One month ago, we
began our first ever Signs of the Times
fundraiser. The final results are shown above.
We are extremely thankful for the generous support we
received from our readers. While we did not reach our
goal, your support will certainly help us to continue
to produce and improve the Signs page.
For
the first time, the Signs Team's most popular and discerning
essays have been compiled into book form and thematically
organized.
These books contain hard hitting exposés into
human nature, propaganda, psyop activities and insights
into the world events that shape our future and our
understanding of the world.
The six new books, available now at our bookstore,
are entitled:
By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press
Wed Aug 17, 3:48 AM ET
CRAWFORD, Texas - One of President
Bush's neighbors will allow use of his land by dozens
of war protesters who have camped in roadside ditches
the past 11 days, giving them
more room and halving their distance from Bush's ranch.
Fred Mattlage, an Army veteran, said he sympathizes
with the demonstrators whose makeshift camp off the
winding, two-lane road leading to Bush's ranch has angered
most residents. Mattlage said the group will be safer
on his corner 1-acre lot.
"I just think people should have
a right to protest without being harassed," Mattlage
told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. "And
I'm against the war. I don't think it's a war we need
to be in."
Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., started the vigil
Aug. 6 to honor her son Casey, who was killed in Iraq
last year. Sheehan has vowed to remain through Bush's
monthlong ranch visit unless he meets with her and other
grieving families.
Mattlage's Monday night offer, accepted by protesters
Tuesday, will put them about a mile from Bush's ranch,
said Hadi Jawad of the Crawford Peace House, which is
helping the group.
Demonstrators said they would start moving their tents,
anti-war banners and portable toilets to the new site
Wednesday and hope to have the new camp set up in time
for a dusk candlelight vigil.
The vigil will be one of about 1,000
to be held across the country, an effort organized by
liberal advocacy groups MoveOn.org Political Action,
TrueMajority and Democracy for America.
Larry Mattlage, a distant cousin of Mattlage's who
owns nearby land, fired a shotgun twice into the air
Sunday but no one was injured. But Fred Mattlage does
not share his cousin's frustrations with the group.
For more than a week, the rural area has been a traffic
nightmare as the camp attracted hundreds more protesters
as well as Bush supporters holding counter-rallies.
A resident was arrested Monday night
after authorities say he ran over hundreds of small
wooden crosses bearing names of fallen U.S. soldiers.
Tuesday morning, several landowners asked county commissioners
to extend for at least two miles the public "no
parking" zone around Bush's ranch. The ordinance
now prohibits cars from stopping on the road within
about a quarter of a mile.
Bush, who said he sympathizes with Sheehan, has made
no indication that he will meet with her. Sheehan and
other families met with Bush two months after her son's
death before she became a vocal opponent of the war.
Comment: Meanwhile,
more parents are beginning to speak out against the
war in Iraq...
When the three Army officers finally
tracked Michelle DeFord down at her Colton home last
September, she didn't believe their story: "I kept
thinking to myself, while the soldiers were talking
to me, 'They're going to straighten this out, I know
it's a mistake, David calls home every Monday.' "
And his message was always the same. "He kept
telling me he wasn't doing anything dangerous,"
DeFord said. "He kept telling me he was safe."
That gunfire in the background? "That was just
Iraqis celebrating another soccer victory."
Thus, when the Army said she had 24 hours to notify
her family before her son's death became public, DeFord
didn't reach for the phone: "I just kept thinking
that I don't want to get everyone upset, because I know
this is wrong."
Almost a year after Spc. David
W. Johnson, a 37-year-old cook turned machine gunner,
was killed by a roadside bomb on a supply run to Taji,
Michelle DeFord still thinks something is irrevocably
wrong.That's why she and
Lynn Bradach will fly to Texas on Wednesday, drive to
"Camp Casey" and join Cindy Sheehan's vigil
outside the Crawford ranch of President George W. Bush.
The nation is at war, the president is on an extended
vacation, and DeFord and Bradach are the mothers of
dead soldiers. Bradach's son, Marine Cpl. Travis J.
Bradach-Nall, 21, of Portland, died in July 2003 while
clearing a Karbala minefield.
In the months following her son's death, DeFord was
too numb to wrestle with her pain in public. "I
didn't speak out for a while," she said, "because
I felt I'd be viewed as a grieving mother who was misguided."
But she has been inspired by
Sheehan and her ability to energize the anti-war movement
from a dusty outpost outside the president's 1,600-acre
ranch. Sheehan has pledged to maintain her vigil
in Crawford until Bush sits down to speak with her directly
about the death of her son, Casey, a 24-year-old Army
specialist who died in an Iraqi rocket attack.
DeFord first met Sheehan in Florida last October when
both worked on a get-out-the-vote campaign. Since Sheehan
formed Gold Star Families for Peace, the two women have
grown quite close, staying in each other's homes when
DeFord travels to the Bay Area or Sheehan journeys to
the Pacific Northwest.
"I have never met anyone so determined,
so calm, so rational and so well-spoken under these
circumstances," DeFord said.
Sheehan makes no bones about her anger that Bush describes
the death of her son as "noble." Her determination
to keep that outrage and her anguished opposition to
the war in public view, even as the president enjoys
mountain biking and fundraising on his five-week August
recess, has been particularly cathartic to other parents
who count their sons and daughters among the 1,850 Americans
who have died in Iraq.
"I'm so proud of Cindy," Lynn Bradach said.
"I've had a really tough time this spring. I got
to the point where I couldn't handle the news anymore."
She was fleeing media coverage of the deaths of 19 Marine
reservists from the same Cleveland battalion when she
was swept away by the story of Sheehan's arrival in
Crawford.
"The minute I read the article,
I said I should be there to support her," Bradach
said. "There should be many more mothers there."
This pair will tote backpacks and a tent into the sauna
of summer in Texas and onto the firing range of those
who scream these families aren't "supporting the
troops."
"We're in Bush country,"
Bradach said. "There will be a lot of detractors,
people saying we aren't patriots. I'd like to know what
they've given up."
"There is no way our children
died in vain, not if we pay attention, not if we learn.
I'm proud of my son. I love the Marines. And I'm very
much against this war and always have been."
"I guess our children went and
were sacrificed for us to take a look at what we let
happen. We let this war happen. If nothing else, this
is a huge lesson. Watch who you vote for. Watch what
they're telling you. Don't be so afraid."
By JOE MILICIA
Associated Press
Tue Aug 16,11:36 PM ET
CLEVELAND - The day after burying
their son, parents of a fallen Marine urged President
Bush to either send more reinforcements to
Iraq or withdraw U.S. troops altogether.
"We feel you either have to fight this war right
or get out," Rosemary Palmer, mother of Lance Cpl.
Edward Schroeder II, said Tuesday.
Schroeder, 23, died two weeks ago in a roadside explosion,
one of 16 Ohio-based Marines killed recently in Iraq.
The soldier's father said his son
and other Marines were being misused as a stabilizing
force in Iraq.
"Our comments are not just those of grieving parents,"
Paul Schroeder said in front of the couple's home. "They
are based on anger, Mr. President, not grief. Anger
is an honest emotion when someone's family has been
violated."
Palmer accused the president of refusing to make changes
in a war gone bad. "Whether he leads them out by
putting more troops on the ground or pulling them out
- he can't just let it continue," she said.
White House spokesman Allen Abney declined comment
other than to refer to remarks Bush made last week.
At a news conference Thursday, the president said:
"Pulling troops out prematurely will betray the
Iraqis. Our mission in Iraq, as I said earlier, is to
fight the terrorists, is to train the Iraqis."
The Ohio couple have long opposed the
war and tried to dissuade their son from joining the
Marines, but have made their views public only since
his death. On Tuesday they urged Americans to voice
their opposition to the war.
"We want to point out that 30 people have died
since our son. Are people listening?" Palmer asked.
More than 1,800 U.S. servicemen and women have been
killed in the war.
Comment: Horse
hockey. It has been reported numerous times now that
the Pentagon has an interesting way of counting the
number of soldiers killed in battle. If a soldier is
wounded in action, transferred to a hospital, and later
dies, she is not counted as KIA. Think about that: a
US soldier, who sacrificed her life based on the lies
of an AWOL president, is not even given the dignity
of being counted among the killed American soldiers.
She is viewed by the Bush administration as even less
than a number...
On Monday, dozens of people, including several holding
large American flags, lined the streets leading to the
funeral for Schroeder, known to friends and family as
"Augie" based on his middle name, August.
"Yesterday, it was Augie's day and we didn't want
to intrude upon his day with politics," Palmer
said. "We have to move on and keep his spirit alive
by helping to protect his buddies who are still out
there."
The couple applauded Cindy Sheehan,
the mother of a fallen soldier who has camped out in
protest near Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, for bringing
the war to the public's attention.
"We consider her the Rosa Parks
of the new movement opposing the Iraq war," Palmer
said.
On posterboards, Schroeder displayed photos of his
son - being cradled the day he was born; a blond boy
eating corn on the cob; and the
last photo the couple received of him, smiling in uniform,
holding a Pepsi can and a rifle.
Their son went to Iraq filled with optimism about the
mission but gradually became disillusioned with the
war's progress, his parents said.
"He said the longer it went on the less and less
worth it seemed," Palmer said. "They're
not doing the job right now. It's not the fault of the
troops. It's the fault of the plan."
Comment: The
last photo the Schroeder's have of their son shows him
holding a Pepsi can and a rifle. What an appropriate
image for a war run by psychopathic leaders, based on
lies, and intended to benefit the leaders themselves
and psychopathic corporations at the expense of American
and Iraqi children...
Speaking of children, why don't the Bush twins enlist?
Thanks in large part to Cindy Sheehan,
people are starting to raise the issue of why Jenna
and Barbara Bush aren't serving in the military. It's
a tough question, but I think it's a fair one.
The President of the United States
is calling on American young people to volunteer to
go to war, but his own daughters, who are certainly
of the appropriate age, are better known for their drunken
nightclub escapades than for any acts of patriotism.
There's a precedent for prodding Bush on this question.
Back in 1993, when Bill and Hillary Clinton moved to
Washington, they decided to enroll Chelsea in a private,
rather than public, school. Because
the decision seemed to contradict the Clintons' stated
faith in public schools, the press asked the Clintons
about that decision, and they had to defend it - publicly.
(And unlike the Bush daughters now, Chelsea was a minor.)
It's pretty simple, really. The military doesn't have
enough soldiers; the president believes that this is
a good and just war; he has two daughters who could
enlist in the military, but haven't. These
things don't add up.
So here's a question I think a White
House reporter should ask the president: "President
Bush, if your own two daughters won't enlist, how can
you expect anyone else's children to join the military?"
Comment: Perhaps
it would be easier for Bush to empathise with Cindy
Sheehan if his daughters were shipped off to war. Then
again, we've never seen any evidence that Bush is even
remotely capable of empathy.
I suppose it is not completely new, as I've probably
come across it at various points in my life. However,
today I read it in Christopher Hitchens' rather nonsensical
gabbling as he added to the right-wing attempt to
slander Cindy Sheehan (he referred to her work as "sinister
piffle"), and was actually driven to seek a definition.
Here's what I found:
Noun 1. piffle - trivial nonsense, balderdash, fiddle-faddle,
hokum, meaninglessness, nonsense, nonsensicality,
bunk - a message that seems to convey no meaning
Verb 1. piffle - speak (about unimportant matters)
rapidly and incessantly blabber, palaver, prate, prattle,
tattle, tittle-tattle, twaddle, gabble, gibber, blab,
clack, maunder, chatter, mouth, speak, talk, verbalise,
verbalize, utter - express in speech; "She talks
a lot of nonsense"; "This depressed patient
does not verbalize," blather, blether, blither,
smatter, babble - to talk foolishly; "The two
women babbled and crooned at the baby"
My first reaction was that I don't think that I have
ever before come across such truly excellent synonyms
for a word.
So, Hitchens is saying that Cindy Sheehan's
effort and message is balderdash and hokem. That holding
Bush, our government, and ourselves accountable for
the deaths of nearly 2000 Americans, and tens of thousands
of Iraqis is prattle, blither, smatter and babble.
This, I would say, is the fiddle-faddle
of those among us who have somehow been brainwashed
by the blathering and blethering of our so-called mission
to spread freedom and democracy throughout the world.
Too bad that Hitchens is not able to recognize that
piffle becomes sinister when people die horrible and
needless deaths as a result of our imperialistic endeavors,
not when Cindy Sheehan acts from a place of moral clarity.
Anything outside of that place, be it twaddling or action,
is just bunk. Extremely sinister bunk.
Elisa Salasin lives in Berkeley, California, and
can be contacted at elisasalasin@gmail.com.
Many of her writings can be found on her blog,
Two
Feet In.
Comment: Hitchens
does indeed completely
miss the point of Cindy Sheehan's protest. It is
not a question of who has "moral authority".
If anyone is severely lacking in moral authority while
at the same time stating - and probably believing -
that god is directing his actions, it is George W. Bush.
Apparently, there are those who would rather belittle
what Sheehan is doing in speaking out against the lies
of the Bush administration by attempting to steer the
debate away from the facts and into the realm of "morality".
Americans and Iraqis are dying. Iraq is less secure
today and no more closer to "freedom and democracy"
than before the US invasion. And Saddam's WMD's? Well,
they never existed in the first place. The facts
speak for themselves.
By FRANK ELTMAN
Associated Press
Tue Aug 16,11:08 PM ET
NEW YORK - A union representing
22,000 active and retired firefighters announced Tuesday
it has withdrawn its support for the foundation overseeing
development of a memorial and other structures at the
World Trade Center site.
Steve Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters
Association, cited objections to the planned International
Freedom Center and a Drawing Center, which detractors
say could include anti-American exhibits and draw attention
from a planned memorial museum.
Cassidy said in a statement that his "membership
and our 9/11 families believe that the memorial design
will take away from the memory and sacrifice of the
firefighters who bravely gave their lives during the
most horrific terrorist attacks our country has had
to face."
The Freedom Center and the Drawing Center are parts
of cultural space long planned at ground zero. But in
recent months family members have waged a campaign to
remove the two institutions from the site.
The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation is charged
with overseeing development of a memorial at the World
Trade site as well as cultural space set aside for the
two museums, two theater companies and a performing
arts complex.
The Lower Manhattan Development Corp. oversees rebuilding
of the entire 16-acre site, including a planned 1,776-foot
tall Freedom Tower office building.
The memorial, called "Reflecting Absence,"
will include a field of trees and two large voids containing
recessed pools. The pools and the ramps that surround
them encompass the footprints of the twin towers. A
cascade of water will feed the pools continuously.
Last week, John Whitehead - chairman of the LMDC's
board of directors and a foundation board member - gave
the International Freedom Center until Sept. 23 to work
with family members and produce more specific plans
and warned if the plans do not satisfy the rebuilding
agency, "we will find another use or tenant consistent
with our objectives for that space."
The Drawing Center is looking for a new home following
the controversy.
Cassidy was adamant in calling the plans to house the
Freedom and Drawing centers "unacceptable."
"This was the largest civilian
rescue operation of its kind, and its victims must be
at the forefront of whatever memorial is cast and not
forced to play third fiddle," he said.
A spokeswoman said the foundation was "deeply
saddened" by the union's decision. "We hope
that the LMDC will work with the cultural institutions
and the family members to resolve the concerns at the
site," Lynn Rasic said.
The chairman and the vice chair of the International
Freedom Center, Tom Bernstein and Paula Berry, said
Tuesday they looked forward to meeting with the union
officials to share their plans.
They said they were creating a family advisory council
to ensure that everything at the International Freedom
Center "is done with the greatest sensitivity and
respect for the sacrifice so many heroes, both in and
out of uniform, made that day."
By KRISTEN GELINEAU
Associated Press
August 17, 2005
RICHMOND, Va. - A rush to purchase
$50 used laptops turned into a violent stampede Tuesday,
with people getting thrown to the pavement, beaten with
a folding chair and nearly driven over. One woman went
so far as to wet herself rather than surrender her place
in line.
"This is total, total chaos," said Latoya
Jones, 19, who lost one of her flip-flops in the ordeal
and later limped around on the sizzling blacktop with
one foot bare.
An estimated 5,500 people turned
out at the Richmond International Raceway in hopes of
getting their hands on one of the 4-year-old Apple iBooks.
The Henrico County school system was selling 1,000 of
the computers to county residents. New iBooks cost between
$999 and $1,299.
Officials opened the gates at 7 a.m., but some already
had been waiting since 1:30 a.m. When the gates opened,
it became a terrifying mob scene.
People threw themselves forward, screaming
and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was
crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man
was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried
to drive his way through the crowd.
Seventeen people suffered minor injuries, with four
requiring hospital treatment, Henrico County Battalion
Chief Steve Wood said. There were no arrests and the
iBooks sold out by 1 p.m.
"It's rather strange that
we would have such a tremendous response for the purchase
of a laptop computer - and laptop computers that probably
have less-than-desirable attributes," said
Paul Proto, director of general services for Henrico
County. "But I think that people tend to get caught
up in the excitement of the event - it almost has an
entertainment value."
Blandine Alexander, 33, said one woman
standing in front of her was so desperate to retain
her place in line that she urinated on herself.
"I've never been in something like that before,
and I never again will," said Alexander, who brought
her 14-year-old twin boys to the complex at 4:30 a.m.
to wait in line. "No matter what the kids want,
I already told them I'm not doing that again."
Jesse Sandler said he was one of the
people pushing forward, using a folding chair he had
brought with him to beat back people who tried to cut
in front of him.
"I took my chair here and I threw it over my shoulder
and I went, 'Bam,'" the 20-year-old said nonchalantly,
his eyes glued to the screen of his new iBook, as he
tapped away on the keyboard at a testing station.
"They were getting in front of
me and I was there a lot earlier than them, so I thought
that it was just," he said.
The truckers have heard of logging
trucks parking in protest in Grays Harbor. Quietly,
not openly yet, they are talking of parking their
rigs.
Mike said: "I don't know (if)
we can bring the price of fuel down by doing that;
but, hopefully, it would get the government's attention.
Something has to be done about it."
The wife of another long-haul driver,
Judy Looney said: "That'd
get a message to just about everyone -- when your
grocery store start running out of food."
If people will act like animals
just to get a four-year-old laptop computer for $50,
what would they do to each other if food becomes scarce?
WASHINGTON (AP) - Consumer prices
shot up in July, reflecting higher prices for gasoline
and other energy products while output at the nations'
factories, mines and utilities slowed sharply.
The Federal Reserve reported that industrial production
rose just 0.1 percent last, the weakest showing in three
months. Output increases at factories and utilities
slowed after big gains in June while mining output actually
fell.
The overall increase was below what economists had
been expecting but they are still looking for solid
gains for the rest of the year as factories boost production
to restock depleted store inventories.
Meanwhile, the Labor Department reported that its closely
watched Consumer Price Index rose 0.5 percent in July,
the biggest increase in three months. In
July, overall inflation was driven higher by a big 3.8
percent jump in energy costs. [...]
So far this year, inflation
is rising at a moderate annual rate of 3.5 percent as
the explosion in energy
costs has not yet triggered underlying inflation pressures.
The core rate of inflation, excluding food and energy,
is rising at an annual rate of just 2.2 percent so far
this year.
But the soaring costs of fuel
could have an adverse impact on the economy ultimately
if consumers pressed by this higher expense cut back
on their spending elsewhere. [...]
Comment: And
it appears that the average consumer is beginning to
do just that...
As Oil and Gas Prices Continue To Rise, Shoppers Are Increasingly
Buying the 'Needs' And Leaving The 'Wants' On the Shelves
By Michael Barbaro and Anjali
Athavaley
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; Page D01
The nation's retailers are growing
increasingly worried that as consumers pour more money
into their gas tanks, they will devote less to filling
up their shopping carts, with industry bellwether Wal-Mart
Stores Inc. yesterday blaming higher prices at the pump
for its weakest quarterly performance in four years.
So far, the relentless climb of oil and gas prices
has pinched discount chains and dollar stores, which
cater to lower-income shoppers. But if prices continue
to rise, the pain could soon spread to chains that have
long considered their customers immune to the fluctuating
price of fuel, retail analysts said.
With oil and gas prices hovering in
record territory, retailers are feeling yet another
pressure: Their everyday cost of doing business is surging.
A Barbie costs more to make. A diaper costs more to
distribute. And a store costs more to cool and heat.
"It is a perilous time in retail," said Howard
Davidowitz, chairman of Davidowitz & Associates
Inc., a retail consulting and investment banking firm,
who says a combination of escalating
gas prices, heavy consumer debt and low savings "will
affect every retailer in America."
Wal-Mart, shopped by nearly
half the country's population every week, fingered mounting
gas prices yesterday when it cut its prediction for
third-quarter profit. Wal-Mart chief executive
H. Lee Scott. Jr., said he feels "good about the
economy, but I worry about rising oil prices."
Those prices, he said, could "erase improvements"
in the economy for the chain's lower- and middle-income
customers.
Those fears jolted the retail industry. "When
Wal-Mart sneezes, retailing catches a cold," said
Bill Dreher, a retail analyst at Deutsche Bank Securities
Inc.
Consumers, stung by escalating gas prices, say they
are switching from name brands to generic ones, avoiding
pricier chains in favor of cheaper competitors and abstaining
from impulse purchases.
The national average for a gallon of regular unleaded
gas hit $2.52 yesterday, according to the auto club
AAA.
Shopping at Ross Dress for Less in Alexandria yesterday,
Shirley Lee, a retiree from Mount Vernon, was tempted
to buy a lunchbox and container of gumdrops for her
granddaughter.
Then she thought about filling her gas tank -- a $40
task -- and took a pass on the gifts. "I'm trying
to cut down," she said.
Or, as Janine Whitfield, a teacher from Tysons Corner,
put it, "we are going to have to rethink how we
spend money and how we drive."
With oil and gas prices hovering in record territory,
retail executives said shoppers
are shying away from many purchases, such as bedding
and curtains, and focusing instead on basics, such as
clothing and laundry detergent -- "needs versus
wants," said Kiley F. Rawlins, a divisional
vice president at Family Dollar Stores Inc., the nation's
second-largest dollar-store chain. [...]
Oil exports to the US could stop
amid growing tensions between the two countries, Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez has said.
He described recent US government actions as "aggressive"
in a speech at a youth festival in Caracas.
As a result, Venezuelan oil "instead of going
to the United States, could go elsewhere," he said.
Venezuela exports about 1.3 million
barrels a day to the US and is the world's fifth largest
oil producer.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated since
President Chavez accused the US Drug Enforcement Administration
(DEA) of spying on his government.
Washington denies the charge and has accused Caracas
of failing to cooperate in the fight against drug-trafficking.
On Friday the Venezuelan government
withdrew diplomatic immunity from DEA agents working
in the country in response to a US decision to revoke
the visas of six Venezuelan officials based in Washington.
Venezuela is an important transport route for cocaine
from neighbouring Colombia, which produces 80% of the
world's supply.
Costs of pension schemes are rising
as members live longer UK company pension schemes are
four times more likely to be in deficit than US schemes,
research has suggested.
Just 5% of UK pension schemes
are fully funded, which means that they have
enough assets to meet their future obligations to members.
In the US, one in five pension
schemes are fully funded, the research from AON
Consulting found.
UK pension schemes are worse off than US schemes because
employers' contribution rates are lower, AON said.
Left behind
Overall, the average pension deficit of a UK firm
equated to seven months of pre-tax profits, whereas
in the US the figure is two months.
Both US and UK pension schemes are
finding it difficult to cope with the costs of members
living longer, AON said.
However, US employers seem to be moving more swiftly
to pay money into their workers' pension schemes.
"UK companies have not increased their level of
cash contributions to the same extent as their counterparts
in the US," Andrew Claringbold, spokesman for AON
Consulting said.
Gap narrows
Recently, the outlook for UK pension schemes has shown
modest signs of improvement.
Last week, actuary firm Lane, Clark and Peacock calculated
that the combined pension deficit of the UK's top 100
companies had narrowed in the past year.
The combined pension fund deficit of the FTSE 100 companies
fell from £42bn to £37bn in the year to
July, the firm said.
Increased contributions from employers and improved
stock market performance were the key reasons for the
reduction.
But, if current trends continue, the
black hole will not be closed until 2013, the group
warned.
Britain's inflation rate has risen
to its highest level in eight years, official figures
showed today, diminishing prospects for another interest
rate cut any time soon.
Boosted by the surge in petrol prices, the consumer
prices index (CPI) rose unexpectedly by 2.3% in the
year to July, up from 2% in June, the Office for National
Statistics reported.
The July figure was the highest since the current series
of data began in January 1997 and it was the first time
that the inflation rate had risen above the Bank of
England's 2% target since its adoption in December 2003.
The Bank of England last week said
inflation will probably rise a little further in the
next few months, but the rise in prices substantially
exceeded City expectations. Analysts had expected no
change from June.
Given the surprise jump it is now unlikely that the
Bank will make another cut in borrowing costs in the
next few months. The Bank's monetary policy committee
(MPC) cut interest rates this month by a quarter-point
to 4.5% amid a welter of data indicating a slowdown
in the economy.
"This will not please the Bank of England at all,
and significantly diminishes the prospects of another
interest rate cut before the end of this year,"
said Howard Archer, chief UK economist with the consultancy
Global Insight.
The ONS said petrol prices added 0.13 percentage points
to the annual CPI rate as crude oil costs have risen.
Oil prices have almost doubled
since the spring of 2004 and have had a direct
and rapid impact on petrol prices, currently above 90p
a litre. Oil prices also have a slower and less direct
impact of the costs of producing other goods and services.
The ONS said upward pressure also came from air and
sea travel as well as from furniture where prices were
little changed this year, due to the fact that price
recoveries in some major retail chains offset summer
sales in others. What will be of concern to the Bank
is the rise in the core rate of inflation, which excludes
energy, food, alcohol and tobacco.
"The core rates of inflation have risen sharply
between June and July. Indeed, core inflation has risen
by 0.3% to almost 2% on this measure, which might prove
to be something of a concern for the MPC," said
George Buckley of Deutsche Bank.
In its inflation report last week, the Bank of England
predicted that inflation would initially rise above
2% and then dip back beneath its target.
"The initial increase and decline partly reflects
the impact of oil prices on CPI inflation," the
inflation report said. "Easing demand pressures
over the recent past an in the near term also slow the
rate of CPI inflation."
But two years out, the Bank predicted that inflation
will again rise above the 2% target as the economy picks
up. The report's tone indicated that the Bank would
not cut rates by much more. Today's inflation numbers
will probably reinforce such sentiments.
Comment: July
inflation in the US is up, inflation in the UK is at
an eight year high, fuel prices remain high, US truckers
are talking about a strike that would result in food
shortages, China has unpegged the yuan from the dollar,
and it seems that the Bush administration has been artificially
propping up the dollar so far this year.
By Jennifer Hughes in New
York
Financial Times
August 15 2005
US Treasuries
American investors diversified away from the US at the
fastest rate in 10 years, even as foreign buyers
stepped up their purchases of US assets, data released
on Monday suggested.
US investors bought $146bn of overseas bonds and equities
in the past 12 months more than at any time since 1994.
But despite anxieties about the still-growing US current
account deficit, overseas investors poured a net $71.2bn
into US assets, up from a revised $55.8bn in May, according
to the Treasury.
The capital flows, which more than
covered the $58.5bn trade deficit for June, suggest
that confidence in the strength of the US economy will
be sufficient to sustain the external deficits.
The dollar rose to $1.236 from $1.239 against the euro
on the news.
The US needs to attract more than $2bn in net inflows
each working day to cover the current account gap, of
which the capital and trade accounts are the most visible
and biggest components.
"The bulk of the current account financing burden
falls on securities rather than direct investment so
we have to focus on this report," said Sean Callow,
senior currency strategist at Westpac Bank. [...]
Comment: Again,
see this week's Signs
Economic Commentary for an excellent analysis of
why the dollar has not yet crashed.
By Tim Molloy, The Associated
Press
USA Today
Posted 8/14/2005 2:30 PM
CORTE MADERA, Calif. - Politicians
and automakers say a car that can both reduce greenhouse
gases and free America from its reliance on foreign
oil is years or even decades away. Ron
Gremban says such a car is parked in his garage.
It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in
the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret - a stack
of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high
mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn
even less fuel.
Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist,
spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car.
Like all hybrids, his Prius increases fuel efficiency
by harnessing small amounts of electricity generated
during braking and coasting. The extra batteries let
him store extra power by plugging the car into a wall
outlet at his home in this San Francisco suburb - all
for about a quarter.
He's part of a small but growing movement. "Plug-in"
hybrids aren't yet cost-efficient, but some
of the dozen known experimental models have gotten up
to 250 mpg.
They have support not only from environmentalists but
also from conservative foreign policy hawks who insist
Americans fuel terrorism through their gas guzzling.
And while the technology has existed for three decades,
automakers are beginning to take notice, too. [...]
The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles
with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity. Even after
the car runs out of power from the batteries and switches
to the standard hybrid mode, it gets the typical Prius
fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As
long as Gremban doesn't drive too far in a day, he says,
he gets 80 mpg. [...]
Gremban rigged his car to promote the nonprofit CalCars
Initiative, a San Francisco Bay area-based volunteer
effort that argues automakers could mass produce plug-in
hybrids at a reasonable price.
But Toyota and other car companies say they are worried
about the cost, convenience and safety of plug-in hybrids
- and note that consumers haven't embraced all-electric
cars because of the inconvenience of recharging them
like giant cell phones.
Automakers have spent millions of dollars telling motorists
that hybrids don't need to be plugged in, and don't
want to confuse the message.
Nonetheless, plug-in hybrids are starting to get the
backing of prominent hawks like former CIA director
James Woolsey and Frank Gaffney, President Reagan's
undersecretary of defense. They have joined Set America
Free, a group that wants the government to spend $12
billion over four years on plug-in hybrids, alternative
fuels and other measures to reduce foreign oil dependence.
Gaffney, who heads the Washington,
D.C.-based Center for Security Policy, said Americans
would embrace plug-ins if they understood arguments
from him and others who say gasoline contributes to
oil-rich Middle Eastern governments that support terrorism.
"The more we are consuming oil that either comes
from places that are bent on our destruction or helping
those who are ... the more we are enabling those who
are trying to kill us," Gaffney said.
DaimlerChrysler spokesman Nick Cappa said plug-in hybrids
are ideal for companies with fleets of vehicles that
can be recharged at a central location at night. He
declined to name the companies buying the vehicles and
said he did not know the vehicles' mileage or cost,
or when they would be available.
Others are modifying hybrids, too.
Monrovia-based Energy CS has converted
two Priuses to get up to 230 mpg by using powerful lithium
ion batteries. It is forming a new company, EDrive Systems,
that will convert hybrids to plug-ins for about $12,000
starting next year, company vice president Greg Hanssen
said.
University of California, Davis engineering
professor Andy Frank built a plug-in hybrid from the
ground up in 1972 and has since built seven others,
one of which gets up to 250 mpg. They were converted
from non-hybrids, including a Ford Taurus and Chevrolet
Suburban.
Frank has spent $150,000
to $250,000 in research costs on each car, but believes
automakers could mass-produce them by adding just $6,000
to each vehicle's price tag.
Instead, Frank said, automakers promise hydrogen-powered
vehicles hailed by President Bush and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger,
even though hydrogen's backers acknowledge the cars
won't be widely available for years and would require
a vast infrastructure of new fueling stations.
"They'd rather work on something
that won't be in their lifetime, and that's this hydrogen
economy stuff," Frank said. "They pick this
kind of target to get the public off their back, essentially."
Comment: There
you have it. If "peak oil" was a real problem,
the technology to drastically improve fuel economy already
exists - and at a reasonable price. So, why isn't the
Bush government pushing for the type of ultra-efficient
hybrid engines described in this article in order to
reduce US dependence on foreign oil?
I usually try to keep a level head on issues such as
these… the dismissed Army General, the planned
Terror Drill, Bush's plummeting approval ratings and
the administration's overall lack of interest in even
the most basic public policy initiatives (has
anyone else noticed the complete "lame duck"
appearance of the Bush Adminstration as of late? And
didn't he just get back from vacation in Crawford right
before 9/11?).
Perhaps it's just paranoia, but the patterns are so
eerily similar that one can't help but draw conclusions.
I've had this "feeling" for about two months.
It started right before the London bombings and has
yet to subside. I thought that perhaps it was some sub-conscious
connection with "the world" whispering to
me that something was afoot. After both London attacks,
I had assumed this feeling would go away but this whisper
has intensified and it is now screaming "Open your
eyes".
Some event of great proportions is
about to transpire. Though inductively, my argument
may be weak, we've all seen the same patterns. Perhaps
it was an unintended conditioning effect but I'd like
to believe it lies closer to intuition.
Take these basic facts:
1) A Four-star military General is suddenly fired,
being only three months from his planned retirement,
and for a cause as dubious as "sexual misconduct"
while already in divorce proceedings with his former
spouse.
2) Near said General's base, is planned a "Nuclear
Terror Drill" where some bizzare scenario has been
concocted to describe the smuggling and detonation of
a Nuclear device on American soil
3) Said General apparently has big issues with the
current administration and it has been speculated that
he may be part of a coup attempt against said administration
4) Our dear leader has taken
no heed of his approval ratings, put forth no initiatives,
has turned a blind eye to the concerns of his constituents,
is currently mired in scandal, and is beginning to be
exposed as the liar that he is. Yet he takes a vacation
(as he did in August of 2001) while a crumbling economy
and infrastructure ensues and international tensions
are at a level not seen since World War II.
5) The Pentagon draws up grandiose plans for an Iranian
invasion utilizing Tactical Nuclear weapons and as well,
draws up plans for armed conflict and the adoption of
Martial Law on our very soil. On top of this, the Pentagon
will suspend all leave for soldiers after Sept. 7th
and already plans on "lightly lifting" this
restriction some time in December with the condition
that all troops stay "within 17km of base"
(not to mention the rebuilding of the nation's Draft
boards)
It sounds easy enough to piece together. Yet another
"false-flag" attack to trick the nation into
another war with a country that:
1) Is about to enter the global market as a Euro(currency)-centric
trading post for Crude oil, putting U.S. petro-dollar
hegemony at great risk (this
would lead to massive inflation as our money began to
be returned to us by foreign investors who no longer
see the value in holding a dying trade tender)
Comment: See the
article above about the increased inflation in July...
2) Is in possession of large supplies of Crude oil
while its leadership is diplomatically untouchable ("our"
choice) by our current state puppets.
3) Is part of the "big picture" in terms
of the Project for the New American Century agenda to
secure bountiful energy supplies for an ever dependent
American economy (mind you, control of Iran's oil supplies
would give the U.S. a competitive advantage over the
surging Chinese economy as we would be able to regulate
their growth by dictating the terms of their energy
consumption).
Given these facts, it seems to make sense that the
powers that be are beginning the processes of reasserting
U.S. economic, political, and material hegemony over
the rest of the world by usurping and regulating a majority
of the world's energy supply.
Also given the current administration's
lack of support for the floundering war in Iraq, how
else would they be able to connive the American people
into yet another costly, deadly, and devestating war?
This entire chain of events transcends
even a third World War. This will be a process
of awakening for the people of this world. Sure, many
will probably die, Nuclear munitions will likely be
employed and all hell will break loose, but I like to
look at the bright side.
Despite the utter despare and chaos likely to be caused
by a World War III, it will be an enlightening period
for humanity as we realize that our dependence on material
"things" and "tangible assets" was
the motivating factor in this latest of world cataclysms.
Why did the American people blindly
follow an Administration that they know lies to them?
Why do the American people continue to listen to a Mainstream
Media that even they claim not to trust?
The answer is simple. The current
system provides us with all the necessities, toys, and
luxuries to keep us distracted from the sickening truth
of what is going on around us. I particularly
enjoy the adage "1500 troops dead but I still pay
$2.35 at the pump…". This brazen "materialization"
of such a horrific turn of events is exactly the reason
why more people now are questioning the war, not because
of true human costs or the pain and suffering endured
by those who have lost a loved one or for the toll taken
on returning soldiers as they realize what it is they
did over there. It's about things like gasoline, cash,
that $1,000 per month mortgage on that 3,000 sq ft house
our collective American asses are sitting in; it's about
making it to work on time and it's about finding time
to pleasure ourselves with our money, toys, and material
wealth.
I forsee that the only good
to come of the approaching situation is that people
may actually detach themselves from this greed and put
more stock into being human again. Being the
only good I can forsee, I look forward to it. It would
be nice to see people without Cell phones affixed to
their ears, without pride in what kind of automobile
they have or how much they have stashed away in their
personal little coffers.
BAGHDAD - A group of Iraqi workers
in Baghdad came under fire from US troops who mistook
them for insurgents.
An interior ministry source said US troops fired on
a crowd of workers in the central Baghdad neighbourhood
of Alawi, while a defence ministry source reported an
exchange of fire between suspected rebels and US forces
in the area.
But a number of casualties lying in Al-Yarmouk hospital
told AFP that a US helicopter fired at them as they
were gathered outside a hotel.
"The electricity went out at around 0500 (0100
GMT), so we exited the hotel to the street to have breakfast
in the fresh air. A helicopter then opened fire into
the street," said Ali Mohammad, who sustained neck
and leg injuries.
Makki Hassan, a 50-year-old resident
of the neighbourhood, said that a number of people sleeping
on the roofs of their houses were also struck by gunfire.
The US military, contacted by AFP, had no immediate
information on the incident.
Also in Baghdad, two Iraqi policemen were killed and
four others injured when gunmen fired on a civil defence
centre in the eastern Canal district, the interior ministry
source said.
In other violence Tuesday, an Iraqi working for a local
news organisation was killed and his three colleagues
wounded when their car hit a roadside bomb south of
Baquba, 60 kilometres (37 miles) north of Baghdad.
Meanwhile, the office of former prime minister Iyad
Allawi accused members of the Iraqi National Guard of
assaulting his private guards late Monday, wounding
two of them.
"Such attacks backed by the current Iraqi government
... increase (the Iraqi people's) lack of confidence
in the leadership of the current government," said
a statement issued by Allawi's office.
Allawi's office told AFP the attack took place in Al-Zaytoon
Street, where the office of the ex-premier is located,
but declined to give further details.
The Baghdad morgue is a fearful
place of heat and stench and mourning, the cries of
relatives echoing down the narrow, foetid laneway behind
the pale-yellow brick medical centre where the authorities
keep their computerised records. So
many corpses are being brought to the mortuary that
human remains are stacked on top of each other.
Unidentified bodies must be buried within days for lack
of space - but the municipality is so overwhelmed by
the number of killings that it can no longer provide
the vehicles and personnel to take the remains to cemeteries.
July was the bloodiest month in Baghdad's
modern history - in all, 1,100 bodies were brought to
the city's mortuary; executed for the most part, eviscerated,
stabbed, bludgeoned, tortured to death. The figure is
secret.
We are not supposed to know that the Iraqi capital's
death toll last month was only 700 short of the total
American fatalities in Iraq since April of 2003. Of
the dead, 963 were men - many with their hands bound,
their eyes taped and bullets in their heads - and 137
women. The statistics are as shameful as they are horrifying.
For these are the men and women we supposedly came to
"liberate" - and about whose fate we do not
care.
The figures for this month cannot, of course, yet be
calculated. But last Sunday, the mortuary received the
bodies of 36 men and women, all killed by violence.
By 8am on Monday, nine more human remains had been received.
By midday, the figure had reached 25.
"I consider this a quiet day," one of the
mortuary officials said to me as we stood close to the
dead. So in just 36 hours - from dawn on Sunday to midday
on Monday, 62 Baghdad civilians had been killed. No
Western official, no Iraqi government minister, no civil
servant, no press release from the authorities, no newspaper,
mentioned this terrible statistic.The
dead of Iraq - as they have from the beginning of our
illegal invasion - were simply written out of the script.
Officially they do not exist.
Thus there has been no disclosure of the fact that
in July 2003 - three months after the invasion - 700
corpses were brought to the mortuary in Baghdad. In
July of 2004, this rose to around 800. The mortuary
records the violent death toll for June of this year
as 879 - 764 of them male, 115 female. Of the men, 480
had been killed by firearms, along with 25 of the women.
By comparison, equivalent figures for July 1997, 1998
and 1999 were all below 200.
Between 10 and 20 per cent of all bodies are never
identified - the medical authorities have had to bury
500 of them since January of this year, unidentified
and unclaimed. In many cases, the remains have been
shattered by explosions - possibly by suicide bombers
- or by deliberate disfigurement by their killers.
Mortuary officials have been appalled
at the sadism visited on the victims. "We have
many who have obviously been tortured - mostly men,"
one said. "They have terrible burn marks on hands
and feet and other parts of their bodies. Many have
their hands fastened behind their backs with handcuffs
and their eyes have been bound with Sellotape. Then
they have been shot in the head - in the back of the
head, the face, the eyes. These are executions."
While Saddam's regime visited death
by official execution upon its opponents, the scale
of anarchy now existing in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra and
other cities is unprecedented. "The July figures
are the largest ever recorded in the history of the
Baghdad Medical Institute," a senior member of
the management told The Independent.
It is clear that death squads are roaming the streets
of a city which is supposed to be under the control
of the US military and the American-supported, elected
government of Ibrahim al-Jaafari. Never in recent history
has such anarchy been let loose on the civilians of
this city - yet the Western and Iraqi authorities show
no interest in disclosing the details. The writing of
the new constitution - or the failure to complete it
- now occupies the time of Western diplomats and journalists.
The dead, it seems, do not count.
But they should. Most are between 15 and 44 - the youth
of Iraq - and, if extrapolated across the country, Baghdad's
1,100 dead of last month must bring Iraq's minimum monthly
casualty toll in July alone to 3,000 - perhaps 4,000.
Over a year, this must reach a minimum of 36,000, a
figure which puts the supposedly controversial statistic
of 100,000 dead since the invasion into a much more
realistic perspective.
There is no way of distinguishing the reasons for these
thousands of violent deaths. Some men and women were
shot at US checkpoints, others murdered, no doubt, by
insurgents or thieves. A few listed as killed by "blunt
instruments" might have been the dead of traffic
accidents. Some of the women were probably the victims
of "honour" killings - because male relatives
suspected them of having illicit relations with the
wrong man. Still others may have been murdered as collaborators.
Doctors have been told that bodies
brought to the mortuary by US forces should not be given
post-mortem examinations (on the odd ground that the
Americans will have already performed this function).
So many civilians are dying that the morgue has had
to rely on volunteers from the holy city of Najaf to
transport unidentified Shia Muslim dead to the central
city's large graveyard for burial, their plots donated
by religious institutions. "In some of the bodies,
we find American bullets," a mortuary attendant
told me. "But these could be American bullets fired
by Iraqis. We don't know who's killing who - it's not
our job to find out, but civilians are killing each
other.
"We had a body here the other day and the relatives
said he had been murdered because he had been a Baathist
in the old regime. Then they said that his brother had
been killed three or four weeks back because he was
a member of the religious Shia Dawa party which was
the enemy of Saddam. But this is the real story - the
killing of the people. I don't want to die under a new
constitution. I want security."
One of the problems in cataloguing the daily death
toll is that the official radio often declines to report
explosions. On Monday, the thump of a bomb in the Karada
district was never officially explained. Only yesterday
was it discovered that a suicide bomber had walked into
a popular café, the Emir, and blown himself up,
killing two policemen. Another explosion, officially
said to be caused by a mortar, turned out to be a mine
set off beneath a pile of watermelons as a US patrol
was passing. A civilian died.
Again, there was no official account
of these deaths. They were not recorded by the government
nor by the occupying armies nor, of course, by the Western
press. Like the bodies in the Baghdad city mortuary,
they did not exist.
By ALICIA A. CALDWELL
Associated Press
Tue Aug 16,10:12 PM ET
FORT BLISS, Texas - An Afghan detainee
who died in military custody was injured so severely
that his leg muscles were split apart, an Air Force
medical examiner testified Tuesday in the trial of a
soldier accused in the beating.
Lt. Col. Elizabeth Rouse, who performed
the autopsy on the prisoner known as Dilawar, said his
muscles were "crumbling and falling apart."
She testified that the injuries could have been caused
by repeated knee strikes or by a fist.
Rouse also reviewed the autopsy of
a man known as Habibullah and said he suffered what
appeared to be similar blunt injuries.
Army Pfc. Willie V. Brand, 26, an Ohio reservist, is
accused of abusing the two prisoners in 2002. Both later
died.
The defense has said Brand was ill-trained for his
duties and was simply following orders. Prosecutors
say Brand was never taught or ordered to abuse prisoners.
Several other soldiers charged with mistreating detainees
at Bagram airfield in Afghanistan have pleaded guilty
or announced their intention to do so.
No officers in charge of training soldiers involved
in the abuse cases or those who oversaw operations at
the airfield have been charged. Military officials have
said the investigation is continuing.
Before the prosecution concluded its case Tuesday,
the jury also heard from three military criminal investigators
who interviewed Brand several times.
Each told the jury that Brand said
he used knee strikes to gain control of the detainees,
whom he described as combative.
Brand's civilian lawyer, John P. Galligan, said he
was not sure if he would put any witnesses on the stand
when the trial resumes Wednesday.
By AMY TEIBEL
The Associated Press
Wednesday, August 17, 2005; 8:20 AM
NEVE DEKALIM, Gaza Strip -- Israeli
troops dragged sobbing Jewish settlers out of homes,
synagogues and even a nursery school Wednesday and hauled
them onto buses in a massive evacuation, fulfilling
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's promise to withdraw from
the Gaza Strip after a 38-year occupation.
Soldiers carried away worshippers still wrapped in
their white prayer shawls. Wailing men ripped their
shirts in a Jewish mourning ritual. Women in a synagogue
pressed their faces against the curtain covering the
Torah scroll. A woman set herself on fire at a police
roadblock in Israel.
In Gaza, settlers kicked and screamed
as they were loaded onto buses. One woman in Neve Dekalim
shouted, "I don't want to! I don't want to!"
as she was carried away.
Irate residents in one outpost employed Nazi-era imagery
- including stars of David on their T-shirts - to protest
the military's actions.
But there were no signs of serious violence in the
settlements as a growing number of residents appeared
to be coming to terms with the withdrawal.
"I believed that God would not let this happen,
but this is not true," a woman said in the isolated
settlement of Morag while clutching her baby.
Sharon, who championed the settlements for years, said
the images of settlers being removed from their homes
were heartbreaking.
"It's impossible to watch this, and that includes
myself, without tears in the eyes," he told a news
conference.
But he urged settlers to show restraint.
"I'm appealing to everyone. Don't
attack the men and women in uniform. Don't accuse them.
Don't make it harder for them, don't harm them. Attack
me. I am responsible for this. Attack me. Accuse me,"
Sharon said.
The operation capped a bruising political battle for
Sharon, who proposed the withdrawal more than 18 months
ago as a way to reduce friction with the Palestinians.
Opponents accuse him of caving in to Palestinian violence
and abandoning the dream of full control over the biblical
Land of Israel.
Throughout the day, some 14,000 troops entered six
Jewish settlements: Morag, Neve Dekalim, Bedolah, Ganei
Tal, Tel Katifa and Kerem Atzmona.
In several settlements, including the largest - Neve
Dekalim, army commanders were trying to persuade residents
to leave voluntarily.
Security officials said the
goal was to clear out the 21 Gaza settlements in just
a few days, far more quickly than originally planned.
But thousands of pullout opponents who infiltrated Gaza
in recent weeks remained.
In Neve Dekalim, a grizzled colonel,
with tears in his eyes, shook hands with a young father,
cradling the man's tiny baby, as he explained it was
time to go.
Another commander, identified only
as Yitzhak, tearfully hugged another settler.
"It's not easy. These are
very special people. This is the salt of the earth,"
Yitzhak said. "But we have a mission and we will
carry it out, and I think these people understand that."
Some teenage activists - many West Bank activists -
showed fierce resistance. Troops dragged dozens of protesters,
some as young as 12, onto buses and took them away.
"I want to die!" screamed one youth as he
was hauled off.
Several soldiers were hit by white paint bombs, and
protesters smashed a bus window.
Hundreds of protesters holed up in the town's main
synagogue.
A group of teenage girls sang, "I believe in the
messiah," and many cried while pressing their faces
to the curtain covering the Torah.
In Morag, soldiers encountered cement blocks and burning
garbage containers early Wednesday, briefly clashing
with residents. But as the day dragged on, protesters
gradually surrendered.
Under a weeping willow tree at a children's nursery,
mothers clutched their babies, soldiers carried toddlers,
settlers ripped their clothes and troops loaded diapers
and toys onto buses for evacuation.
A female soldier with tears in her eyes held a toddler
in her arms, gave him some candy and implored, "Where
is his mother?" Another soldier waved away flies
from a toddler lying in a stroller.
Troops carried dozens of worshippers
out of the local synagogue, in one case escorting a
crying man covered by a prayer shawl. Some kept praying
in front of the Torah as soldiers removed others.
Soldiers also removed families from their homes. Female
residents walked out under army escort, while the men
let themselves be carried. One resident, Eran Hendel,
lay on the floor, read a psalm and ripped his shirt
collar before being carried away.
In the hardline outpost of Kerem Atzmona,
irate settlers shouted at soldiers: "Nazi!"
"Refuse orders!" and "Jews don't expel
Jews!" Soldiers dragged the flailing residents
out of their homes and loaded them onto buses, as children
sat in their homes crying.
In the Bedolah settlement, Rabbi Menachem Froman hugged
and kissed a Torah scroll as he was led out of the local
synagogue. A soldier held him up by the elbow. The
elderly, white-bearded rabbi, who lives in a West Bank
settlement, advocates coexistence with the Palestinians.
In Kfar Darom, another center of fierce resistance,
65 families and 2,000 protesters barricaded themselves
behind barbed wire but said they would not resist violently,
the Haaretz newspaper reported.
The Gaza pullout is to be accompanied by a withdrawal
from four small West Bank settlements. Security
officials have expressed fears that the West Bank pullout
could be more violent, given the land's biblical significance
to observant Jews.
A 54-year-old West Bank woman
opposed to the Gaza pullout set herself on fire Wednesday
in southern Israel, suffering life-threatening
burns over 70 percent of her body, police and hospital
officials said. She had the smell of gas on her, a paramedic
said.
Sharon, meanwhile, reiterated Wednesday he would never
give up the West Bank's largest settlement blocs. He
said settlers' efforts were not in vain, but it no longer
was realistic to hold on to Gaza, where 1.3 million
Pal estinians live in crowded, impoverished conditions.
"True they (settlers) had a dream, and I did,
too, that can we hold on to all the territory, or most
of the territory, but things have changed," Sharon
said.
The army said it arrested 52 Israelis headed Wednesday
to Homesh, one of the settlements slated for evacuation.
Once Gaza is cleared of civilians, it will take troops
about a month to dismantle military installations and
relinquish the coastal strip to Palestinian control.
The Palestinians have deployed
thousands of troops to prevent any attacks on settlers
or Israeli soldiers during the withdrawal. Palestinians
have welcomed the evacuation but also fear that Israel
is trying to draw borders without negotiations.
Comment: In
an AFP
article, Sharon was quoted as follows:
Sharon has argued that his pullout
plan will enable Israel to keep hold of its large
West Bank settlements, by easing international pressure
for a more comprehensive pullout.
In his press conference, he made
clear that the settlement programme would continue
unabated, despite Israel's endorsement of the international
roadmap peace plan which stipulates a complete freeze
on settlement activity.
"Settlement is a serious programme
that will continue and develop," he said.
While it seems that the Israeli
settlers are suffering, we provide the following
flashback to put the matter in the proper perspective...
A
Palestinian woman sits with her belongings in the
rubble on the edge of Rafah. (AP photo)
JERUSALEM - A New York-based human rights group says
Israel has exaggerated terrorist threats and is systematically
destroying Palestinian homes in the Gaza Strip.
Human Rights Watch says Israel has
targeted homes indiscriminately and has failed to meet
its obligations as an occupying power.
Israel insists the demolitions are necessary to expose
weapons-smuggling tunnels and to create a protective
buffer between Israel and Egypt.
The report, "Razing Rafah," examines the
destruction wrought by Israel's efforts to create a
buffer zone.
The report says the Israeli military assumes "that
every Palestinian is a potential suicide bomber and
every home a potential base for attack."
Israeli officials say as many as 90 weapons-smuggling
tunnels have been found.
Kenneth Roth, the executive director
of Human Rights Watch, says Israel has exaggerated that
number and that the destruction of Palestinian homes
is gratuitous.
"It is wrong, even in a democracy, to use superfluous
military force against civilians in order to try to
influence the military, I mean, that is Israel's first
line of argument for why suicide bombing is wrong. It
is utterly wrong to attack civilians or their property
for military objectives," said Roth at a news conference.
The group, based in New York, says
16,000 people have been made homeless
in southern Gaza over the past four years, regardless
of whether their homes posed a genuine military threat.
Neveh Dekalim was among six to eight settlements
set to be evacuated Wednesday as part of Israeli efforts
to evacuate about 9,000 settlers
from Gaza.
16,000 Palestinians watched their
homes destroyed by Israeli forces - often for no good
reason, apparently - and we're supposed to feel bad
that 9,000 Israeli settlers have to leave now?
Roth acknowledged Israel had a right to try to block
the tunnels to protect its soldiers, but that didn't
extend to an absolute military necessity to destroy
homes.
"Part of the rationale here seems to be to punish
civilians for the conduct of militants. The people whose
homes are destroyed are, for the most part, just ordinary
civilians."
Roth suggests Israel employ other methods, such as
underground sensors and radar, to locate tunnels.
Also on Monday, Peter Hansen, the
commissioner general of the UN Relief and Works Agency
toured parts of the Gaza Strip to see the damage caused
by the Israeli incursion.
"Most of what we have seen here
... over the past two weeks is in gross violation of
international humanitarian law and we will go on protesting
these measures which are not proportionate, which are
not relevant to the targets that Israel has chosen to
try to hit," said Hansen.
The Israeli army was unavailable to comment on the
report and the Foreign Ministry has said it rejects
the allegations.
Comment: Israeli
forces evicted Palestinian families and destroyed their
homes in violation of international law. The following
are a few images that show that the Israeli settlers
are certainly not alone in their suffering:
From DivestmentProject.org:
"In March of 2003, American student Rachel Corrie,
was deliberately killed by a tractor as she nonviolently
protested the Israeli tractor's attempt to demolish
a Palestinian home."
From Palestine
Chronicle: "According to statistics by UNRWA,
the United Nations Relief and Work Agency, the Israeli
army has destroyed hundreds of Palestinian homes since
the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising against Israeli
occupation and repression in September 2000.
It is believed that more
than 30,000 Palestinian homes were destroyed by the
Israeli army in the past 35 years
.
In 1948,
Israel destroyed and obliterated more than 480 Palestinian
villages in Palestineafter
forcing hundreds of thousands of villagers to flee
their homes at gunpoint.
Many of those villagers, their
children and grandchildren are still languishing in
squalid refugee camps in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria."
From Stop
Caterpillar: A Palestinian family stands on their
demolished home.
DHAKA - More than 200 small bombs
exploded almost simultaneously in towns and cities across
Bangladesh, killing one person and injuring at least
38, police said.
Six people have been arrested in connection with Wednesday's
blasts, they said.
"One person called Robiul Islam was seriously
injured when one of the bombs exploded. He died soon
after arriving at the hospital," said a local police
official in northwestern Chapai Nawabganj.
Police said leaflets found near the
scene of some of the blasts were signed in the name
of banned extremist group Jamayetul Mujahideen and called
for the implementation of strict Islamic law.
One person was arrested in Dhaka with blast injuries
to his hand, Dhaka police chief Rahman said.
At southeastern Cox's Bazar, three people were arrested,
including one suspected of carrying a bomb, said station
officer Rezaul Karim.
"Two were arrested by a mob after a bomb blasted
at a key location in the town. One of them is injured,"
he said.
Two more suspects were arrested in northwestern Naogaon
and Brahmanbaria.
Indian High Commissioner (ambassador) to Bangladesh
Veena Sikri gave a higher toll in a telephone interview
with New Delhi television station NDTV.
"At least 140 people were injured, one is dead
and 50 have been arrested," she said, adding that
the targets had been carefully selected, "like
the Supreme Court, deputy commissioner's office, press
clubs and various institutions of the state."
Leaked documents appear to contradict the official
account of how police mistook a Brazilian man for a
suicide bomber and shot him.
The papers, from the probe into Jean
Charles de Menezes' death, and leaked to ITV, suggest
he was restrained before being shot eight times.
Mr de Menezes, 27, was killed at Stockwell Tube station
on 22 July.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC)
has said it will not comment on its investigation.
Public inquiry
The documents, including witness statements,
also suggest Mr de Menezes did not hurdle the barrier
at Stockwell tube station, as first reports previously
suggested, and was not wearing a padded jacket that
could have concealed a bomb.
The family of Mr de Menezes has called for a public
inquiry into his death.
His cousin Allessandro Pereira said: "My family
deserve the full truth about his murder. The truth cannot
be hidden any longer. It has to be made public."
He said the police should have stopped his cousin before
he got to the bus stop after leaving home in Tulse Hill.
"He would have helped the police," he said.
"They killed my cousin, they
could kill anyone, any English person."
In a statement, the IPCC said it does not know where
the documents came from and that its priority was to
keep Mr de Menezes family informed.
'Acting suspiciously'
The shooting occurred the day after the failed bomb
attacks of 21 July.
The latest documents suggest Mr de
Menezes had walked into Stockwell Tube station, picked
up a free newspaper, walked through ticket barriers,
had started to run when he saw a train arriving and
was sitting down in a train when he was shot.
In the immediate aftermath of the incident, police
said Mr de Menezes had been acting suspiciously and
suggested he had vaulted the ticket barriers.
The IPCC made it clear that we would not speculate
or release partial information about the investigation,
and that others should not do so
IPCC statement
Police also said the Brazilian electrician had worn
a large winter-style coat - but the leaked version suggested
he had in fact worn a denim jacket.
The leaked version said Mr de Menezes
was being restrained by a community officer when he
was shot by armed police.
'High security'
The IPCC would not comment on the details of the leak.
The commission said the family "will clearly
be distressed that they have received information on
television concerning his death".
Its statement added: "The IPCC made it clear that
we would not speculate or release partial information
about the investigation, and that others should not
do so. That remains the case."
The commission said it operated a "very high degree
of security" on all of its investigations.
'Great embarrassment'
Harriet Wistrich, solicitor for the family of Mr de
Menezes, said the information the leaked documents contained
was "terrifying".
She urged the government and police to review the shoot-to-kill
policy.
"What sort of society are we living
in where we can execute suspects?" she said.
"First of all it tells us that the information
that was first put out, which was first reported in
the news, is almost entirely wrong and misleading."
"There was no suggestion that this person was
a suspect in any way, that he was running from the police".
She said it also suggested the information given to
the pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination
on Mr de Menezes was incorrect.
Former Flying Squad commander John O'Connor told the
BBC the leaked report would cause "great embarrassment"
to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair, adding
he would be under pressure to "go".
He also said it was "very difficult" to blame
individuals for the death of Mr de Menezes.
"Simply because it would appear
that they were acting on information that this was a
positive identification of Osman [Hussain], one of the
suspect bombers.
"But had the normal procedures
taken place in which a warning is given and officers
wear specially marked clothing then this young man may
not have been killed."
Scotland Yard and the Home Office have so far said
it would be inappropriate to comment.
ATHENS (Reuters) - The co-pilot
and two stewardesses on a Cyprus airliner were alive
when the plane crashed in Greece at the weekend killing
all 121 aboard, the chief coroner of the investigation
said on Tuesday.
The exact cause of Sunday's crash is still unclear,
although initial reports had suggested many on board
were already dead or unconscious at the time of impact
because of an apparent loss of oxygen and cabin pressure
in freezing temperatures at 35,000 feet -- nearly 10
km (six miles) up.
Giving results of autopsies on 26 victims, Philippos
Koutsaftis told reporters: "All
the (26) individuals, including the co-pilot and two
stewardesses, died from multiple injuries to the body.
They were alive when the plane crashed."
The Helios Airways Boeing 737 crashed into mountains
near Athens, killing all 115 passengers and six crew
on a flight from Larnaca to Prague with a stop in the
Greek capital.
Autopsies have not yet been carried out on the three
other crew members, including the German chief pilot
whose body is yet to be confirmed as found.
In Cyprus, Kyriacos Pougrouris, a cousin of co-pilot
Pambos Charalambous, said his relative had been called
in at two hours' notice to help fly the plane when the
scheduled co-pilot was unavailable. Pougrouris said
his cousin had complained before the flight of "problems"
with the aircraft.
"Pambos told his mother twice in the last week
that there was a problem with the plane, not the same
kind of problem as you have with a car that you can
pinpoint easily," Pougrouris said in an interview
with Cyprus State Radio on Tuesday.
In London, Helios Airways said in
a statement the plane had suffered a loss of cabin pressure
once before.
Police in Cyprus ended a search of Helios' offices
for evidence in case of a criminal investigation into
the disaster.
SAME PLANE HAD PROBLEM
The pilot had reported a fault with the plane's air
conditioning early in the flight. But some analysts
believe the plane may have suffered a slow decompression,
lowering oxygen levels in the cabin and cockpit and
causing people to lose consciousness.
Coroner Koutsaftis said the co-pilot and a stewardess
were found about a meter apart under the plane's cockpit.
The Ethnos newspaper had reported earlier on Tuesday
that the pilots of two F-16 jets sent to investigate
the Helios flight had captured video footage of a female
flight attendant trying to take control of the plane,
while the co-pilot was slumped in his seat and the pilot
out of sight.
The doomed flight was declared "renegade"
when it entered Greek airspace and failed to make radio
contact. The two F-16s reported seeing oxygen masks
dangling before the plane crashed 40 kms (25 miles)
north of Athens.
The two black boxes have been recovered,
but a Greek official said the cockpit voice recorder
was badly damaged and might be of little use.
To help unravel the mystery, Robert Benzon, who headed
a U.S. probe into what appears to have been a similar
crash in 1999, has joined the Cyprus investigation.
In that incident golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet flew
halfway across the United Sates on autopilot before
crashing. Investigators found the crew were incapacitated
because they did not get oxygen when the cabin lost
pressure.
Experts told Reuters it was extremely
rare for a plane, particularly a large passenger airliner,
to lose oxygen and emergency systems should have kicked
in enabling the pilots to take the plane down to a safe
altitude.
Helios was Cyprus's first private carrier, established
in 1999, and is owned by Libra Holidays Group, one of
Britain's leading independent tour operators.
MOSCOW - Russian health workers
have found mass bird deaths in a region to the west
of the Ural mountains in what could become the first
case of the deadly bird flu virus spreading to Europe,
officials said on Wednesday.
But Russia's chief animal health official said a preliminary
investigation had shown the deaths in Kalmykia may not
have been caused by the dangerous virus that can also
kill humans.
The Russian state health watchdog, in a statement posted
on its Web site, said the bird deaths occurred on a
farm in the Caspian region of Kalmykia -- 2,000 km (1,200
miles) from the region where Russia's first flu outbreak
was reported.
"This case is being investigated," the Federal
Consumers' Rights and Welfare Watchdog said, adding
no cases among humans had been confirmed in Russia.
Russia has fought to contain a bird flu outbreak since
mid-July when the first case of the disease -- which
can also kill humans -- was registered in Siberia and
later in neighboring Kazakhstan and Mongolia. [...]
LITTLE ROCK - It happens every
year: large numbers of copperheads gather and move in
unison to dens for hibernation. But
it happens in October, not July or August. Now
the common event has become an uncommon and inexplicable
one.
"I know for a fact that all these snakes didn't
just wake up one day and do this," said Chuck Miller,
whose Marion County yard has been overrun with the pitvipers.
"Something's making them
do it. They know something we don't know. There's got
to be something more to this."
Nearly 100 of the snakes are using a cedar tree as
a sort of meeting place, and neither Miller, an outdoorsman
and former snake owner, nor scientists who have traveled
to the rural north central Arkansas site to study the
phenomenon, know why.
Stanley Trauth, a zoology professor at Arkansas State
University, said the snakes normally gather to move
to hibernation sites in the fall. Trauth has traveled
to Miller's property to conduct research on the snakes'
behavior.
"With this hot weather we didn't anticipate such
a grand movement of so many snakes. In the fall they
aggregate in fairly large numbers, so it's quite an
unusual event," Trauth said in a telephone interview
Monday.
Miller agrees. "If it were October, no one would
know about it. It wouldn't be that strange," he
said.
When the snakes first started showing up three weeks
ago, Miller said he was a little concerned that no one
would believe how many were visiting the cedar tree,
so he began collecting the reptiles. He saw 20 the first
night, he said.
One of his friends contacted Trauth and the research
began.
Trauth and one of his graduate students traveled to
Miller's property and embedded a radio transmitter in
one of the snakes for tracking purposes. Other snakes
also had tags clipped to their scales.
Miller said seven of nine tagged snakes were taken
a quarter-mile away from the tree and released, but
have since returned to the tree and been recaptured.
Trauth said the copperheads gather at the tree to leave
their scent. By rubbing the tree, other copperheads
know that it is a marker on the way to a den site, he
said.
But Trauth is only guessing that the snakes are preparing
to move to a den for hibernation.
"All we can do is speculate as to what this is
right now. This might be a precursor to an actual event.
But having the numbers there that he's had, it just
makes you wonder what's going on," Trauth said.
A gathering of copperheads like the one in Miller's
yard has not been documented before, Trauth said. Though
he can't yet explain why it's happening, he can say
for sure it's not for mating or feeding.
All the snakes that have been gathering at the base
of the tree are adult males. Copperheads also like to
feed on cicadas, but the insects haven't appeared in
the area in large numbers this year.
The best guess, Trauth said, is the
snakes are moving to hibernate as usual - they're just
doing it earlier than normal.
All Miller knows is, it's weird.
"It's like seeing a bigfoot or something walk
across the yard; if you don't keep them, no one will
believe you," he said.
Comment: A
parade of deep water sea life winds its way down the
Florida coast just off the beach, large sections of
the Gulf of Mexico die off, birds are falling from the
sky in India, and now male snakes are hibernating several
months early in Arkansas...
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
AP Science Writer
August 17, 2005
WASHINGTON - The five named tropical
storms recorded in July were the most on record for
that month, and worldwide it was the second warmest
July on record, the National Climatic Data Center reported
Tuesday.
In the United States it was the 12th
warmest July on record, with the national average temperature
1.5 degree Fahrenheit above normal for the month.
The West was most affected by the excessive heat in
July from the 11th to 27th. More than 200 cities broke
daily high temperature records, with Denver, Colo.,
having its second warmest July since 1872 and equaling
the all-time highest daily temperature record of 105
degrees.
Las Vegas, Nev., equaled its all-time record daily
maximum temperature of 117 degrees, and had five consecutive
days with temperatures exceeding 115.
U.S. rainfall was about average for the country as
a whole, with unusually dry conditions across the Rockies,
High Plains and the Mid-to-Upper-Mississippi Valley.
There was above average wetness in the Southeast, in
large part related to landfalling tropical storms.
Tropical Storm Cindy formed early on July 5 and then
moved northward to make landfall near Grand Isle, La.
Heavy rainfall and inland flooding accompanied Cindy
as it tracked northeastward across the eastern U.S.
When Tropical Storm Dennis formed,
also on July 5, it was the earliest date on record for
a fourth named storm.Dennis
grew into the earliest category 4 hurricane on record
and made landfall near Pensacola, Fla., on the 10th,
spreading heavy rainfall inland.
July also included Emily and Franklin. The formation
of Tropical Storm Gert on the 24th made it a record
five storms in the month.
Worldwide, the average temperature
for July was 1.08 degrees above normal in records dating
back to 1880, the second warmest July on record.
The warmest was in 1998 with readings 1.17 above average
for the month.
Land surface temperatures were warmer
than average in Scandinavia, much of Asia, North Africa
and the western U.S., while below average temperatures
occurred in northern Canada and northern Alaska.
Sea ice across the Northern Hemisphere oceans, as measured
by satellites, was lowest on record for July. For the
last nine years, sea ice has been below the monthly
mean for July. Sea ice generally reaches an annual minimum
in September.
For the period January-July the average temperature
of the planet was 1.06 degree above average, third warmest
on record. The warmest was 1998 at 1.24 degree above
normal.
A moderate earthquake occurred
at 10:39:21 (UTC) on Tuesday, August 16, 2005. The magnitude
5.4 event has been located in the MOLUCCA SEA. The hypocentral
depth was estimated to be 58 km (36 miles). (This event
has been reviewed by a seismologist.)