Bush
answers on 9/11 overdue
BY ANDREW GREELEY
Chicago Sun-Times
May 23, 2003
After the Bay of Pigs disaster when the CIA tried to invade
Cuba, President John F. Kennedy took personal responsibility and
ordered an independent investigation. In fact, the invasion had
been planned during the Eisenhower administration, and JFK could
easily have blamed the mess on his predecessor. After the Pearl
Harbor attack, President Franklin D. Roosevelt established an
investigative commission chaired by Supreme Court Justice Owen D.
Roberts, a Republican who had been the prosecutor for the notorious
Teapot Dome scandal. Patently, President Bush is not going to
assume responsibility for the World Trade Center catastrophe. His
political allies blame former President Bill Clinton (as they are
blaming him three years later for the current recession). Moreover,
Bush continues to stonewall attempts to set up an independent
investigation of what went wrong, and continues to sit on the
900-page report prepared by a bipartisan congressional
committee.
The White House excuse for this cover-up is that discussion
about what went wrong in the months before the destruction of the
World Trade Center would interfere with the ''war on terrorism.''
There are several things wrong with this argument. First, if there
is not something to hide, why not release the report? Second, FDR
and JFK had real wars to fight--the former against imperial Japan,
the latter a cold war against world communism. Third, the ''war on
terrorism'' is a metaphor (just like the ''war on drugs,'' the
''war on AIDS,'' the ''war on hunger,'' the ''war on poverty'') for
a struggle against international criminals. It is a useful
political lab el for a president who wants to be re-elected as a
wartime leader and to land on an aircraft carrier dressed in flight
gear (even though he was in effect AWOL for at least a year during
the Vietnam War). The metaphor conc eals what is different in the
struggle against Islamic fundamentalism when compared to the war
against imperial Japan. Admitting the mistakes the administration
made in July and August 2001 will not give aid and comfort t o
anyone, and certainly not to al-Qaida.
Instead, the president continues to respond to terror with his
cowboy rhetoric: We will get Osama bin Laden. We will get the
Mullah Omar. We will get the terrorists who blew the hole in the
USS Cole. We will get the anth rax killer. We will get Saddam
Hussein and his sons. Most recently, we will get the killers who
attacked the compounds in Saudi Arabia. The latter will be quite a
trick since the killers were suicide bombers, and Bush will have to
bring them back from the dead to haul them into court. No one seems
to notice that we have not found bin Laden or the mullah. The Cole
terrorists escaped from a jail in Yemen--undoubtedly with the help
of some elements in the Yemeni government (although Attorney
General John Ashcroft, with the usual display of sanctimony, has
indicted them). We have not found--or perhaps not arrested--the
anthrax killer. Saddam is hiding somewhere, probably in a bunker in
Baghdad with his sons. Thirty of his top aides are still on the
loose.
The people Bush proposed to smoke out and ''get'' are still
free. Moreover, some of the CIA officials who ''dropped the ball''
in the summer of 2001 have been promoted. Yet the media who were so
eager to pry into the private life of President Clinton seem
disinclined to uncover the real story of what happened during that
summer and whether the same people who dropped the ball then are
still dropping it.
Nor have they paid any attention to the president's claim out
there on the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln that al-Qaida was on
the run. After the explosions in Saudi Arabia and Morocco and the
threats in Kenya, it would appear that they are not on the run at
all. It would also appear that if one continues to believe Bush's
rhetoric, one is accepting as true statements that might be less
than true. Finally, it is high time that someone in this country
remembers FDR and JFK and wants to know what is really happening.
What's the president trying to hide?
CONTROL THE
PICTURES, CONTROL THE TRUTH
by Randolph T. Holhut
American Reporter Correspondent
DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- President Bush's "war on terror" has been a war
that's been long on stagecraft and short on results. The recent
terror bombings in Saudi Arabia and Morocco, the continuing civil
chaos in Iraq and the resurgence of the warlords in Afghanistan are
just the latest examples of this.
The Bush administration likes to preen before the television
cameras and claim credit for anything that looks good. It also
likes to disappear when the going gets tough. The laziness of the
press allows the Bush administration to get away with this. You
keep hearing about a 70 percent approval rating for President Bush,
but you see precious little in the way of accomplishments to
justify that figure.
You'd think that the May 12 suicide bombings in Riyadh - the
biggest terrorist strike against U.S. interests since the Sept. 11
attacks - would have been big news for days. It hasn't been. Why?
Could it be because the Bush administration would rather not
discuss the matter since it doesn't fit their master narrative of
steady gains against the forces of evil?
You may have read the story that was in the May 16 edition of The
New York Times on how the White House has so consistently been able
to showcase President Bush in dramatic and perfectly lighted
settings. According to Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller, it's
because the White House has assembled a formidable team with
network television experience who know the importance of lighting,
camera angles and backdrops.
Even Michael Deaver, who raised image manipulation to an art form
working for President Reagan, marvels at the skill of the Bush
administration. "They understand the visual as well as anybody
has," Deaver told the Times.
The Bush administration also understands that most people won't
bother to take the time to make sense of whatever the president
says and whether it passes the smell test. [...]
Iraq oil exports to resume 'within three weeks'
Ananova
14:21 Saturday 24th May 2003
The acting oil minister of post-war Iraq predicts that crude
production will double within a month and oil exports could resume
"within three weeks".
Thamer al-Ghadhban said Iraq was currently producing 700,000
barrels of oil a day and working hard under US occupation to
increase that number as quickly as possible.
"It is a matter of a few weeks, and we can reach 1.3 or 1.5
million barrels a day," al-Ghadhban said at a coalition-sponsored
news conference in the capital.
Pre-war production under Saddam Hussein was about 3 million
barrels daily.
[...] Oil production is considered pivotal to the rebuilding of
post-war Iraq, and the United States wants to use oil profits to
fund the country's reconstruction.
The lifting of UN sanctions on Thursday paved the way for Iraqi
oil sales overseas for the first time since the US-led invasion
began on March 20...
Protests Erupt in Algeria; Quake Toll Nears 2,000
By John Chalmers
Sat May 24, 2003 03:56 PM ET
ZEMMOURI, Algeria (Reuters) - Shock turned to fury on Saturday
as survivors of Algeria's massive earthquake accused the government
of standing idly by while hundreds died.
Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was greeted by jeering
crowds on a visit to the worst-hit areas, three days after the
North African country's worst quake in over 20 years.
Bouteflika was embraced by a crying survivor but soldiers had to
hold back an angry crowd that pressed in on him. The street was
soon lined with people chanting "assassin," and his security
personnel formed a path for Bouteflika's motorcade to pass.
But along the route people jumped forward to kick the
president's car and throw objects at it.
The daily Le Matin said Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia had been
heckled by protesters and his interior minister had been pelted
with stones earlier in the week.
The death toll rose relentlessly on Saturday toward 2,000 as
weary rescue teams from around the world found only rotting corpses
under the sun-baked rubble.
The rare show of public defiance came as the homeless, estimated
at some 15,000, accused the authorities of failing to provide more
rapid assistance and allowing flimsy buildings to go up in a
notoriously quake-prone area...
Afghan demonstrators hurl stones at US Embassy
Associated Press
10:48
Saturday 24th May 2003
Angry Afghan demonstrators have hurled stones at the US Embassy
in Kabul.
They are protesting about the deaths of three Afghan soldiers
shot by US Marines outside the heavily guarded compound this
week.
Chanting "Death to America, Death to (President Hamid) Karzai,"
about 80 protesters marched through downtown Kabul for several
hours.
Some carried a large green banner which said: "We want to judge
the killers of martyrs."
[...] "Why are Americans killing us inside our home, inside
Afghanistan," said Gul Ahmad, a 20-year-old taking part in the
protest. "What about human rights? We want the killers to be handed
over to the courts."...
Government
has a series of ticking time bombs
By
Carl P. Leubsdorf
DALLAS MORNING NEWS
For many years, fiscal experts have warned that the government's
retirement programs were a ticking time bomb that could explode
under future generations.
Surpluses created by the economic boom of the 1990s promised hope
of easing the situation. But neither Bill Clinton nor Congress was
able to take major steps to curb the costs of future Social
Security benefits.
Now, those projected surpluses have vanished under a resurgence of
federal deficits. Not only is that time bomb ticking ever more
loudly, but the government is creating a whole series of such
bombs. [...]
Job layoffs mean less demand at Twin Cities
hospitals
Glenn Howatt
Star Tribune
The
high cost of health insurance and job layoffs are forcing some
health care providers to cut costs or let go of workers because
fewer patients are walking in the door.
An unexpected downturn in admissions has led Abbott Northwestern
Hospital in Minneapolis to lay off 70 workers and to take measures
to control costs in other areas. St. Cloud Hospital also is
retrenching. It now has 35 fewer full-time positions after some
employee hours were cut.
Abbott Northwestern, which draws 50 percent of its patients from
outside the metro area, is hearing reports that would-be patients
have lost health insurance because they've lost their jobs.
[...]
Orange Alert May Put Airlines in Red
Sat May 24, 2003 01:02 PM ET
CHICAGO (Reuters) - The color orange may leave U.S. airlines
seeing more red, as in ink, just as signs emerged of demand
recovering after the war in Iraq, analysts said.
The U.S. government this week said it would raise its terror
alert status to "high" from "elevated" because of renewed risk of
attacks in the United States, which lifted the level to orange from
yellow on the color-coded scale.
That could be more bad news for a cyclical industry that counts
on summer leisure travel and still suffers from the slow economy
and the pneumonia-like SARS virus, analysts said.
"Airlines have indicated that forward bookings were
strengthening, but that was before the current Orange alert,"
Blaylock & Partners airline analyst Ray Neidl said in a note,
adding that airlines have little leverage to raise fares...
Empire and the Capitalists
by Immanuel Wallerstein;
Fernand Braudel Center; May 21, 2003
ZNet
No doubt, George W. Bush thinks he is in the forefront of those
sustaining the world capitalist system. No doubt, a large part of
the world left thinks that too. But do the great capitalists think
so? That is far less clear. A major warning signal has been
launched by Morgan Stanley, one of the world's leading financial
investor firms, in their Global Economic Forum. Stephen Roach
writes there that a "US-centric world" is unsustainable for the
world-economy and bad in particular for the United States. He
specifically takes on Robert Kagan, a leading neo-con intellectual,
who has been arguing that American hegemony can only increase,
particularly vis-a-vis Europe. Roach could not agree less. He sees
the present world situation as one of "profound asymmetries" in the
world-system, one that cannot last.
What is Roach's argument? The world has been in a "great
disinflation [marvelous euphemism] from 1982 to 2002" - a salutary
appraisal so different from the usual crowing about the strength of
the U.S. economic position in the world-economy. "And now the
unwinding of a new disequilibrium is at hand - the rebalancing of a
U.S.-centric world." Why? First of all because of the
"ever-widening disparities in the world's external accounts." He
says that "as the United States squanders its already depleted
national saving" and "as the rest of the world remains on a subpar
consumption path," the situation can only get worse.
Finally, the conclusion: "Can a saving-short US economy continue
to finance an ever-widening expansion of its military superiority?
My answer is a resounding 'no.'" What will therefore happen? The
"prices of dollar-denominated assets compared to those of
non-dollar-denominated assets" must fall, and fall drastically
soon. Roach estimates: "a 20% drop in real exchange rates and
nearly double that in nominal terms, higher real interest rates,
reduced growth in domestic demand, and faster growth overseas." He
ends his piece by saying that "the world is not functioning as a
global economy" (so much for the globalization theorists) and that
"for a lopsided global economy, a weaker dollar may well be the
only way out."
In short, Roach is arguing that the macho militarism swagger of
the Bush regime, the dream of the U.S. hawks to remake the world in
their image, is not merely undoable, but distinctly negative from
the point of view of large U.S. investors, the audience for whom
Roach writes, the customers of Morgan Stanley. Roach is of course
absolutely right, and it is noteworthy that this is not being said
by some left-wing academic, but by an insider of big capital.
[...] But in a capitalist system, there is also the market. The
market is not all-powerful, but it is not helpless either. When the
dollar collapses, and it will collapse, everything will change
geopolitically. For a collapsed dollar is far more significant than
an Al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers. The U.S. has clearly
survived the latter. But it will be a vastly different U.S. once
the dollar collapses. The U.S. will no longer be able to live far
beyond its means, to consume at the rest of the world's expense.
Americans may begin to feel what countries in the Third World feel
when faced by IMF-imposed structural readjustment - a sharp
downward thrust of their standard of living.
The near bankruptcy of the state governments across the United
States even today is a foreshadowing of what is to come. And
history will note that, faced with a bad underlying economic
situation in the United States, the Bush regime did everything
possible to make it far worse.
Comment: Economic devastation in
the U.S. appears to be unavoidable. If there is another terrorist
attack - real or created - on American soil the economy will likely
decline sharply as it did after the events of September 11th. Even
if there aren't any further "attacks," the expanding War on Terror
will weigh down the economy to the point of complete collapse. At
that point, most Americans will beg for order, and John Ashcroft
and the Reich will be more than happy to give it to them in the
form of a totalitarian regime that is already in place, legally
speaking. All that remains is for the Fuhrer to throw the
switch.
Washington eyeing bases in Australia: Paper
The Straits Times
AFP
SYDNEY - The United States has asked Australia to provide bases
for US forces and aircraft as part of a plan to combat terrorism in
South-east Asia, The Australian newspaper reported yesterday.
The US approach appeared related to concern in Washington over
threats to the stability of Indonesia from radical Islamic groups
and separatist movements.
The office of Defence Minister Robert Hill refused to confirm
the story.
'The minister said there have been no approaches to either him
or the Prime Minister on a political level from the US on this
issue,' Mr Hill's spokesman Catherine Fitzpatrick told AFP.
[...] Quoting unnamed sources, The Australian said the new
military cooperation being considered included deploying US F-16
fighters for extended periods at an airbase in Australia's Northern
Territory and stationing up to 5,000 US Marines at an Australian
army base.
Australia and the US already operate a major electronic
intelligence-gathering facility at Pine Gap in central Australia
and conduct a number of military exchange and training
programmes...
Campaign to Sue
Israel in U.S. Federal Court
by Mr. Justice
SF Indymedia
The Palestinian Authority wants members of the Israeli government
to face war crimes charges for what the Palestinians say is a
policy of assassinating their activists, a Palestinian official
said on January 9.
The Israeli army has killed a number of Palestinians who it says
carried out or planned to carry out attacks on Israelis, but it
denies having a policy of political assassination or committing any
war crimes.
The Palestinian Authority says more than 30 Palestinian activists
have been assassinated since the start of a Palestinian uprising
for independence in late September.
"The Israeli government, both as a group and as individuals, bears
full responsibility for the crimes that were committed,"
Palestinian Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo said in a
statement.
"We will do everything possible, including declaring members of
this government war criminals who are eligible for trial by the
world tribunal," he said. [...]
At least 305 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs and 43 other Israelis
have died in almost 15 weeks of violence.
An Israeli lawyer filed a lawsuit on January 9 in an attempt to
prevent the Israeli army from carrying out what Palestinians term
"assassinations" of its activists.
At the same time, members of the left-wing Israeli group 'Peace
Now' baring placards saying "Don't Liquidate Democracy", "No To
Political Assassination", and "Don't Terminate Peace," protested
outside Israel's Supreme Court to stop the Israeli army's
deliberate killing of Palestinians. [...]
A
New Stage in The Battle Against the Occupation
SF Indymedia
Seventeen young Israelis, almost all of them high school graduates,
are presently in prison for refusing to serve in the IDF. This is a
totally unprecedented phenomenon. It involves intense personal
sacrifice and a sharp battle between enlightened public opinion, in
Israel and abroad and a growingly brutal military bureaucracy.
[...]
[...] Their parents have organized a special action group named the
Conscientious Objectors Parents’ Forum (COPF). It may be a
long and arduous battle.
The key development in the growing movement for conscientious
objection among high school students was a collective letter, sent
(September, 2001) by sixty-two students to the Prime Minister. The
letter came to be knows as the shministim (eighth-form students)
letter. Not only did it reflect growing opposition to the
occupation. It went further and linked this consciousness to
refusal to serve in the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF).
...
US
concession draws Israel into road map vote
Suzanne Goldenberg in Washington
Saturday May 24, 2003
The Guardian
Ariel Sharon took immediate advantage yesterday of an offer by
Washington which will let Israel accept the US road map for peace
in the Middle East without intending to implement it fully.
Hours after the US said it "understood" Israel's concern about
aspects of the the road map, a statement from Mr Sharon's office
said that he would present the document to the cabinet for approval
on Sunday.
That amount to a climbdown by the prime minister, who has listed
more than a dozen objections to the plan.
A joint statement by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state,
and Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, said: "The
United States government received a response from the government of
Israel, explaining its significant concerns about the road map.
"The United States shares the view of the government of Israel
that these are real concerns, and will address them fully and
seriously in the implementation of the road map."...
Israeli
hardliners vow to block the latest Middle East peace
plan
STEVE WEIZMAN
05:23 AM EDT May 25
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli hardliners vowed Saturday to block a
U.S.-backed "road map" for Middle East peace, with one member of
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's party calling it "the most
dangerous" peace plan ever presented.
The prime minister was expected to ask his 23-member cabinet
Sunday to back the plan, and - despite the resistance - Sharon
aides were confident of winning approval. Sharon himself was
reluctant to embrace the three-stage prescription for setting up a
Palestinian state by 2005, and did so Friday only after Washington
assured him publicly it would take into account a list of Israeli
objections.
For their part, Palestinian leaders said Saturday they expect
Washington to keep its promise to them that the road map would not
be changed to accommodate Israel, though they welcomed Sharon's
acceptance of the deal.
The Palestinians accepted the road map last month, and U.S.
officials said Friday that their reservations also would be taken
into account.
The plan's first phase calls for Palestinians to rein in
militants and Israeli troops to withdraw from Palestinian
towns.
Violence continued amid the negotiations for a settlement, with
two Palestinians killed by army fire in the Gaza Strip, one late
Friday and the other, Saturday. Israeli troops also raided the
Tulkarem refugee camp in the West Bank and a house in the city of
Hebron, arresting several suspected militants.
Militias have told Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas they
would halt attacks on Israeli civilians only if Israel calls off
military strikes. Israel has said it would call off strikes only if
Palestinians act first to crack down on militias.
Sharon faces strong opposition to the plan within his four-party
coalition, consisting of his own Likud party, the moderate Shinui
and two pro-settler blocs, the National Union and the National
Religious Party...
Israel also has demanded the Palestinians drop a demand for the
"right of return" of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to
former homes in what is now Israel. The peace plan says the fate of
the refugees is to be discussed only in the third stage, when the
terms of Palestinian statehood will be negotiated.
Comment: The double-standard of the
Jews is appalling. They have imposed the collection of the Jews in
Israel while refusing the same to the Palestinians. The Holocaust
was a horrible event. But what can one say about a people who pass
through such a lesson without then opening themselves to such
horror as it touches on all peoples? Certainly the most profound
lesson has been lost.
Terrorism
can be rational
May 24 2003
Reuters
An expert on the psychology of terrorism who spent 20 years in
the CIA says suicide bombers are not crazy and are often seen as
models of exemplary behaviour in their societies.
Jerrold Post, who founded the CIA's Centre for the Analysis of
Personality and Political Behaviour, interviewed 21 Islamic
extremists in Israeli and Palestinian prisons.
"We should not think of these individuals as crazed fanatics, as
seriously psychiatrically ill," he told the American Psychiatric
Association's annual meeting on Thursday. "Quite to the contrary,
this represents a norm within society, within this society."
"Mental illness is incompatible with being a political
terrorist," he said. "It is a security risk to have an emotionally
unstable individual in your terrorist group just as it would be in
the Green Berets."
Professor Post, who today teaches at George Washington
University, said the Palestinian militants he interviewed talked
calmly and rationally about their violent acts, including
murder.
"These are very normal-sounding individuals who have basically
been bred to hate from very early on," he said.
United States Cuts Off Contact with Iran-Report
Sun May 25, 2003 01:24 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration has cut off
contact with Iran, and Pentagon officials are pushing for action
they believe could destabilize the government of the Islamic
republic, The Washington Post reported in its Sunday edition.
The move follows intelligence reports suggesting al Qaeda
operatives in Iran played a role in the May 12 suicide bombings in
Saudi Arabia, according to the newspaper.
Citing administration officials, the newspaper said the White
House "appears ready to embrace an aggressive policy of trying to
destabilize the Iranian government."
Officials will meet Tuesday at the White House to discuss the
Iran strategy, with Pentagon officials pressing for action that
could lead to the toppling of the government through a popular
uprising, the Post said.
A White House spokeswoman declined comment on Saturday...
Pentagon
sets sights on a new Tehran regime
UK and state department reject blunt approach
Julian Borger in Washington and Dan De Luce in
Tehran
Saturday May 24, 2003
The Guardian
The Pentagon has proposed a policy of regime change in Iran,
after reports that al-Qaida leaders are coordinating terrorist
attacks from Iran.
But the plan is opposed by the US state department and the
British government, officials in Washington said yesterday.
The Pentagon plan would involve overt means, such as
anti-government broadcasts transmitted to Iran, and covert means,
possibly including support for the Iraq-based armed opposition
movement Mojahedin Khalq (MEK), even though it is designated a
terrorist group by the state department.
The state department and Britain have objected to the plan,
saying that it would backfire, undermining the moderates around
President Mohamed Khatami.
[...] But the policy of engagement is likely to come under US
pressure in the next few weeks, after the US allegations about
al-Qaida and Iran's nuclear weapons programme.
The issue was to be debated at a meeting of President Bush's top
national security advisers in the White House on Thursday,
according to an official in Washington.
But the meeting was postponed pending Tehran's response to
American allegation that it is harbouring a Qaida cell.
Members of the Bush administration have been quoted in the US
press as saying that recent terrorist bombings in Saudi Arabia were
coordinated by the cell in Iran and that communications about the
attack were traced back to the country.
"There's no question but that there have been and are today
senior al-Qaida leaders in Iran, and they are busy," the defence
secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said this week...
Iran
reformers in deadlock appeal
By Jim Muir BBC correspondent in
Tehran
Nearly 130 members of the reformist-dominated Iranian parliament
have signed an open letter to the country's Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, calling on him to intervene to break the
political deadlock holding up the reform process.
Struggling reformist President Mohamed Khatami has been foiled
in parliament
It was the latest move in a political crisis that has been
intensifying as reformists become increasingly frustrated by the
blocking of new legislation by conservative-controlled bodies.
The reformist deputies who signed the letter warned the Supreme
Leader that time was running out.
They said political and social rifts inside the country were
coinciding with an external threat, with the emergence of a clear
American plan to change the region's geo-political map, making
this, they said, probably the most sensitive time in Iran's recent
history.
The letter accused unelected right-wing institutions of mounting
a concerted campaign to undermine the reformist movement and its
chief symbol, President Mohamed Khatami, despite the latter's
landslide election victories.
They called for a referendum which would lead to real democracy
guaranteeing freedom and dignity.
Now U.S. has its own West Bank
James P. Pinkerton
Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service
Friday, May 23, 2003
WHAT DOES THE seemingly endless wave of suicide bombings in
Israel say about prospects for peace in the Mideast? And not just
for Israel, seeking to pacify 4 million Arabs within its
territories, but also for America, seeking now to pacify 24 million
Iraqis?
Most Americans might not yet see the parallel -- the reality
that the United States now has its own West Bank and Gaza Strip --
but the Arabs see it plainly...
Not every dispute over land can be settled peacefully. The
Anglo-Saxons, for example, made little attempt to find "common
ground" with American Indians as they pushed westward from
Jamestown and Plymouth Rock. But the success of the United States
in claiming much of North America speaks to the basic reality of
territorial occupation. Such occupying is likely to succeed over
the long term only when the population of newcomers utterly
overwhelms the existing population. That's what happened in North
America.
But that process of overwhelming did not happen in Israel,
especially after 1967, when the country occupied the West Bank and
the Gaza Strip.
[...] That's Israel, carrying on a fight that's lasted for
decades. Now what of the United States, and its 160,000 soldiers in
Iraq, outnumbered 150 to 1? When the suicide bombers strike in
Baghdad, how will we respond? Will the U.S. Army emulate the
Israeli Defense Force's tough counter-terror tactics? Will
stateside public opinion support "targeted killings" of suspected
militants? Will it support the demolition of the family homes of
suicide bombers?
Strange
Circle in Lone Star
KLTV.com
It's not exactly a crop circle, but some East Texans in Lone
Star are baffled by some strange markings on the ground. In the
quiet neighborhood, folks are looking skyward. Residents of Lone
Star feel they've had an encounter. Lone Star resident Gayle Tigert
thinks that someone or something made a strange circle pattern on
her front lawn that she discovered on Monday.
Odd dusty burned grass in regular intervals has many thinking of
outer space. We often here[sic] tales of circles in crop fields,
but did a U.F.O. actually land in an apartment section?
City authorities are explaining it as fungus, but don't really
have an answer. Whether a prank or a natural phenomenon, it remains
a mystery.
Miracle baby
'grew in liver'
A healthy baby has been born after developing in its mother's
liver instead of in the womb. Reports from South Africa say
Nhlahla, whose name means "luck" in Zulu, is only the fourth baby
ever to survive such a pregnancy. In all, there have only been 14
documented cases of a child developing in this way. Nhlahla was
born after specialists performed a difficult operation to deliver
her on Tuesday.
She had to be put on oxygen after her birth, where she weighed a
healthy 2.8kg, but was breathing without aid by Thursday. Doctors
said Nhlahla and her mother Ncise Cwayita, 20 - whose first baby
was born normally - were both doing well. Liver specialist
Professor Jack Krige, who helped deliver the baby, told a South
African newspaper: "She is the real thing. She is truly a miracle
baby."
When an egg is fertilised, it normally travels down the
fallopian tube to the womb, where it implants and grows. But
sometimes, the embryo implants in the fallopian tube, a standard
ectopic pregnancy. In some cases - around one in 100,000
pregnancies - it falls out of the fallopian tube and can implant
anywhere in the abdomen. In extremely rare cases, such as this one,
the embryo attaches itself to the liver, a very rich source of
blood. The baby is protected because it is within the placenta -
but it does not have the usual protection of the womb - and is at
more risk in the abdominal cavity.
Most babies in extrauterine (out of the uterus) pregnancies die
within a few weeks. In this case, doctors only discovered the baby
was growing in the liver when they performed a scan this week. Her
womb was found to be empty, even though her baby was due in a week.
Ms Cwayita was transferred to the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape
Town. Dr Bruce Howard told the Cape Argus newspaper said: "We knew
it was an extrauterine pregnancy but we didn't know it was in the
liver until we started the operation on Tuesday morning."
Doctors found a small "window" where the amniotic sac connected
with the outside of the liver where they were able to go in to
deliver the baby. Doctors had to leave the placenta and amniotic
sac in the liver, because the mother's life would have been at
risk. It is expected they will be absorbed back into her body.
Professor James Walker, president of the British Ectopic Pregnancy
Trust, told BBC News Online abdominal pregnancies could be very
dangerous. "The mother is at a huge risk. One in 200 women die
before we can do anything to help them. "The main problem for the
baby is that it is not protected by the muscular wall of the
womb."
Investigators look into UFO encounter near Booger
Bottom
by Laura Ingram, Gwinnet Daily Post
LILBURN - Round red objects about the size of silver dollars
suddenly appeared and seemed to scan three people traveling home in
a Ford SUV one night last month.
They didn't see a mother ship hovering above them on a rural
stretch of highway called "Booger Bottom" near Greenville, Ga. No
little green men popped in to chat. The 25-second visit was not
your stereotypical sighting of an unidentified flying object. It
was certainly no laughing matter for a 50-year- old Tucker man and
his brother and sister-in-law from Warm Springs.
The 73-year-old female witness, who remains unnamed, went to the
police and the GBI for help, but they didn't want any part of it.
She called the National UFO Reporting Center and was hooked up with
the Mutual UFO Network of Georgia. MUFONGA doesn't turn away people
with odd stories. MUFONGA investigators use a scientific method to
eliminate publicity seekers and natural occurrences from true
unexplainable incidents. If they can't find a explanation for what
occurred, they at least want to record the phenomenon.
MUFONGA investigators Olivia Newton of Lilburn and Jim Clifford
of Lawrenceville were assigned the case.
Newton noted none of the witnesses gave them any reason to doubt
the account. "We watch for body language, any discrepancies,"
Newton recalled. "They looked at us right in the eye and were very
forthright. They said, ' Surely you have heard of this
before.'"
In her five years of investigating UFO reports, Newton had heard
about a woman being paralyzed while a hovering object came toward
her skylight and a 2-year-old boy who was being stalked by a
possible spirit. "Most of them turn out to have natural
explanations," Newton said, adding that Venus is often mistaken for
a spaceship. Newton had never heard a story like this one.
"They all said it was not of this world. They felt it was
intelligent. They felt they had sought them out for the sole
purpose of scanning them. Scan. That was the word they used,"
Newton said. The trio was upset by the experience. The woman
insisted they learn what the red objects were.
"She said, 'I've got to know what this is. Are they coming back
after us? What if they cart us off?'" recalled Newton. When Newton
and Clifford met with the Tucker man at a local Starbucks to
discuss the case, he was visibly shaken, she said. He too refused
to have his name used. The witnesses called the approximate 50 red
objects that appeared inside the car "lights" but described them as
solid to Newton. They said they only occurred on their bodies until
they vanished instantly. The brother of the Tucker man told
investigators he saw a red swirling object next to the vehicle on
the driver's side before the lights appeared. He was sitting in the
back seat facing his brother, Newton said. The Tucker man's
testimony on the NURORC's Web site at www.UFOcenter.com said, "The
floor board again was red hue as it was in the back seat. I looked
out the window and over the dash board onto the hood and did not
see a ny activity as was being awesomely and erratically displayed
in the front and back seat."
According to the investigation so far, a train was not traveling
on the nearby tracks. No airplanes were flying over the Greenville
skies that night, Newton said.
Newton and Clifford walked around the area. No houses were close
enough to the road to reflect light into the car. Newton said they
couldn't find an area where practical jokers could have hidden and
focused red lights constantly on the people for 25 seconds as the
vehicle traveled 35 mph.
To help solve the mystery, Newton plans to seek a geologist's
opinion and look into the origins of why that area is called Booger
Bottom.
Locals told her the first name was once used for the "Boogey
man," and the area was called that to scare off government
officials searching for moonshiners.
Newton wants to make sure the area was not named for an earlier
incident, which might be similar to what the witnesses
experienced.
Telegraph man is first British reporter inside Camp
Delta
By David Rennie in Guantanamo Bay (Filed:
24/05/2003)
The Daily Telegraph
It is not horror that crushes your spirits when you enter the
cells at Camp Delta. Instead, it is an absolute sense of defeat, of
being hopelessly caught in a great steel machine, remorseless in
its efficiency and patience.
Just a moment inside a maximum security cell - newly vacated for
repairs - is enough to bring on despair. The hundreds of terrorist
suspects brought to Camp Delta, on its scrubby hillside at the
eastern tip of Cuba, were men seething with dreams, fuelled by
visions of conquest and hate.
Camp Delta, newly built to replace the temporary facility of
Camp X-Ray, is designed to smother such dreams, reducing the world
to a steel cage, 8ft by 6ft 8in.
It is not a place of visible humiliation or cruelty. Some of its
key facilities, from medical care to the food, are exactly the same
as those provided to the guard force of US military police.
The call to prayer is piped through the cells five times a day,
and each inmate has a copy of the Koran, prayer beads and holy
oil.
But from the Stars and Stripes flags nailed to the camp's
watchtowers, to the female troops who help patrol its cell blocks
(outraging many inmates), it is intended to assert the final
victory of the United States.
The Guantanamo Bay camp was, until very recently, shrouded in
secrecy. The Pentagon will not confirm the nationalities of its 680
detainees, though it is known that nine are from Britain.
But the camp is clearly here to stay. American military
commanders have drawn up plans for a permanent terrorists' prison
at the site, including a possible execution chamber.
Special military tribunals that could pass death sentences are
expected to begin sitting this year, with defence lawyers asked to
secure "secret-grade" security clearance.
Commanders in Guantanamo stressed that it is up to senior Bush
administration officials in Washington to take final decisions on
where the tribunals, or commissions, will be held, and to decide
where convicted terrorists will be punished.
Maj Gen Geoffrey Miller heads the Joint Task Force (JTF) in
charge of suspects from Afghanistan and across the globe. He said:
"We have laid out a very extensive plan should long-term detention
and imprisonment be given to JTF Guantanamo."
Camp Delta opened last year on a rocky shoreline overlooking the
Caribbean, and is still expanding. However, its steel mesh cages
require refurbishment every few months, because of corrosion in the
salty, humid air.
Building a Death Row at Guantanamo "is one of the plans", said
Gen Miller.
The special tribunals will involve no juries and there will be
no appeals to higher courts, only reviews of verdicts by the
defence secretary, and ultimately, the president.
For security reasons, only American lawyers will be allowed to
act for the Guantanamo detainees, all of whom are foreigners.
Some 42 countries are represented at Camp Delta. Allies of the
United States, including Britain, have pushed for an end to the
legal limbo for their citizens, who are not considered to be on
American soil, but have no redress to Cuban courts.
New
Mexico Stands Against the Patriot Act
Thursday 1 May 2003
HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL 40 46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO -
first session, 2003 INTRODUCED BY Max Coll
A JOINT MEMORIAL AFFIRMING CIVIL RIGHTS AND LIBERTIES; DECLARING
OPPOSITION TO FEDERAL MEASURES THAT INFRINGE ON CIVIL
LIBERTIES.
WHEREAS, the state of New Mexico is proud of its long and
distinguished tradition of protecting the civil rights and
liberties of its residents; and
WHEREAS, New Mexico has a diverse population, including
immigrants and students, whose contributions to the community are
vital to its economy, culture and civic character; and
WHEREAS, the preservation of civil rights and liberties is
essential to the well-being of a democratic society; and
WHEREAS, federal, state and local governments should protect the
public from terrorist attacks such as those that occurred on
September 11, 2001 and should do so in a rational and deliberative
fashion to ensure that a new security measure will enhance public
safety without impairing constitutional rights or infringing on
civil liberties; and
WHEREAS, government security measures that undermine fundamental
rights do damage to American institutions and values that the
residents of New Mexico hold dear; and
WHEREAS, the house of representatives believes that there is no
inherent conflict between national security and the preservation of
liberty and that Americans can be both safe and free; and
WHEREAS, federal policies adopted since September 11, 2001,
including provisions in Public Law 107-56, known as the USA Patriot
Act, and related executive orders, regulations and actions threaten
fundamental rights and liberties by:
A. authorizing the indefinite incarceration of non-citizens
based on mere suspicion and the indefinite incarceration of
citizens designated by the president as "enemy combatants" without
access to counsel or meaningful recourse to the federal courts;
B. limiting the authority of federal courts to curb law
enforcement abuse of electronic surveillance in anti-terrorism and
ordinary criminal investigations;
C. expanding the authority of federal agents to conduct so-
called "sneak and peek" or "black bag" searches, in which the
subject of the search warrant has not been notified that his or her
property has been searched;
D. granting federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies
broad access to personal, medical, financial, library and
educational records with little, if any, judicial oversight;
E. chilling constitutionally protected speech through overly
broad definitions of "terrorism";
F. driving a wedge between immigrant communities and the police
that protect them by encouraging involvement of state and local
police in the enforcement of federal immigration law; and
G. permitting the federal bureau of investigation to conduct
surveillance of religious services, internet chat rooms, political
demonstrations and public meetings of any kind without evidence
that a crime has been or may be committed; and
WHEREAS, these new powers pose a particular threat to the civil
rights and liberties of the residents of New Mexico state who are
or who are assumed to be Arab, Muslim or of South Asian descent;
and
WHEREAS, other communities throughout the country have enacted
resolutions reaffirming support for civil rights and civil
liberties in the face of government policies that threaten these
values and have demanded accountability from law enforcement
agencies regarding their use of these new powers;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE
OF NEW MEXICO that it:
A. affirm its strong support for fundamental constitutional
rights and its opposition to federal measures that infringe on
these rights and liberties;
B. affirm its strong support for the rights of immigrants and
oppose measures that single out individuals for legal scrutiny or
enforcement activity based on their country of origin;
C. direct the New Mexico state police to:
(1) refrain from participating in the enforcement of federal
immigration laws;
(2) seek adequate written assurances from federal authorities
that residents of the state of New Mexico and individuals in the
custody of the state who are placed in federal custody will not be
subjected to military or secret detention or secret immigration
proceedings without access to counsel and, absent such written
assurances, refrain from assisting federal authorities to obtain
custody of these individuals;
(3) refrain from engaging in the surveillance of individuals or
groups of individuals based on their participation in activities
protected by the First Amendment to the United States constitution,
such as political advocacy or the practice of a religion, without
reasonable and particularized suspicion of criminal conduct
unrelated to the activity protected by the First Amendment to the
United States constitution;
(4) refrain from using race, religion, ethnicity or national
origin as a factor in selecting who is subject to investigatory
activities unless race, religion, ethnicity or national origin is
part of the description of a specific suspect to be
apprehended;
(5) refrain, whether acting alone or with federal law
enforcement officers, from collecting or maintaining information
about the political, religious or social views, associations or
activities of any individual, group, association, organization,
corporation, business or partnership unless such information
directly relates to an investigation of criminal activity and there
are reasonable grounds to believe that the subject of the
information is or may be involved in criminal conduct;
(6) provide advance or simultaneous notice of the execution of a
search warrant to any resident of the state of New Mexico whose
property is the subject of the search and refrain from
participating in a joint search with any law enforcement agency
absent assurances that such a notice will be provided;
(7) refrain from undertaking or participating in any initiative,
such as the terrorist information and prevention system, also known
as TIPS, that encourages members of the general public to spy on
their neighbors, colleagues or customers;
(8) refrain from the practice of stopping drivers or pedestrians
for the purpose of scrutinizing their identification documents
without reasonable and particularized suspicion of criminal
activity; and
(9) report to the legislature and the interim corrections
oversight and justice committee, any request by federal authorities
that, if granted, would cause agencies of the state to exercise
powers or cooperate in the exercise of powers in apparent violation
of a city ordinance or the laws or constitution of this state or of
the United States;
D. direct public schools and institutions of higher education to
provide notice to individuals whose education records have been
obtained by law enforcement agents pursuant to Section 507 of the
USA Patriot Act;
E. direct public libraries to post in a prominent place within
the library a notice as follows: "WARNING: Under Section 215 of the
federal USA Patriot Act (Public Law 107-56), records of books and
other materials you borrow from this library may be obtained by
federal agents. This law also prohibits librarians from informing
you if records about you have been obtained by federal agents.
Questions about this policy should be directed to Attorney General
John Ashcroft, Department of Justice, Washington, DC 20530.";
and
F. direct the state official in charge of homeland security for
New Mexico to seek periodically from federal authorities the
following information in a form that facilitates an assessment of
the effect of federal anti-terrorism efforts on the residents of
the state of New Mexico and provide to the legislature and the
interim corrections oversight and justice committee, no less than
once every six months, a summary of the information obtained:
(1) the names of all residents of New Mexico who have been
arrested or otherwise detained by federal authorities as a result
of terrorism investigations since September 11, 2001, and:
(a) the location of each detainee;
(b) the circumstances that led to each detention;
(c) the charges, if any, lodged against each detainee; and
(d) the name of counsel, if any, representing each detainee;
(2) the number of search warrants that have been executed in New
Mexico without notice to the subject of the warrant pursuant to
Section 213 of the USA Patriot Act;
(3) the extent of electronic surveillance carried out in the
state pursuant to powers granted in the USA Patriot Act;
(4) the extent to which federal authorities are monitoring
political meetings, religious gatherings or other activities within
New Mexico that are protected by the first Amendment of the United
States constitution;
(5) the number of times education records have been obtained
from public schools and institutions of higher learning in New
Mexico pursuant to Section 507 of the USA Patriot Act;
(6) the number of times library records have been obtained from
libraries in New Mexico pursuant to Section 215 of the USA Patriot
Act; and
(7) the number of times records of books purchased by store
patrons have been obtained from bookstores in New Mexico pursuant
to Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici and
Representatives Tom Udall, Heather Wilson and Steve Pearce, with a
letter urging them to monitor federal anti-terrorismtactics and to
work to repeal provisions of the USA Patriot Act and other laws and
regulations that infringe on civil rights and liberties; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to President George W. Bush and Attorney General John
Ashcroft; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this memorial be
transmitted to the state official in charge of homeland security
for New Mexico; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that copies of this memorial be
transmitted to the New Mexico state police and to all
publicschools, institutions of higher education and public
libraries within the state of New Mexico.
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving the included information for research and
educational purposes.)
Homeland Security Buys N.M. Town for Training
Fri May 23, 2003 09:56 PM ET
SANTA FE, N.M. (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security has bought for about $5 million the small New Mexico ghost
town of Playas, and plans to transform it into a terrorist response
training center, officials said on Friday.
Training at the 1,840-acre town about 40 miles north of the
Mexican border, could provide training for U.S. Marines in urban
warfare and a first responders program that includes testing
responses to various terrorist bombing possibilities, they
said.
The facility could also be used to look at ways in which
biological and chemical warfare may affect a small town, said an
official responsible for running the training center.
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, an undergraduate
and graduate school specializing in science and engineering, will
run the training center, which was purchased for "close to $5
million dollars" from Phelps Dodge, said Lonnie Marquez, acting
vice-president of administration and finance at New Mexico
Tech.
"We've been pursuing this since the town was first made
available so we're pretty excited," he said. "Our programs will be
in support of Homeland Security."
Playas was built in the early 1970s to house the employees and
infrastructure of the Phelps Dodge copper smelter, which shut down
in 1999 leaving a virtual ghost town. About 40 families still live
in the town, but may have to move once the federal government
finalizes the purchase, Marquez said.
Comment: The new Nazis and copper
smelting in New Mexico? Hmm...
Heat
wave toll shoots up near 200 in southern India
HYDERABAD, India (AFP) May 24, 2003
The toll in an extended heat wave sweeping the southern Indian
state of Andhra Pradesh has climbed to nearly 200, officials said
Saturday. "The toll up to Thursday was 179. However, this figure is
likely to go up further as we are still waiting to hear about the
figures for Friday and Saturday," D.C. Rosaiah, the state's relief
commissioner, told AFP.
The hot spell for more than a week has seen temperatures shoot
up to 50 degrees Celsius (122 Fahrenheit) in parts of the
state.
Officials have issued pamphlets to educate people on precautions
against heat exhaustion and sunstrokes, such as staying inside and
drinking plenty of water, Rosaiah said.
Some of the worst affected northern coastal districts earned a
brief respite Friday after light showers, the meteorological office
said.
The government has announced a payment of 10,000 rupees (214
dollars) to the victims' families.
Large parts of northern India are in the grip of intense heat,
with sections of Andhra Pradesh along with the western states of
Rajasthan and Gujarat experiencing their second straight summer of
drought.
Pileups Give Travelers Holiday Headaches
By DAVID DISHNEAU, Associated Press
Writer
May 25, 2003
A series of pileups in Maryland and an overpass collapse in
Nebraska shut down portions of two major interstates Saturday at
the start of Memorial Day weekend, one of the busiest travel
holidays of the year.
A 17-mile stretch of Interstate 68 in Maryland reopened Saturday
after crews cleared away nearly 90 vehicles from a string of
pileups that killed two people and injured dozens more on a
fog-shrouded mountain ridge.
"This is absolutely the worst accident scene I've seen in my 27
years as a Maryland state trooper," state police Maj. Vernon Herron
said.
In western Nebraska, a 10-mile stretch of Interstate 80 remained
closed Saturday after a tractor-trailer slammed into an overpass
support Friday night, sending the bridge crashing down onto the
truck and killing the driver, 47-year-old Douglas W. Lohmeyer of
Blue Springs, Neb.
Gov. Mike Johanns said crews would work around-the-clock to
remove the wreckage. Crews began removing the overpass Saturday,
and authorities estimate the interstate will reopen Monday, Johanns
said.
Interstate 80 runs from coast to coast and is the nation's
busiest highway...
Wolfowitz
Slammed on Turkey Comment
By AMI EDEN
FORWARD STAFF
A veteran Democratic congressman is calling for the resignation
of Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, claiming the Pentagon
official is "undermining" democracy in Turkey.
Speaking from the floor of the House of Representatives on
Monday, Massachusetts Rep. Barney Frank called on Wolfowitz to
resign over remarks he made in an interview that aired on CNN Turk,
the Turkish affiliate of the cable news network. During the
interview, which aired May 6, Wolfowitz said it was "disappointing"
that the Turkish military had not been as "forceful" as it could
have been in pushing the country's parliament to cooperate with the
American invasion of Iraq.
Frank accused the Pentagon deputy of sending an anti-democratic
message to the rest of the world. Wolfowitz's remarks were
especially disturbing because the country in question was Turkey,
Frank said.
"Trying to encourage Islamist movements that are genuinely
democratic is one of our highest goals," Frank said in his House
speech. "We have in Turkey now a government that has Islamist
groups, the political majority, and is also committed to
democracy."
[...] During the interview with CNN Turk, Wolfowitz argued that
it would have been legitimate under the Turkish democratic system
for the military to push harder for backing of American war
plans.
In a March vote shortly before the war, the Turkish parliament
failed to approve plans that would have allowed American forces to
launch a northern assault on Iraq from Turkey. The vote came after
Wolfowitz had visited Turkey to plead America's case.
"When you had an issue of Turkey's national interest and
national strategy," Wolfowitz said in the CNN Turk interview, "I
think it's perfectly appropriate, especially in your system, for
the military to say it was in Turkey's interest to support the
United States."...
US
urges military to overrule Turkish government
By Justus Leicht
24 May 2003 If any additional proof were needed to demonstrate that
the aim of the US in the Middle East is the subjugation of the
region rather then the introduction of “freedom” and
“democracy,” then it was provided by the visit to
Turkey two weeks ago by US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul
Wolfowitz.
In an interview with the CNN channel Türk he lectured the
Turkish government for bowing to public pressure (more than 90
percent of the population opposed the Iraq war) and refusing to
allow the stationing of US troops on Turkish territory for the
invasion of Iraq. Wolfowitz effectively demanded an apology,
saying: “Lets have a Turkey that steps up and says we made a
mistake. We should have known how bad things were in Iraq but we
know now. Let’s figure out how we can be as helpful as
possible to the Americans.”
Even more revealing was his criticism of the Turkish military,
which he accused of holding back from forcing the elected
government into line: “I think for whatever reason they did
not play the strong leadership role on that issue that we would
have expected.”
When politely reminded that the military (which has overthrown four
elected governments in the last 45 years in Turkey) is usually
criticized for interfering too much into politics, Wolfowitz
responded: “I think it’s perfectly appropriate,
especially in your system, for the military to say it was in
Turkey’s interest to support the United States in that
effort.(...) My impression is they didn’t say it with the
kind of strength that would have made a difference.”
So far no representative of the U. S. government has made such a
blunt public demand that Turkish generals force the will of the
United States upon an elected civilian government. Rather than
express outrage over what could be interpreted as encouragement for
a military coup, theTurkish media and politicians have reacted with
a mixture of self-pity and gestures of obedience to Washington. At
every opportunity, they stress that Turkey did not oppose the war
and claim that the country was the most important US ally after
Britain. [...]
Comment: It's not
enough that the Bush Reich turns the U.S. into a fascist regime,
they are telling the military to overthrow a popular elected
government, and to ignore the people's wishes. I am feeling ill.
These people are claiming to speak for the American
public.
Victims
of the peace decide Americans are worse than
Saddam
From Anthony Browne in Khan Bani Saad
Times On-line
THE small dank cells with cold stone floors, tiny windows and iron
bars for a door used to house criminals and the victims of Saddam
Hussein’s regime. Now Khan Bani Saad prison, overlooked by
watchtowers and surrounded by razorwire, is filled with families
who are victims, not of the war, but of the peace.
Sabrir Hassan Ismael, a
mother of six, held her three-year-old daughter Zahraa in the cell
that is now their living room and bedroom, and cried: “Look
at me; look at my family. We live in prison. We can’t buy
food because we don’t have money. We have no gas to cook.
“We can’t sleep because it’s very hot. There are
huge insects that bite us. All night my daughters cry and they
can’t sleep. I live without any hope. Just look at
us.”
Outside children play in the foetid puddles, swirling dust and
searing heat of the prison courtyard, where prisoners once walked
in dread.
Before the end of the war Mrs Sabrir lived with her husband, a
local mayor, on a farm in the town of Khanaqin, close to the
Iranian border. They are members of the Arab Saraefien tribe that
had survived unscathed through the Iran-Iraq war, the Gulf War in
1991 and the invasion of Iraq. As opponents of Saddam they even
welcomed the American invasion.
But it is the peace, and the disintegration of Saddam’s grip,
that has destroyed their lives. On April 11, two days after the
fall of Saddam, Kurdish fighters entered Khanaqin, ordering all
15,000 Arabs to leave within 48 hours.
“There were so many Kurdish fighters we couldn’t count
them. They came into our house, and fired into the air, and grabbed
me by the shoulder and said we had to leave in 48 hours or they
would kill us,” said Mrs Sabrir’s son, Amar Hassan
Tahar, 26.
The tribal elders insist that Jalal Talabani, leader of the PUK
Kurdish political party, was behind the purge. They went to the
local governor, also a Kurd, to plead for more time. “But he
said if Talabani gives us 48 hours, he will give us just 24, or
else he would send in the bulldozers to flatten our houses,”
said Fadhel Jasas, one of the elders.
The following day Mrs Sabrir and her family had not left, and the
Kurds returned, installing eight armed men and women to live in
their house. “They ordered us to cook for them, and slept
there, and said they would kill us if we didn’t leave the
next day. The next morning they threw all our belongings out in the
street, and we left,” Mr Amar said.
After seven days of travelling by foot and by donkey from Khanaqin,
1,500 of the tribe ended up in the abandoned prison, 30 miles north
of Baghdad. They had nowhere else to go.
They are part of the rising tide of internal refugees in Iraq,
forced out of their homes by the ethnic conflict that yesterday
resulted in more gunfights between Kurds and Arabs in the town of
Kirkuk.
Every day on Iraq’s highways, Arabs who have been forced out
of their homes are drifting south hoping to find somewhere to live.
Many, but not all, of the Arabs in Khanaqin had been forced to move
there in 1975 from southern Iraq because they opposed
Saddam’s regime.
Saddam wanted to Arabise the predominantly Kurdish towns close to
the Iranian border. The dictator gave the tribe houses and land,
which he reportedly bought off the Kurds, but now the Kurds have
taken them back as part of a drive to reverse the process.
The occupants of Khan Bani Saad prison, forced to leave their land
for a second time, just want somewhere they call their own.
“I want a home to live in and land to farm” said Mrs
Sabrir’s husband, Hassan Tahar Yassim. They have identified
land nearby that used to belong to Saddam, but others have already
occupied it.
The tribe has appealed for help to the coalition forces, but no one
has even visited them. They have eaten or sold almost all their
animals, and have only a week left of food. Now they hate the
Americans.
“None of the American promises has happened. It is
unbelievable what has happened,” Mr Yassim said.
His son concludes: “We have discovered that Saddam is better
than the Americans.”
Hadeb Hamed Hamed, the tribe’s sheikh, sat on mats on the
prison officer’s porch, and said: “The Americans
promised us food and medicine and freedom. But we have lost our
homes, our land, our crops. Now we live in prison with nothing, and
they ignore us.
“It is the allied forces that have done this to us. When we
run out of food, I don’t know what we will do.”
In fact, he does know, because with starvation looming, he has been
talking about it with the other elders.
“If we don’t have a solution, we will fight the
Americans even if they kill us. It is better than sitting here with
nothing and just dying,” he said
US
admiral to oversee NATO military transformation
BRUSSELS (AFP) May 23, 2003
NATO approved Thursday the appointment of a US admiral to
oversee the restructuring of the armed forces of the Alliance, the
West's former Cold War military bloc.
NATOs Defence Planning Committee (DPC) announced its agreement
to a request from President George W. Bush to appoint Admiral
Edmund P. Giambastiani, Jr. as Supreme Allied Commander,
Transformation.
Giambastiani, a four-star admiral, is currently serving as the
Commander, US Joint Forces Command. He is considered close to US
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
NATO is undergoing a comprehensive "transformation," sealed at a
landmark summit in Prague last November, to deal with post-Cold War
and post-September 11 security threats.
Giambastiani's appointment will become effective following final
decisions on NATOs military command arrangements to be taken by
NATO defence ministers at a meeting in Brussels on June
12-13...
Putin
Sends Message to Bush
Moscow Times
Friday, May. 23, 2003. Page 1
By Simon Saradzhyan Staff Writer
President Vladimir Putin informed U.S. President George W. Bush
on Thursday that Russia is ready to work with the United States on
all fronts, the strongest personal signal from Putin yet that he is
eager to mend ties that were strained over the Iraq war.
"There is more substance that unites us than questions that we
differ over," Putin wrote in a message delivered to the White House
on Thursday by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, according to the
Kremlin press service.
In his message, Putin said he was looking forward to holding
talks with Bush in St. Petersburg and noted that the entire
international community benefits from U.S.-Russian cooperation,
which enhances global stability and security.
Ivanov held 20-minute talks with Bush and his National Security
Adviser Condoleezza Rice, who on the whole "assessed the
conversation as very positive and warm," Itar-Tass reported from
Washington. There was no immediate official reaction from the Bush
administration...
The official agenda of Ivanov's three-day visit is consultations
on strategic arms, possible cooperation in the development of
anti-missile defense and the fight against terrorism. In reality,
however, the trip offers Putin an opportunity to have his close
confidant try to patch up relations behind closed doors in
Washington ahead of the presidents' meeting in St. Petersburg on
June 1.
Russia has been gradually softening its once tough stance on
Iraq ever since Putin announced in early April, while fighting in
Iraq was still going on, that Russia did not want to see the United
States defeated.
After seeing the U.S.-led coalition win the war, Moscow decided
not to flatly reject Washington's suggestion that Russia forgive
Iraq's $8 billion debt. Instead, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin
agreed at a meeting of G-8 finance ministers last week for the debt
to be settled through the Paris Club. Finally, after weeks of
diplomatic pressure from the United States, Russia agreed to vote
in the UN Security Council on Thursday to lift the sanctions on
Iraq.
These steps have not gone unnoticed by the Bush administration,
and the St. Petersburg summit will offer an opportunity for the two
leaders to demonstrate that their personal relations have not
suffered over the war in Iraq.
Chrétien, Bush cross paths... and keep walking
OTTAWA (CP) — No formal talks have been scheduled between
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and U.S. President George W. Bush
next week in Europe even though the two will cross paths twice at
international meetings.
There is not so much as a tentative tete-a-tete scheduled, but
Canadian organizers of the G-8 summit in Evian, France, June 1-3
are nevertheless calling it a Summit of Reconciliation.
On the eve of the summit, Bush, Chrétien and a score of
other world leaders will be in St. Petersburg, Russia, for the
city's 300th anniversary celebrations.
It will be the first time world leaders gather since the war in
Iraq. It will bring Bush face to face with Chrétien and French
President Jacques Chirac, who also opposed the war.
Chrétien and Bush have not spoken for three months, aides
said at a briefing today. The last time was by phone Feb. 27 when
Canada decided to stay out of the war because it had not been
authorized by the United Nations...
The summit, in the Alps near Gevena, will be guarded by 18,000
police and soldiers.
Canada Reports 33 New Possible SARS Cases
Sat May 24, 2003 08:05 PM ET
By Rajiv Sekhri
TORONTO (Reuters) - Ontario health officials said on Saturday
they were monitoring 33 people for the deadly SARS virus with
another 500 in quarantine and warned that the number of suspected
cases could grow in coming days.
The possible SARS cases, up from 25 on Friday, have put hospital
emergency rooms on high alert and raised concerns that the World
Health Organization may again slap a travel advisory on Canada's
largest city. Nurses are again wearing full-face masks and double
gloves to protect themselves.
The U.N. agency last week said Canada was free of the spread of
the deadly disease, which has killed 24 people in the Toronto area,
the only place outside Asia where there have been SARS deaths.
Officials are also investigating two more deaths to determine if
they are SARS related.
All told, there have been 257 probable cases of SARS in Ontario
province. Six remain hospitalized...
Smallpox
vaccine linked to new problems
COX
NEWS SERVICE
ATLANTA - More than 50 people have had heart inflammation after
getting the smallpox vaccine, and a recipient has suffered a brain
illness, health officials said Thursday.
The possible side effects are in addition to three heart attack
deaths reported in March.
Twenty-four civilians have had inflammation of the heart or
surrounding membranes, the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention said. Another 27 members of the military
have had the conditions, according to the Defense Department.
More than 36,000 civilians and 430,000 military personnel have been
vaccinated since the program started in January in anticipation of
a potential bioterrorism attack. [...]
Yo,
Ayatollahs!
By MAUREEN DOWD
New York Times
WASHINGTON
The C.I.A. is snooping around itself and other spy agencies to
see if prewar reports of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction and ties
to Al Qaeda were exaggerated.
The suspense is killing me.
The delicious part is that the review was suggested by Donald
Rumsfeld, a main culprit in twisting the intelligence to justify a
strike on Baghdad. It's like O. J. vowing to find the real
killer.
When the C.I.A. reports weren't incriminating enough about
Saddam last fall, Rummy started his own little C.I.A. within the
Pentagon to ferret out information to back up the hawks' imperial
schemes. It will be interesting to see how a man who never admits
he's wrong wriggles out of admitting he's wrong, after his
investigation fingers him for hyping.
When Colin Powell went to the U.N. in February to make the case
for attacking Iraq, he raised the specter of 25,000 liters of
anthrax, tons of chemical weapons and a dictator on the brink of a
nuclear bomb.
Flash forward to May. Stymied U.S. arms inspectors are getting
ready to leave Iraq, having uncovered moldy vacuum cleaners,
pesticides and playground equipment, but nary a WMD. Those jungle
gyms can be treacherous. One of the weapons hunters compared his
work to a Scooby-Doo mystery - stuff seems pretty scary at first,
but then turns out to be explainable.
Even before the war, some C.I.A. analysts and British spymasters
were complaining of puffed-up intelligence. Now Congress wants to
know if it was flawed as well.
As Representative Jane Harman, the ranking Democrat on the House
intelligence committee, put it: "This could conceivably be the
greatest intelligence hoax of all time."
Her innocence is touching. [...]
Labour MPs challenge Blair over Iraq's WMDs
By Andy McSmith, Severin Carrell and Paul
Lashmar
25 May 2003
The Independent
Tony Blair is facing growing political pressure to explain the
mystery of Iraq's missing weapons of mass destruction. With no
solid evidence yet that there are any chemical, biological or
nuclear weapons in occupied Iraq, more than 70 MPs, including 53
Labour MPs, have signed a Commons motion challenging him to prove
his claim that they were ever there in the first place.
Britain's participation in the invasion of Iraq is to be
condemned as illegal by eminent international lawyers at a
conference in London next weekend. The conflict raised two issues,
said Professor Philippe Sands QC, a member of Cherie Booth's Matrix
chambers. "First, did the Security Council authorise the use of
force, and the answer to that is no. And were we misled about the
presence of weapons of mass destruction? Apparently, yes."
In the US the CIA has begun an inquiry into whether its
intelligence was faulty, but it is not thought that MI6 will do the
same. Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs
spokesman, wants intelligence chiefs to be made to answer to
Parliament as other senior civil servants have to.
Indonesia cracks down in Aceh
By Kathy Marks in Geunteng, Indonesia
The Independent
25 May 2003
Adnan's body was virtually unrecognisable when they brought it
home to his widow's wooden shack. His arms and face were horribly
slashed, and his penis had been cut off. His three children ran
away, unable to bear the sight of the man who was once their
father.
Even if his fellow villagers had not seen the three truckloads
of soldiers draw up, they would have known who was responsible. The
Indonesian army (TNI) likes to leave its signature on the bodies of
suspected members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM) after killing
them.
What took place in Geunteng on Friday is being repeated daily
across Indonesia's Aceh province as security forces mount a
crackdown to wipe out the separatist movement once and for all.
For 27 years, GAM has been fighting for independence for the
region on the northern tip of Sumatra island. Last December, after
lengthy negotiations, it signed a peace deal with Jakarta that
appeared to herald a new era of hope. But GAM clung to its
secessionist goal, both sides refused to disarm and the
bullet-ridden bodies began turning up in the paddy fields once
again.
Now 45,000 soldiers and military police are facing a poorly
armed force of 5,000 guerrillas in a conflict that President
Megawati Sukarnoputri is determined to win. For the Aceh insurgency
is not only an affront to her deep-seated nationalism, it threatens
the very integrity of the Indonesian archipelago. East Timor broke
away four years ago. If the separatist yearnings of Aceh and other
restive provinces are not quashed, say pessimists, the world's
largest Muslim country could disintegrate like Yugoslavia...
U.S.
restores TV to Baghdad
By Paul Martin
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
BAGHDAD — An American-backed Iraqi television channel
aired its first live programming this weekend in an effort to
provide an alternative to a highly successful anti-U.S. airwave
assault by Iran.
"Now I have freedom in selecting and handling the subjects the
way I like," TV reporter Mahmoud Faud said. "Now we are able to
criticize everybody — including the Americans."
Mr. Faud is part of the 70-member staff of the Iraqi Media
Network, the first new television station to reach the airwaves
from Iraq since the April overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
The new channel — part of a larger radio and television
package costing the U.S. taxpayer $15 million for the first three
months — airs twice, between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. daily...
Comment: So the U.S. television
channel is up and running, but there's still a severe lack of
security, food shortages, water shortages, unsanitary conditions,
power outages, and general chaos. Someone really should tell the
Bush Reich that dead people don't watch TV.
Poms caned in Eurovision
May 25, 2003
Britain's isolation from Europe was highlighted tonight when the
UK's Eurovision entry failed to receive a single vote for the first
time in the kitsch talent quest's 47-year history...
But Britain's complete lack of votes, leaving the UK below
Slovenia on seven points, hosts Latvia on five and Malta on four,
is the first, albeit trivial, indicator of the rifts in Europe
following Britain's support for the war on Iraq.
German television presenters could barely hide their delight at
Britain's humiliation as the votes were read out round by
round.
Under Eurovision rules, viewers cannot vote for their own
country, leaving the British entry reliant on a traditionally
strong vote from Ireland.
But while the Irish entry won the maximum 12 votes from UK
voters, the Irish deserted their neighbours, not even giving
Britain a point...
The UK's previous lowest place was 16th in 2000 and it has never
been among the least three favourite countries to score in the
event.
Long-serving BBC presenter Terry Wogan said: "I think the UK is
suffering from post-Iraq backlash".
Life
clues on Red Planet
By Dr David Whitehouse
BBC News Online science editor
Scientists may have identified what could be the best place to
look for life on the Red Planet. It is the Russell Crater in Mars'
southern hemisphere. The Russell Crater dunefield Observations of
the region made during the local autumn and spring, when frost
covers the dunes and then recedes, indicate liquid water could be
present on the surface at certain times of the year.
Detailed analysis suggests this water could be mixing with soil
to create frequent mudflows.
"The water we believe is there means that it could be the best
place we know of so far where you could dig into the surface to
look for life," researcher Dr Dennis Reiss told BBC News
Online.
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