Future looks bleak to New Yorkers

Last Updated Sun, 15 Jun 2003 23:20:57

NEW YORK - A New York Times poll reveals that New Yorkers are more pessimistic about the future now than they were in the immediate aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001.

The poll, which was published on Friday, determined that only 30% of New Yorkers think their city will be a better place to live 10-15 years from now. Roughly 54% felt that way in October 2001.

Many factors contribute to this newfound pessimism. New York is crippled by a budget deficit of $4-billion. It has also suffered job losses, tax increases, new taxes, price hikes, rent increases and service cuts in recent months.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is bearing the brunt of his constituents' wrath. His approval ratings have dropped to 24%, the lowest of any mayor in the past in 25 years.

Bloomberg, a billionaire who bankrolled his own election campaign, has implemented many tough financial measures in an attempt to lower the city's debt.

For example, New York's 34 city-funded cultural institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Bronx Zoo, face cuts of up to 35%.

Comment: Guess the old line about "If you can make it there/you can make it anywhere" applies to repressive politics, too? First Guilliani, now Bloomberg.

Lingering Questions

Michael Isikoff & Mark Hosenball
Newsweek

Comment: Doncha just love the photo? These guys are't gonna take any bull. They're gonna get right down to the nitty-gritty, gonna turn up the goods, tell it like it is. They're gonna ask the hard questions, the ones the others don't dare. They're gonna take it to the mat, go into extra-innings, pull it out in sudden-death overtime.

So let's take look at how these tough-guy reporters are handling the question of 9/11 and the contradictions and glaring impossibilities of the official view and the obvious implication of members of the Bush Reich in the organization and planning of the attack on the WTC and the Pentagon.

The families of 9-11 victims are still raising pertinent issues about the intelligence failures that led to the attack.

June 11 — In a long-awaited, closed-door meeting, FBI director Robert Mueller ran into a buzz saw of criticism this week from irate family members of September 11 victims over the bureau’s handling of a range of matters relating to the terror attacks.

THE FBI PUT OUT A bland press release about the meeting on Tuesday, stating that Mueller sought to “personally answer questions” from the family members and “help them understand the FBI’s ongoing role in preventing and investigating acts of terrorism.”

But family members who attended the meeting at the J. Edgar Hoover Building in Washington told NEWSWEEK the meeting quickly grew contentious as soon as bureau officials finished the inevitable PowerPoint presentation on the status of the 9-11 probe. Many of those present were visibly annoyed with Mueller’s responses—especially over his refusal to commit to holding any bureau officials accountable for intelligence failures that preceded the attacks.

Comment: Our guys set the stage. The FBI, by know infamous in the official version for not having acted on reports by its field agents that something was funny, puts out a "bland" press release that give a different spin on the meeting than the "family members". You can tell our guys are hard-hitting by the reference to the "inevitable PowerPoint presentation". Boy, do they know how to put a bureaucrat in his place!

“A lot of family members were angry, and there was a lot of shouting out of turn,” said Steve Push, the leader of one of the 9-11 victims’-family groups. “There was a lot of unhappiness with quite a few of the responses.”

Much of the stiffest criticism came from “the Jersey Girls”—a group of feisty young widows from northern New Jersey whose husbands died in the World Trade Center and who have become increasingly radicalized by what they view as the U.S. government’s failure to provide them with answers to many key questions about the attacks.

Comment: Yeah! Those feisty young widows! They are becoming "radicalized" because the government isn't answering their questions! Well, let's see what this really means. Maybe they have put 2 plus 2 together...

The women from New Jersey got especially frustrated when Mueller and other top bureau officials at the meeting repeatedly brushed aside their questions, saying they couldn’t respond because the answers might jeopardize the Justice Department’s pending case against Zacarias Moussaoui, the accused Al Qaeda terrorist who is facing charges that he was a co-conspirator in the 9-11 attacks.

“I don’t give a rat’s a— about Moussaoui!” said Patty Casazza, a 38-year-old New Jersey resident whose husband, John, died in the World Trade Center’s north tower. “Send him to Guantanamo Bay and … get what you can from him there.”

Comment: So for our intrepid investigators, the ones getting right down to the bottom of it all, the Jersey girls are radical because they want Zacarias Moussaoui to be sent off to Guantanamo where he will be stripped of even those few rights that have been left to him as an accused "terrorist" in the US. This is the kind of radical that John Ashcroft would love!

But even the continued focus on Moussaoui and the other 19 "terrorists" is questionable. The FBI itself has admitted that they have no proof linking any of the 19 supposed terrorists to the WTC attack.

Another key issue for the Jersey widows—who peppered Mueller with questions throughout the session and sometimes interrupted his responses—is accountability. Kristin Breitweiser, 32, pressed to know why bureau officials had not put together information from the so-called Phoenix memo—a July 2001 communiqué from a Phoenix-based FBI agent reporting that a suspiciously large number of Middle Eastern men were enrolling in U.S. flight schools—with information from the FBI’s Minneapolis office the following month about the detention of one flight-school student in particular, Moussaoui.

When Mueller responded that, because of past problems with the FBI’s computer system, only one junior analyst had access to reports on both matters in the summer of 2001, Breitweiser demanded to know whether she was disciplined for her failure to realize the significance of the intelligence and call the matter to the attention of higher ups.

Mueller grew indignant, according to some of those present. “If you want me to fire some 24-year-old woman who didn’t have tools to know what to do … I will not do it,” he told the group.

“Fire her! Fire her!” some of those present shouted out.

Comment: This is the rage of the mob, the crowd. They want action, they want revenge, they want something to be done. They are in reaction mode. They are incapable of thought, of reflection. They want the head of a 24-year-old woman. (Of course, Mueller may well be lying about the actual agent. Who knows if what he is saying is true. But that does not change the fact that the group of family members were reacting to the data they were given, that it was a young agent.)

Breitweiser said the family members didn’t mean to be insensitive. But many did feel that the bureau should at least reassign the analyst. More broadly, family members say they are sickened by the fact that nearly two years after the attacks, no one in the U.S. government—neither at the FBI, CIA nor anywhere else—has been dismissed or otherwise disciplined for the multiple mistakes and intelligence foul-ups that preceded the attacks.

“I don’t think he understands we’re done with there being no accountability for what happened to our loved ones,” said Lorie Van Auken, 48, another one of the Jersey group, whose husband, Kenneth, died in the attacks.

Comment: Once more, the reaction machine is in charge here. The families have not begun to think, to really look at what happened, to look at the data and see what explanations best fit....because it is too horrific for these people to imagine that their husbands and loved ones were killed as part of a plan by elements within the Pentagon and high echelons of the US government to impose a totalitarian state. They want the government to admit to mistakes, to set up a sacrificial lamb to atone for the sins of the bureaucracy.

Mueller largely “kept his cool” throughout the meeting, according to Push. And in meeting with the family members, the FBI director has gone further than many others in the U.S. government in reaching out to the victims. (“In any meeting, you’re going to have some people who are happy and some people who aren’t,” said FBI spokesman Bill Carter.) But the questions the family members are raising—about what the U.S. government knew prior to the attacks and what it has learned since—are not likely to go away.

A national commission investigating 9-11 is beset with tension, according to knowledgeable sources, and there is considerable debate as to whether the panel will ever get access to key White House documents in time to prepare its report due out next year. In the meantime, the Jersey widows say they have no intention of letting the matter rest.

“We’re anxious,” said Casazza. “And we want answers.”

Comment:

But they haven't even begun asking the correct questions. And our dynamic duo aren't helping. By playing up the "feisty widows take on the FBI angle", the real questions are avoided: What really happened at the Pentagon? Why were the accused hijackers trained at airports known for their CIA connections? Why is it that the only two countries to have benefited from attacks by "Arab terrorists" are the US and Israel? Why have the countries that have been targets been countries with no links to the identified Saudi hijackers? Why were no jets scrambled to intercepe the hijackers? Why did Bush continue reading to students for 25 minutes after being given word that the second tower had been hit? Where the heck is the plane that supposedly hit the Pentagon? Why do the psychopaths in power in Washington seem to be having so much fun and such a gleam in their eye when they discuss invading other countries? How can the American people continue to approve the performance of a draft-dodging, AWOL reservist, who used his Daddy's connections to avoid going to Vietnam, who gets his kicks prancing around in military garb and ordering others to kill people.

But our muckrackers don't go there. They ensure that dissent is recuperated, that those asking questions remain within the standard theory.

The names should have given it away right at the start. We have Michael and Mark, M&M, the hard shell with the soft interior.

When Did Asking Questions Become Whining In Our Country?

Mary MacElveen
CLG

[...] To Senator Pat Roberts, June 12, 2003

I am extremely disgusted to see a man such as you serving the American people in the senate. I am also extremely angry at you for stating this concerning any investigation into how intelligence was handled regarding the Iraq War. You stated this, "some of the Democratic criticism of the handling of the intelligence has "been simply politics and for political gain." You then went on to say this, "I will not allow the committee to be politicized or to be used as an unwitting tool for any political strategist," HOW DARE YOU SAY THIS?? Below are the names of our military personnel that sacrificed their lives and will no longer be with their families or loved ones. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue. It is an issue to do what is right by these brave soldiers. They were told Iraq had these weapons, went over there believing their commander and chief, and were killed. You also stated this, "that routine oversight should suffice." Which in my opinion is code for sweeping the whole damn thing under the carpet and allowing George W. Bush to get away with lying to the American people, and to our military as well.

While I am a Democrat, I am an American first and foremost, and I am damn angry that the GOP wishes to sweep yet another investigation aside, like you are doing so with any investigation into September 11th. Where Bush received warnings, yet did nothing. I want to know why these men and one woman are dead. Their families have the right to know, and I want you to read every single name, and ask yourself this question. Why should I protect George W. Bush, when these men and one woman were sent over to protect me? How Bush can land on that carrier, surround himself with our troops and bold face lie to them, and the American people is a slap in the face to every dead soldier listed below. [...]

Comment: "Terrorists could not have carried out such an operation [as on Sept 11] with 4 hijacked planes without the support of a secret service." Horst Ehmke, former coordinator of West German secret services

Why Did Bush Not Act On Sept 11?

KISS THE BOYS GOODBYE

By David Guyatt

American Air Force pilot, Lt. Colonel David L. Hrdlicka, flew the lead plane in a flight of four F105 fighter/bombers that departed Takhli Air Base on the morning of 18 May 1965.  The aircraft has been ordered to interdict and bomb a segment of road at Sam Neua, Laos.  Hrdlicka's aircraft was hit by groundfire during his bombing attack forcing him to eject.  He parachuted safely to the ground where he was captured by communist Pathet Lao forces.

Colonel Hrdlicka's flight into captivity has become a remarkable story for a number of reasons.  Not least is the fact that he has been officially reported as Killed in Action, but has also died in captivity on a number of distinct and separate occasions.  But each time Hrdlicka manages to survive - embarrassing certain elements in his government who wish he would have the grace to stay dead.  Today, the US Government says the doughty airman definitely died in 1966, or 1967 - but also thinks it might have been 1968.  They believe his death resulted from illness, malnutrition, shooting or possibly a combination of all three.

 Despite this, Hrdlicka was seen alive in 1989.  A letter on America's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) letterhead in my possession states that Hrdlicka - identified as D. Herlicka was seen in the tri-border area of Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia.  Moreover, a US State Department cable dated April 1991, says Hrdlicka was being held in captivity by Brigadier General Chaeng Chaiwong, Commander of the 11 th Lao Army Regiment stationed in Kham Moname Province.  The cable goes on to identify General Chaeng as involved in narcotics trafficking.

 David Hrdlicka is one of dozens, perhaps hundreds of Americans who have been officially abandoned by their government to a fate worse than death.   [...]

The US, however, appears to be playing another sort of game entirely.  Rather than trying to rescue their prisoners, they were planning to forget them hoping they'd die.  More disturbing still, elite Special Forces troops were tasked with locating and assassinating some American prisoners of war.  The soldiers were part of the US Army's Intelligence Support Activity - or ISA for short - and had been commandeered by a very secretive arm of the CIA known simply as The Activity. [...]

Two Secretaries of Defense Admit POWs in Laos Were Left Behind When Vietnam War Ended

memoryhole.org

The official line has always been that no US prisoners of war were left in Southeast Asia when the Vietnam War ended. Through the decades, an impressive amount of evidence has surfaced which shows this to be a lie.

Among the most stunning evidence is the testimony of two men who served as President Nixon's Defense Secretaries (one of whom had also been the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency). In sworn testimony before Congress in 1992, they said that POWs held in Laos had been abandoned. This bombshell was a two-day wonder. On the first day, the press reported it. On the second day, Henry Kissinger denied it. On the third day and every following day, the public forgot it.

While searching through the Virtual Vietnam Archive for a book I'm writing ( 50 Things You're Not Supposed to Know ), I came across this remarkable article. As far as I can tell, the testimony of these two Defense Secretaries was not included in the published volumes covering these congressional hearings. [...]

Air Force Space Command: "Strategic Master Plan FY04 and Beyond"

memoryhole.org

At one point, the US Air Force Space Command's Website contained a document titled "Strategic Master Plan FY04 and Beyond." Then the document disappeared. As my source for the document told me: "Now they only have a little blurb about what could be a huge change in space policy, the weaponization of space, including space launched conventional weapons."

It turns out that this erasure was only the tip of the iceberg: The Website for the Air Force Space Command has been completely offline since at least the morning of 10 June 2003. First, they deleted their master plan. Now they have the whole site down. If it reappears, it's dollars to doughnuts that a whole lot of information will have been expunged. (I'm working to recover as much of the site as possible; if anyone has documents from it, please send them .)

Meanwhile, you can download the master plan above and read some highlights from it below.

Exposing NORAD's Wag The 911 Window Dressing Tale Using NORAD’s Own Press Release And Fifth Grade Math

FLASHBACK: MOSSAD AGENTS ARRESTED ATTEMPT TO BOMB MEXICAN CONGRESS

October 15, 2001

From the PGR (Mexican Department Of Justice) official web site comes an interesting story.

As reported in La Vox De Aztlan, two men, one of them a former Israeli Colonel and Mossad agent, were arrested INSIDE the Mexican congress carrying 9mm pistols and dynamite, but were released following intense pressure from the Israeli Embassy.

The Hitler Project: Bush Property Seized--Trading with the Enemy

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin

[...] Nazi interests in the Silesian-American Corporation, long managed by Prescott Bush and his father-in-law George Herbert Walker, were seized under the Trading with the Enemy Act on Nov. 17, 1942. In this action, the government announced that it was seizing only the Nazi interests, leaving the Nazis' U.S. partners to carry on the business.

These and other actions taken by the U.S. government in wartime were, tragically, too little and too late. President Bush's family had already played a central role in financing and arming Adolf Hitler for his takeover of Germany; in financing and managing the buildup of Nazi war industries for the conquest of Europe and war against the U.S.A.; and in the development of Nazi genocide theories and racial propaganda, with their well-known results.

The facts presented here must be known, and their implications reflected upon, for a proper understanding of President George Herbert Walker Bush and of the danger to mankind that he represents. The President's family fortune was largely a result of the Hitler project. The powerful Anglo-American family associations, which later boosted him into the Central Intelligence Agency and up to the White House, were his father's partners in the Hitler project.

President Franklin Roosevelt's Alien Property Custodian, Leo T. Crowley, signed Vesting Order Number 248 seizing the property of Prescott Bush under the Trading with the Enemy Act. The order, published in obscure government record books and kept out of the news, explained nothing about the Nazis involved; only that the Union Banking Corporation was run for the " Thyssen family " of " Germany and/or Hungary "--" nationals ... of a designated enemy country. "

By deciding that Prescott Bush and the other directors of the Union Banking Corp. were legally front men for the Nazis , the government avoided the more important historical issue: In what way were Hitler's Nazis themselves hired, armed and instructed by the New York and London clique of which Prescott Bush was an executive manager? Let us examine the Harriman-Bush Hitler project from the 1920s until it was partially broken up, to seek an answer for that question. [...]

Comment: " ...a good portion of the Bush Family’s financial foundation was established through their assistance to Adolf Hitler. Can you feel the ramifications of this statement? The current President of the United States, plus his father (an ex-President, V.P., and CIA Director) rose to the top of the American political ladder because their grandfather and in-laws aided and abetted the Nazis. The questions I want to ask right now are: 1) Why won’t President Bush admit to these family crimes? 2) Why won’t the media directly question him about these abhorrent crimes?

"Naturally, some may not believe that the Bush Family directly assisted the Germans, in essence committing treason against their own country. But sadly, it's true. To prove it, let's start at the beginning...." [ The Bush Family and Nazi Blood Money, Victor Thorn]

Race Hygiene: Three Bush Family Alliances

George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography
by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin

[...] Twenty years before he was U.S. President, George Bush brought two " race-science " professors in front of the Republican Task Force on Earth Resources and Population. As chairman of the Task Force, then-Congressman Bush invited Professors William Shockley and Arthur Jensen to explain to the committee how allegedly runaway birth-rates for African-Americans were " down-breeding " the American population.

Afterwards Bush personally summed up for the Congress the testimony his black-inferiority advocates had given to the Task Force. George Bush held his hearings on the threat posed by black babies on August 5, 1969, while much of the world was in a better frame of mind--celebrating mankind's progress from the first moon landing 16 days earlier. Bush's obsessive thinking on this subject was guided by his family's friend, Gen. William H. Draper, Jr., the founder and chairman of the Population Crisis Committee, and vice chairman of the Planned Parenthood Federation. Draper had long been steering U.S. public discussion about the so-called " population bomb " in the non-white areas of the world.

If Congressman Bush had explained to his colleagues how his family had come to know General Draper , they would perhaps have felt some alarm, or even panic, and paid more healthy attention to Bush's presentation. Unfortunately, the Draper-Bush population doctrine is now official U.S. foreign policy[...]

Bush kicks off multimillion-dollar campaign fund-raising swing

SHARON THEIMER
Associated Press Writer
Saturday, June 14, 2003

President Bush begins raising money in earnest this week for his 2004 re-election effort with a two-week, cross-country sprint expected to take in millions of dollars.

First lady Laura Bush and the president's 2004 running mate, Vice President Dick Cheney, also will hit the fund-raising circuit.

In all, the president is expected to raise $200 million or more for his primary campaign over the next several months, at least twice the record $100 million he collected for the 2000 primaries. [...]

Comment: The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my case." -George W. Bush, Pella, Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000

A very British summer garden party...in Baghdad

FROM RICHARD BEESTON IN BAGHDAD

IT HAS been 13 long years since the British Embassy in Baghdad last hosted a party, but last night the venerable Ottoman building on the banks of the Tigris once again echoed to the sounds of a very British celebration. The Queen's birthday party, the high point of any diplomatic social calendar, returned with a vengeance when about 150 diplomats, spies, soldiers and assorted Iraqi worthies gathered in the mission's yellow-brick courtyard to celebrate the re-establishment of a British presence in Iraq. Similar functions elsewhere are often drab affairs, marked by dull chat and warm gin and tonics, but the Baghdad bash was truly exceptional.

As Christopher Segar, the British Ambassador, put the finishing touches to the preparations machinegun fire erupted 200 yards away when American troops confronted a group of Iraqi bank robbers and engaged in a long gunbattle. The waiters adjusted their tunics and checked their white gloves. British paratroopers looked up with mild curiosity. But no one was going to let a little gunfire spoil weeks of preparation. "It happens all the time. Don't take any notice," said one of the British bodyguards assigned to look after the VIPs as they entered the compound. "We're all used to it now."

Paul Bremer, the US diplomat in charge of the country's provisional government, arrived in a cavalcade worthy of the US President himself. American generals came with Humvee escorts, the Australians bought an armoured car, and so many vehicles were parked on the embassy lawn that it looked like an armoured invasion force was assembling for a new mission. Beneath a fluttering Union Jack a sniper team from the Parachute Regiment stood guard on the embassy's roof. Troops with assault rifles patrolled the grounds.

The VIPs brought with them so many bodyguards that a separate party had to be arranged for dozens of large men wearing ill-fitting suits and sunglasses who balanced sub-machineguns in one hand and drinks in the other. A gleaming brass cannon - a First World War cannon captured from the Turks - stood proudly in the courtyard, but that at least was purely ceremonial. At the real party, there was a strong sense of travelling back in time. A brass quintet from the Black Watch played Colonel Bogey from the gallery, and guests surveyed with astonishment the pictures on the walls. They included portraits of the Queen taken 30 years ago, a photograph of Westminster Bridge taken long before traffic was a problem, and a cheery, bewhiskered Beefeater who looked like something from a BOAC travel brochure. Initially the conversation centred on the chances of success in transforming Iraq.

After a few drinks it turned to the heat, who had access to a pool to swim in, and how everyone wanted to escape before the heat became unbearable in July. The Ambassador and his guests toasted not the Queen, but "the future of Iraq" with beer, whisky, gin and soft drinks. As for the embassy, last night may have been its last in the service of Her Majesty's Government. Although it is the first foreign mission in Baghdad to be restored to its proper use, it has suffered badly from a decade of neglect when Britain did not have diplomatic relations with Iraq.

The Foreign Office is planning to build a new mission in the grounds. But last night, as guests headed home to beat the night curfew, a little part of Iraq remained forever British

Comment: How absolutely, positively marvelous!! Stiff upper lip and all that! Aren't the Iraqis so lucky to have such civilized people in their country, yes indeed, while the hypocrites, psychopaths and snobs tippled the night away, the Iraqis outside the walls got on with readjusting to their new found "freedom". This is simply sickening.

Villagers enraged and baffled by American show of force

US troops accused of indiscriminate use of firepower in countering guerrilla attacks

By Patrick Cockburn in Balad, Iraq
15 June 2003

US troops, in their largest military operation since the end of the war, are trying to stamp out resistance in farming villages along the Tigris river north of Baghdad, but their massive use of firepower has infuriated Iraqis in the area. "I suppose it was a successful operation from the American point of view," said Salah al-Jaburi bitterly as he pointed to two bloodstained quilts on which two men died when US troops had tried to arrest them in the middle of the night in the village of Aldhluaia, earlier in the week.

The quilts were on display beside a tent where several hundred villagers had gathered to mourn three men from Aldhluaia killed in "Operation Peninsula Strike" during which 4,000 US soldiers last week occupied a string of prosperous fruit-growing villages near the town of Balad, 60 miles north of the capital. Mawlud al-Jaburi, who was arrested along with 450 other people, said he was mystified why Aldhluaia had been singled out. "We were pleased when Saddam fell," he insisted. "We have not fired a single bullet at the Americans."

According to Mr Jaburi, all the villagers are members of the large Jubur tribe, which had been out of favour with Saddam Hussein for the last 12 years because senior officers from the tribe were involved in two attempted coups against him. The purpose of Peninsula Strike, which started on Monday, appears to have been to lay on a massive display of force to show that the US is truly in control of central Iraq, in the wake of a series of pin-prick guerrilla attacks that have left 40 American soldiers dead since the beginning of May. If so, the operation has been counter-productive. "Before I was afraid of Saddam. Now I am afraid of the Americans," said Mohammed, an elderly farmer too frightened to give his family name.

It is not clear how many Iraqis were killed in the operation. On Friday a US spokesman said 27 Iraqis had been killed after a group of fighters fired rocket-propelled grenades at a tank, although officers on the ground gave a much lower figure. The Americans counter-attacked with Bradley fighting vehicles and Apache helicopters.

Although there have been very few guerrilla attacks, US troops are responding to any perceived threat by immediate use of their overwhelming firepower. The official American reports of the search operation chillingly resemble those issued at the height of the Vietnam war, with all the dead described as enemy combatants. No American soldiers were killed or wounded. One of the three dead being mourned in Aldhluaia yesterday was Hashim Alawi, a fisherman who thought some men on a boat on the Tigris were thieves trying to steal his boat, moored by the side of the river. He fired his hunting rifle in their direction. In fact he was shooting at a boatload of American soldiers, who shot back and killed him.

There is other evidence of indiscriminate use of force by the Americans. Outside Aldhluaia a driver called Mohammed Rassim al-Jawari took us to a blue-painted Russian jeep in which the front seat was still covered with dried blood. His cousin died when a soldier fired 30 bullets through the bonnet and windscreen of the vehicle. One explanation for American aggression is that their commanders see the possession of arms as a sign of hostility to the occupation. But Iraqi farmers are always armed, usually with AK-47 machine guns. Mawlud al-Juburi said: "They didn't find any heavy weapons. Most of what they took away are AK-47s, which we need to protect ourselves. I always carry one when I go into my fields at night."

The sporadic shootings at American troops seem to be spontaneous, and not organised by any centrally directed guerrilla force. But Peninsula Strike and other operations like it are beginning to create an angry mood and a desire for revenge. That can only benefit those who want to drive out the Americans by force

U.S. Forces 'Slaughter' Iraqis At Dawn: Eyewitness

Saturday, June 14 2003

"The bodies of 12 of your boys were found tied with ropes, each with a bullet in the head. The Americans detained them and immediately executed them in this horrible way,' charged Abu Saadoun .."
By Hossam al-Sayed

RAWAH, Iraq - American troops "slaughtered" more than one hundred Iraqi civilians, most of them killed while asleep, at the early hours of Friday, June 13, eyewitnesses told IslamOnline.net.

The U.S. forces deliberately opened fire from tanks and helicopter gunships at the houses of Iraqi civilians in Rawah, 400 kilometer to the north-west of Baghdad, killing tens of people, they charged. The town residents rushed out of their homes which came under heavy American bombardment.

Some of them emerged with their light arms and battled the occupation forces, killing and injuring an unspecified number of American troops, eyewitnesses told IOL correspondent. "The bodies of 12 of your boys were found tied with ropes, each with a bullet in the head. The Americans detained them and immediately executed them in this horrible way," charged Abu Saadoun, one of the town tribal leaders.

"Now we have to avenge not only the occupation of our country but also the slaughtering of our boys. We will open the gates of hell on the Americans," he pledged in exclusive statements to IOL. Tired and exhausted Abu Khaled told IOL he spent three hours in the desert at the outskirts of Rawah digging a mass grave for the victims of the American massacre.

"We buried more than 80 of our sons but are still puzzled what pushed the Americans to massacre our people. We are far away from Baghdad and no fighting has been reported here. "We have no training camps as alleged by the occupation forces. No Baathists. No nothing. The people of Rawah all reserved Sunnis," lamented Abu Khaled.

"Rawah has a majority of PHD and university certificates holders," he asserted. He uncovered to IOL that a number of Arab fighters, who flocked to Iraq during the days leading to the Anglo-American occupation to join arms in defending the Arab country, occasionally came to the town, also inhabited by a number of Iraqi army officers.

"But, they are not Baathist officers. They opposed Saddam regime but they more strongly oppose the American occupation of their country," Abu Khaled said of the Iraqi army officers. He asserted that the resistance of the American occupation has not yet gained its full momentum and is just at the very beginning.

American armored vehicles and tanks are heavily deployed along Baghdad-Rawah highway but none of the Americans agreed to deliver statements to IOL team other than that they were hunting down loyalists to Saddam and his Baath party. Asked why they target the north and north-west of Iraq, areas of Sunni majority, an American major who declined to put his name said they do not care if the areas belong to Sunnis or others, claiming there was "terrorist" activities there.

Islamists Not Baathists

Majid al-Rawi, a doctor of Rawah hospital, debunked American "superstitions" , asserting that Baathists and Fedayeen Saddam did not fight during the war and left Iraq for the Americans. So why should they develop such a resistance enthusiasm now?" "Most of the boys I treated I personally knew them very well. They are reserved Islamists and not Baathists, " he told IOL correspondent.

"The fairy tale of hunting down Sadda's loyalists and Baathists is a pretext exploited by the occupation forces to violate all human rights, detain and kill people without being held accountable and to evade being disclosed by the media," asserted the doctor. "Suppose the Americans were right, does this give them the right to immediate execute people in such a horrible manner. Where is the democracy and freedom they said they came to give to the Iraqi people? "

[…] "They (U.S. forces) claim they are hunting down Baathists while in fact they are only trying to terrorize us not to resist the occupation, " he concluded.

U.S. Causalities

The American occupation forces sustain daily losses and damages in all Sunni areas in northern Iraq. In Falluja, anti-occupation resistance has been on the upswing to the extent that American forces stationed there fear to leave their posts after sun set and open random fire at any thing that moves.

Also, the towns of Abu Ghareb, el-Ramadi and Heit, all to the west of the capital Baghdad, witness regular resistance operations that inflicted fatalities and damage to the Americans and their weaponry machine. Over the past three days, confirms IOL correspondent, the Americans lost seven soldiers; three Apache helicopter gunships, downed by Russian-made Strella missiles and two tanks destroyed by RBJ.

Maddened by the resistance attacks and the causalities, the Americans developed hostile attitude towards the media and deprived the entire population of Falluja of electricity. The American forces are always keen on evacuating any attack site immediately even if this would cost them more lives.

One U.S. officers told IOL correspondent there are strict orders not to allow the media to document any American causalities. The American forces even rearrange the attack site so that no one would ever notice a battle was raging there. Fires blazed on the major pipeline from Iraq's northern oilfields after twin bomb attacks aimed at sabotaging exports through Turkey. Iraqis are accusing the Americans of stealing their oil wealth by trying to export oil without the approval of a central Iraqi government in Baghdad.

News analysis: A battle is over, but a war is not

Michael R. Gordon
International Herald Tribune

BAGHDAD After American M-1 tanks rolled into Baghdad to depose Saddam Hussein, one of the central military questions was where the United States might fight next. Would American forces continue their march to Syria? Or would the Bush administration step up the military and political pressure on Iran? Two months after the battle for Baghdad, the answer is known: The next fight is in Iraq.[...]

Comment: Meanwhile Bush is Fishing.

A tested theocracy

June 13th 2003
From The Economist Global Agenda

More unrest on the streets of Tehran. Is America pulling the strings?

Reuters

...Iran’s leaders are blaming America for their latest spot of bother. The Islamic nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who supervises the country from a pedestal of unaccountability, said Washington had been stirring up trouble and encouraging people to take to the streets. “Now America itself is openly saying it wants to create disorder inside Iran,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television. “Their solution is creating disputes among the nation and separating the nation from the system.” America is certainly doing nothing to discourage the unrest. The administration of George Bush views both Mr Khamenei and Muhammad Khatami, the twice-elected and reform-minded president, as defenders of a detested theocracy.

Some evidence supports this view. In February’s local elections, once-enthusiastic voters stayed away; in Tehran, a miserable 12% of the electorate cast a ballot. The reformist parliament that was elected in 2000 has been a failure. Deputies recently ratified two presidential bills designed to hobble unelected conservative institutions, only for the bills to be rejected by the most egregious of those institutions, a de facto upper house called the Council of Guardians. Women’s rights, press freedom, trial by jury: in all these areas, Mr Khatami’s supporters have enacted enlightened legislation, only for it to be vetoed—in the case of trial by jury, more than a dozen times.

Last month, a majority of reformist deputies addressed a remarkable letter to the supreme leader. They accused institutions under his purview of creating the impression that Iran cannot change. Mostly because of the deputies’ elliptical call for Mr Khamenei to step aside, newspapers were forbidden to print the letter, and the signatories are under pressure to withdraw their names. Thugs disrupt their speeches. The office of one was bombed. The conciliatory Mr Khatami vows to renegotiate the passage of the two blocked bills, one of which would make it hard for conservatives to stop reformists standing in the next parliamentary elections, in 2004. Few expect him to succeed.

In spite of these setbacks for reform, the European Union wants to engage with Iran and is negotiating a trade and co-operation agreement. Unengaged Americans are less patient. Since he was elected, Mr Bush has resisted detente in favour of co-operation on specific issues. Iranian special forces helped the Northern Alliance during the war in Afghanistan and gave America useful intelligence. Iran’s role in Afghanistan’s political reconstitution was mostly constructive. Last year, Iran encouraged an Iraqi group it influences, the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), to team up with other groups that were being organised by America into an opposition to Saddam Hussein. During the war, the Iranians turned a blind eye to American violations of their airspace and coastal waters.

But America identifies a deeper pattern of transgression. At the beginning of 2002, Iran was caught shipping arms to the Palestinians. Al-Qaeda agents in Iran may have had a hand in last month’s lethal bombings in Riyadh. In Iraq, the Americans have detained SCIRI operatives on suspicion of attacking American forces. Most damaging of all, on June 6th, Iran’s improbable claim that it does not seek nuclear weapons was further undermined by leaks from a UN report asserting that it had withheld sensitive information.

Few of these misdeeds had much to do with Mr Khatami; a few, in fact, may not be misdeeds at all. The president apparently knew nothing about the cache of arms before Israel intercepted it. (Hardliners, who control a panoply of military and intelligence organisations, were almost certainly responsible.) Even now, there is disagreement about what kind of support to give Islamic rejectionist groups. According to one well-travelled parliamentarian, the fall of Saddam Hussein has restricted Iran’s ability to ship arms, destined for rejectionists, across Iraq to Syria. According to a knowledgeable western official, there is no evidence of Iranian collusion with suspected al-Qaeda members.

When it comes to Iran’s nuclear programme, however, outside worries are more warranted. Nuclear development is one of the few issues on which Iranians on both sides of the political divide agree. They have come to regard their ambiguous nuclear status as a protective cloak, especially since Mr Bush included Iran in his axis of evil. Many Iranians are convinced that Mr Bush is determined to topple the Islamic Republic. But Iranian fatalism with regard to the president’s intentions may be premature. The Bush administration, for want of a consensus within it, gives every impression of having deferred a decision on what sort of policy to have towards Iran.

The administration clearly wants the Iranian regime to change. But for some in Washington’s right-wing think-tanks, and for elements in the Pentagon, this is not enough. They believe that the Iranian regime must be changed. Indeed, they say, evidence against Iran on the nuclear question and terrorism is stronger than the evidence that was used against Saddam.

Comment: This is priceless! The evidence against Iran is stronger than that against Saddam! You mean the faked evidence? The non-existent evidence? The trumped-up evidence that permitted the US and the Brits to invade another country, overthrow its government, kill its civilians, and take over the oil fields? THAT eivdence. The evidence Powell brandished in front of the world at the United Nations, evidence that was taken from a ten-year old student paper and that was twisted toi give the impression it was referring to today? THAT evidence?

If this argument is to be acted on, it makes sense to identify Iranian opposition figures capable of putting the case for regime change and willing to help achieve it. But the difficulty of this has been highlighted by suggestions that the Pentagon wants to use the People’s Mujahideen, an armed Iranian opposition group based in Iraq, as an Afghan-style Northern Alliance.

A front for the Mujahideen, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, has been a useful conduit for embarrassingly accurate revelations, thought to have been collected by western intelligence agencies, about Iran’s nuclear programme. The Mujahideen’s military forces are trained and used to be well armed—their heavy weapons are now in the possession of American forces in Iraq. For the moment, however, they make unsuitable partners. The State Department considers them terrorists. Their leader, Massoud Rajavi, has strange ideas about the cult of personality (his own). In Iran, their association with Saddam, who provoked the terrible Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, will not easily be forgiven...

The main reason for the dearth of attractive leaders outside Iran is their abundance inside it. Many, even if they acknowledge the failure of Mr Khatami’s movement, describe themselves as reformists and lean towards a version of democracy that the Bush administration would endorse. To the frustration of expatriates living in America, few of them are inclined to use violent methods, or to lay down their lives, to end the stalemate. In this, they typify the vast majority of Iranians.

Comment: So it continues. The details of a brutal rule are stressed. Now that Afghanistan and Iraq have been "liberated" from such brutal dictators, the new Nazis have established the precedent. It is now ingrained in the populations of their countries that this is an acceptable way of functioning in the new "post-terrorist" world. The rule of law is dead. The media serves up the propaganda and the public drinks it down. Even as the lies about Iraq are coming out, the same scenario plays itself out over Iran!

Iran blames US over protests

The Scotsman

IRAN'S normally feuding officials closed ranks yesterday to criticise the United States for backing five nights of pro-democracy protests by thousands in Tehran.

There were reports of smaller demonstrations in at least three other cities, a sign the momentum of the protests, which Washington hailed as a cry for freedom, may be gathering pace.

"This is the beginning of people expressing themselves toward a free Iran which I think is positive," the US president, George Bush, said. But Iran's foreign ministry accused the US of "flagrant interference in Iran’s internal affairs".

U.S. Given Exemption From War Crimes Prosecution

The Associated Press

Thursday 12 June 2003

Security Council OKs one-year immunity from international court, but Annan warns against seeking to make resolution permanent [...]

Belgian "Boycott Bush" Campaign Closes U.S. Oil Stations

Brussels, June 15 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Belgium spearheaded an international anti-U.S. boycott campaign to condemn the U.S. illegal war on Iraq and the ongoing occupation of the war-scarred country, while U.S. Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld hit out on June 13 at the anti-war country over a law allowing lawsuits against foreigners for war crimes.

Boycott actions closed Esso and Texaco petrol stations in most Belgian provinces.

Man arrested in connection with Casablanca suicide attacks

CBC Online
Last Updated Sun, 15 Jun 2003 13:20:57

MADRID - A French national has been arrested in connection with last month's suicide attacks in Casablanca, news reports said Saturday.

The Moroccan-born man was arrested in Spain on Friday, according to Spain's national news agency, Efe.

Europa Press identified the man as Abdelaziz Benyaich.

Both agencies said Morocco had issued an international arrest warrant for the suspect in connection with the Casablanca bombings, which killed 31 people and the 12 bombers.

Moroccan authorities have arrested 50 suspects believed to have links to the May bombings that targeted Jewish and Spanish sites.

Comments: That is an awful lot of people involved in what is supposedly a clandestine operation, is it not? Could the Morrocan authorities be using the bombing as a pretext for arresting who they want? The royal house in Morroco, in the time of the current King's father, was extremely repressive against any opposition.

Rocket attack claimed by Islamic militants damages Future TV building

Hussein Malla
AP

BEIRUT, Lebanon, June 15 — Assailants fired two rockets at Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's Future TV building on Sunday, causing extensive damage to a news studio, officials said.

A previously unknown group called Ansar Allah, or Partisans of God, claimed responsibility for the attack and threatened attacks against ''anyone, no matter how influential he is, who directs his poisonous arrows at the heart of the resistance and jihad (holy war) and Mujahedeen.''

The group made the claim in a statement sent to Future TV.

Interior Minister Elias Murr linked the attack to a terrorist network blamed for a series of bomb attacks on American fast-food restaurants and other targets in Beirut and northern Lebanon in recent months. [...]

Palestinian-Israeli Deal Shaping Up

Nazir Majally • Asharq Al-Awsat

TEL AVIV, 16 June 2003 — Talks for an end to violence and the implementation of a peace road map continued for a second day yesterday between Israel and the Palestinians. Officials said a deal was shaping up for an Israeli troop withdrawal from the northern Gaza Strip and the West Bank city of Bethlehem in exchange for a Palestinian Authority pledge to assume security control of the two areas and rein in militants. Palestinian Information Minister Nabil Amr said details would be discussed at a meeting later between Israeli Maj. Gen. Amos Gilad and Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan, a follow-up to talks the two held on Saturday.

US President George W. Bush' envoy, veteran diplomat John Wolf, met Israeli domestic security chief Avi Dichter and Dov Weisglass, a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, on Saturday. And Egyptian security officials traveled to Gaza in a bid to persuade Palestinian hard-liners to resume talks with Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas on a deal to end attacks on Israelis. Bush said the world must "deal harshly" with Hamas and a leading Republican senator said US troops may have to go after them. "The free world and those who love freedom and peace must deal harshly with Hamas and the killers," Bush told reporters at Kennebunkport, Maine, when asked whether Israel was justified in recent attacks against the group. "That's just the way it is in the Middle East," he said as he left Sunday services at First Congregational Church in the town. Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said, "clearly, if force is required ultimately to root out terrorism, it is possible there would be American participation." Asked if that meant such troops would go after Hamas or other groups, he said, "That may be the conclusion."

Mideast peace hopes rekindled; US monitor starts mission

Monday June 16, 8:17 AM

Middle East peace hopes brightened with progress reported in bringing Palestinian militants on board a ceasefire deal and an accord near on the withdrawal of Israeli troops from some occupied areas.

The moves came amid intense pressure from Washington to end one of the worst cycles of bloodshed in the 32-month-old conflict and advance on an international plan championed by President George W. Bush.

New Israeli-Palestinian security talks were scheduled Sunday and the Palestinian factions were meeting among themselves as a senior US diplomat started his mission here to oversee implementation of Bush's so-called peace "roadmap." [...]

But Palestinian officials expressed confidence they were on track towards a ceasefire agreement with the prime minister Mahmud Abbas due to meet with the various Palestinian groups Monday in Gaza. [...]

Hopes for a possible ceasefire were buoyed after Hamas said late Sunday it would consider "carefully and seriously" the ceasefire proposals presented by a high-level Egyptian political and security delegation. [...]

A summit of peace or of pretense

By Dr. Mazin Qumsiyeh
Sunday, June 15, 2003 @ 01:25:08 CDT

(YellowTimes.org) – The joke being told in Palestinian circles at home and in the diaspora is that the only part of the speech of Prime Minister Abbas not scripted by the Israelis is the part that says, "in the name of God the most merciful." To viewers around the world, the Summit in Jordan was, in appearance, totally surreal. While supposedly intended to begin implementing a road map for peace, the other authors of the road map were not invited: the Europeans, Russia, and the United Nations. Of the Arab countries, only those dictatorial regimes towing the Bush line were invited.

As expected, Israeli Prime Minister Sharon talked about Israeli security but not Palestinian security. The Palestinian Prime Minister, Abbas, talked about Israeli security but not Palestinian security. This is ironic since Israel has the fourth strongest army in the world and massive stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The decimated Palestinians, who have not seen security in 55 years, were not allowed to talk about security for their own people but only to talk of "improving humanitarian conditions." But then again, that is what is expected in negotiations between a jailer and prisoners.

King Abdullah of Jordan talked about his vision of "let's all get along." President Bush talked about the New World Order the same as he always does with minor but important changes. While he had problems saying the word "contiguous," he was not allowed to utter words such as sovereignty for Palestine, international law, human rights, equality, or non-discrimination. In fact, for the first time, a U.S. president supported a theocracy by stating that not only does he support Israel as a sovereign state but he supports a "Jewish state" (verbally emphasizing the word, Jewish). [...]

Holocaust Documentaries: Too Much of a Bad Thing?

by Robert Lederman
June 15, 2003

To the editor,

Yes there have been many Holocaust documentaries

Unfortunately, the most important part of the story for Americans is always left out.

My father fought in the Battle of the Bulge. What would he have thought to know that GW Bush, the grandson of Prescott Bush - the Wall St banker who helped finance the Holocaust - would someday end up as President of the United States. What would he have thought if he had known that America's leading billionaires, the Rockefeller family, were half owners of IG Farben [today known as Bayer], the German chemical, munitions and pharmaceutical company which built Auschwitz and forty other slave labor-death camps? Perhaps he took note, as many GI's must have noticed, that the Nazis were overrunning Europe in planes, tanks and military vehicles built in large part by the German subsidiaries of Ford, Alcoa and GM, and run on fuel provided by Rockefeller's Standard Oil.

These are not "conspiracy theories." The Federal Register dated November 7th, 1942 page 9097 published the court order seizing Prescott Bush's bank as a Nazi front under the Trading with the Enemy Act. I got my copy for free directly from the Federal government archive [You can see a copy of the same document at http://www.mbpolitics.com/bush2000/Vesting.htm ]. The NY Times itself has run articles implicating Chase Bank, Rockefeller, Ford, and other famous corporations as major supporters of Hitler. Unfortunately, the story doesn't end in 1945.

After bringing thousands of former Nazi officials to the US and planting them in our government, research institutions and universities, Reagan's future CIA director, William Casey, started the Manhattan Institute (MI) - the think tank which was behind all of Rudy Giuliani's eugenics-based police state ideology cleverly presented as "quality of life." Casey was also the genius behind Iran Contra and arming the Mujahadin led by bin Laden, among other brilliant concepts we are still experiencing the blowback from.

GW Bush has claimed that MI is second only to the Bible in its influence on him. These Wall Street billionaires masquerading as social scientists are publicly acknowledged as inventing his so-called, "compassionate conservatism." The most influential "scholar" financed by MI is Dr. Charles Murray, author of the Bell Curve, a book the NY Times and other major media have described as a textbook of classic eugenics. The Bell Curve quotes studies paid for by openly pro-Nazi groups like the Pioneer Fund in support of it's ideas about Blacks being genetically inferior. Murray's ideas are publicly acknowledged by MI as being the direct basis for both Bush and Giuliani's welfare, education and homeless policies.

When the NY Times and other major media outlets kept showing my signs and paintings about Giuliani's police state and comparing him to Hitler they were acknowledging - in a politically safe way - the very real basis for this comparison.

During his eight years as mayor Giuliani ran the NYPD like a Gestapo, in his case targeting Blacks rather than Jews. In his second term he repeatedly sprayed an organophosphate nerve gas invented by IG Farben on eight million unsuspecting New Yorkers to "fight" a virus "discovered" in Uganda in 1937 by Rockefeller University scientists who were experimenting on the native population. That same university had been experimenting with West Nile Virus in NYC since the 1950's, long before the outbreak of a so-called epidemic in 1999. Now in a kind of sick, secret joke, Bush has appointed Giuliani - who once celebrated Martin Luther King Day by dining with Austria's neo-Nazi leader Jorg Haider - to head the US contingent to the Anti-Semitism convention in Vienna, Austria
[See: US Embassy/US Department of State press releases http://www.usembassy.ro/WF/300/03-06-04/eur313.htm 06/04/2003
Giuliani to Head Delegation to Anti-Semitism Conference.]

I guess the real Hitler was unavailable.

Exactly as in the 1940's, our leading military-industrial corporations have made billions building up a dictator - Saddam-Hitler-fill in the blank - then made billions more invading and destroying the same weapons they provided to him. Americans are told they are doing their duty to die in such endeavors and are making the world safe for democracy.

I would disagree.

Since 9/11 our government has made more progress establishing a Nazi-like police state in the US than they did in the past fifty years. In Europe they see this plainly while here we are still waving flags and imagining that Bush and Giuliani are heroes. The real message of the Holocaust is still not understood. It can and is happening here. Look not to 1943 to see the similarities between Nazi Germany and the US. Look to 1933 and we will see history repeating itself.

CIA EXPOSE NEW LIE IN BLAIR'S IRAQ DOSSIER

By Mark Ellis, Foreign Editor
June 13, 2003

THE case for the war on Saddam suffered another hammer blow last night after claims that Iraq tried to buy nuclear weapons were exposed as a lie.

It emerged that the CIA had investigated reports that Iraqi agents attempted to buy uranium in Niger - and found them false.

But 11 months later George Bush used the story to build his case for war against Saddam Hussein.

And Tony Blair put it in his assessment, which was presented to Parliament in September.

The revelations are a major embarrassment to Mr Bush and Mr Blair after coalition forces failed to find any weapons of mass destruction at 87 prime sites in Iraq. [...]

Iraqi mobile labs nothing to do with germ warfare, report finds

Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff
Sunday June 15, 2003
The Observer

An official British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq has concluded they are not mobile germ warfare labs, as was claimed by Tony Blair and President George Bush, but were for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, as the Iraqis have continued to insist.

The conclusion by biological weapons experts working for the British Government is an embarrassment for the Prime Minister, who has claimed that the discovery of the labs proved that Iraq retained weapons of mass destruction and justified the case for going to war against Saddam Hussein. [...]

A mission in Iraq built on a lie

June 16 2003

When Bush wondered what to do about September 11 an ultra-right lobby group was there to tell him, writes Robert Manne.

It is gradually becoming transparent that the endlessly repeated claim used to justify the invasion of Iraq - that Saddam Hussein possessed a vast arsenal of weapons of mass destruction - was false.

The 200 most plausible sites for the storage of such weapons have been inspected. Many of the most senior military, intelligence and scientific figures in the regime have been captured and interrogated. Yet not one weapon of mass destruction has so far been found.

The spurious justification constitutes, in my opinion, one of the greatest foreign policy scandals involving Western governments since 1945.

It is surely imperative for all those who care about democracy - whether or not they supported the war - to try to discover an explanation for the deception and the true causes of what has occurred.

One important moment on the road that led to the invasion of Iraq can be found in the formation in 1997 of the Project for the New American Century. This lobby group represented almost all the most powerful figures associated with the defence and foreign policy wing of American neo-conservatism: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz and William Kristol. [...]

It's Time For Them To Go

By Sheila Samples

06/15/03: (Information Clearing House) It is time. It's time for George W. Bush -- the clandestine skull and bonesman who loves to operate in the shadows -- and his crazed gang of motley warmongers to go. It's time for this hysterical and sustained madness to stop. How many skulls and bones of the innocent are going to have to pile up before the American people shake free of the evil spell cast across this land? How many bodies will it take before we stand up and shout "Enough!" at the top of our lungs?

My friend Bernie says it may already be too late. He says it's like we're stumbling around in a Stephen King novel where people who come face to face with evil either choose not to recognize it or lower their heads and take their places in line because they feel too weak to resist. They convince themselves that fighting evil is someone else's job. Bernie says he's never seen the world in such chaotic, snarled disorder. "I've been around the block a couple of times," he said, shaking his head sadly. "I've seen the elephant and heard the owl. And -- like they say down in Texas -- "this gang's meaner than a bunch of junk-yard dogs..."

Bernie says Bush is one bad dude--a real Stephen King character. Bernie says he was born bad and if it hadn't been for all that money and a lifetime of enablers egging him on, Bush probably would be serving life without parole in some skanky Texas Big House instead of a swanky D.C.White House. Because, as they say in D.C. -- make no mistake -- although he's manipulated by a horde of jackals consumed with lust to control the world's wealth and resources, Bush seems to be having the time of his life. It's true. Nothing seems to excite him so much as the killing that is required to "bring evildoers to justice." Lucky for him the Supreme Court gave him a license to do just that. Like Bush said as he pumped his fist in the air on the eve of bombing the daylights out of Iraq -- ''feel good." Yeah. Feel damn good...

The signs have been there all his life. Is anything more frightening than a young George W. Bush ramming lighted firecrackers in stunned frogs' mouths -- just to watch 'em explode and splatter? Well, okay, maybe scattering yellow bomblets and yellow food packages among starving Afghan women and children is more frightening -- or maybe shredding terrified civilians in Iraqi residential areas with cluster-bomb shrapnel is more frightening -- but, hey -- liberation's a dirty job. You know the deal -- somebody's gotta do it...

US professors condemn suspension of alleged Palestinian extremist

Sun Jun 15, 3:27 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - An association of US university teachers has condemned the University of South Florida for suspending a computer science professor accused of being a leader of a Palestinian extremist group.

Kuwaiti-born Sami Al-Arian, 45, was arrested last February after US justice officials described him as the North American leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

He has been under investigation by federal agents since 1995 and was banned from the university campus following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks against the United States.

But the American Association of University Professors, gathered here for its annual meeting, voted Saturday to condemn the university "for grave departures from association-supported standards," which resulted in "serious professional injury" to professor Al-Arian.

The association said these actions were "based on political issues entirely apart from any legitimate academic concerns" and Al-Arian's dismissal within days after his indictment and arrest was a violation of principle that a person is innocent until proven guilty.

Censure by the AAUP usually sends a signal to the academic community that an educational institution has not adhered to the generally recognized principles of academic freedom.

Forty-nine US universities and colleges have so far been censured by the association.

US unleashes new push to root out pro-Saddam loyalists in Iraq

Monday June 16, 1:20 PM

US armor fanned out across the tense Iraqi town of Fallujah west of Baghdad on a new mission to win the hearts and minds of a community rife with resentment and hostility toward western "saviours."

Residents used to lying low during search operations that follow the repeated deadly attacks on US troops watched warily as teams of army engineers poured out of convoys trundling down narrow streets to renovate schools, clear rubbish, and build soccer fields.

In Washington, a top adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell said Sunday the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq could take years, and would not resemble those of the United States or Britain but would be "Iraqi."

"I think we should be talking in terms of several years at a minimum," said Richard Haass, director of policy planning at the State Department.

The Iraqi changeover from virtual dictatorship to democracy won't come overnight, Haass told ABC television. "There will be a gradual transition or evolution to a more open Iraq."

Meanwhile, US forces intensified their battle against pro-Saddam Hussein loyalists and armed resistance in Iraq, as thousands of Iraqi protestors demanded self-rule in the British-run southern city of Basra. [...]

Bali Chosen as Bomb Target to Hit 'White People'

By Achmad Sukarsono
Sun June 15, 2003 11:33 PM ET

BALI, Indonesia (Reuters) - An Indonesian Muslim militant who fought in Afghanistan was in charge of last year's Bali bombings and targeted the holiday island because it was popular with "white people" including Americans, a court heard.

Reading the indictment of Mukhlas at the opening of his trial on Monday, prosecutor Putu Indriati said the blasts were part of a plan to wage war on the United States.

Mukhlas, a 43-year-old Muslim preacher, has been charged with plotting, organising and carrying out terror crimes. [...]

"The defendant felt grateful upon hearing a radio broadcast about the Bali bomb explosions because the purpose had been achieved and many victims from America's allies were killed, including Australians," Indriati told the court. [...]

He has gained notoriety by laughing at Indonesian witnesses and has said he was proud the blasts killed white people. [...]

David Nelsons want off the list

By Lisa Friedman
Washington Bureau
Saturday, June 14, 2003

WASHINGTON -- The skies haven't been friendly lately for David Nelson.

Any David Nelson.

Throughout Southern California and across the country, men named David Nelson report they have been harassed, questioned by FBI agents, pulled off airplanes, searched and then searched again when attempting air travel.

Apparently caught up in a nationwide dragnet for a terrorist by that name, David Nelsons everywhere are being told their names raise red flags on airline screening software. The government, however, maintains that the problem is essentially a computer glitch the airlines must solve.

Some David Nelsons in Southern California say they don't care why it's happening. They just want their names off the list. [...]

The selectee list, according to security officials, often offers little identifying information other than a first and last name -- making it nearly impossible for Southern California's David Nelsons and the potentially thousands of others nationwide to convince airlines they are not the alleged bad guy.

Take 73-year-old David Nelson, a retired building manager from South Pasadena. His name provoked mass confusion at LAX last August, when he was trying to get to Madison, Wis., for a high school reunion.

Eventually a manager appeared and said, "I'm sorry, your name has appeared on the watch list."

Then Nelson was surrounded by a swarm of security officers -- "I guess so I wouldn't make a break for it," said Nelson, who walks with a cane. [...]

Comment: Yes indeed, they are going to root out the terrorists by interrogating 73-year-old retirees with canes who try to get on an airplane. And never mind that the system for identifying terrorists is so simplistic and ridiculous that it is totally useless. Of course, that doesn't really matter - just create a false sense of security for the American people after creating something for them to fear, and apparently they will love you for it. Then you can rob them blind of their money, freedoms, dignity, or anything else you want.

Towns turning to alternatives amid drought

Hard-hit border region striving to cope with severe water crisis

By JAMES PINKERTON
June 14, 2003, 9:53PM
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

BROWNSVILLE -- In this border town, the once-great Rio Grande has been a main source of drinking water for decades, but years of drought have reduced the river to a mere trickle in some places, and public officials are seeking other sources.

Later this year, the town's water utility will open a desalinization plant that will convert 6 million gallons of brackish groundwater into drinking water each day. It may be the wave of the future in a region that has been shorted 35 inches of rain since 1998.

Farther up the Gulf Coast and closer to Houston, the lack of rain has withered corn fields and a few farmers have turned cattle loose on failed soybean fields. Out in arid West Texas, ranchers have auctioned off livestock that could not survive on stunted vegetation.

And West Texas residents report another telltale sign of the drought that has locked much of Texas in a searing clench: Thirst has caused wild animals to lose their fear of humans. [...]

PAPER: N. Korea exports missiles to Iran by air

SUN Jun 15 2003 23:51:37 ET

SEOUL, June 16 (Kyodo) _ North Korea transported containers believed to be carrying missiles to Iran by air six times over about two months from April, a Seoul daily reported Monday.

The JoonAng Ilbo quoted South Korean and U.S. intelligence sources as saying U.S. intelligence satellite data indicate an Iranian Il-76 transport plane made direct flights with the containers from Pyongyang's Sunan airport to Iran six times from April to June 10.

After analyzing information obtained through various channels, South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities tentatively concluded that disassembled warheads and Rodong missiles -- the same type sold to Pakistan in 1998 -- were inside the containers, the paper said. [...]

Comment: Translation: N. Korea exported several tons of cocktail wieners, those little umbrellas for mixed drinks, blenders, and booze to Iran for the Ayatollah's next swinging bash

Inmates' long wait for justice

BY FRANK MAIN
Sun Times

Bill White spent five years in Cook County Jail awaiting trial for murder. But it took a judge only 15 minutes to rule the state's key witness "worthless" and set White free.

One week later, White's co-defendants, Otis English, 32, and Roland Gray, 50, walked out of the jail when the state dropped their cases, too. [...]

U.S. prison population largest in world

The Baltimore Sun

With a record-setting 2 million people now locked up in American jails and prisons, the United States has overtaken Russia and has a higher percentage of its citizens behind bars than any other country. [...]

The end is near: Prairie dog doomsday scenario

MICHAEL KORB
The Saratogian

[...] I know what you are saying to yourself: "How do you get monkeypox from a prairie dog?"

Nobody knows for sure. There's even a chance that monkeypox is spread via use of the word monkeypox. (Sorry.) Nevertheless, just to be safe, the government (ours) has decided to put a halt to the importation of African rodents which may be infecting our prairie dogs. (Apparently at a convention somewhere near Milwaukee, an African rodent sweet-talked a drunken prairie dog into going back to his hotel room.)

Obviously, there will be a lot of disappointed dads out there today as, according to Redbook, Gambian giant rats with open sores were the number one gift choice for dad on Father's Day.) As for SARS [...] Hitoshi Oshitani, the WHO regional advisor on communicable diseases, says the illness is on the wane in China. So, if you are planning a trip to China, avoid the wane area.

Netscape Settles Software Issue 

Reuters

NEW YORK -- The New York Attorney General's office said on Friday Netscape would pay $100,000 as part of a settlement of complaints about a feature used by the unit of America Online to track what users downloaded online. [...]

Crop Circle Connector Reporting 8 New Crop Circles for June

'Fluorescent fish' give the green light to GM pets

Robin McKie, science editor
The Observer

Scientists have created the ultimate pet: genetically modified fish that glow in the dark. In future, there will be no need for aquarium lights - fluorescent fish will provide their own illumination.

And that is just the start. Scientists believe Night Pearl bio-fish represent the shape of pets to come. Our household animals will come with extra genes that will stop them shedding fur or triggering allergic reactions. And when one dies, its owner will simply clone it. [...]

Drifting object in space is likely tag

By MARK CARREAU
June 15, 2003, 12:39PM
Copyright 2003 Houston Chronicle

A 2 1/2-inch-long flat metal object that drifted away from the international space station earlier this week most likely was an identification tag from an external power or data cable, NASA officials said Friday.

Astronaut Ed Lu, one of the station's two current tenants, noticed the small object drift past the window of the station's U.S. Destiny science laboratory module early Thursday.

After reporting the observation to NASA's Mission Control, ground-based experts e-mailed images of several potential candidates for the object to the space station astronaut for identification.

Lu selected the image resembling one of the many numbered tags used to identify individual power and data cables in large wire bundles outside the space station, said agency spokesman Kyle Herring.

The tags are secured to the cables with a woven fiberglass lacing cord, and engineers are not certain how the high-tech string came apart or worked itself free. [...]

And Finally...

Skunk Ape Festival!

Comment: No, they are not celebrating the removal of George W. Bush from his stolen office.

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