid fuel. Test-launching an intercontinental ballistic missile would cast doubt on the future of six-party talks on ending Pyongyang's nuclear weapons programme.
On Wednesday the US ambassador to Seoul, Alexander Vershbow, warned that Washington would take "appropriate measures" should the launch go ahead. Those could include tightening its squeeze on alleged North Korean money laundering and counterfeiting operations.
Calls for a tougher stance are growing in Japan, which this week passed a law requiring the government to impose economic sanctions against Pyongyang unless it provides reliable information about the fate of eight Japanese abducted by North Korean spies during the cold war.
A Japanese foreign ministry official refused to discuss intelligence details but warned that any launch could have grave consequences for North Korea's already shaky relations with the US and Japan.
"It would be stupid to do that at a time when the US and other parties are involved 120% on Iranian affairs," he said in a reference to pressure on Tehran to give up its alleged nuclear ambitions. "A launch would cause anger and emotion in the US and be regarded as a calculated manoeuvre against the US while it is concentrating all of its efforts on Iran."
"If North Korea fires a missile now while the six-party talks remain off and questions are being raised in the international community about the effectiveness of the talks, there is a possibility it will have a seriously negative impact on the resolution of the North Korean nuclear problem," said the South Korean foreign minister, Ban Ki-moon.
North Korea left the nuclear nonproliferation treaty in 2003 and early last year declared that it had developed nuclear weapons. The multi-party talks, last held in November, have failed to make a breakthrough and no date has been set for the next round.
Christopher Nelson, an analyst at Samuels International in Washington, said in a briefing: "With the implied intelligence confirmation, an interesting element is an emerging sense that if Kim Jong-il goes ahead with his test, for once [the] Dear Leader may have out-smarted himself. That's because it seems genuinely true that both South Korea and China would be displeased."
North Korea provoked widespread anger in 1998 when it launched a medium-range Taepodong-1 ballistic missile over Japan that landed in the Pacific. It has since tested several short-range missiles, including two in March, but hasn't test-launched long-range weapons since 1999.
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Australian government downplays nuclear accident
AFP
Thursday June 15, 2006
An accident at Australia's only nuclear reactor has forced Prime Minister John Howard's government onto the defensive, with political opponents saying the incident highlighted the dangers of nuclear power.
Small amounts of radioactive gases escaped from a ruptured pipe at the Lucas Heights facility on the outskirts of Sydney last Thursday.
A worker was examined for radiation exposure, but was cleared and there was no threat to the surrounding area, the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) said.
The Lucas Heights plant was built in 1958 and is used only for research and to produce radioactive material for medical and industrial purposes.
But the incident has proved an embarrassment for Howard's government, which is trying to build support for nuclear power plants in Australia and last week announced a wide-ranging review of the industry.
For the opposition Labor Party, which opposes nuclear power, the incident was a timely boon.
"Accidents like this show that the community is right to be concerned about the safety of nuclear reactors," said the party's deputy leader Jenny Macklin.
"This accident is a stark reminder that things can go wrong with nuclear reactors."
ANSTO said the pipe ruptured inside an area producing medical isotypes. It said small amounts of gases were released routinely and did not pose a threat to the public.
"The releases which occurred last Thursday evening were not outside the normal release pattern, were well within regulatory limits and could not be detected off-site," the organisation said in a statement, adding the incident did not occur in a reactor and had "nothing to do with reactor safety".
ANSTO said that supplies of an isotope used for medical scans would be rationed while it investigates the leak.
Several hospitals across the country would only receive 55 percent of their normal weekly order and would have to prioritise which patients received scans, the organisation added.
Science Minister Julie Bishop accused Labor of "deliberate scaremongering".
"This is just a beat-up by Labor trying to deflect from the fact that we're having an open debate on nuclear power," she said.
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Last But Not Least
Russian Stealth Aircraft to Appear in 2007- Air Force Chief
Created: 15.06.2006 13:40 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:00 MSK
MosNews
Russia will launch its first fifth-generation aircraft, which would be invisible to air-defense systems, in 2007, the commander of the country's air force said Thursday.
"Several experimental models will take to the skies as early as 2007, but for now they will be equipped with intermediary engines," Vladimir Mikhailov is quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying. "In the future they will get fifth-generation engines, development of which is ongoing."
He said fifth-generation engines would be created by 2010, but that: "If everything goes well, we will be able to complete work earlier."
Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said June 14 that Russia's first fifth-generation plane could make its maiden flight in 2009.
He said the air force's financing would be increased in 2007, but did not name the exact figure.
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High Energy Scans More Efficient At Ports
by Jessica Taylor
UPI
Jun 15, 2006
Washington - As questions of border and port security remain in the wake of the failed Dubai Ports World deal, a new imaging system could make cargo screening more accurate and able to catch threats such as radioactive or nuclear material.
Rapiscan Systems has developed a new high-energy scanner to pinpoint questionable material. The new scanners have better penetration and can more quickly scan large cargo containers. Previously, with backscatter technology, material encompassed in boxes or crates within cargo containers was not fully transparent to older imaging systems.
With traditional x-ray scanning techniques similar to those used in hospitals, only 10 to 20 percent of cargo can be visualized, leaving up to 90 percent to be examined manually. Similarly, with gamma technology, only 60 percent can be seen on a scanner.
However, with the emerging high-energy transmission scanning systems, between 80 to 95 percent of cargo can be scanned in a matter of seconds, leading to a higher volume of trade items going in and out of U.S. ports more safely. High energy transmission scanning systems can also be equipped with isotope specific technologies to identify radioactive and nuclear materials.
Manual inspections, while possibly more thorough, are an inefficient use of time and not plausible with the volume of cargo continually passing through ports. It would take a customs agent 15 hours to manually inspect a freight car, while a scanning device could do the same in roughly 30 seconds.
"The benefit with transmission is that you get to know what you don't see. With backscatter there's no image confidence," said Peter Kant, vice president of government affairs for Rapiscan. The Los Angeles-based company presented an overview of their scanning systems at a Capitol Hill briefing Monday.
"The better the penetration of the technology, the more cargo can be inspected by the technology and the less by people," Kant said.
In the months after Sept. 11, the Container Security Initiative (CSI) was launched by the U.S. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection to evaluate the status of inspections at the nation's ports. But after news broke that the White House had contracted security control of U.S. ports in Baltimore, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, Miami and New Orleans to Dubai Ports World, the issue of port security became a priority in Congress.
The United Arab Emirates firm soon backed out of the deal, but the clash nonetheless brought the debate over border and port security to the forefront. In May the House voted 421-2 to allocate $7.4 billion for better port scanners like those made by Rapiscan.
Many foresee another terrorist attack not coming from hijacked planes, but instead through dangerous materials illegally brought into the United States, thus making border and port security an absolutely essential facet of homeland security.
"Central to our country's defense against terrorist threats is the ability to effectively utilize appropriate technologies to inspect cargo containers and protect U.S. ports of entry," said Sen. Lincoln Chafee (R-R.I.), who sponsored the forum.
Even with this new technology, there are no sure guarantees of safety, and a caution must still be exercised by agencies across the board.
"There is no silver bullet," said Elaine Dezenski, former Department of Homeland Security acting assistant secretary for policy development. "We're forced to take a more comprehensive, holistic point of view. The risk threshold gets more difficult when we talk about a rad/nuke threat."
A report by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs released in March also examined the readiness of checkpoints and success of CSI to stop nuclear and radiological material from being brought into the United States.
The report found that inspections have been lax at many ports, and current screening capabilities -- especially for nuclear and radiological material -- need improvement.
"The last thing we want to do is shut down trade, because that is exactly what the terrorists want," said Ray Shepherd, staff director and chief counsel for the committee. "Improved technology has given us the power to do a lot more."
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Spiderman outs himself to the press in "Civil War" series
AFP
Wed Jun 14, 2006
Summary: In the latest edition of the Marvel comic "Civil War" on sale, Spiderman does the unthinkable and removes his Spidey mask to publicly reveal his hidden identity.
The seven-issue "Civil War" series, launched in May, sees Marvel's writers taking on the topical issue of civil liberties.
Following a showdown between a group of superheroes and supervillains in which hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, the government passes the Super-Hero Registration Act, requiring all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as "living weapons of mass destruction."
NEW YORK - For a comic book hero, it's the ultimate taboo.
In the latest edition of the Marvel comic "Civil War" on sale, Spiderman does the unthinkable and removes his Spidey mask to publicly reveal his hidden identity.
"I'm proud of who I am, and I'm here right now to prove it," the legendary webslinger tells a press conference called in New York's Times Square, before pulling off his mask and standing before the massed ranks of reporters as newspaper photographer Peter Parker.
"Any questions?" Parker asks in the final panel of the issue, amid a barrage of camera flashes.
In a statement, Marvel trumpeted the revelation as "arguably the most shocking event in comic book history."
The seven-issue "Civil War" series, launched in May, sees Marvel's writers taking on the topical issue of civil liberties.
Following a showdown between a group of superheroes and supervillains in which hundreds of innocent civilians are killed, the government passes the Super-Hero Registration Act, requiring all superheroes to reveal their identities and register as "living weapons of mass destruction."
Marvel's roster of invincible crime fighters is split into two bitterly opposed factions, with one camp -- championed by the likes of Spiderman -- in favour of the new law and the other, including Captain America and his ilk, refusing to relinquish anonymity.
"It's about which side you are on and why you think you are right," said Marvel Comics editor-in-chief Joe Quesada.
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