WARNING:
The video and pictures in this
report contain images and descriptions,
depicting the reality and horror of the U.S. - UK invasion of
Iraq.
Hey, War Supporters
by
Thomas E. Woods, Jr
There’s no delicate way to say this, but to supporters of
the Iraq war I have a little message.
All
together now, people: you were scammed .
No
"weapons of mass destruction" have been found. None.
Some
of us figured as much, since the rationale for the war kept
changing so frequently. And when the search for these weapons was
carried out in such a lackluster manner, one had to assume the
administration wasn’t really worried about them. (We were
casually told that perhaps seven suspected Iraqi nuclear sites had
been looted. Nice planning there.)
Some
people will believe administration propaganda no matter what. In
reply to an article I wrote for SeattleCatholic.com , one person
wrote to the editor : "Contrary to Dr. Woods’ reference to
the lack of Al Qaeda–Iraqi links, we have all read of the
proof of links dating to before 9/11." Have we? That’s funny,
because every news article one reads these days concedes that the
link has not been made, and that experts prior to the war insisted
the alleged link was a mere fantasy. I wonder what special
intelligence briefings this critic received.
Some
supporters of the war will doubtless plead, "But,
but…that’s what Hannity and Limbaugh told me to
think!"
Well, it’s time now to start doing your own
thinking[...]
Comment: We have been musing as to why some Americans are
unwilling to stare into the face of reality and see the Bush
presidency for what it is. Is it a prejudicial belief that tyrants
only take power in other countries, like Germany, or countries with
those dark skinned peoples like in Africa? Is it because they are
just so darned nice, and can't imagine evil on such a scale as is
happening before their eyes despite historic precident and plenty
of current evidence? Have they been dumbed down by years of the
American educational system being dismantled? Mind control waves?
No soul? Fear of a losing their protective cocoon from reality, and
avoiding the dark night of the soul? ....
Sars patient arrested
20/05/2003 13:11 - (SA)
Beijing - Police in central Henan province have arrested a man
infected with Sars for violating infectious diseases laws and
escaping from Sars quarantine, an act punishable by death, hospital
officials said on Tuesday...
Liu
Baocheng was arrested upon his release from the Tanghe county
hospital after recovering from severe acute respiratory syndrome
(Sars) on Sunday, an official at the hospital named Li
said...
Following his escape from a Taiyuan hospital on April 19, Li
came into contact with 19 people in Shanxi province and 20 people
in Henan province before police caught him and placed him in the
Tanghe hospital, according to a report on the People's Daily
website...
New record SARS toll in Taiwan after WHO travel
alert
Thursday May 22, 2003
On
Thursday a further 65 new cases - nearly double the previous daily
record - were announced, taking Taiwan's tally to 483 infections
and 60 fatalities, according to Department of Health
figures.
The
WHO has said Taiwan is battling the world's "most rapid" outbreak
of SARS, and late Wednesday extended an earlier travel advisory
imposed solely on Taipei to include all regions of
Taiwan.
[...] SARS has left nearly 700 people dead and more than 8,000
infected in around 30 countries since it first emerged in the
southern Chinese province of Guangdong last November.
China remains the worst-affected country, with latest figures
putting the death toll at 296 with 5,249 cases. However China has
seen a steady fall in recorded cases, with 12 infections and two
deaths announced on Wednesday...
450 killed in Algeria quake, toll set to rise:
PM
More
than 450 people have been killed and at least 2,400 injured in a
powerful earthquake around Algiers, Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia
said.
Ouyahia, who is personally heading a crisis unit set up to
coordinate rescue efforts, warned that the toll from the quake late
Wednesday was likely to rise steeply with "hundreds of bodies still
under the rubble," especially around the Boumerdes district 50
kilometres (30 miles) east of the capital.
[...] The epicentre of the quake, which measured 5.2 on the
Richter scale was located at Thenia, about 60 kilometres (40 miles)
east of from Algiers, according to the Algerian astronomy and
astrophysics research centre.
The
main quake lasted about five minutes, with aftershocks felt faintly
up to about half an hour after the main jolt, residents
said.
[...] Algeria is regularly hit by earthquakes, but residents
said the latest was more powerful than usual...
Bush's message to Cubans gets ironical
reply
AP [
THURSDAY, MAY 22, 2003 04:41:59 AM ]
HAVANA: Fidel Castro's government responded ironically on
Wednesday to US President George W Bush's Cuban independence day
message, thanking him for his efforts to liberate the Caribbean
nation.
"Thank you, Fuhrer," was the title of the editorial on
Wednesday in the Communist Party daily Granma.
"Mr
Bush, author of bombings against cities that are transmitted by
television ... promises that the Cuban people will soon be free and
that dictatorships have no place in America," read the editorial, a
response to Bush's brief radio message on Tuesday.
"That, unfortunately, is true," the statement continued, a
reference to Havana's recent declarations that the United States is
trying to form a worldwide fascist dictatorship. "The American
people will get fed up with its ludicrous and fanatical
ideas."...
"America's favorite conspiracy theory: the moral
argument"
By
Matthew Riemer
YellowTimes.org Columnist (United States)
(YellowTimes.org) -- Putting aside the usual lengthy and
semi-philosophical discussions that attempt to accurately explain
the term "conspiracy theory," let's turn to a brief summation much
more useful for the purposes of this essay: A "conspiracy theory"
is simply any explanation, reason, or cause that strongly offends
or contradicts others' ideologies or historically-sensitive
political systems and models. And, more generally, an explanation
for events that seems wildly improbable and elaborate.
So
to some, the idea that the United States fought a war in Iraq over
issues other than weapons of mass destruction -- even though the
expert global consensus was that Iraq had either none or very small
quantities of WMD and Colin Powell presented forged documents to
the United Nations when making his case -- is a "conspiracy theory"
because of how they view U.S. foreign policy (this is the first
definition). These individuals see the U.S. as a benign, almost
naively bumbling, superpower guided only by altruism. Ulterior
motives are spirited away by associating them with some kind of
exaggerated and paranoid realpolitik. And it is this historical
theory, filled with a kind of de facto racism and condescension,
which is quickly becoming America's favorite conspiracy theory: the
moral argument (this is the second definition)...
Iraq was no immediate threat to US, senator says in slam at
Bush
US
Senator Robert Byrd -- a senior Democrat -- issued a scathing
denunciation of White House military and diplomatic policy,
particularly of the recently- concluded war in Iraq.
[...] "The American people may have been lured into accepting
the unprovoked invasion of a sovereign nation, in violation of
long-standing international law, under false premises," Byrd said,
in offering some of the most unvarnished criticism yet by Democrats
of the US-led war on Iraq.
"Our
costly and destructive bunker-busting attack on Iraq seems to have
proven, in the main, precisely the opposite of what was the urgent
reason to go in.
"This house of cards built of deceit will fall," said Byrd, a
West Virginian and the most senior member of the US Senate, in
comments delivered from the Senate floor.
The
George W. Bush administration, Byrd charged, "assiduously worked to
alarm the public and to blur the faces of Saddam Hussein and Osama
bin Laden, until they virtually become one.
"What has become painfully clear in the aftermath of war is
that Iraq was no immediate threat to the United States, and many of
us here said so before the war," Byrd said.
After the war, the search for banned nuclear, biological and
chemical weapons has come up empty, Byrd noted.
"The
Bush team's extensive hype of (weapons of mass destruction) in Iraq
as justification for a preemptive invasion war has become more than
embarrassing -- it has raised serious questions about prevarication
and the reckless use of power," Byrd said.
[...] The West Virginia Democrat also criticized as "spineless"
his colleagues in Congress for voting to authorize the
war.
Some Iraq nuclear material missing, says
U.S.
Japan Today
Thursday, May 22, 2003 at 07:00 JST
BAGHDAD - About 20% of the known radioactive materials stored
at Iraq's largest nuclear facility are unaccounted for, and U.S.
nuclear experts have found radioactive patches on the ground where
looters dumped out barrels believed to contain hazardous
materials.
However, a senior commander said the great majority of the
dangerous waste at the Tuwaitha nuclear complex was still secure
and was not leaking radiation.
"Eighty percent of the barrels are where they were before,"
said Col Tim Madere, a specialist in unconventional weapons for the
U.S. Army's V Corps.
It
was unclear how many barrels were missing. About 100 barrels had
been previously catalogued and sealed by international arms
inspectors....
Comment: With only 80% of the barrels
accounted for, the US commander declares the place "secure". Boy,
that makes me feel "secure", knowing 80% of them are in the hands
of known terrorists, state-backed terrorists at that, with all the
power of the largest "defence" budget on earth.
Again, the question is: If the US thought Saddam
had weapons of mass destruction and that the evil terrorists might
get their hands on them, why weren't these radioactive materials
secured immediately? Perhaps because the Bush Gang needed the
nuclear complex to be looted since they didn't have any other
justification for war. Now they can play on the fears of the
population, out of one side of their mouths saying "Don't worry",
while planting the seed of doubt by raising the issue.
Ambiguity again...
NATO approves assistance for Poland to lead a
peacekeeping force in Iraq
03:25 AM EDT May 22
BRUSSELS (AP) - The 19 NATO countries Wednesday unanimously
agreed to start planning to help Poland lead a multinational
peacekeeping force in Iraq, a move that should help heal the
divisions suffered by the alliance in the run-up to the
war.
Although the plans involve only modest technical assistance,
the step also could mark a significant opening to a wider role for
NATO in postwar Iraq. NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson said
the decision was made unanimously.
"The
first important and indeed critical step was taken today by
unanimity," Robertson said...
Although limited, U.S. officials see NATO's involvement in Iraq
- and a recent decision to take on peacekeeping in Afghanistan - as
signs the alliance is making good on pledges to reinvent itself
post-Cold War to face global challenges.
ROBBERS AND KILLERS STALK CITY OF
TERROR
May
22 2003
From
Chris Hughes In Baghdad
The Daily Mirror
I
WATCHED first hand as Baghdad spiralled into lawless anarchy thanks
to US troops.
The
4,000 US military police supposedly in Baghdad were nowhere to be
seen. Instead, ordinary troops lounged on the backs of tanks in the
baking heat or patrolled edgily.
Like
the good soldiers they are, they were far more focused on
self-preservation than bringing calm to a very volatile situation.
I watched as troops from the US First Armoured Division forcibly
disarmed an Iraqi policeman they mistook for a looter, despite the
uniform he wore...
On
the eastern road to Iran, I saw for myself how the wild east is now
far more dangerous than the wild west ever was.
[...] It was the tactic we had heard so much about. Gangs block
a car in, rake it with automatic fire to force it to stop and rob
the occupants before killing them.
[...] At the town we passed earlier, three young men stood in
the middle of the road firing automatic weapons at oncoming
cars.
Back
in Baghdad our driver returned from the garage shaking. He had seen
robbers shoot dead an old woman driver, dump her body in the street
and drive off in her car.
[...] Christopher Segar, the new British ambassador to Iraq,
visited tribal leaders to discuss their requirements now there is
peace and the war is over.
He
refused to talk to us about the law and order crisis, and left the
hotel flanked by six security guards armed to the teeth.
Allies to Begin Seizing Weapons From Most
Iraqis
By
MICHAEL R. GORDON
New York Times
May 21, 2003
AGHDAD, May 20 — Iraqi citizens will be required to turn
over automatic weapons and heavy weapons under a proclamation that
allied authorities plan to issue this week, allied officials said
today.
The
aim of the proclamation is to help stabilize Iraq by confiscating
the huge supply of AK-47's, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades
and other weapons that are used by criminal gangs, paramilitary
groups and remnants of the Saddam Hussein government.
Iraqis who refuse to comply with the edict will be subject to
arrest. Only Iraqis authorized to use military-type weapons because
of their police or military duties will be exempt.
"We
are in the final stages of formulating a weapons policy to put
rules on who can and cannot possess a weapon," Lt. Gen. David D.
McKiernan, the chief allied land commander said in an interview.
"We want to get explosives and AK's out of the wrong
hands."...
The
need to secure Baghdad and provide security elsewhere in the
country is expected to slow the pace of American troop withdrawals
from Iraq, allied officials said. The United States has about
165,000 troops in Iraq. It is likely to have 100,000 in the fall,
more than American planners had projected just three weeks
ago...
Allied officials are also considering a plan to bring Britain's
16th Air Assault Brigade to Baghdad. If approved by the British
government, the British forces would be charged with training the
Iraqi police and helping to safeguard the Iraqi capital, allied
officials said.
Beaver Dam native dies a hero in
Iraq
"I don't know if the helicopter turned over on top of him or
someone grabbed him and wouldn't let go," the father said, his
voice choked with emotion.
"That's Kirk's nature, to help somebody," his grandmother, Jan
Helmer, said Tuesday, her voice quavering.
The father said he was angry at President Bush and disagreed with
the war.
"He put our troops over there to finish what his dad didn't do.
They found no weapons of mass destruction," said the father, who
retired after 26 years of active Army and National Guard
duty.
Comment: That's the actual headline at the above link. The
selected excerpt is buried deep into the article. There may be many
more angry, and deeply pained mothers, fathers, and grandmothers as
they find out what the Bush Reich sacrificed their children for,
and it looks like he will continue to sacrifice their children to
his angry, vengeful god. . .
USA Deploys More Troops in Iraq
Pravda
The
post-war plans of the American administration in Iraq are
failing
The
continuing civil mess and the growth of criminality and looting has
changed the schedule for withdrawing coalition troops from Iraq. On
the contrary, more troops are expected to arrive in Iraq to replace
those who are to leave, in order to provide more
security.
There are some 165,000 servicemen in Iraq at present. About
100,000 of them will remain in Iraq in the autumn - much more than
the command originally expected. This is another fact that proves
that the restoration of the country and a return to normal life is
a harder process than American military men thought it would
be.
The
New York Times wrote that the American administration is not
hurrying to hand over control to Iraqi authorities. Instead, 4,000
servicemen and 300 vehicles are going to arrive in Iraq soon to
toughen control over Baghdad and other large cities.
Next War Could Begin in December 2003
The
Iraq war has so upset the Navy's carrier deployment schedule that
admirals are shelving prewar plans and rethinking the strategy for
dispatching naval power to faraway trouble spots.
In
the meantime, with nearly a third of the fleet deployed or
returning from wartime service, it may take up to six months before
the Navy could deploy a similar force to handle another large-scale
contingency, such as operations against a hostile North
Korea.
"We'll be re-cocked and ready to go as early as December," said
Vice Adm. Timothy LaFleur, who oversees the Navy's surface warships
from his San Diego headquarters.
BRITISH TROOPS STEP IN TO BAIL OUT
YANKS
EXCLUSIVE 5,500 Paras ready to take control of Iraqi
capital
By
Tom Newton Dunn Defence Correspondent
The Daily Mirror
May 22 2003
COALITION chiefs plan to send 5,500 British Paras to Baghdad to
save US troops from losing control of the Iraqi capital.
Central Command top brass are terrified that war-weary American
soldiers in Saddam Hussein's former power base have turned the
population against them.
Little if any peace keeping experience and only minimal
training have been blamed for the growing disaster and continuing
violence.
One
senior British defence source said last night: "We have three
months at best to get this right. It is absolutely crucial the
people of Baghdad can be persuaded we are there to help
them.
[...] "The American troops in Baghdad are not doing what is
necessary. They are tired, they want to go home and they do not
have the training for the job that needs to be done.
[...] The Paras' mission will be diplomatically called a
"reinforcement". But it will be a deep embarrassment for US
commanders - and an admission they may have won the war but have
failed to win the peace.
Another British military source said: "Nobody is saying the US
can't do soldiering. But war fighting and peace keeping are very
different."
Comment: And the US certainly doesn't know
much about keeping the peace...
[...] Aid agencies have accused America's 3rd Infantry Division
of having too few military police on Baghdad's streets, failing to
halt civil disorder and, when troops do intervene, of being heavy
handed. Some suburbs are almost lawless bandit country, which US
soldiers seldom enter...
US troops accuse war hero of abuse
British colonel who made rousing speech faces
inquiry
Richard Norton-Taylor
The Guardian
Thursday May 22, 2003
A
senior army officer praised for his morale-boosting speech to his
troops before the invasion of Iraq is being investigated by
military police after serious allegations of ill-treatment made by
an American soldier.
Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins who commanded the 1st Battalion
of the Royal Irish Regiment and whose rousing speech to troops was
praised by Prince Charles and President George Bush, is alleged to
have pistol-whipped an Iraqi civil leader, shot at the feet of
Iraqi civilians, and shot at the tyres of vehicles when there was
no threat to the lives of his soldiers.
The
allegations, which Lt Col Collins is understood to strongly deny,
were made by an American major in charge of reservists responsible
for helping to protect wells in the Rumaila oilfields, near Basra
in south-east Iraq.
The
Americans "fell out" with the colonel after he suggested they were
not up to the job, defence sources said last night...
Where the heck are Saddam's weapons?
The
United States's Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Director George
Tenet warned last fall that if the United States attacked Iraq,
President Saddam Hussein might hand off his forbidden weapons to
Islamic terrorists for a counterattack.
Some
analysts say that scenario cannot be ruled out now that 60 days of
searches by US troops have produced scant evidence of the doomsday
weapons Saddam supposedly had.
Did
they wind up in the hands of terrorists?
Charles Pena of the Cato Institute said if Tenet's speculation
was correct, it would be the ultimate irony because, he said, the
whole point of invading Iraq was to prevent Saddam from passing his
weapons on to the al-Qaedas of the world.
There are more benign theories for the lack of progress in
finding weapons though.
Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation said Saddam may simply
have decided to hide the armaments. Or, he said, perhaps Saddam
destroyed them to leave United Nations (UN) weapons inspectors with
no smoking guns and thus diminish the possibility that President
George Bush would make war against him. (The inspectors came up
empty-handed, but Bush attacked anyway.) To Brookes, it matters
little whether weapons are found.
"The
important thing is that we've eliminated the regime's capacity to
use these things," he said.
But,
politically, the administration is eager for firm evidence of
Saddam's arsenal because its existence was the main justification
for the war...
Joseph Cirincione, of the Carnegie Endowment for International
Peace, agrees that more time is needed.
But,
he said, "It's obvious that the WMD [weapons of mass destruction]
program did not exist on the scale that the administration claimed.
If it did, we would have seen it by now."...
Bush
professes no alarm.
"We'll find them, and it's just going to be a matter of time to
do so," the US president said earlier this month. –
Sapa-AP
Occupation of Iraq illegal, Blair told
Clare Dyer
Legal
correspondent
The Guardian
Leaked advice from the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, reveals
that he warned Tony Blair two months ago that attempts at postwar
reconstruction of Iraq by US-British occupying authorities would be
unlawful without a further UN resolution.
Lord
Goldsmith, the government's chief law officer, told the prime
minister that the longer the occupation went on and the more the
actions of the occupying authorities departed from their main task
of disarmament, the harder it would be to justify the occupation as
lawful.
The
advice, published in today's New Statesman, was written in a memo
to Mr Blair and circulated to a small number of government
departments on March 26. The magazine says it follows oral advice
from Lord Goldsmith at a cabinet meeting six days into the war,
making clear that all activity beyond essential maintenance of
security would be unlawful without a further security council
resolution.
Critics incensed by WorldCom wireless contract in
Iraq
Brian Bergstein
AP Business Writer
NEW
YORK (AP) - The Pentagon made an interesting choice when it hired a
U.S. company to build a small wireless phone network in Iraq: MCI,
aka WorldCom Inc., perpetrator of the biggest accounting fraud in
American business and not exactly a big name in cellular
service.
The
Iraq contract incensed WorldCom rivals and government watchdogs who
say Washington has been too kind to the company since WorldCom
revealed its $11 billion accounting fraud and plunged into
bankruptcy last year.
Russia blocks vote on UN resolution on
Iraq
NEW
YORK - Russia and other UN members are holding up a vote that would
give the U.S. and Britain legal control over Iraq
indefinitely.
Six French
journalists detained on arrival at Los Angeles, sent back to
France
Reporters Without Borders today protested against the detention
of six French journalists on arrival a week ago at Los Angeles
international airport to cover a video games trade show and their
forcible repatriation after being held at the airport for more than
24 hours.
"These journalists were treated like criminals - subjected to
several body searches, handcuffed, locked up and fingerprinted,"
Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard
complained in a letter to the US ambassador to Paris, Howard
Leach...
The
six journalists arrived at Los Angeles airport in two groups a day
apart. The first group consisted of Alexandre Alfonsi of
Télé 7 Jours, Stéphanie Pic of Télé Poche
and Michel Perrot of TV Hebdo, who arrived at 2 p.m. on 10 May
without press visas. Pic and Perrot passed through immigration
without any problem, but Alfonsi was denied access to US territory
on the grounds that he lacked the required visa.
Pic
and Perrot tried in vain to find out from airport officials what
had happened to their colleague. All three journalists were then
detained and held for a total of 26 hours, which included a night
in the cells of a US immigration detention centre.
They
were subjected to interrogation sessions and six body searches.
They were handcuffed while being moved from one place to another,
and they were fingerprinted. One official told Alfonsi he would not
be able to return to the United States again. They were put on a
flight for France at around 4 p.m. the next day and were not able
to recover their passports until the aeroplane made a stopover in
Amsterdam.
The
other group, which suffered an almost identical fate, consisted of
Thierry Falcoz, editor in chief of Game One cable television, and
two of his cameramen, Laurent Patureau and Alex Gorsky. They
arrived at Los Angeles international airport at around 3 p.m. on 11
May. Falcoz and Gorsky passed through immigration without a problem
but Patureau was stopped by an official who said he needed a press
visa.
When
Patureau's two colleagues protested, all three were detained. After
being held for nine hours in an airport waiting room they were
taken to a US immigration detention centre where they were held
overnight in a cell. They were subjected to repeated body searches
and interrogation. They were handcuffed when taken from one place
to another, and they were fingerprinted. Finally, they were put on
a flight back to France at around 6 p.m. the next day.
Chirac to embarrass Bush at G8
conference
Philip Delves Broughton
Pav Akhtar in Paris
The Daily Telegraph
President Chirac is preparing to embarrass President Bush at
the forthcoming G8 summit in France by laying out an agenda heavy
on environmental, development and economic issues and light on the
fight against terrorism.
The
summit at Evian on June 2 and June 3 will be the first time M
Chirac and Mr Bush have met since their diplomatic war preceding
military action in Iraq. However, M Chirac, as the host, is
arranging the meeting on his terms.
He made clear yesterday that, despite the debacle over Iraq, he is
clinging to his vision of a global balance of powers, with France
as an alternative to America.
He said Evian's main goal would be "to build the institutions and
rules of a global democracy, open and interconnected", a swipe at
the American administration, which has little patience for such
rhetoric.
The main themes of the summit would be reviving the world economy,
solidarity with poor countries, responding to pandemics such as
Aids, climate change and finally the fight against terrorism.
The White House would have preferred the fight against terrorism to
head the list, but M Chirac is loath to let the summit become a
victory lap for Mr Bush.
M Chirac said the summit was a chance for "nations to show that
they can and want to get along, to act together in the service of
mankind". He believes many countries are suspicious of America's
leadership and prefer France's emphasis on international rules and
institutions.
WAR ON TERRORISM WORKS WELL BUT ONLY ON
AMERICANS
By:
Dorothy Anne Seese
The
"war on terrorism" via the Office of Homeland Security is working
well in America, but only against American citizens. Said office
has warned of another possible al Qaeda attack (it's always al
Qaeda) on American soil, so bet your sweet Attends that one will
come. I just didn't expect it until just before, or just
after, the Republican and Democrat National Conventions in the
summer of 2004 when George W. Bush is likely to need one.
However, after the Iraq fiasco and the dissolution of all of
Bush's reasons for invading Iraq, he might need one to divert
attention again from what some economists are calling a
"deflationary cycle" .. in plain English, a depression.
[...]
OMG! If their cries get loud enough, they might have to be
silenced by yet another distraction, another "event" of some kind
that will throw us into a national emergency with roadblocks and a
real military presence. If the Constitution means nothing to
the present administration, then the Posse Comitatus Act will mean
even less. Right is what George W. Bush's cabal says is right ...
whatever Karl Rove orchestrates.
The war on terrorism might not be stopping terrorists, but it is
impeding Americans and any militia efforts, any efforts at self
protection along our open borders, and any serious challenge to
President Bush's justification for his actions as president.
Plus, terrorist acts always come in handy when you have your back
against a wall with an election coming up.
US uses terrorism law in other crime probes: Report
bolsters stand of civil liberties groups
By
Dan Eggen
Washington Post
WASHINGTON - The Justice Department has used many of the
antiterrorism powers granted after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to
pursue defendants for crimes unrelated to terrorism, including drug
violations, credit card fraud, and bank theft, according to a
government report.
In a
60-page report to the House Judiciary Committee, officials
confirmed yesterday for the first time that fewer than 50
defendants were secretly detained as material witnesses in the
investigation of the Sept. 11 attacks. That number had not
previously been disclosed.
The
report provides new details about the federal government's domestic
war on terrorism, which has largely been conducted in secret and
has prompted widespread complaints from civil liberties advocates
and Muslim groups. It had been sought by the House Judiciary
Committee chairman, Representative F. James Sensenbrenner Jr.,
Republican of Wisconsin, and the committee's ranking Democrat,
Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan.
Bin Laden deputy calls for a repeat of 11
September
Andrew Buncombe
With
America already jittery over warnings of a possible terror strike
in the US, an audio-recording purporting to have been made by Osama
bin Laden's deputy was broadcast yesterday, calling on Muslims to
repeat the attacks of 11 September.
Friends of the Earth: Whitman Resignation Leaves Legacy
of Polluted Water, Dirty Air and Unhealthy
Communities
Common Dreams
WASHINGTON - May 21 - As EPA administrator Christie Whitman
announced her resignation, Friends of the Earth today criticized
her agency for overseeing the weakening of critical health and
environmental protections.
"Christie Whitman played a moderating role at times, but the
facts are clear: the Bush EPA has made our water more polluted, our
air dirtier and our communities more at risk from toxic dumps,"
said Brent Blackwelder, president of Friends of the Earth. "As
unsatisfactory as her leadership was, evidently it was still too
pro-environment for the Bush administration."...
Environmental groups have subsequently criticized Whitman's
agency for dismantling an array of longstanding environmental laws.
During the past two years, EPA has signed off on a rule allowing
polluters to dump industrial waste into waterways and proposed a
Clean Air Act change that would allow the nation's dirtiest power
plants to expand. The agency has also cut the number of toxic
cleanups in half and dramatically reduced its enforcement of
pollution control laws, and is currently considering a Clean Water
Act change that would remove 60 percent of streams from protection
under the law.
Friends of the Earth pointed to these regulatory changes as
part of a larger pattern, where administration officials use
administrative procedures and budget cuts to surreptitiously weaken
laws that enjoy broad public support. The group predicted that
Whitman's replacement would continue using these tactics to pursue
more environmental rollbacks.
Bomb explodes in Yale law school
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 10:35 PM EDT (0235
GMT)
NEW
HAVEN, Connecticut (CNN) -- A bomb went off in Yale University's
law school building Wednesday, according to a U.S. government
official, but no injuries were reported.
The
official said local authorities in Connecticut have confirmed the
explosion was a bomb but the facts of the case "do not indicate or
bear the marks of an international terrorist incident."
Dorie Baker, a Yale spokeswoman, said an investigation is under
way.
"We
don't know what kind of a device," she said. "It was in an empty
classroom, not in the mailroom. All sources are agreed there were
no injuries."...
WHO adopts landmark anti-smoking treaty, elects South Korean
to helm
Thursday May 22, 2:10 AM
The
World Health Organisation (WHO) adopted a historic anti-smoking
treaty aimed at curbing five million tobacco-related deaths a year,
and elected a South Korean doctor to its helm.
More
than 190 countries meeting at the WHO's annual assembly here
unanimously approved the treaty, which is the first global treaty
committing governments to deal with a major public health
issue.
"Today we are acting to save billions of lives and protect
people's health for generations to come," said Gro Harlem
Brundtland, the outgoing WHO director general who championed the
pact.
"This is a historic moment in global public health,
demonstrating the international will to tackle a threat to health
head on," she said.
The
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, drawn up after three years
of sometimes bitter negotiations, is designed to reduce
smoking-related deaths and disease worldwide by imposing curbs on
the advertising, sponsorship and promotion of tobacco.
[...] It will take effect after the 40th of the WHO's 192
member states ratifies it, which is expected to take several years.
The document opens for signature at WHO headquarters from June
16...
Comment: Geez! What's up with THAT? It's
okay to explode atomic bombs in the atmosphere over America, it's
okay to use depleted Uranium ammo in Iraq, it's okay for people to
starve or suffer malnutrition, to be bombed, to be treated like
barnyard animals, but for god's sake, don't let them smoke! Hmmm...
maybe there's a connection? After all, you don't want barnyard
animals to ingest things that "spoil the meat."
The World Health Body ought to adopt a historic
Anti-Bush Pact. Now THERE'S an idea!
Ari "the Fabulist" Fleischer Quits the
Scene
The
Liar's Gone, the Enablers Remain
May
21, 2003
By
DAVE LINDORFF
CounterPunch
White House flack and fabulist Ari Fleischer quits his post and
says he is leaving because he wants to be with family, because he's
been in government service too long and wants to go into the
private sector, da-da, da-da--all the usual things people in
government positions of power say when they abandon ship. Is there
more to this though? We're talking about the public face of the
super- secretive Mini-Bush White House. There are no places
Fleisher could move to where he'd get the power, influence and
public recognition he has obtained over the last two years. So
could this be a case of the first rat leaving a doomed
ship?...
Finally, there's the matter of that White House Press Corps.
Some have speculated as to why Fleischer never resigned. I don't
see why that is a puzzle. The man has demonstrated over the years
that he has no principles. Like a flack for Exxon/Mobil or Grace
Industries, he obviously sees the job of media relations as one big
con job, so why would he suddenly feel the need to resign? No, the
real question is why no one in the White House Press Corps has had
the sense of principle and the courage to say that they would no
longer participate in the charade that is being passed off as
journalism. They all know that they've been lied to repeatedly, but
they are the willing conduits of those lies to the American public.
Night after night, one can watch them carrying Fleischer's water,
not cracking a smile as they gravely report the latest politically
timed raising of the terror alert level, not bursting out laughing
as they report on the president's claim that Al Queda is no longer
a problem...
Shuttle mystery 'blessing in
disguise'
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 4:52 PM EDT (2052
GMT)
CAPE
CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) -- Investigators may never pinpoint
the precise sequence of events that caused the space shuttle
Columbia to break apart, and if not, it could be a "blessing in
disguise," the leader of the accident board said.
Retired Adm. Harold Gehman, head of the Columbia Accident
Investigation Board, said his panel's report instead will delve
even more broadly and deeply into the culture of NASA than the
Challenger accident review board in 1986.
"It
may be the fact that we don't have a cause and effect is a blessing
in disguise," Gehman said Tuesday.
[...] "I personally don't feel any unease about coming to a
conclusion which does or does not pinpoint the exact failure,"
Gehman said. "It really is causing us to look much broader at
contributing factors in the accident down to and including the
climate and the atmosphere and leadership in management and safety
programs."...
Comment: In other words, they don't want you
to know that the shuttle was zapped out of the sky (see
February 3, 2003 Signs of the Times ). So, they'll
talk about complex systems and a broader look at multiple failure
modes and safety processes, knowing that the American public will
accept a non-answer if it is packaged in technical-sounding
fluff.
Analysis: Israel weighing EU membership
By
Martin Walker UPI Chief International Correspondent
Published 5/21/2003 1:16 PM
WASHINGTON, May 21 (UPI) -- The visiting delegation from the
European Union was startled this week when Israel Foreign Minister
Silvan Shalom said his government was weighing an application to
join the EU.
"It
doesn't mean he is preparing the dossier for applying tomorrow," an
Israeli spokesman said. "In principle, the minister thinks a
possibility exists for Israel to join the EU, since Israel and
Europe share similar economies and democratic values."
Shalom broached the subject Tuesday, but there is no immediate
prospect of this happening, since under EU rules, new members must
have no outstanding border disagreements with their neighbors. The
incoming new members from Eastern Europe, particularly Hungary and
Romania, had to resolve long-standing disputes to clear their path
for entry.
[...] For the EU, Israel's impressive high-tech industry could
be useful, but any economic advantages to Israeli membership would
have to be balanced against the wider political costs to the EU,
unless the Jewish state's relationship with its Arab neighbors is
transformed. Even then, those European countries like France that
already sneer at Britain as "America's Trojan horse" (and the
German media that sneers at Poland as "America's Trojan donkey")
might hesitate before admitting another such pro-American
member...
Foreign Secretary was target for assassination by
Zionist groups
Independent
Cahal Milmo
Files reveal terrorist plot to help achieve Jewish state and
tell of struggle to unmask spy who betrayed atomic
secrets
Jewish extremists planned to set up "IRA-style" cells in London
with instructions to assassinate politicians including the Foreign
Secretary to help achieve a Jewish state, MI5 papers released today
show.
The
Security Service was so worried about the threat posed by two
Jewish militant groups in 1946 that they told Clement Attlee, the
Prime Minister, to expect "indiscriminate" shooting of troops in
Palestine and terrorist attacks in Britain.
Israeli troops kill two Palestinian children and 65 year old
woman
Jerusalem: 21 May, 2003 (IAP News) Israeli occupation troops on
Wednesday shot and killed a 17 year old Palestinian boy and a child
at the village of Qarawat Bani Zeid, north of Ramallah,
eyewitnesses said. In addition, Israeli troops shot to death a
65-year-old woman and wounded five others.
Voices of the other israel
The
International Peace Research Institute, Oslo (PRIO) invites you to
a seminar
Jeff
Halper, Gila Svirsky and Ariel Levin
Even
as talk of the impending Quartet "road map" fills the air, Israel
is working frantically on the ground to complete its settlement
enterprise begun 36 years ago, to "create facts" that make its
Occupation irreversible, that foreclose forever the establishment
of a viable Palestinian state. Settlement expansion, the ongoing
expropriation of thousands of acres of farmland, the uprooting of
olive and fruit trees (some 500,000 since 1967), demolition of
hundreds of Palestinian homes (10,000 since 1967), construction of
a massive system of "by-pass roads" that incorporate the
settlements into Israel proper, the induced transfer of hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians out of the country, and now the building
of a "separation fence" five times longer and two meters higher
than the Berlin Wall -- all this means that Israel's "Matrix of
Control," as Jeff Halper has called it, is nearing completion. If a
Palestinian state emerges eventually, it will be a truncated
archipelago of four to six or more enclaves, non-viable, only
semi-sovereign, subject to complete Israeli military
control...
Comment: This seminar occurred on April 9th,
2003. Given that Israel and the Bush Reich appear to have been
behind the WTC attacks, it is not unusual that the Israelis would
engineer an attack on Norway to make it seem that fanatical Arab
terrorists don't want peace. Israel wants to manipulate the world
into destroying Arabs (especially the Palestinians), and at a
higher level the NWO requires that all citizens of all countries
live in fear.
Qaeda Tape Raises Fears of Fresh
Attacks
Wed
May 21, 2003 05:22 PM ET
By
Miral Fahmy
DUBAI (Reuters) - A call for holy war on Americans and Jews,
apparently made by Osama bin Laden's top aide, raised fears
Wednesday of a new terror attack, as a source said Saudi Arabia
foiled a Sept. 11-style hijack...
Al-Jazeera television aired an audio tape it said was from
Ayman al-Zawahri, bin Laden's top lieutenant, who urged Muslims to
strike at the embassies and commercial interests of the United
States, Britain, Australia and, oddly, Norway.
A
Saudi source said a suicide airliner attack had been thwarted by
the arrest of three Moroccans, rejecting comments by Interior
Minister Prince Nayef that no such plot had existed. Britain's
envoy said the oil-rich kingdom was riskier than ever.
[...] The tape appeared to date from the early days of the
U.S.-led war on Iraq, an invasion some experts had warned could
spark revenge attacks by Muslim extremists. Britain and Australia
sent troops to Iraq, though Norway opposed the war.
Norway's PM Taking Al Qaeda Threat
Seriously
Wed
May 21, 2003 07:07 PM ET
OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - Norway is taking the threat of terror
attacks against its targets seriously, Prime Minister Kjell Magne
Bondevik said Wednesday, after his country was named in an alleged
al Qaeda threat to embassies of the United States and other
countries.
Qatar-based al-Jazeera television aired an audiotape it said
was from al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's top aide, Ayman
al-Zawahri, urging Muslims to strike at the embassies and
commercial interests of the United States, Britain, Australia and
Norway.
[...] It was not immediately clear why oil-rich, NATO-member
Norway, which did not send troops to fight in the Iraq war, was
mentioned. Oslo's main role in the Middle East has been to help
mediate between Israelis and Palestinians.
Fresh inquest into soldier's 'chemical tests'
death
A
coroner has set a date for a new inquest into the death of an
airman who took part in secret military chemical warfare tests 50
years ago.
[...] The 20-year-old RAF engineer died at the MOD's Porton
Down laboratories on Salisbury Plain in May 1953.
[...] The original inquest was held behind closed doors "for
reasons of national security" but Mr Maddison's family and others
have campaigned for decades for the truth to be
revealed.
[...] Mr Maddison, from Swindon, Wiltshire, died after he was
allegedly given a 200mg dose of sarin nerve gas.
It
is said he was among many servicemen and women who believed they
were taking part in experiments to find a cure for the common cold
but say they were instead subjected to exposure of CS gas, mustard
gas and hallucinogens such as LSD.
Police have investigated the cases of hundreds of people who
say they were used as guinea pigs in germ warfare experiments at
the Chemical and Biological Defence Establishment...
FCC: Public Be Damned
by
JOHN NICHOLS & ROBERT W. MCCHESNEY
The Nation
[from the June 2, 2003 issue]
Cheered on by the Bush Administration and powerful media
conglomerates, Federal Communications Commission chair Michael
Powell is pushing ahead with a June 2 vote to gut longstanding
rules designed to prevent the growth of media monopolies. If
successful, Powell's push could, in the words of dissident
commissioner Michael Copps, "dramatically [alter] our nation's
media landscape without the kind of debate and analysis that these
issues clearly merit." Copps and the other Democratic commissioner,
Jonathan Adelstein, have asked for a thirty-day delay in the vote,
but Powell has the upper hand--he and two other Republican
commissioners form a majority on the five-member FCC. The chairman
will not win without a fight, however, as his decision to force a
vote on rule changes that have not been broadly debated or analyzed
has provoked a fierce response from the widest coalition of critics
ever to weigh in on an FCC rule- making decision.
Powell's contempt for public opinion, evidenced by his
scheduling of only one official hearing on the proposed rule
changes, is so great that he refused invitations to nine
semiofficial hearings at which other commissioners were present.
The hearings drew thousands of citizens and close to universal
condemnation of the rule changes. Likewise, an examination of
roughly half the 18,000 public statements filed electronically with
the FCC show that 97 percent of them oppose permitting more media
concentration. Even media moguls Barry Diller and Ted Turner have
raised objections, with Turner complaining, "There's really five
companies that control 90 percent of what we read, see and hear.
It's not healthy."...
The
stirrings in Congress prodded the Bush Administration and its
allies. Commerce Secretary Don Evans urged Powell to proceed with
the June 2 vote regardless of the opposition, and business-friendly
members of the House echoed that call.
ACTION ALERT: Will the FCC Help Big Media Get Even
Bigger?
May
20, 2003
...Among other things, the FCC's three Republican commissioners
hope to revoke the newspaper-broadcast cross-ownership rule, which
prevents a company from owning a newspaper and a TV station in the
same market, and to significantly increase the number of TV
stations one company can own...
The
FCC's rulemaking process is, by design, difficult to follow, but
the potential impact of what the New York Times called (3/14/03)
"the most important set of rules changes in decades" is alarmingly
clear. Broadcasting & Cable reported (5/15/03) that the FCC's
current proposals would allow a single company to own as many as
three TV stations in any of the five biggest markets (New York, Los
Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia), and permit ownership
of two TV stations-- as well as a major newspaper-- "in nearly all
of the largest 100 markets." In large radio markets, according to
B&C, the changes would allow a company to own eight radio and
two TV stations.
Imagine living in a community where one large, multinational
conglomerate controlled eight radio stations, two major TV stations
and the leading daily newspaper. Given the damage that media
consolidation has already done to the quality and diversity of
media offerings, such a scenario-- repeated in communities across
the country-- has worrying implications.
For
people relying on network television for news, however, it would be
tough to know much about the changes in the works. ABC World News
Tonight aired a May 15 report on FCC deregulation-- divided into
"pro" and "con" segments-- and a May 18 report on radio
deregulation. At CBS and NBC, there have been no mentions of the
sweeping proposals on any of the nightly newscasts, and only three
brief early-morning reports elsewhere on the network schedule (ABC
World News This Morning, 9/9/02, 2/27/03; CBS Morning News,
5/13/03).
These networks are all owned by companies that stand to profit
from the FCC's plan to re-shape the media landscape. Their scant
coverage of these issues-- ranging from very little at ABC to none
at all at NBC-- reflects a glaring conflict of interest.
Tarrytown judge's remark sparks
outrage
By JONATHAN BANDLER
THE JOURNAL NEWS
TARRYTOWN — An Arab-American woman who fainted in village
court said she suffered an anxiety attack after the judge asked if
she were a terrorist.
Anissa Khoder has filed a complaint against Tarrytown Village
Justice William Crosbie with the state Commission on Judicial
Conduct.
Khoder went to court on Thursday to contest a pair of parking
tickets. As she approached the judge's table, she said, Crosbie
considered her name out loud and asked if she were a terrorist. She
said she was stunned by the implication, but responded with a weak,
reflexive smile.
"I
felt offended, and I kept it to myself," she said, but then it got
worse. After completing her explanation for why the tickets should
be dismissed, she said the judge asked her, "You don't really want
to pay these tickets, do you?"
"Then he said something like, 'You have money to support the
terrorists, but you don't want to pay the ticket,' " Khoder said.
"I could not believe I was hearing that."
She
was unable to say anything in protest and, almost immediately,
collapsed to the floor. A court officer and two Tarrytown police
officers helped her and called for an ambulance, but Khoder soon
recovered and declined medical attention.
Indian shot at by whites
AP
& PTI
PHOENIX, May 21. — In a hate crime case, an Indian Sikh
immigrant was shot and seriously injured by a group of white men on
Monday, police said.
Avtar Chiera (52), a truck driver, was apparently targeted by the
white men because of his Sikh religious faith, Detective Tony
Morale of the Phoenix Police said yesterday.
Chiera had parked his vehicle when the white men pulled up in a
small red pickup truck and started yelling “get out of our
country” or something to that effect. The men opened fire,
hitting Chiera and seriously wounding him. He was not robbed and
nothing was taken from the truck, Mr Morale said.
The
shooting is being investigated as a hate crime, he said.
Authorities were still looking for suspects yesterday. After the
9/11 attack, a Sikh man, Balbir Singh Sodhi, was shot dead in Mesa,
Arizona, by a man who mistook him for a Muslim. The man now faces
first-degree murder and other charges.
Author Booed Off Stage for Anti-War
Speech
Comment: Below is an excerpt of the Rockford
College
graduation speech by Chris Hedges, a
Pulitzer Prize winner and author of a recent book that describes
war as an addiction. He was
booed and the dumb kids rushed the stage
and twice cut power to the microphone. He decided to cut his speech
short.
Excerpt:
The
censure and perhaps the rage of much of the world, certainly
one-fifth of the world's population which is Muslim, most of whom
I'll remind you are not Arab, is upon us. Look today at the 14
people killed last night in several explosions in Casablanca. And
this rage in a world where almost 50 percent of the planet
struggles on less than two dollars a day will see us targeted.
Terrorism will become a way of life, and when we are attacked we
will, like our allies Putin and Sharon, lash out with greater fury.
The circle of violence is a death spiral; no one escapes. We are
spinning at a speed that we may not be able to hold. As we revel in
our military prowess -- the sophistication of our military hardware
and technology, for this is what most of the press coverage
consisted of in Iraq -- we lose sight of the fact that just because
we have the capacity to wage war it does not give us the right to
wage war. This capacity has doomed empires in the past.
"Modern western civilization may perish," the theologian
Reinhold Niebuhr warned, "because it falsely worshiped technology
as a final good."
Erie Police Investigate Possible Ethnic Intimidation In
Teen Fight
Erie
police are investigating an alleged case of violent ethnic
intimidation Monday afternoon on the city's Eastside. 14 year old
Zaman Abo-Zebiba who's of Iraqi decent says she was beaten by a
classmate after they got off their school bus. She says a crowd of
other Wayne Middle school students stood around, and yelled
anti-Iraqi and anti-Muslim statements. "Yelling 'kill the Muslim
girl. Get her, that's what she deserves'...I don't even feel safe
in this country because everyone's messing with me." Zaman's father
Adil Abo-Zebibi moved his family to Erie from Iraq ten years ago.
"I come here to America. It is the number one free country in the
world, and I don't feel free now." Meantime the other teenager in
the fight has scratches on her chest, and denies that any
anti-Iraqi or anti-Muslim statements were ever made.
DARPA WANTS YOUR LIFE INDEXABLE AND
SEARCHABLE
It's
a memory aid! A robotic assistant! An epidemic detector! An
all-seeing, ultra-intrusive spying program!
The
Pentagon is about to embark on a stunningly ambitious research
project designed to gather every conceivable bit of information
about a person's life, index it and make it
searchable...
The
embryonic LifeLog program would take every e-mail you've sent or
received, every picture you've taken, every web page you've surfed,
every phone call you've had, every TV show you've watched, every
magazine you've read, and dump it into a giant database.
All
of this -- and more -- would be combined with a GPS transmitter, to
keep tabs on where you're going; audio-visual sensors, to capture
all that you see or say; and biomedical monitors, to keep track of
your health.
This
gigantic amalgamation of personal information could then be used to
"trace the 'threads' of an individual's life," to see exactly how a
relationship or events developed, according to a briefing from the
Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, LifeLog's
sponsor.
Someone with access to the database could "retrieve a specific
thread of past transactions, or recall an experience from a few
seconds ago or from many years earlier … by using a
search-engine interface."
Alchemy with light shocks physicists
19:00 21 May 03
Charles Choi
Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition
Claims of "unexpected and stunning new physical phenomena" are
rare in the abstract of a reputable scientific paper. But the
latest report by photonics crystal pioneer John Joannopoulos and
his group at MIT, soon to be published in Physical Review Letters,
does not disappoint.
The
researchers document the ultimate control over light: a way to
shift the frequency of light beams to any desired colour, with near
100 per cent efficiency. "The degree of control over light really
is quite shocking," comments photonics expert Eli Yablonovitch at
the University of California, Los Angeles.
[...] Photonic crystals, which are made by sandwiching together
layers of material that bend light in different ways, can be
designed to reflect some frequencies while letting others through.
They are used to steer light through circuits in the same way that
electronic circuits direct electric current.
From
computer simulations, the team found that shock waves passing
through a crystal alter its properties as they compress it. For
example, a crystal that normally allows red light through but
reflects green light might become transparent to green light and
reflect red light instead.
[...] The team is now collaborating with researchers at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to demonstrate the effect.
Initially they will generate shock waves by shooting bullets at
photonic crystals. This would destroy the crystal, but not before
the light has had time to shift. Eventually, sound waves should do
the job just as well, they say. "It's really practical, and
potentially even easier to do than with actual shock waves," says
Reed...
Six bodies found at Stonehenge
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 20:23 GMT
LONDON, England (AP) -- Archaeologists who last year unearthed
the remains of a Bronze Age archer at Stonehenge said Wednesday
they have found six more bodies near the mysterious ring of ancient
monoliths.
The
remains of four adults and two children were found about half a
mile from that of the archer, dubbed "The King of Stonehenge" by
Britain's tabloid press. Archaeologists said he came from
Switzerland and may have been involved in building the
monument.
Radiocarbon tests will be done to find out more precise dates
for the burials but the group is believed to have lived around 2300
B.C., during the building of Stonehenge at Amesbury, 75 miles
southwest of London, said Wessex Archaeology, which excavated the
site.
The
latest bones discovered are about the same age of those of the
archer, said Wessex Archaeology.
"This new find is really unusual. It is exceptionally rare to
find the remains of so many people in one grave like this in
southern England," said Andrew Fitzpatrick of Wessex
Archaeology...
N. Korea issues grim nuke warning
Wednesday, May 21, 2003 Posted: 0418 GMT (12:18 PM
HKT)
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- North Korea has condemned a recent
summit between the leaders of the U.S. and South Korea and warned
of an "unspeakable disaster" if Seoul confronts the communist state
over its nuclear weapons programs.
The
threat, made during inter-Korean economic talks in the North's
capital of Pyongyang, was the communist state's first reaction to
last week's meeting between U.S. President George W. Bush and South
Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Washington.
Bush
and Roh said last week they would "not tolerate" atomic weapons in
North Korea.
They
said they would seek a peaceful solution to the nuclear standoff
but would consider "further steps" if Pyongyang escalates
tensions.
A
senior Bush administration official has said "further steps" could
mean military action as well as "a lot of things in the
toolbox."...
Milena Tonkova: Bulgarian Archeology Project Is
the Key to Ancient Mystery Rituals
Exclusive for novinite.com: 21 May 2003, Wednesday.
Bulgarian archeologist Milena Tonkova leads one of the most
intriguing projects of indigenous archeology that explores a
mysterious ancient sanctuary.
The
sacred place connected to the cult of wine-god Dionysus and other
gods of the earth thrived in the 4th-3rd century BC. Although it
belonged to a rich Thracian kingdom, both ancient Thracians and
Greeks flocked to it.
Putin will spray rain clouds to guarantee sunshine for
celebrations
12:25 Wednesday 21st May 2003
Russian President Vladimir Putin says he can guarantee sunshine
for the St. Petersburg's 300th birthday celebrations by ordering
the Russian air force to spray chemicals on rain clouds.
Ten
planes will be kept ready for action in case rain clouds accumulate
around the city, the Defence Ministry in Moscow
confirmed.
The
planes will then spray the undisclosed chemicals on the clouds to
make them rain outside the city and spare the celebrations from
disruption.
More
than 50 world leaders including Tony Blair and President Bush are
expected to attend the event that commemorates the founding of the
city by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703...
'Mad-cow' case latest blow to rocky Canada-U.S.
trade
By
Bradley Meacham
Seattle Times business reporter
First lumber, then wheat, and now beef. Canadian goods shipped to
the U.S. are under siege, threatening to undermine the world's
biggest trading relationship.
On
Tuesday, the U.S. and other countries suspended imports of Canadian
beef after the discovery of a cow in Alberta with "mad-cow"
disease, a wasting brain disease that can spread through the food
chain...
The
worries over beef come just as trade between the two countries was
recovering from heightened border security after the Sept 11
attacks. Icy relations between President Bush and Canadian Prime
Minister Jean Chrétien and punitive U.S. duties on Canadian
lumber and wheat continue to cast a shadow. [...]
Last
year the U.S. imposed duties averaging 27 percent on Canadian wood
exports to offset what the Bush administration said are unfair
forestry policies. The tariffs have led to job losses in Canada,
especially in British Columbia, where the economy depends on the
timber industry. Most Canadians are aware of the dispute, which is
commonly referred to even in Canadian fashion magazines.
In
March, the U.S. placed separate duties on Canadian wheat exports,
saying that Canada unfairly subsidizes those crops. At the time
Canadians were already fuming about "friendly fire" deaths in
Afghanistan and the war in Iraq — which most Canadians
opposed.
More
than half of Canadians think their relationship with the U.S. is
deteriorating, according to Ekos, a Canadian polling firm. Before
the Iraq war more Canadians saw President Bush as a threat to
global security than Saddam Hussein, the poll said. Bush canceled a
planned May 5 trip to Canada, and the dispute over softwood lumber
continues to fuel anger.
Galactic boom-and-bust cycle revealed
May 03
David L. Chandler
NewScientist.com news service
New
X-ray images of two very distant galaxies have revealed what
appears to be a boom-and-bust cycle in the early evolution of
galaxies and galaxy clusters. The images, taken with the orbiting
Chandra X-ray observatory, show huge clouds of high-energy
particles surrounding two galaxies, 3C294 and 4C41.17. These are
located 10 and 12 billion light years away respectively.
The
particles can be traced back, using X-ray and radio observations,
to jets emanating from supermassive black holes at the centres of
the galaxies, and can therefore be identified as the remnants of
explosive activity in these early galaxies.
"The
galaxies may be revealing an energetic phase in which a
supermassive black hole transfers considerable energy into the gas
surrounding the galaxies," said Andrew Fabian of Cambridge
University, UK, who led the study to be published in the Monthly
Notices of Royal Astronomical Society.
The
finding may help explain some puzzling features of early galaxies
and the largest clusters of galaxies, the team says. In particular,
it explains why the gravitational accretion of matter does not just
continue unabated until all the gas, dust and stars in a region
have collapsed into far larger galaxies and much denser galaxy
clusters, with more massive central black holes, than are actually
seen.
The
astronomers suggest that the huge energetic jets implied by new
work provided an energetic wind that countered the accretion
process and pushed everything outward again. This process is
similar to the T-Tauri winds that sweep away all the gas and dust
around newly-formed stars.
"It's as if nature tries to impose a weight limit on the size
of the most massive galaxies," said Caleb Scharf, an astronomer at
Columbia University in New York and author of a separate study on
the Chandra findings being published in the Astrophysical Journal.
The energetic winds, he says, provide a mechanism to regulate the
growth of the galaxy by stopping the collapse for a few million
years, after which the cycle begins again. [...]
The dark destroyer
A
mysterious and powerful force - 'dark energy' - has made physicists
change their view of the fate of the Universe. Now the race is on
to find out more about it
By
Marcus Chown
21 May 2003
Independent, UK
The
fate of the Universe is to end not with a bang but with a whimper,
as TS Eliot famously wrote. This is the current view of
cosmologists, who believe the Universe will expand forever, its
constituent galaxies becoming ever more isolated islands of
burnt-out stars in an endless sea of space. However, physicists in
the US have now pointed out a radically different cosmic endgame.
"We call it the Big Rip," says Robert Caldwell of Dartmouth
College, New Hampshire. "It's a nightmare scenario in which all
galaxies, stars and even atoms are violently torn apart, and it's
still just compatible with the observations."
The
key to understanding the Big Rip is the "dark energy", which burst
on to the scene in 1998 when astrophysicists in the US discovered
that distant "Type Ia" supernovae - a class of exploding stars
believed to detonate with a standard intrinsic brightness - were
fainter than they ought to be, taking into account their distance
from the Earth. Confounding all expectations, the Universe's
expansion had speeded up since the stars exploded, pushing them
further away than predicted and making them appear
fainter.
This
was a bombshell dropped into the world of cosmology. The Universe's
constituent galaxies are flying apart like pieces of cosmic
shrapnel in the aftermath of the Big Bang, the titanic explosion in
which everything was born 13.7 billion years ago. The only force
thought to be affecting their motion was the gravitational pull of
each galaxy tugging on every other. It should be braking the
expansion, not speeding it up. Evidently, the Universe was being
controlled by something else - something which nobody had
anticipated.
It
was dubbed "dark energy" by cosmologists. Invisible and mysterious,
it lurks in the blackness of space and is exerting a cosmic
repulsion on the matter of the Universe, counteracting gravity and
driving the galaxies remorselessly apart. It can be thought of as
"springy space". As galaxies move apart from each other, ever more
springy space is created between them, which has the effect of
pushing the galaxies apart more forcibly.
There are several possible candidates for the dark energy,
distinguishable by the way they behave as the Universe expands.
Caldwell and his colleagues, Marc Kamionkowski and Nevin Weinberg
of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, have
investigated a type which they have christened "phantom energy".
Its central characteristic is that the energy contained in a fixed
volume of space increases with time.
This
has a double-whammy effect. Not only does the repulsive effect on
galaxies go up because springiness of space increases, it goes up
because more springy space is created between the galaxies as they
fly apart. "The result is a runaway expansion of the Universe which
gets ever more violent," says Caldwell. So fast is the expansion
that more and more of the Universe is stretched so far away from
any observer that its light cannot reach them. "Consequently, every
observer sees the visible Universe around them shrink ever faster,
eventually down to a single point."
But
the most dramatic consequence is that, as the phantom energy grows,
its repulsive effect becomes strong enough to rip apart all systems
held together with familiar forces, starting with galaxy clusters
and rapidly going down the scale to galaxies, stars and planets.
"At the end of time, as the visible Universe around every point
shrinks to nothing, even atoms will be ripped apart," says
Caldwell.
In a
paper submitted to the journal Physical Review, Caldwell's team
calculates one possible timeline for a universe dominated by
phantom energy. The Universe reaches the Big Rip in 22 billion
years from now, with the Milky Way destroyed 60 million years
before the end, planets exploded half an hour before and atoms torn
to pieces in the final billion billionth of a second.
Caldwell admits to surprise that such a violent end is possible
in an ever- expanding universe when the received wisdom was that
such a universe would end with a whimper. Even more surprising is
that this doomsday scenario is still compatible with cosmic
observations, including those of the fleeing supernovae and cosmic
background radiation, the "afterglow" of the Big Bang which still
lingers throughout space. "It's unlikely but it can't be proved
impossible," says Martin Rees of the University of Cambridge, who
has carried out calculations similar to Caldwell. "If humanoids
survive, they could observe all but the final millisecond - that's
when the cosmic repulsion gets up to the tensile strength of our
bodies and tears us apart."
Despite the unpleasant end to the Universe, phantom energy may
answer a nagging question about the dark energy. It had an
extremely small effect in the Big Bang but it has been growing ever
since. Only comparatively recently has it begun to dominate the
Universe. Why now? According to Caldwell, the answer is simple. The
Universe began in uniformity - the smeared-out hot gas of the Big
Bang - and it will end in uniformity, with all matter ripped apart
and spread evenly throughout space. There is only a brief period in
between when structures such as galaxies and planets are possible -
later than the time gravity has pulled matter together and before
the time the dark energy is strong enough to blast it apart again.
"Since it's the only time we can exist, we should not be surprised
to find ourselves living at such a time!" says Caldwell.
The
scenario is not without problems, though. Phantom energy's
repulsive effect could be used to hold open "wormholes", short-cuts
through space and time which are permitted by Einstein's theory of
gravity but should snap shut the instant they form. This raises the
spectre of time machines. Physicists find these very uncomfortable
since in principle someone could go back in time and kill their
grandfather, with obvious paradoxical consequences.
The
strong possibility remains that the dark energy is in a form less
extreme than phantom energy. The two frontrunners are a
"cosmological constant", proposed by Einstein and later dismissed
by him as his "biggest mistake", and "quintessence".
In
the case of a cosmological constant, the energy contained in a
fixed volume of space drops with time. But this is exactly
compensated for by the extra space created as the Universe expands,
so the cosmic repulsion never dies away but ensures the Universe
expands forever. In the case of quintessence, the energy contained
in a fixed volume of space drops less quickly. In an extreme case,
it actually stays constant. (If banknotes behaved like this, if you
held a stack between your hands and pulled your hands twice as far
apart, you would double the number of bank notes.) Quintessence
therefore boosts the expansion of the Universe far more than a
cosmological constant, though not of course as much as phantom
energy. If banknotes behaved like phantom energy, they would
fountain out of control from between your hands.
What
physicists need is a way of distinguishing between the three
different incarnations of dark energy. They may get it before the
end of the decade.
Astronomers are proposing a spaceprobe called the SuperNova
Acceleration Probe (Snap). It will boast the largest camera ever
put in space - 30 times bigger than the camera on Nasa's Hubble
Space Telescope. Its task will be to make measurements of more than
2,000 supernovae as they detonate in far away galaxies. "It's one
of the most important scientific projects of the next 10 years,"
says cosmologist Max Tegmark, of the University of
Pennsylvania.
Snap
is one of the US Department of Energy's highest scientific
priorities. "How the dark energy changes with distance, or
'look-back time' is the key observation that will allow us to
distinguish between the different types of dark energy," says one
of Snap's originators, Greg Aldering of Lawrence Berkeley
Laboratory in California. The plan is to launch Snap in 2008.
Finally, we might get a handle on the nature of dark energy.
Unless, of course, nature has another surprise up its
sleeve.
Comment: One has to wonder, in light of the
apparent Bush Reich Agenda to take over the Planet, just WHY "Snap"
is "one of the US Department of Energy's highest scientific
priorities." After all, making this planet safe and friendly, and
solving the problems of humanity - as it exists - do not seem to be
a very high priority. But then, of course, we notice in the above
article the reference to "time travel." Ahh! Hyperdimensional space
and all that! The very things we have been writing about on this
website for the past five years or more. And we notice that
everything in our world that points to "hyperdimensional space" and
its denizens, is rapidly being dealt with by COINTELPRO by calling
it "cultic" or "dangerous."
Recovered Meteor Reveals Solar
Secrets
AFP
May
8, 2003 — The extraordinary find of a meteorite that was
photographed as it plummeted to Earth has helped resolve some of
the mysteries about the solar system's rocky wanderers, but also
created new ones...
The
astronomers traced the trajectory of the path they saw and on July
14 they found a 1.75-kilo (3.85-pound) chunk of the debris near the
turreted castle of Neuschwanstein, in Bavaria.
It
was only the fourth time that meteorites have been recovered from
detected meteors, despite the sky-scrutinizing efforts of the
European Fireball Network and others around the world...
Neuschwanstein, the astronomers were startled to find, came
from the same "meteor stream" as the first of the four historic
space rocks — a 4.5-kilo (9.9-pound) chunk found in 1959 in
Pribram, in what was then Czechoslovakia.
But
the Neuschwanstein meteorite is much older than Pribram — it
spent 48 million years in space, compared to 12 million years
— and has a quite different chemical composition.
It
has less iron oxide, magnesium, silicon and calcium among its key
elements and is more granular.
If
Neuschwanstein came from an asteroid, the evidence challenges
assumptions that the solar system's building rubble is comprised of
similar chemical masses.
"It
seems the meteor stream in which these objects were flowing is more
heterogeneous than is usually supposed," said Jack Drummond, of the
Starfire Optical Range in New Mexico, in an accompanying article in
Nature.
"Looking skyward, knowing where these rocks came from, we may
begin to understand something of the early history of our solar
system."
Krystallnacht: The Night of the Broken
Glass
Philosopher George Santayana warned the civilized world that
those who ignored history would be condemned to repeat it -- and he
was right. 9-11 was America's 'Krystallnacht' and we are indeed
repeating it.
Generations of Americans have wondered how the German people
allowed the evil of Hitler to come into being. It was easy. Most of
the conditions in Germany that led to Hitler's rise to power not
only exist in America today, they fill our daily news...
The
level of propaganda in America since 9-11 has truly risen to
Hitlerian levels and most Americans do not even care about the Bush
administration lies. Many people have damned me as anti-Bush. I
assure you, I am an equal opportunity Fed-basher and for new
readers, you should read what I had to say about the
Clintonistas...
Hitler had his propagandists and so does Dubya...the sad thing
is both are financed by many of the same people. People did not
listen then and they do not listen now.
All
I can ask is for you to READ the news from all over the world,
never depend upon network news that you hear in nightly 15 second
sound bytes and to use the brains the good Lord gave you.
Basically, you are being lied to and for a definite reason. Don't
take my word for it or that of any other single source. Learn to
search out your own facts, because I assure you...what you are told
by major media and your government is NOT the truth!
The Darkening of The American Dream
Posted Saturday, May 17, 2003
By Stewart Nusbaumer
Editor of Intervention.
On a
New York subway train yesterday in the middle of the afternoon
surrounded by the safe Upper West Side, my daughter's wallet was
stolen. Before she could arrive home and telephone the credit card
company, numerous charges had been made: $135 for perfume, $263 for
shoes, $59 for lunch, $210 for three subway passes, $88 for a
railroad ticket to Long Island, $80 worth of wine.
While her wallet was being lifted, I was reading that the U.S.
military is imposing security on the other side of the world,
wealthy New Yorkers are paying enormous sums of money for lavish
Manhattan apartments, and workers in Brooklyn and the Bronx are
struggling to find any kind of work. I didn't read anything about
New York crime, which is just as well. Statistics on crime in New
York City are as trustworthy as statistics on SARS in
Beijing...
It's
doubtful the liberating one is from the army of economic emigrants
living in New York and working for near slave wages, since most of
them are riveted to the promise of the American Dream, immune to
thoughts of injustice and stealing. Those living in proximity to
5th Avenue are already living the American Dream -- pushing dog-
stocks is definitely stealing, but it's legal, and anything legal
and profitable is the American Dream...
The
American Dream is a material dream, the hope for a life of wealth.
Everything else is secondary, including democracy and nationalism.
This material American Dream helps keep our society together since
little else glues us. However, with riches beyond reach, Americans
are forced to settle for the occasional brush with opulence and a
house on a small plot of land with an SUV in the driveway. Still,
the Dream tends to hold and bind a people with less and less in
common.
...The American Dream today is little more than the material
possessions one can gather, little more than the United States of
wealth. Still, it helps us to identify with each other and not go
after each other's throats, most of the time.
G. W. Bush: A Designer President By Karl
Rove
By
Dorothy Anne Seese
The
White House has taken a cue from the success of producer/director
Steven Spielberg, a confessing liberal communicant, and Karl Rove
has created from a patrician family's spoiled son, errant investor
and baseball fan both a governor for the state of Texas and now, a
true "designer" president for Americans who are hungry for a hero
to worship and a leader to follow. In fact, Rove's masterpiece goes
far beyond Spielberg's transformation of Liam Neeson into Oskar
Schindler. Karl Rove, in his mastery of the chameleon politician,
isn't looking for a few million on opening weekend, he's in for a
minimum of an eight year run and perhaps following that, a
succession of Bush boys in the White House. And hundreds upon
hundreds of millions in whatever Rove wishes to invest. Unless they
all get caught.
...The American public seems to love being fooled into
believing in this creation by the White House's own version of
Spielberg...
...Karl Rove has engineered public thought to believe W. Bush
is a "conservative" and he isn't a conservative, he is a patrician
with imperialist notions of grandeur and control over America --
and any part of the world that confronts US policy. Perhaps no
greater tyrant has come to the forefront in America, but is it
Bush, or Rove? That's the real mystery...
If
Act One of Karl Rove's continuing drama was the governorship of
Texas, and Act Two is the president who would be emperor ... and if
his talent follows along Spielberg lines ... one has to
ask:
Is
Jurassic Park next?
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