War on terror leaves
world in fear, says Amnesty
By
Kim Sengupta
The Independent
29 May 2003
The
United States and Britain are using the "war on terror" as a
pretext to abuse human rights and their oppressive actions have
made the world "more insecure than since the Cold War", Amnesty
International said yesterday.
In a
hard-hitting and controversial report, the watchdog body claimed
that Washington and London had used the 11 September terrorist
attacks to introduce draconian laws.
"What would have been
unacceptable on 10 September 2001 is now becoming almost the norm",
said Irene Khan, Amnesty's secretary general, launching the report.
"What would have been an outrage in Western countries during the
Cold War - torture, detention without trial, truncated justice - is
readily accepted in some countries today.
"The
great supporters of human rights during the Cold War now readily
either roll them back in their own countries or encourage others to
do so and turn a blind eye...
"The
US continues to pick and choose which bits of its obligations under
international law it will use, and when it will use them. By
putting the detainees at Guantanamo Bay into a legal black hole,
the administration appeared to continue to support a world where
arbitrary unchallengeable detentions become acceptable."
Amnesty said that the
detention by the US of more than 600 foreign nationals, including
Britons, at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was a human rights scandal and
that the prisoners should be released or charged. The UK, too, was
accused of serious human rights violations. The report said that 13
foreign nationals had been interned without charge in "inhuman and
degrading conditions" in high-security prisons under the Home
Secretary's Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act.
[...]
Comment: So how much more evidence do we
need? We are no longer theorising, it is staring us all in the face
and just about anyone with an ounce of objectivity can see it. We
can now state categorically and with hard evidence that the current
US administration is corrupt to the core and has time and again
defaulted on its legal obligations to the America and the American
people. The question is, what are you gonna do about it?
War on terror has heightened insecurity, Amnesty
International says
JANE
WARDELL
CBC Online News
05:01 AM EDT May 29
LONDON (AP) - The U.S.-led
war on terror has made the world a more dangerous and repressive
place, Amnesty International said Wednesday in a report Washington
dismissed as "without merit."
The
international human rights organization singled out the United
States and Britain for detaining terror suspects without trial,
under legislation introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks. It also
accused other countries, including the Philippines and China, of
using security legislation to crack down on political
opposition...
"The
'war on terror,' far from making the world a safer place, has made
it more dangerous by curtailing human rights, undermining the rule
of international law and shielding governments from scrutiny," Khan
said.
"The
great supporters of human rights during the Cold War now quite
readily either roll them back in their own countries or encourage
others to do so and turn a blind eye.
"What would have been
unacceptable on Sept. 10, 2001, is now becoming almost the norm,"
she said.
The
report said most of the 1,200 foreign nationals, mostly Muslim men
of Arab or South Asian origin, detained in the United States during
inquiries into the Sept. 11 attacks were either deported, released
or charged with crimes unrelated to terrorism by the end of
2002...
Amnesty said the detention
by the United States of 600 foreign nationals at Guantanamo Bay in
Cuba was a "human rights scandal" and called on America to release
or charge those imprisoned there. Spokesman Rob Freer said Amnesty
has repeatedly requested access to Guantanamo, as recently as last
week, but received no reply.
"Children are among them,
the elderly are among them and undoubtedly there are people who
were picked up for being at the wrong place at the wrong time,"
Freer said.
Ari
Fleischer, the White House press secretary, denied that the United
States was violating the human rights of prisoners at
Guantanamo.
"I
dismiss that as without merit," he said. "The prisoners in
Guantanamo are being treated humanely. They're receiving medical
care. They're receiving food. They're receiving far better
treatment than they received in the life that they were living
previously."
Meanwhile, Khan accused the
United States of undermining international law by seeking bilateral
agreements to exempt its citizens from charges of human rights
abuses by the International Criminal Court.
"There's a dangerous
approach now, picking and choosing which bits of human rights law
to apply and which bits of international law to respect," she said.
"That's a dangerous trend and something we have not seen for
decades."...
Amnesty also said that
while the human rights situation in Israel and the Palestinian
areas occupied by Israeli soldiers was often talked about, it was
the "least acted upon by the international community."
The
White House deflected the criticism that its focus on terrorism and
Iraq came at the expense of crises in other countries.
"I
think that as the world increasingly sees the brutality, the
horrors that Saddam Hussein carried out against his own people,"
Fleischer said. "And I think the world is rejoicing in the fact
that, thanks to the efforts of the coalition, millions of people
who were previously imprisoned are now free."
Comment: Unsurprisingly the facts directly
contradict Fleischer here. Most Iraqis have had their lives torn
apart by the US invasion. 7,000 civilians killed, looting in the
streets, an occupying force using an increasingly heavy hand in a
vain attempt to restore order to the disorder they created and the
wealth from Iraq's oil being funneled into the pockets of
Haliburton etc. This is "freedom" American style...
DubyaCo: It's Not So
Funny Any More
By
DAVID VEST
CounterPunch
Having destroyed Iraq, the
United States now proposes to rebuild it with the money generated
from the sale of Iraqi oil, which will be flowing again, we are
told, within three weeks. Thus will Iraq's natural wealth be pumped
directly into the coffers of Bechtel, Halliburton and other
administration cronies. Call them DubyaCo.
You
will perhaps have noticed that no one is telling us that
electricity, water and the rule of law will be restored throughout
Iraq within three weeks. These things are not feasible. But oil
will flow.
"Iraqi oil belongs to the
Iraqi people," says Ari Fleischer, famously referring I suppose to
what will be left of it after DubyaCo "recoups
expenses."
How
long will the U.S. be in Iraq? Ask rather, how long will money flow
from the spigot? And then ask how much American blood and treasure
it took to get it flowing, right into the wallets of Cheney's pals
and Bush's supporters. Everyone under the command of Tommy Franks
was effectively part of a mercenary expedition, employed at
taxpayer expense and deployed in the service of "American
interests," i.e., DubyaCo...
The
fact is that people have stopped laughing at Bush because he's no
longer the village idiot. He's the village tyrant now. After what
he did to Iraq, after he lied to this country to persuade it to go
to war, nothing he ever does will be funny anymore.
Democrats: Profiles In
Spinelessness
Arianna Online
May 28, 2003
"I a
little bit disagree with Chairman Roberts on that."
That
was Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the senior Democrat on the Senate
Intelligence Committee, kinda, sorta, uh, not really taking
exception to Committee chairman Pat Roberts' assertion that we've
turned the corner when it comes to keeping the peace in postwar
Iraq.
But
it could just as easily serve as the motto for the whole Democratic
Party: "Vote for us -- we kinda, sorta disagree." The Party leaders
are so timid, spineless, and lacking in confidence that to compare
them to jellyfish would be an insult to invertebrates...
These dithering poltroons
are so paralyzed by the fear of doing or saying something that
could be turned against them in GOP attack ads they've rendered
themselves utterly impotent when it comes to mounting any kind of
challenge to President Bush on the two most important issues of the
day: tax cuts and Iraq.
Exhibit A comes from Senate
Minority Leader Tom Daschle who, when asked on Meet the Press why
the Democrats didn't offer a bold, full-throated alternative to the
Bush tax cut plan, including the repeal of the 2001 cuts and a
guaranteed balanced budget, timorously explained: "Well, we -- you
got to take it one step at a time."
You
do -- why? Is this an AA meeting? Bush doesn't take it one step at
a time. He's comfortable leading by leaps and bounds. And he's
taking us along with him -- straight over a cliff. We're facing a
trillion dollars of new debt, incurred by a president with the
worst economic record since Herbert Hoover, and the best the leader
of the opposition party can muster is a meaningless cliche? Quick,
get that man a dose of political Viagra! At least get the blood
flowing somewhere. [...]
It
is precisely this kind of craven vacillation that has made possible
the triumph of the fanatics in the White House....
No Bunker where U.S.
Bombs Targeted Saddam-CBS
Wed
May 28, 2003 08:39 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
Baghdad bunker which the United States said it bombed on the
opening night of the Iraq war in a bid to kill Saddam Hussein never
existed, CBS Evening News reported Wednesday.
The
network quoted a U.S. Army colonel in charge of inspecting key
sites in Baghdad as saying no trace of a bunker or of bodies had
been found at the site on the southern outskirts of the Iraqi
capital, known as Dora Farms.
"When we came out here, the
primary thing they were looking for was an underground facility, or
bodies, forensics, and basically, what they saw was giant holes
created. No underground facilities, no bodies," Col. Tim Madere
said...
Shortly after the attack,
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters: "There's no
question but that the strike on that leadership headquarters was
successful. We have photographs of what took place. The question
is, what was in there?"...
The
fate of Saddam and his sons Uday and Qusay is still
unclear.
Rumsfeld said earlier this
month, "If you don't have evidence he's dead, you've probably got
to assume he's alive."
Comment: Right. And
if the world doesn't have any evidence that Iraq has WMDs, we've
probably got to assume that they don't have any, which makes Bush,
Rumsfeld and Co a bunch of liars, which meaks Bush eligible for
immediate Impeachment.
Iraq war: Unanswered
questions
Published: 2003/04/17
16:40:04 GMT
© BBC MMIII
One
feature of the war in Iraq was the speed and immediacy with which
many events were reported by the media. Some of these turned out to
be not quite what they seemed, others are still surrounded by
confusion. Was this the fog of war, effects-based warfare,
propaganda, or error? BBC News Online takes stock:
Scuds
Coalition account: On day
one of the war, 20 March, military spokesmen for the US and UK
announce that "Scud-type" missiles have been fired into Kuwait.
This was significant because Iraq was banned from having Scuds or
other missiles of a similar range under UN resolutions.
Clarification: Three days
later US General Stanley McChrystal reports: "So far there have
been no Scuds launched."...
Cluster bombs Iraqi
account: Officials in the Iraqi capital say that US forces have
been dropping cluster bombs on civilian areas in Iraq. First
reports of the use of cluster bombs in the war appear in the
Western media on 3 April.
Coalition denial: US and
British officials deny the use of cluster munitions. British
military spokesman Colonel Chris Vernon said: "We are not using
cluster munitions, for obvious collateral damage reasons, in and
around Basra."
Later UK account: A
military official in London tells BBC News Online: "We have used
them elsewhere." He said they were an effective weapon of warfare,
for example to target a convoy of military vehicles, but were only
used in the open far from built up areas. UK Defence Secretary
Geoff Hoon defends the use of cluster bombs in Iraq on 4 April,
saying they are legal and not using them would put British soldiers
at greater risk.
At Death's Door American
Woman Travels Door to Door to Count Iraqi
Casualties
By
David Wright
Information Clearinghouse
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 28 (ABC
News) The Pentagon keeps a precise count of U.S. casualties in the
war in Iraq. But the question of how many Iraqis lost their lives
remains as mysterious as the whereabouts of Saddam Hussein or the
location of all those weapons of mass destruction.
Marla Ruzicka, 26, from the
San Francisco Bay Area, has been in Baghdad since the day Saddam's
statue fell in the city center. She has been doing a headcount of
the Iraqi injured and the dead. She's found more than she
expected.
She
has formed her own nonprofit organization, called the Campaign for
Innocent Victims in Conflict, or CIVIC. She has organized 150
surveyors to fan out across Iraq. So far, they say they have
documented 620 civilian deaths in Baghdad, 256 in Najaf, 425 in
Karbala and as many as 1,100 in Nasiriyah. It is only a preliminary
count.
"Somewhere between 5,000 to
10,000 people died in this conflict," Ruzicka said.
Rumsfeld concedes banned
Iraqi weapons may not exist
By
Rupert Cornwell in Washington
The Independent
29 May 2003
After seven weeks of
fruitless search, the Bush administration has come the closest so
far to conceding that, contrary to its pre-invasion scaremongering,
there may not have been any chemical or biological weapons in
Iraq.
Several US military
officers involved in the hunt in Iraq have raised the possibility
that the illegal arms might have been destroyed, but the official
line in Washington has been that Saddam Hussein had artfully hidden
them, and sooner or later they would be found.
But
now, Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary and one of the leading
hawks on Iraq, has admitted that the weapons may not exist. "We
don't know what happened," he told the Council of Foreign Relations
in New York. "It is also possible that [Saddam's government]
decided they would destroy them prior to a conflict."
What
Mr Rumsfeld did not discuss was when the weapons might have been
destroyed - immediately before the war, or long beforehand (as
suggested by Iraqi defectors, who said as long ago as 1995 that
they had been destroyed). Experts also doubt that, in the past few
weeks or months, Iraq could have got rid of chemical and germ
warfare stockpiles of the size alleged by Bush officials, without
it being picked up by US and British intelligence.
U.S. 'confident' over
Iraq WMDs
Thursday, May 29, 2003
05:09 GMT
CNN
WASHINGTON -- U.S.
intelligence officials say they are now "confident" that trucks
laden with high-tech equipment found in Iraq were designed as
mobile biological weapons production facilities.
One
of the main premises for the invasion of Iraq was to rid the
country of weapons of mass destruction, but despite the discovery
of these apparent mobile weapons labs so far U.S. forces have found
no banned weapons.
The
report, produced jointly by the Pentagon and the CIA, concludes
that the trucks must have been intended for weapons production
because all other logical alternatives have been ruled
out...
The
equipment in the trailers was either new and unused, or had been
thoroughly cleaned to remove any traces of the materials used,
according to the report.
But
the find has not convinced critics who say that the existence of
the trucks does nothing to prove what the Bush administration
predicted before the war -- that at least 100 metric tons of
weaponized chemical and biological agents would be
found.
Former U.N. weapons
inspector Jonathan Tucker says the trucks could well be biological
weapons facilities, but he says the Pentagon-CIA report does not
present an open and shut case.
"This was clearly a very
inefficient way to produce anthrax," he told CNN.
"The
question is why did they invest such resources in a mobile facility
if they could have simply hidden a fixed production facility in a
very difficult to find location?"
Comment: You keep
swallowin' and they'll keep shovellin' it in.
Buried WMDs Found ... In
Maryland
FORT
DETRICK, May 28, 2003
(CBS) U.S. weapons experts
are struggling to deal with the remnants of a decades-old
biological weapons program.
They
are trying to find potentially dangerous materials once shrouded in
secrecy with only poorly kept records and fading memories to go
on.
Thousands of tons of
hazardous substances like anthrax are at stake.
Only
the hunt is not in Iraq.
It's
in Maryland...
In
what has become the Army's biggest remediation project ever, the
cleanup of Area B has unearthed vials of live bacteria and
nonvirulent anthrax. Some 2,000 tons have been scooped out of the
ground to date, in a project due to end in 2003...
The
site is so toxic that clean-up crews wear respirators and the
materials sometimes burst into flames as they are dug up. Animals
from the surrounding forest are autopsied when they die to see what
killed them. At one point, digging released a gas that sent workers
to the hospital.
The case for war is blown apart
By
Ben Russell and Andy McSmith in Kuwait City
The Independent
29 May 2003
Tony
Blair stood accused last night of misleading Parliament and the
British people over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction,
and his claims that the threat posed by Iraq justified
war.
Robin Cook, the former
foreign secretary, seized on a "breathtaking" statement by the US
Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, that Iraq's weapons may have
been destroyed before the war, and anger boiled over among MPs who
said the admission undermined the legal and political justification
for war.
Mr
Blair insisted yesterday he had "absolutely no doubt at all about
the existence of weapons of mass destruction"...
Mr
Rumsfeld ignited the row in a speech in New York, declaring: "It is
... possible that they [Iraq] decided that they would destroy them
prior to a conflict and I don't know the answer."
Speaking in the Commons
before the crucial vote on war, Mr Blair told MPs that it was
"palpably absurd" to claim that Saddam had destroyed weapons
including 10,000 litres of anthrax, up to 6,500 chemical munitions;
at least 80 tons of mustard gas, sarin, botulinum toxin and "a host
of other biological poisons".
But
Mr Cook said yesterday: "We were told Saddam had weapons ready for
use within 45 minutes. It's now 45 days since the war has finished
and we have still not found anything." [...]
Comment: What is
palpably absurd is that the people of the UK and US aren't
protesting en masse. Their governments have basically admitted to
lying about Iraq's WMD, then tried to patch up the gaping holes in
their story with more lies. Yet the vast majority of people barely
seem to even blink. Their own flesh and blood are sent off to die
in the desert for an unjust war of domination, and they do nothing
but wave their flags. Their children are killed and sent home in
body bags, and they weep and wave their flags. There will be a price to pay for such blind allegiance to
tyranny.
Allies to Retain Larger
Iraq Force as Strife Persists
By
MICHAEL R. GORDON
New York Times
BAGHDAD, Iraq, May 28 Faced
with armed resistance that has killed four American soldiers this
week, allied military commanders now plan to keep a larger force in
Iraq than had been anticipated and to send war-hardened units to
trouble spots outside Baghdad, senior American officials said
today.
Instead of sending home the
Third Infantry Division, which led the charge on Baghdad, American
officials are developing plans that call for most of its troops to
extend their stay and be used to quell unrest and extend American
control.
Allied officials said that
about 160,000 American and British troops were in Iraq and that
most were likely to stay until security improves and other nations
eased the burden by contributing troops.
Iraqis Riot, Shoot Down
U.S. Helicopter
Wednesday, May 28, 2003 @
17:02 CDT
Report by YellowTimes.org NewsFromtheFront.org
TORONTO (NFTF.org) --
Iraqis rioted through the town of Habt in the province of Anbar
today, burning police stations, and shouting pro-Saddam slogans, Al
Jazeera TV and eyewitnesses reported. The rioters blamed the U.S.
presence in Iraq for the mushrooming inflation and lack of
services.
Al
Jazeera reported that a U.S. helicopter was shot down, killing four
U.S. military personnel. Al Jazeera also reported that U.S. service
men were seen quickly removing evidence of the downed helicopter.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi police station in Anbar was blown up by no less
than 20 hand grenades -- a reprisal attack for Iraqis colluding
with U.S. forces, says Al Jazeera...
Comment: Let me quote Ari Fleischer's
analysis of the situation: "I think the world is rejoicing in the
fact that, thanks to the efforts of the coalition, millions of
people who were previously imprisoned are now free." See anything
wrong with the picture? Again, freedom American sytle, don't ya
just love it? The popular and oft-used phrase "God bless America"
in our opinion is in need of a slight amendment: "God bless America
- it's gonna need it"
The Rape of Iraq
Pravda
After the vicious and
murderous assault on Iraq by the US/UK alliance, in which it was
patently obvious that neither human life nor the rule of law
deserved a modicum of respect from the Bush and Blair regimes,
follow the bounty hunters: gangs of thieves raping Iraq, stealing
its considerable archaeological resources and destroying the
National Library in its entirety.
This
army of looters is digging up everything it can from many of the
country's 10,000 registered archaeological sites, taking vases,
cuneiform tablets, statues, coins and urns of incalculable
historical and cultural value, some of the artifacts three to four
thousand years old. As the treasures of Iraq are ransacked by this
bunch of thieves, many of whom are armed with semi-automatic
weapons, nobody seems willing, or able, to stop them.
Where are the US troops,
who under the Geneva Convention have the obligation to guarantee
the peace as the invading force? The anarchy that reins in Iraq is
proof that the United States of America has yet again failed to
honour its duties under international law, something which is
becoming the norm for the Bush regime.
Among the sites pillaged
are the ancient cities of Isin, Uruk, Larsa and Fara. However, it
is not only the sites which are being desecrated. In Baghdad,
UNESCO estimates that between two and three thousand pieces are
still missing from the National Museum, while the entire contents
of the National Library have been reduced to a pile of ashes and up
to 1,500 pieces have gone missing from the Museum of Fine
Arts.
Mounir Bouchenaki,
assistant director for cultural affairs at UNESCO, calls the
situation "a cultural disaster", claiming that the affirmations by
the US forces that "around 25 pieces" are missing, "a distortion of
the truth". A "distortion of the truth"? Or blatant, barefaced
lies? George Bush's forces have performed a replay of the barbaric
deeds of Genghis Khan, the Destroyer of Civilization. History will
draw its own conclusions about this Presidency of the United States
of America.
U.S. Eyes Iraqi Use Of Mobile
Labs
LOS
ANGELES TIMES
May 29, 2003
Washington - The nation's top spy agencies, under increasing
criticism for their intelligence on Iraq, produced new details
yesterday intended to show that two suspicious tractor-trailers
discovered in northern Iraq last month were almost certainly mobile
weapons laboratories.
A report by the CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency cited the
discovery of the vehicles as "the strongest evidence to date that
Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program," while acknowledging
that analysis has turned up no residue suggesting that the labs
were ever actually used to produce biological agents.
[...]
Comment: key words in the above "under
increasing criticism" "produced new details". The Oxford dictionary
gives for "produce": 1. Manufacture from raw materials; 2. Bear or
yield; 3. Bring into existence.
Brazil and Bush’s War on
Terror
by Robert Blumen
We
are living in Brazil. The future as foretold by Terry
Gilliam’s 1985 rich and multi-layered film masterpiece Brazil
is upon us. First released fifteen years ago, Terry Gilliam’s
Brazil was astonishingly accurate in forecasting political trends.
In a previous essay, I examined the film as a critique of socialist
central planning. In this piece, I will discuss how Brazil portends
Bush’s War on Terror.
The world of Brazil shows a totalitarian society in which freedom
has been forfeited for a false promise of protection from terrorist
attacks. Gilliam shows how the threat of terrorism is manipulated
by the state as a means of political control over the population.
The threat of terror is created by the internal security police in
order to generate public acceptance of totalitarian police
powers.
Gilliam’s exposition raises some important questions: Is the
terror created by the power of the state in the alleged pursuit of
terrorism worse than the terrorism itself? And are they really any
different? [...]
Iraqi weapons only
one reason for war-Wolfowitz
By Reuters, 5/28/2003
The
U.S. decision to stress the threat posed by Iraq's supposed weapons
of mass destruction above all others was taken for ''bureaucratic''
reasons to justify the war, U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul
Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in remarks released
Wednesday.
Wolfowitz, seen as one of the most hawkish figures in the Bush
administration's policy on Iraq, said President Saddam Hussein's
alleged cache of chemical, biological and possibly nuclear weapons
was merely one of several reasons behind the decision to go to
war.
''For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of
mass destruction, because it was the one reason everyone could
agree on,'' Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in Vanity Fair
magazine's July issue.
No
chemical or biological weapons have been found in Iraq despite
repeated assertions by President Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair before the March 20 invasion that the threat posed by
Saddam's vast stocks of banned weapons warranted a war to eliminate
them.
Comment: Okay, thanks for clearing that one
up Paul, so basically you are saying that you and your task-masters
concocted the whole story to convince people that there was
justification for the invasion of Iraq, the death of 10,000-15,000
Iraqi soldiers/conscripts, 7,000 civilians and an unknown number of
American and British troops. We'll accept your resignation along
with those of the entire US cabinet.
WMD: Will the real culprit stand up
By Jim Lobe
WASHINGTON - The failure of
the US military to find any strong evidence of Iraqi weapons of
mass destruction (WMD), let alone links between former president
Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, is creating growing unease within both
Congress and the administration of President George W
Bush.
The
administration sold the war it launched in March with it allies the
United Kingdom and Australia based on its contention that Baghdad
had massive quantities of WMD, some of which could have been
transferred to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda or similar groups to
carry out an attack against the United States or its
allies.
But
after seven weeks of uncontested control of Iraq's territory, it
has yet to find even one gram of biological, chemical or nuclear
material designed for weapons use, despite an intensive search by
specially trained teams that have investigated all of the sites
identified by the intelligence community before the war as most
likely to hold WMD.
"The
Bush team's extensive hype of WMD in Iraq as justification for a
preemptive invasion has become more than embarrassing," said
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd, the longest-serving lawmaker in
Congress, who has emerged as its most scathing critic of the
war.
"It
has raised serious questions about prevarication and the reckless
use of power. Were our troops needlessly put at risk? Were
countless Iraq civilians killed and maimed when war was not really
necessary? Was the American public deliberately misled? Was the
world?" he asked in a blistering address on the Senate floor last
week.
...Rumsfeld last year
created an Office of Special Plans (OSP) under the direction of
Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and Under Secretary William
Luti precisely because they were unhappy that the evidence compiled
by the CIA and other intelligence agencies, particularly about
alleged ties between Baghdad and al-Qaeda, was extremely
weak.
As
explained by W Patrick Lang, former director of Middle East
analysis at the Defense Intelligence Agency, to the New York Times,
the OSP "started picking out things that supported their thesis and
stringing them into arguments that they could use with the
president ... It's not intel," he said, using an insider's word for
intelligence, "it's political propaganda."
The
Pentagon naturally strongly denies this, and even the CIA, some of
whose analysts were reportedly furious about what they saw as
manipulation of intelligence by the Pentagon, insists that, while
the al-Qaeda evidence was always considered shaky, its own evidence
that Baghdad did retain significant quantities of WMD in violation
of United Nations resolutions was strong.
Both
agencies have offered explanations for why no WMD have been
uncovered. Pentagon Under Secretary for Policy Douglas Feith
recently told Congress that only about 20 percent of roughly 600
suspected sites have been investigated, although he conceded that
most of those considered most likely to hold WMD have been
examined.
"I
am confident that we will eventually be able to piece together a
fairly complete account of Iraq's WMD programs, but the process
will take months and perhaps years," he testified this month.
"We're learning about new sites every day."
Other Pentagon officials
have suggested that perhaps Saddam did destroy all his WMD just
before the war, or that he had a "just in time" weapons system that
kept key chemicals separated in civilian neighborhoods or other
unlikely areas until the moment they would be combined and used, or
that the weapons remain hidden in remote mountain areas deep in the
ground where they are unlikely ever to be discovered, or that all
the suspect sites were looted before US troops could secure them,
as happened with a major nuclear site.
Comment: Or the WMD
turned into pumpkins at midnight and Saddam had them for breakfast
the next morning. The situation in truth has crossed the line from
the ridiculous to the absurd. Anyone who is not insulted by the
fact that they actually believe we will swallow these screamingly
obvious lies, should phone me about a nice tower in the center of
Paris I have to sell them.
Comment from one of our
readers:
With respect to your
news clipping:
Is there really an Al-Qaeda group?
...from your
May 28th Signs of the
Times:
I am currently reading a book called
Forbidden Truth: U.S.-Taliban Secret Oil Diplomacy,
Saudi Arabia and the Failed Search for bin Laden by
Jean-Charles Brisard, Guillaume Dasquie
...it is an account of the definite Saudi involvement in central
asia with the U.S. (and against the U.S.).
The big prize is of course big oil but also the minds of the
Islamists who the Saudis have a big investment in.
So in terms of maintaining the blanket of ignorance upon a big
segment of the Central Asian population...the Saudis have a lot to
do with proselytizing their social fundamentalism.
The book also has an extensive history of Osama's family and the
intricate Saudi brand of Mafia-ism which the Bin Laden Clan is a
huge benefactor of and soldier for.
So to answer the question is there really an Al-Qaeda group?
Absolutely just as there are other competing groups like Big
Texas, British and Russian Oil groups and other fascist
organizations who coalesce around power and wealth.
Columbian drug merchants are a good example... there are no borders
or nationalities when it comes to power and the expansion of
power.
Cheers,
BR
Comment:
Thanks BR. Agreed. The signs team's issue with the standard media
coverage of Al-Qaeda is that they paint them as having nearly
god-like powers, an unlimited budget with a world wide network and
fail to show Clinton's, Bush jr and sr's, Cheney's, etc involvement
with Al-Qaeda. They have created a target, using a magicians feint
of hand, in an attempt to hide their involvement in 9/11, and are
using 3000 American deaths to go an a pillaging campaign. Now
Americans are standing by, while their freedoms are being taken
away, and are sending sons, daughters, mothers and fathers to kill
for Bush's own interests all due to trumped up fears of Osama under
the bed. This administration appears to be deliberately fomenting
unrest and creating the real threat of more terrorism than we ever
dreamed possible. When we link to articles like the one above, we
are showing that there are others who have similar doubts as to the
administration's media spiel. To quote from the article:
"The Syrian leader's
comments are not uncommon in the Arab world, where speculation is
rife that the United States has manufactured or exaggerated the
threat posed by Al-Qaeda in order to paint Muslims as
dangerous."
Not only Muslims are asking
these questions. We do think it is a good idea to know what those
who are in Bush's crosshairs are thinking and saying.
On Cairo's streets,
anxiety, anger toward U.S.
By
Ellen Hale, USA TODAY
CAIRO ... More than six
weeks after the fall of Baghdad, the Arab world is still spinning
in shock. A chronic mood of uncertainty, fear and rage as thick as
the layer of dust that permanently coats this city at the heart of
the Middle East has settled over the region.
Already intensely skeptical
of U.S. motives and foreign policy, many here now openly despise
the United States and blame it for setting off a geopolitical
earthquake they dread will make their difficult lives even harder.
And while some hope the war may open the way for reform in the
autocratic governments that dominate the Arab world, many more
worry it has only fed the flames of terrorism and will result in
harsh government crackdowns...
"Of
course we need to change. But America has turned 'change' into a
bad word," says Hesham Youssef, spokesman for the Arab League, the
Cairo-based organization of 22 Arab countries. "The dilemma now is
that the war in Iraq will create new classes of terrorists and may
lead to more repression here to try and control it. It will only
make reform harder. The situation is extremely volatile, and could
erupt any moment."
More
attacks like the recent ones in Saudi Arabia and Morocco are
inevitable, Youssef predicts, as terrorists attempt not only to
strike Western targets but to bring down the Arab governments
supported by the United States. Here in Cairo, security has
increased since the attacks. Additional soldiers are patrolling the
streets. [...]
For
decades, the United States was the "gold standard" of government
for Egyptians, according to a Western diplomat. The diplomat says
Egyptians seem to feel Americans no longer can be
trusted.
"We
had a belief that for a model of freedom and respect for humanity
you looked to the United States," says Sakina Sadat, sister of
assassinated president and peace pioneer Anwar Sadat.
"Now, no one believes in
American democracy," she says.
Comment: Just as well, it never existed
anyway.
Taiwan reports 50 more
Sars cases
The
Straits Times
TAIPEI -- Taiwan's health
authorities on Thursday reported 50 new cases of severe acute
respiratory syndrome, taking the number on the island to
660.
The
number of fatalities stood unchanged at 81, according to the Center
for Disease Control (CDC).
Of
these 50 cases, 10 were recently reported ones while 40 were from
reclassification of cases previously listed as 'suspected', the CDC
said.
Northern Taiwan remained
the hardest-hit with 505 cases, followed by the south with 111
cases and the central part with 36 cases. [...]
Two more Sars deaths in
Toronto
BBC
Two
more people have died from Sars in Toronto, hours after the
Canadian prime minister said the virus was under
control.
The
latest victims, both women over 60, bring the total number of
deaths from the flu-like disease to 29.
A
school near Toronto shut on Wednesday, and 1,700 staff and pupils
were quarantined, after youth went down with Sars symptoms. More
than 6,000 people around Toronto are in quarantine after Sars
resurfaced six days ago.
The
Toronto area is the area worst-hit by Sars outside Asia.
[...]
Russia Reports First
SARS Case, 2 Die in Toronto
Wed
May 28, 2003 11:08 PM ET
By Jeremy Page and Lesley Wroughton
MOSCOW/TORONTO (Reuters) -
Russia reported its first case of SARS on Wednesday on its border
with hard-hit China, while two more people died from the virus in
Toronto, where a school was closed and thousands quarantined on
concern the illness may be spreading outside hospitals.
The
first confirmed case of SARS in Russia, a man living in
Blagoveshchensk on the Amur river, which forms the frontier with
China, came as Chinese President Hu Jintao tried to persuade the
world his country could contain the disease.
FROM THE NEW YORK TIMES
Study: Smallpox May Spur Malaria Defense
May
26, 2003 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 5:47 p.m.
ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A
one-two punch of malaria DNA virus and the virus used to vaccinate
against smallpox spurs the human immune system to mount a powerful
defense against malaria, researchers report.
This
approach might provide a basis for preventive and therapeutic
vaccination in people, scientists said in a paper that appears in
Monday's online issue of the journal Nature Medicine...
Using a strain of the
smallpox vaccine known as MVA, the researchers found it had ``a
rare ability to selectively boost'' T-cells -- critical immune
cells that attack invading disease -- that have been primed in
advance by the malaria protein, Hill said.
Thus, Hill said, ``the
immunization order is critical.''
Sharon's Unique Definition of Occupation
Samar Assad, The Electronic Intifada, 28 May
2003
The
exhilaration of some over Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's
utterance of the word occupation after over three decades of iron
fist military control of the Palestinian people and their land has,
like Israel's conditioned acceptance of the U.S.-drawn road map,
received much undeserved credit. The rush to embrace Israeli
leaders and their political statements has become a hallmark of the
majority of U.S. officials and unfortunately the U.S.
media.
Although Sharon was quick
to clarify his unique understanding of occupation -- Israeli
control over the Palestinian people and not the Palestinian lands
-- those who do, or choose to ignore international and humanitarian
law and conventions, and the concept of justice and lasting peace,
will continue to champion Sharon's "generous" use of vocabulary and
his "courage" to formally accept the U.S. road map.
Furthermore, in their
euphoria, they will dismiss the fact that Sharon's definition of
occupation contradicts the established international understanding
of occupation. One should also keep in mind that Sharon's delayed
acceptance of the road map came after a fourteen-point alteration
to the U.S. plan.
This
unjustified euphoria is not new. In 2000, U.S. politicians and the
media jumped on the bandwagon of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak hailing him as a true leader-someone who "dared" to go beyond
what is expected of an Israeli leader when he agreed to discuss the
issue of east Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
What
they failed to mention was that Barak's generosity fell below the
minimum rights guaranteed to the Palestinians by international law.
East Jerusalem, like the West Bank and Gaza, was occupied in 1967
and must be addressed in the same status during negotiations. UN
resolutions grant Palestinian refugees the right to return to their
ancestral homes, not a return to a newly created Palestinian state
in yearly quotas set by Israel. The message to Israel then as it is
now, is that it can remain a country above international law,
unencumbered by UN resolutions and insensitive to international
consensus.
Sharon's declared
understanding of occupation is in direct contradiction with the
road map with which he says he is willing to work. Sharon does not
recognize the West Bank and Gaza Strip as occupied land. According
to Sharon, they are "disputed" lands. By using the word disputed
when referring to the Palestinian territories, Sharon is attempting
to convince the international community that Israel has a right to
these lands and can decide their future status from a position
equal to that of the Palestinians. He is disregarding the fact that
in the eyes of the international community, the Palestinians are an
occupied people negotiating an end to the occupation of their
homeland. Furthermore, he is suggesting that Israel's presence in
the Palestinian territories is backed by international law rather
than condemned by international consensus.
If
Sharon is truly interested in putting the Palestinian-Israeli
conflict to rest he should expand his vocabulary when addressing
the Palestinians to include the following terms: freedom,
statehood, viability, justice, and equality.
U.S. mulled series of sanctions against
Israel
Washington [Menl] -- The Bush administration has prepared a
list of sanctions against Israel should it refuse to comply with a
plan for a Palestinian state by the end of the year.
U.S.
government and congressional sources said the list was prepared by
the State Department and relayed to the National Security Council
in April amid the administration's effort to press Israel to agree
to the so-called roadmap. The roadmap, drafted by Washington as
well as the European Union, United Nations and Russia, calls for an
end to the Israeli-Palestinian war and the establishment of an
interim state in 2003.
The
sources said the State Department's proposed list of sanctions
included an examination of the use of U.S. weapons in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip. Israel has employed such platforms as the AH-64A
Apache helicopter, the AH-1G Cobra helicopter and the F-16
fighter-jet in air attacks on Palestinian insurgents.
"It's hard to overestimate the anger within the administration
toward Israel regarding the delays in the roadmap," a congressional
source close to the administration said. "The White House doesn't
regard the roadmap merely as foreign policy. It sees the roadmap as
a major element toward the reelection of the
president."
Comment: You can bet we
will be seeing some movement on this issue as we get closer to the
primaries and election year in the US. Sharon is willing to provide
the "appearance" of progress on the roadmap in order to bolster
Bush's chances of re-election which in turn will ensure another 4
years of Israeli genocidal policy towards the Palestinians and the
Arabs of the middle east in general, backed economically and
militarily by the US.
Sharon and Abbas Meet
Before Summit with Bush
Wed
May 28, 2003 07:00 PM ET
By JON IMMANUEL
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The
Israeli and Palestinian prime ministers hold preliminary talks
Thursday ahead of a meeting with President Bush next week to push
forward a U.S.-backed Middle East peace plan.
Israeli diplomatic sources
confirmed the meeting between Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and
Israel's Ariel Sharon. Earlier, the White House announced both men
would meet Bush in Jordan when he visits Egypt, Jordan and Qatar
from June 2 to 5...
In
his first Israeli newspaper interview since taking office, Abbas
said he would not settle for a temporary cease-fire by militants in
a 32-month-old uprising for Palestinian statehood.
He
demanded "absolute calm."
But
in a disputed incident, Palestinian witnesses and security sources
said Israeli forces shot dead a member of Palestinian President
Yasser Arafat's Force 17 security unit on Wednesday as he sat in
his car. [...]
Palestinians seek
explicit Israeli recognition of statehood at
meeting
04:56 AM EDT May
29
JERUSALEM (AP) -
Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas will ask his Israeli
counterpart Ariel Sharon at their upcoming meeting for an explicit
declaration accepting the Palestinians' right to statehood,
Palestinian officials said Wednesday...
An
Israeli government official said Israel would consider issuing such
a declaration on Palestinian statehood but probably only as part of
a package to be announced at the meeting with Bush which would
include a credible Palestinian crackdown on Hamas, Islamic Jihad
and other militant groups who have been attacking
Israelis.
Israel has been insisting
although the road map calls for parallel steps, it wouldn't budge
until such a crackdown was evident...
Abbas "will insist on this
declaration because that's the key...for him to go out and tell the
Palestinians: 'Look, we've got the Israeli government to recognize
the Palestinian state (and) we need two years in a peaceful,
meaningful peace process'...It's a key for him to argue in front of
Hamas and Jihad."
US Troops Hold Diplomat
in Baghdad; Blair in Kuwait
Wed
May 28, 2003 09:57 PM ET
By Alistair Lyon
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S.
troops detained a Palestinian diplomat in Baghdad Wednesday, while
British Prime Minister Tony Blair arrived in Kuwait and was
expected to become the first Western leader to visit Iraq since the
war.
Blair, who gambled his
political career on the Iraq war, was Thursday expected to visit
the southern city of Basra where British troops are stationed.
[...]
In
another move toward giving government back to the people, a new
council elected a Kurdish mayor in the volatile northern oil city
of Kirkuk.
But
the arrest of Palestinian charge d'affaires Najah Rahman was sure
to anger Arab opinion, as the United States seeks backing for a
"road map" to peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Soldiers handcuffed charge
d'affaires Najah Abdul Rahman and four other men outside what
ousted Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government recognized as
the Palestine embassy.
The
troops said the men had illegal weapons, but it was not clear what
had prompted them to disarm a Palestinian diplomat in a city awash
with arms seven weeks after Saddam's overthrow.
As a
military truck took him away, Abdul Rahman denied he had been
carrying a gun. "They searched the embassy...They are targeting the
embassy," he told reporters.
A
Palestinian source in Baghdad said later that nine other
Palestinians, including the three guards at the mission, had also
been detained. He said the U.S. troops put barbed wire around the
building and locked the main gate. [...]
Comment:
Sounds like a trial run for what is planned
for the whole Palestinian population - barbed wire and locked
gates.
Makow - The Jewish
Century Kevin MacDonald's "The Culture of Critique" By Henry Makow,
PhD 5-27-3
Kevin MacDonald book
"
The Culture of
Critique" (2002) portrays the 20th
century as a Jewish century. A hundred years ago, Jews were an
impoverished people living mostly in Eastern Europe surrounded by
hostile populations. Today Israel is firmly established in the
Middle East and Jews have become the wealthiest and most powerful
elite in the United States and other Western countries.
More
significantly, according to MacDonald, the Western intellectual
world has become Judaized. Jewish values and attitudes now
constitute the culture of the West. Because of deep-seated Jewish
hostility toward traditional Western (i.e. Christian) culture, the
founding peoples "have been made to feel deeply ashamed of their
own history, surely the prelude to their demise as a culture and a
people." (lxix)
Specifically, Jewish
organizations promote policies and ideologies aimed at undermining
cultural cohesion while practising the opposite policies
themselves. While they promote multiculturalism and
internationalism in the West, they insist that Israel remain a
racially pure national enclave for Jews.
"The
present immigration policy essentially places the United States and
other Western societies "in play" in an evolutionary sense which
does not apply to other nations of the world," MacDonald writes.
"Notice that American Jews have no interest in proposing that
immigration to Israel should be similarly multiethnic, or ...
threaten the hegemony of the Jews." (323)
Suicide bomb mastermind
dies in custody
AP
A
man suspected of masterminding the suicide bombing attacks in
Casablanca that killed 31 people has died in custody.
The
man, who was captured in Fez on Monday, was identified as Abdelhak
or Moul Sebbat, which means shoe-seller, said Alaoui Belghiti, the
prosecutor general of the appeals court of Casablanca.
The
suspect suffered from heart disease and died while he was being
transferred to a hospital, Belghiti said... "His health
unfortunately did not allow investigators to finish all the
elements of the probe," Belghiti said...
Last
week, three people who had been in contact with the bombers were
arrested. The bombers were all Moroccans but authorities believe
the attacks were the work of an international network.
Investigators are focusing
on whether the attackers were linked to Muslim extremist groups
like the clandestine Salafia Jihadia, a homegrown group suspected
of possible ties to the al-Qaida terror network of Osama bin
Laden.
Al-Qaida threat to U.S.
water supply
By
Shaun Waterman
UPI Homeland and National Security Editor
5/28/2003 7:55 PM
WASHINGTON, May 28 (UPI) --
A spokesman for al-Qaida has told an Arabic-language news magazine
that the terror group is planning to try and use poisons to attack
the United States, specifically threatening to contaminate the
nation's water supply.
Abu
Mohammed al-Ablaj told the London-based al-Majallah magazine that
"al Qaida (does not rule out) using Sarin gas and poisoning
drinking water in U.S. and Western cities."...
Some
U.S. officials play down the threat, but others point out that
al-Ablaj had communicated with the magazine prior to the suicide
attacks earlier this month in Saudi Arabia, warning that al-Qaida
was about to stage a major offensive in the kingdom.
"The
consensus (in the intelligence community) seems to be -- and I
concur -- that (al-Ablaj) is credible and does have a connection
with al-Qaida," Ben Venzke, a counter-terrorism analyst who
consults with U.S. government agencies, told United Press
International. "The statements he makes should be taken seriously,
especially in light of his apparent prior knowledge of the Riyadh
bombings."
A
U.S. intelligence official, who would not comment on al-Ablaj's
credibility, played down the threat to U.S. water supplies in a
brief interview with UPI. "It is very difficult to covertly poison
a reservoir," the official said. "It would take many truckloads of
poison, which would make it difficult to do secretly. That is not
really a viable threat."
Comment: Maybe not but you get great "scare
mileage" out of it, so who cares! Heck, the US public are so
credulous that the next story is likely to be that Al-Qaeda have
hijacked the moon and are planing on crashing it into a quiet
American suburb - because they hate us because of our freedoms
(like yummy hormone-stuffed Big Macs)
Anti-U.S. Russo-Chinese
alliance may be in works
May.
28, 2003. 09:23 PM ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOSCOW Chinese President Hu
Jintao called today for a "multipolar world" and a strategic
partnership with Russia to counter U.S. dominance while oil
executives signed a preliminary deal for a pipeline to carry
Siberian oil to China.
"The
trend toward a multipolar world is irreversible and dominant," Hu
said in a speech at a Moscow university specializing in
international relations.
A
joint call for a "multipolar world," the term Russia and China used
to describe their shared ambition to offset U.S. global dominance,
has cemented the post-Soviet friendship between the two former
rivals. [...]
Without naming the United
States, Hu assailed unilateralism in world affairs and condemned
the use of force in settling disputes.
"Peace can't be achieved
through using force," he said.
On
Tuesday, Hu and Putin issued a joint declaration urging North Korea
to relinquish its nuclear ambitions but also voiced support for the
North's demand for security guarantees and warned against using
force to resolve the crisis. [...]
A PNAC Primer How We Got
Into This Mess
By
BERNARD WEINER
CounterPunch
Recently, I was the guest
on a radio talk-show hosted by a thoroughly decent far-right
Republician. I got verbally battered, but returned fire and, I
think, held my own. Toward the end of the hour, I mentioned that
the National Security Strategy -- promulgated by the Bush
Administration in September 2002 -- now included attacking possible
future competitors first, assuming regional hegemony by force of
arms, controlling energy resources around the globe, maintaining a
permanent-war strategy, etc.
"I'm
not making up this stuff," I said. "It's all talked about openly by
the neoconservatives of the Project for the New American Century --
who now are in charge of America's military and foreign policy --
and published as official U.S. doctrine in the National Security
Strategy of the United States of America."
The
talk-show host seemed to gulp, and then replied: "If you really can
demonstrate all that, you probably can deny George Bush a second
term in 2004."
Two
things became apparent in that exchange: 1) Even a well-educated,
intelligent radio commentator was unaware of some of this
information; and, 2) Once presented with it, this conservative icon
understood immediately the implications of what would happen if the
American voting public found out about these policies.
[...]
Everyone loves a winner,
and American citizens are no different. It makes a lot of people
feel good that we "won" the battle for Iraq, but in doing so we
paid too high a price at that, and may well have risked losing the
larger war in the Arab/Muslim region: the U.S. now lacks moral
stature and standing in much of the world, it is revealed as a liar
for all to see (no WMDs in Iraq, no connection to 9/11, no quick
handing-over the interim reins of government to the Iraqis as
initially promised), it destroyed a good share of the United
Nation's effectiveness and prestige that may come in handy later,
it needlessly alienated our traditional allies, it infuriated key
elements of the Muslim world, it provided political and emotional
ammunition for anti-U.S. terrorists, etc.
The CIA in Iran The Oily
Business of Regime Change
By
AHMAD FARUQUI
CounterPunch
About fifty years ago, in
July 1953, the U.S. secretary of state held a press conference in
which he stated, "The growing activities of the illegal Communist
Party in Iran and the toleration of them by the Iranian government
has caused our government much concern." On August 19, a pro-Shah
demonstration arose spontaneously in a Teheran bazaar. The
demonstration seemed to express public alarm at the plans of the
Communist Party to declare Iran a republic. By the end of the day,
a retired general and a former cabinet member, Fazlollah Zahedi,
had taken over as the new premier. The deposed premier, 71-year old
Mohammed Mossadeq, and his cohorts were either in hiding or had
been captured. The Shah returned shortly to Iran, where he was
given a rousing reception. The U.S. claimed another victory against
the evil empire, saying Iran had been prevented from falling behind
the Iron Curtain.
A
minority argued that a coup d'etat had taken place but the majority
accounts disputed that assertion. Time magazine said, "This was no
military coup, but a spontaneous popular uprising." The Washington
Post commented that Iran had been saved from falling into communist
hands. That became the official version of history, and was taught
in colleges and universities worldwide for the past five decades.
The minority version has now been validated by the unofficial
release of the C.I.A.'s secret history about the Iranian coup of
1953.
The
200-page document, which remains classified, discloses the pivotal
role American and British intelligence services played in
initiating and planning the coup. It shows that Washington and
London-who constituted the coalition of two in the recent war
against Iraq-shared an interest in maintaining the West's control
over Iranian oil. Donald Wilbur wrote the document in March 1954,
based on agency cable traffic and interviews with agents on the
ground in Iran. Excerpts were published by James Risen in the New
York Times in April 2000 and the entire document was subsequently
posted on the Times web site. Recent events in Iraq have given
Wilbur's history a new salience, and it is featured in the May 19
issue of Time magazine. [...]
Washington's anti-Iran propaganda meant to cover
CIA links to Al-Qaeda:
Daily Tehran, May 28, IRNA
-- Washington's latest round of baseless allegations against the
Islamic Republic is nothing but an attempt to divert attention of
world public opinion that the CIA once worked closely with the
Al-Qaeda and probably still does, highlighted 'Tehran Times' on
Wednesday. Washington has over the past two weeks been accusing
Iran of harboring Al-Qaeda operatives and has even stressed its
intention to destabilize the Islamic system. Foreign Ministry
spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi has condemned these accusations as
blatant interference in the country's internal affairs and a breach
of international protocols.
This
is not the first time Washington has turned up the heat of its
verbal attacks against the Islamic Republic. It has been doing so
from the past two decades but their anti-Iran propaganda, no matter
of what nature, has always backfired on them. This is no exception
and interestingly, "the White House officials seem to be
contradicting each other in their charges against Tehran," noted
the English-language paper in its Opinion column. US Defense
Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recently said that he had received the
information on the presence of Al-Qaeda members in Iran from
certain media reports.
Strange indeed! the daily
mocked. The defense secretary who has access to classified
information gathered by the CIA and other US intelligence agencies
is resorting to the media to collect information! Still intoxicated
with its success in Iraq in toppling the Baath regime, Washington
thinks it can pressure Iran into changing its position, the paper
wrote.
The
fact is that the White House is implementing its brainchild, the
so-called "roadmap" to peace in the Middle East to change the
momentum of the peace talks in favor of the Zionist regime, the
daily pointed out. Washington is putting pressure on Muslim nations
to force them to disengage from the Middle East peace talks to
diminish the influence of Islamic countries and pave the way toward
the realization of its goals in the region, it
stressed.
But
US leaders are sadly mistaken into believing that they can decide
Tehran's fate and attain their sinister objectives in this country
by their baseless propaganda, it pointed out. It is to be noted
that the Algiers Declaration signed between Iran and the US clearly
stipulates that "Washington is obliged to abstain from interference
in Iran's internal affairs." However, current developments clearly
suggest that the US is disrespecting the accords it has signed with
other nations, the paper pointed out.
"Iran's position on international terrorism, particularly the
Al-Qaeda network, is clear," highlighted the paper. Firstly, it is
to be noted, the Al-Qaeda network was created by the CIA and always
served the interests of the White House officials, the daily
reminded. Moreover, the ideology and political viewpoints of the
terror network sharply contrast with those of the Islamic Republic,
it pointed out.
Iran has always taken a tough stance against Al-Qaeda which was
allied with the Taliban, the paper highlighted. "Iran almost went
to war against the Taliban after its troops killed several Iranian
diplomats in Mazar-i-Sharif in 1998," a fact, the daily believes,
Washington is well aware of. It can therefore be summed up that
Washington's latest claims against the Islamic Republic are
baseless and meant to cover up the CIA links to Al-Qaeda, the daily
concluded.
Iran Accuses U.S. of Terrorism Double
Standards
Wed May 28, 2003 07:37 AM ET
By Paul Hughes
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Wednesday denied U.S. charges it had
secret nuclear facilities or links with al Qaeda and accused
Washington of double standards in the war on terror.
U.S.
officials have increased pressure on Tehran in recent days,
accusing it of taking insufficient steps to root out members of al
Qaeda in Iran who may have played a role in the May 12 suicide
bombings in Saudi Arabia.
Foreign Ministry spokesman
Hamid Reza Asefi said a "handful" of suspects was still being
questioned and it was not yet clear whether the group includes
senior members of Osama bin Laden's network who may have known
about the Riyadh attacks.
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer said on Tuesday the arrests had not quelled U.S. concerns
that senior al Qaeda members were still in Iran. Asked about
Fleischer's comments, Asefi turned the tables.
"On
the contrary, we believe America is not serious about fighting
terrorism. It adopts a double standard policy in confronting them
which shows its indecision in dealing with terrorists," he told
Reuters.
Iran
has expressed concerns that the United States has not dealt firmly
with its main opposition threat, the Iraq-based People's Mujahideen
militia, despite the fact that it is listed as a terrorist
organization by the State Department.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei said Washington was trying to force Iran to turn its
back on Islamic government. "The main goal of America in stepping
up pressure on Iran is to make the people and government give in to
its superpower will," state radio quoted Khamenei as saying in a
speech.
SAME
FATE AS SADDAM?
Reformist MPs and some
leading clerics have said Iran's clerical establishment could
suffer the same fate as deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
unless the Iranian people's desire for change was
heeded.
But
Khamenei, who has the last word on all matters of state, said calls
for change were part of an enemy plot to destabilize Iran from
within and would be resisted.
"Today if anyone turns away
from Islam the people will ignore them and the Islamic system will
go on as powerfully as now," he told legislators in an
address.
Senior U.S. policymakers
are due to hold a meeting on Iran on Thursday with the Pentagon
reportedly pushing for a tougher line including actions to
destabilize its clerical rulers.
Washington, which broke
ties with Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution, has also
accused Iran of interfering in neighboring Iraq. U.S. officials
have also said they want the International Atomic Energy Agency to
declare Iran in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The IAEA is due to report on the findings of a February visit to
Iran on June 16.
An
exiled Iranian opposition group on Tuesday said it had learned of
two previously undisclosed nuclear sites. Iran says its nuclear
ambitions are limited to generating electricity and that it has
told the IAEA about all of its nuclear facilities.
"We
don't have any site hidden from the IAEA," Khalil Moosavi,
spokesman for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, said by
telephone. Russian Foreign Minister
Igor Ivanov was quoted as saying on Wednesday that Moscow would
proceed with the construction of a nuclear power station in
Iran.
"Russia cooperates with
Iran in this area strictly within the framework of peaceful
programs conducted under the jurisdiction of the IAEA," he told
Interfax news agency.
Russia Won't Give Up Nuclear Cooperation with
Iran
Pravda
Russia has no reasons to
give up the international cooperation with Iran in the sphere of
nuclear power. A top representative of the Russian Ministry for
Atomic Energy commented upon a statement of the US Administration
insisting that Russia and other countries must stop any kind of
nuclear cooperation with Iran. He said that "for the time being,
Russia has no reasons to give up its international commitments in
construction of the first unit of Iran's Bushehr nuclear power
plant." He added at that, forcible arguments are required to sever
the international relations. But Russia hasn't yet got any
convincing data proving that Iran is realizing nuclear programs or
violating the non-proliferation treaty.[...]
G8 behind the barricades
By Pepe Escobar
GENEVA and EVIAN, France -
Preventive war has arrived with a vengeance at the placid shores of
Lac Leman - or Lake Geneva. The Group of Eight (G8) summit starts
this Sunday in Evian, of mineral-water fame.
Evian, a modern deluxe spa
clad in Belle Epoque architecture, lies on the south shore of Lake
Geneva facing Switzerland, less than 45 kilometers from Geneva. By
a splendid twist of history, this will be the place where the
conqueror of Iraq, George W Bush, will set foot on "enemy" French
soil - or continent for that matter, since in an overwhelmingly
anti-war Europe millions of people bothered to display their
displeasure with US foreign policy during mass demonstrations on
February 15. This is also the first G8 summit in Europe since an
Italian police officer shot dead Italian student Carlo Giuliani
during the G8 summit in Genoa in 2001.
If
George W Bush is able to sip his Evian alongside Vladimir Putin of
Russia, the UK's Tony Blair and France's Jacques Chirac et al, this
is because Evian the city will be literally under siege - already
ringed by a series of concentric and ultra-tight security zones.
Since this Wednesday, and until next Tuesday, June 3, 12,000
"lucky" Evian residents have to wear security badges. With no
badge, you can't go anywhere, or even come back home: you will be
literally expelled from your home town until next Tuesday.
Much-feared French CRS (Compagnie Republicaine de Securite) special
forces have been on constant patrol since early April (their
initial mission was to prevent the spread of anti-G8 graffiti).
Helicopters dance the Swan Lake in the skies: when Asia Times
Online visited a few days ago, they were engaged in intercepting
boats on Lake Geneva.
France and Switzerland
signed an agreement through which French forces are allowed to
intervene in the Swiss waters of Lake Geneva. The very charming
square facing Evian harbor is now decorated with anti-missile
vehicles. In the eye of the war zone, right-wing Mayor Marc
Francina puts on a brave face, expecting to transfer to his
community, the so-called perle du Leman ("the pearl of Lake
Geneva"), the high-class popularity of its bottles of mineral
water.
Evian was chosen because
it's an enclave: surrounded by mountains, right beside the lake,
and easy to protect. After the debacle in Genoa, the G8 summit in
2002 was in Kananaskis, Alberta, an isolated spot in the Rocky
Mountains: journalists and activists were deported to another town.
In Evian, cynical residents prefer to pretend they are in the
middle of a James Bond movie. The whole security operation is
overwhelming, and involves at least 25,000 people.
The
French side deployed at least 11,000 officers, dozens of Mirage
2000 fighter planes, a number of Airborne Warning and Control
System (AWACS) planes, 60 combat helicopters, a number of drones,
batteries of surface-to-air missiles, and anti-chemical and
anti-bacteriological units.
....Geneva airport is
virtually surrounded. It's forbidden to fly over the city or
navigate on Lake Geneva: even Swiss swans have to be extra careful,
otherwise they could be blown up by submarine teams. The whole
region was divided into three zones: the crucial one is Zone Zero,
turned into a no man's land of 30 square kilometers where the heads
of state and their teams of experts will congregate.
The
border between France and Switzerland has been re-established from
May 22 to June 4 - to an avalanche of protests and accusations of
"fascism". The Swiss are used to crossing the French border to buy
the odd fabulous bread or the odd splendid wine, and 20,000 French
citizens commute every day to work in Geneva. Now they also must
show their badges. There are new traffic jams around the clock.
Customs officers, now with additional help from military personnel,
examine practically every vehicle looking for possible
troublemakers.
The
combined gross domestic product of the United States, Western
Europe and Japan is roughly US$20 trillion, 80 percent of the
world's GDP. The so-called leaders of the free world may need to be
barricaded to make (or rather ratify) decisions that affect the
whole world.
A
new, young, militant generation has come to life and has displayed
its maturity - questioning neo-liberal mantras, yearning for more
social, environmental and truly democratic justice, questioning the
political, economic and military management of the whole planet.
What the "troublemakers" are asking is how a small group of heads
of state allegedly representing the world's privileged few
(Russians included?) can get away with deciding for everybody else.
No wonder world public opinion - represented by these
"troublemakers" - is so dangerous that it warrants launching a
preventive war in Lake Geneva.
Comment: Consider that these are the
"leaders of the free world", congregating to agree on future
policy. To do so they feel they must surround themselves with
enough hardware to take out a small country, what does that say
about their planned policies?
Labour faces ID cards
rebellion
Home
Office plan 'breaches civil liberties and is open to
fraud'
Sarah Hall Saturday May 24,
2003
The Guardian
David Blunkett's plan for
national identity cards will cause a "substantial" rebellion in the
Commons, Labour MPs warned last night.
The
Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are to oppose the measure as a
breach of civil liberties, but the government also faces opposition
from its backbenchers, emboldened by revolts on trial by jury,
foundation hospitals, and the Iraq conflict.
"There'll be a substantial
rebellion on this," warned MP Neil Gerrard, secretary of the
parliamentary Labour party's civil liberty group. "The scale is
going to depend on the detail: the more compulsion there is, the
more opposition."
Every adult would have to
carry an identity or "entitlement" card as part of a package to
tackle illegal working by migrants, and ensure the government's
much- touted fall in asylum seekers (from 8,900 last October to
4,565 in March) is not temporary.
It
is anticipated that a card would record name, date of birth,
address, employment, sex, photo, and numbers for national
insurance, passport and driving licence. It would also carry
"biometric information", such as an eye scan or electronic
fingerprint, to stop fraud. The scheme will be put before the
cabinet in the next six weeks. MPs are expected to debate it from
the autumn, and the cards would be introduced after the next
election.
Big Mac feels
the bite in the UK
McDONALD'S operations in
the UK suffered a sharp fall in profits last year amid growing
signs that the British public's 29-year love affair with its menu
of burgers, shakes and fries is coming to an end.
The
UK subsidiary - seen as one of McDonald's most lucrative overseas
outposts - has been hit by a dramatic shift in consumer tastes
towards healthier fast food alternatives, such as sandwich
bars.
Comment: We have no words to express our
joy
New test could identify
killer psychopaths
By
Steve Connor, Science Editor
The Independent
29 May 2003
Psychopathic murderers have
a twisted perception of pain and suffering, and fail to see
violence as unpleasant, a study has shown.
Scientists at Cardiff
University have devised a test that could help to identify
psychopaths before they commit serious crimes.
Their findings, published
in the journal Nature, are based on interviews with 13 psychopathic
and 17 non-psychopathic murderers at a secure mental
hospital.
An
Implicit Association Test (IAT) - previously used to
unearthattitudes on race and gender - showed that psychopathic
killers had more positive reactions to violence than either
non-psychopaths or psychopaths who had not murdered.
Tropical storm leaves 19
dead in northern Philippines
The
Straits Times
MANILA -- Tropical storm
Linfa moved north-east of the Philippines towards Japan on Thursday
after leaving at least 19 people dead and more than 8,000 displaced
during four days of heavy rains and flooding, officials
said.
Ten
fishermen remain missing while at least seven people have been
injured since the storm hit the main northern island of Luzon on
Sunday, the National Disaster Coordinating Council
reported.
At
least 8,357 people were displaced in northern provinces and damage
to crops and infrastructure was estimated at more than 60 million
pesos (US$1.1 million).
Powerful new quake
aftershock adds to Algerians' despair
Thursday May 29, 6:44
AM
Another aftershock rocked
Algeria, the second in 12 hours, causing further despair in the
troubled north African country after last week's massive earthquake
killed nearly 2,300 people.
Radio stations broadcast
appeals calling on people not to panic but also warning them to
expect further aftershocks along the geological fault line that
stretches across the densely-populated north of the
country.
The
epicentre of the tremor early Wednesday was in Zemmoria, a region
already hard-hit by last week's quake and located some 70
kilometers (45 miles) east of the capital Algiers, state radio
said.
Local seismologists said it
reached 5.2 points on the open-ended Richter scale.
[...]
Partial Eclipse of Sun
A
partial eclipse of the Sun surrounded by strange circumstances is
on tap for Saturday, May 31 and will be visible in parts of North
America, Europe and the Middle East. The event could be quite
spectacular at sunrise in Europe, especially in the United
Kingdom.
The
most impressive aspect of the event will be an annular, or ring
eclipse, so named because the Moos disk will be too small to
completely cover the Sus disk. The result is a ring of fire
surrounding the black circle of the Moon. It's like a dull penny
sitting atop a shiny nickel.
Annular eclipses can occur
because the Moon's orbit around Earth is not quite a circle. When
the Moon is closer to Earth than average, a total solar eclipse can
occur. When it is farther than average, an annular eclipse can
result. The annular eclipse will be visible across a sparsely
populated swath of Earth from Scotland to the Canadian
Arctic.
Extremely Large
Planet-Forming Disks Around Seven Young Stars
SPACEDAILY EXPRESS May 28,
2003
#
The NGC 1333 cluster in the constellation Perseus is embedded
deeply in the Perseus giant molecular cloud, at a distance of 1,000
light-years from Earth. It is the home to several hundred young and
forming stars with ages less than about one million years. The cold
molecular gas in the cloud collapses under the pull of gravity to
form the new stars. Prominent in this infrared image are outflows
of gas being driven by the forming stars, and shocks where these
outflows strike the cold molecular material in the surrounding
cloud. This image was obtained with the University of Florida's
near-infrared camera and multi-object spectrometer named FLAMINGOS,
using the National Science Foundation's 2.1-meter telescope at Kitt
Peak National Observatory near Tucson AZ. The three colors in the
image correspond to near-infrared wavelengths: red (2.2 microns),
green (1.6 microns), and blue (1.3 microns).More images Gainesville
- May 27, 2003
An
international team of astronomers has discovered seven extremely
large circumstellar disks silhouetted against the forming stars
that they surround. These new disks are 10 to 100 times larger than
both our solar system and other planet- forming disks that have
been imaged previously, suggesting that it may be possible for
planets to form at much larger distances from their stars than
previously thought...
Elston and Lada found these
large disks as part of a major survey for newborn celestial objects
in mammoth "molecular clouds" in the constellations Orion and
Perseus.
Peruvian troops, cops clash with strikers blocking
roads
04:56 AM EDT May 29 LIMA
(AP) - Peruvian troops and police clashed with demonstrators
blocking highways Wednesday after President Alejandro Toledo
declared a national state of emergency to control spreading
protests.
The
country's 2,500-kilometre Pan American Highway remained cut in
dozens of places by boulders and smouldering tires placed by
striking farmers.
Soldiers and police fired
tear gas and bullets at protesters blocking the highway outside
Barranca, 160 kilometres northwest of the capital Lima. But the
crowd resisted and hurled rocks...
Toledo went on national
television late Tuesday night to announce the emergency
measures.
"Tolerance has its limit,"
he said.
"We
have the responsibility to govern for 26 million Peruvians. We have
the responsibility to protect citizens and the public order," he
said.
The
30-day state of emergency placed Lima and 11 other of Peru's 24
regions under military control and gives police and the military
the authority to use force to clear the highways, restore order,
detain strikers and enter homes without warrants.
It
also limits freedom of movement and prohibits public
assembly...
But
the emergency measures also drew applause from many
quarters.
"I
think it was absolutely necessary," said Samuel Gleiser, a
prominent businessman.
"It's the best showing by
Toledo so far. He took the bull by the horns."
Massive Tsunami Sweeps Atlantic Coast In Asteroid
Impact Scenario For March
16, 2880
University of California -
Santa Cruz
May 28, 2003
SANTA CRUZ, CA -- If an asteroid crashes into the Earth, it is
likely to splash down somewhere in the oceans that cover 70 percent
of the planet's surface. Huge tsunami waves, spreading out from the
impact site like the ripples from a rock tossed into a pond, would
inundate heavily populated coastal areas. A computer simulation of
an asteroid impact tsunami developed by scientists at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, shows
waves as high as 400 feet sweeping onto the Atlantic Coast of the
United States.
The
researchers based their simulation on a real asteroid known to be
on course for a close encounter with Earth eight centuries from
now. Steven Ward, a researcher at the Institute of Geophysics and
Planetary Physics at UCSC, and Erik Asphaug, an associate professor
of Earth sciences, report their findings in the June issue of the
Geophysical Journal International.
March 16, 2880, is the day the asteroid known as 1950 DA, a huge
rock two-thirds of a mile in diameter, is due to swing so close to
Earth it could slam into the Atlantic Ocean at 38,000 miles per
hour. The probability of a direct hit is pretty small, but over the
long timescales of Earth's history, asteroids this size and larger
have periodically hammered the planet, sometimes with calamitous
effects. The so-called K/T impact, for example, ended the age of
the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. [...]
..."Until we detect all the big ones and can predict their orbits,
we could be struck without warning," said Asphaug. "With the
ongoing search campaigns, we'll probably be able to sound the 'all
clear' by 2030 for 90 percent of the impacts that could trigger a
global catastrophe."
Rogue comets visiting the inner solar system for the first time,
however, may never be detected very long in advance. Smaller
asteroids that can still cause major tsunami damage may also go
undetected.
Comment: Notice the contradiction in the
above. Just about every article we have ever read on this topic
states that the probability of an impact is very small. Yet by
their own admission
they know little of what is out there.
Plane disappears after
take-off
From
correspondents in Luanda, Angola
May 29, 2003
A
BOEING 727 passenger jet, grounded at Luanda airport a year ago,
has disappeared after a mysterious unauthorised take-off, Angola
state radio reported today.
The
plane, chartered by the Angolan airline Airangol, was grounded
after being banned from overflying Angolan territory on account of
a series of irregularities, said Angola civil aviation director
Helder Preza.
A
witness to the plane's departure on Sunday, airport employee Luis
Lopes, said he saw a white man start the empty plane and then take
off after a few dangerous land manoeuvres.
Airport chief Celso Rosa said there was some evidence to
believe the Boeing had been fuelled up at Luanda airport, and said
he would provide this information to the transportation ministry's
investigation into the incident.
Crew stabbed during hijack bid
May 29, 2003
A
40-year-old man who attempted to hijack a domestic jet stabbed two
flight attendants with sharpened wooden stakes, federal police
said. He was overpowered by crew and passengers as he attempted to
force his way into the cockpit.
Federal agent Stephen Cato said the man made his attempt to
take control of the Qantas plane 20 minutes after it left Melbourne
for Launceston at 2.50pm (AEST) today. "We believe he was trying to
take over the plane," Agent Cato said. The aircraft was forced to
return to Melbourne where police were waiting to arrest the
40-year-old man.
Agent Cato said no motive had yet been established and it was
unclear how the weapons - which would not have been picked up by
metal detectors at the airport - were smuggled aboard. The officer
described the actions of the passengers who intervened and
overwhelmed the man before he could get to the cockpit as "quite
heroic".
Qantas CEO Geoff Dixon said the man, believed to be an
Australian national, rose from his seventh row seat and proceeded
towards the cockpit armed with two sharpened wooden
implements.
A
struggle ensued during which the two flight attendants were
stabbed. Passenger Joe De Costa, of Melbourne, said a male flight
attendant appeared to have been stabbed around the back of his head
or neck.
Mr
De Costa said the man's back was covered in blood. Ambulance
officers said the injured attendants were a man aged in his late
30s and a woman aged in her 20s. They were taken to
the Royal Melbourne Hospital in a stable condition with facial
lacerations, Metropolitan Ambulance spokesman James Howe
said.
Two
passengers were also treated by paramedics at the scene for minor
injuries.
Residents spot
UFO
28/05/2003 09:34
Gergo Hoffman
Cape
Town - Is it a star or is it an unidentified flying
object?
People living in the Boland
were asking this question on Tuesday after observing an unusual
light phenomenon in the Worcester area. Many people phoned regional
radio stations with the news that they had seen a UFO...
A
man named Deon was travelling on the N1 towards Worcester and
phoned to say he saw a cigar-shaped UFO right below the
moon.
It
was apparently gliding above the clouds with a smaller but very
bright light alongside. He said he had been looking at the lights
for quite a while and it was most definitely not an aircraft.
[...]
Alien Abductions: The
Real Deal?
By
Kaja Perina
Psychology Today-- Publication Date: Mar/Apr 2003
Summary: Are alien
abductions a misunderstood sleep phenomenon, or apocalyptic
warnings? The answer depends on which constellation you work for at
Harvard. People who believe they've been abducted by aliens have
always resided at the farthest fringes of science, and the recent
claim by a UFO cult known as the Raelians that they had cloned a
human being does little to endear abductees to the mainstream. The
sect's leader, Rael, maintains that he was plucked from a volcano
by almond-eyed aliens who granted him an audience with Jesus,
Buddha and Muhammad, each of whom confirmed that humans are
descended from extraterrestrials.
But
for every Rael, there are hundreds of workaday individuals who
claim to have been abducted by aliens. These individuals do not
flower into gurus; they struggle alone with memories of
unintelligible messages, temporary paralysis and humanoid creatures
hovering over their beds. Their stories don't always check out, but
their minds do: Psychological tests confirm that abductees are
rarely psychotic or mentally ill. Some 3 million Americans believe
they've encountered bright lights and incurred strange bodily marks
indicative of a possible encounter with aliens, according to a
recent poll. It is a quandary that polarizes researchers at Harvard
University.
One
embattled psychiatrist, John Mack, M.D., argues that these
experiences cannot be understood in a western rationalist tradition
of science; researchers in the department of psychology, Richard
McNally, Ph.D., and Susan Clancy, Ph.D., counter that the
explanation--though multifaceted--is hilarious in its fundamental
simplicity...
Mack
is currently at work on his third book, which examines the clash
between "scientific materialism and a nonrational point of view."
He increasingly distances himself from the question of whether or
not aliens exist in the physical world, focusing more on a
"consensus reality" that precludes us from even entertaining such a
possibility. "We void the cosmos of other intelligence unless it
can be proven," states Mack. On the work of McNally and Clancy in
the psychology department, a stone's throw away, Mack says, "We're
in different firmaments."
And Finally....
The World Health Organisation today
issued a new warning against non-essential travel to the entire
Western hemisphere following renewed concerns about the spread of
Severe Loss of Perspective Syndrome (SLOPS).
Officials are warning
travellers not to visit the UK, the US, almost all of Western
Europe, Canada and Australia, following further outbreaks of the
disease, which has led to mass panic among the media, thousands of
ecstatic children being kept out of school by their credulous and
moronic parents, and increased profits for DIY stores as the idiot
public rush to bulk-buy face masks and boiler suits.
A
WHO spokesman said, "You'd be much better off going to somewhere
like Taiwan or China, because all you've got to worry about there
is SARS, and let's face it, you're about as likely to die from that
as you are to get
kicked to death by a gang of zombie nuns."
The
SARS virus has now claimed a staggering 500 lives in only six
months, which makes it considerably more deadly than, say, malaria,
which only kills around 3000 people every single day. Malaria,
however, mainly affects only 'darkies' what speak foreign, whereas
SARS has made at least one English person feel a bit iffy for a
couple of days, and is therefore considered much more
serious.
The
spread of SLOPS has now reached pandemic proportions, with many
high-level politicians seemingly affected by the disease. The rapid
spread of SLOPS has been linked to the end of the war in Iraq and
the need for Western leaders to give the public something to worry
about. Otherwise, they might start asking uncomfortable questions
about domestic issues, and that simply would not do.
Check out the
Signs of the Times Archives
Send
your comments and article suggestions to us.
|
