25,000 turn out for Walk With Israel
FROM CANADIAN PRESS
May. 25, 2003. 12:57 PM
Scores of people criss-crossed the city today for the UJA
Federation Walk With Israel, hoping to match or beat the $500,000
raised last year.
Organizers estimated around 25,000 supporters packed Toronto's
streets Sunday for the walk, now in its 33rd year.
"This is a walk where people raise funds to support people in
Israel who are in need," said spokeswoman Wendy Lampert. "It's
showing support for Israel, show them that we care."
The walk was kicked off by Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman and ended
with a downtown festival.
Lambert said she hoped this year's event would match the
$500,000 raised last year, which contributed to the $65 million
raised through all fundraising by the UJA Federation in 2002.
Comment: The most needy people in
Israel are the Palestinians. Unfortunately, they are not even
recognized as human by the Israelis. If there is an instance of
greater hypocrisy in the world today, I do not know what it is.
This Yahweh religion, with its concept of the chosen people, has
been nothing but trouble for the world. How deep does it go, the
twisted distortions? If you believe you are the chosen people, then
anything goes, and this is precisely the rationalization of the
slaughter of the Palestinians by the Sharon Nazis. This is the
rationalization of the supporters of Israel who walk the streets of
Toronto. They take care of themselves and turn their backs on their
neighbors. Who wants a god like that? But then, it is a country in
the image of its bloodthirsty and vengeful god. Israel was imposed
upon the region through blood and terror. It is maintained through
blood and terror. It will die in blood and terror. The Bush gang
will see to that.
Kill and Die Trying
The Hannibal Procedure
By URI AVNERY
May 24, 2003
CounterPunch
Hannibal crossed the Alps with his division of combat elephants
and terrorized mighty Rome for years. He commanded the army of
Carthage, originally a Canaanite Phoenician colony, spoke a kind of
Hebrew and bore a Hebrew name ("God has been gracious"). In my
youth, when we were searching for Hebrew and Semite heroes as role
models, he figured high on our list.
It appears that the Israeli army, too, considers him a model.
This week the legendary general was at the center of a
controversial public disclosure.
The subject of the sensation was the "Hannibal Procedure"--an
Israeli army practice instituted in the mid 80s, first in oral
instructions and later as an official order bearing this name. Some
time ago this order was officially amended, but many soldiers
attest that the original version it is still in force. It has now
been published by Haaretz.
It can be summed up in eight words: Better a dead than a
captured Israeli soldier.
French plan to aid Africa could be sunk by
Bush
Charlotte Denny and Larry Elliott
The Guardian
President Bush is preparing
to bury a radical French plan which would help some of the world's
poorest farmers by ending the dumping of subsidised western food in
Africa.
A
war of words over the plight of the world's poorest continent was
brewing last night after European officials accused the US of
blocking the ban on export subsidies. In a separate attack, Mr Bush
blamed European opposition to GM foods for causing hunger in
Africa.
President Chirac had been
hoping that next month's Evian summit of the world's eight most
powerful countries would be a chance to unite western leaders
around a rescue plan for Africa and heal the deep rift between
Paris and Washington over the war in Iraq.
But
the chances of a transatlantic rapprochement were looking slim this
week as public criticism of Europe's aid policies from Mr Bush was
accompanied by behind-the-scenes attempts by US officials to remove
any reference to America's giant export subsidies for its own
farmers from the leaders' discussions.
Freedoms, privacy are threatened
The Daily Journal
Tick. Tick.
Tick.
That's the sound of the
clock ticking closer to the loss of our freedoms, all being done in
the name of fighting terrorism. Time is running out. We need to
slow down the clock and take a closer look at what our federal
government is doing before it's too late.
Under the USA Patriot Act,
passed by Congress following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks,
the Justice Department was granted vast new surveillance powers
that allow the government to direct any person or entity to turn
over "any tangible things" as long as they pertain to international
terrorism. This includes giving government the authority to direct
a library or bookstore to produce titles of books a person buys or
borrows. The FBI doesn't have to show probable cause to seek the
records. The act also allows the government to detain "material
witnesses" without charging them.
The
intrusions may only get scarier.
Under a draft proposal of
Patriot Act II, the government would be granted increased
surveillance authority that might chill free speech. It would relax
the safeguards protecting citizens from warrantless wiretaps on
telephones, fax machines and computers. It also would further
restrict access to government information and increase criminal
provisions that might affect the First Amendment protections of the
right to talk and meet with whom you want. Because of concern on
Capitol Hill, the proposal will probably never become law. We must
keep it that way.
The Pentagon is developing a computer surveillance system that
would enable the government to collect data on passport
applications, visas, work permits, driver's licenses, airline
ticket purchases and arrests or reports of suspicious activities.
The centralized database called "Total Information Awareness" would
provide government immediate access to personal information from
around the world that could fill the Library of Congress more than
50 times.
Congress has barred use of
the still-to-be-built system against American citizens. But the
project was conceived and is being managed by retired Adm. John
Poindexter, who once said it was his duty to withhold information
from Congress. Worried yet?
If
not, it's time to get worried. Catching the terrorists would
certainly be easier if the government had all this information, but
is the price worth it? How many of the freedoms we have defended
for more than two centuries are we willing to surrender to protect
us from terrorists? Where do we draw the line between privacy and
security?
Call
your legislators. Tell them we mustn't let fear rob us of our
freedoms. It's up to us. But don't wait too long because the clock
is ticking.
U.S. MILITARY ARRIVES IN SUDAN IN FIRST SINCE
1993
WASHINGTON [MENL] -- The
U.S. military has sent its first force into Sudan since
1993.
U.S.
officials said a force from the new Combined Joint Task Force-Horn
of Africa arrived in Khartoum last week. The force represented a
logistics support mission and included a C-130 transport aircraft.
[...]
U.S.
officials said the arrival of the military task force in Sudan
marked a significant improvement in relations between Khartoum and
Washington. They said Sudan has contributed significantly to the
U.S.-led war against Al Qaida, including intelligence exchange and
the extradition of suspects.
In the footprints of Arran's hand
beast
IAN
JOHNSTON
Scotlandon Sunday
THE
giant lizard steps slowly through the mists of water vapour amid
searing heat as it stalks its prey.
At
more than twice the size of a man and with ‘hands’
equipped with lethal talons instead of feet, the terrifying reptile
has little to fear from the plant-eating cousin that is about to
become its latest meal.
This
is no ‘lizard man’ from a Hollywood B-movie, but an
animal that walked the shores of Arran some 270 million years
ago.
The
discovery of dozens of the beast’s footprints have caused
huge excitement in the tightly-knit world of paleontology because
it is the first time they have been found in Scotland and the
prints are the largest found anywhere in the world.
[...]
FBI
To Muslims Wrongfully Detained: Sorry, But We Had To Do
It
Civil Liberties
Watch
After ruining the lives of
eight Muslim men in Evansville, Indiana wrongfully accused of
having terrorist connections, the FBI says
"sorry."
A
false tip from an angry wife of one of the men led to them being
rounded up, removed from their homes, detained in a prison in
another city as "material witnesses" (under a law that allows the
government to hold you without limit because you might have some
information they want to use, someday, about someone or something)
without access to family or attorneys.
Their businesses and lives
are effectively in shambles. [...]
GENERAL MILLS
DEVELOPED WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
By
Michael Ravnitzky
The
breakfast cereal manufacturer General Mills was the nation's
foremost
developer of Biological Weapons of Mass Destruction in the early
1960s.
The
Department of Defense has released small portions of several
reports
detailing the work in biological warfare performed by the
Minneapolis-based company following a lengthy declassification
review. [...]
CIA
Bribe Neutralized Baghdad
PARIS/BAGHDAD, 26 May 2003
— One of Saddam Hussein’s cousins, Special Republican
Guard chief Maher Sufian Al-Tikriti, betrayed the deposed Iraqi
leader by ordering his elite forces not to defend Baghdad after
making a deal with the United States, the French newspaper Le
Journal du Dimanche reported yesterday.
Citing an Iraqi source
close to Saddam’s former regime, the newspaper said that the
general, responsible for defending the Iraqi capital, left Baghdad
aboard a US military transport plane, bound for a US base outside
Iraq.
His departure, along with that of a 20-strong entourage, came on
April 8 — the day before US forces swept into Baghdad, and
after US Marines announced that the general had been killed, the
paper reported.
Before he left Baghdad,
following the capture of the capital’s International airport
on April 4, Sufian ordered his troops to lay down their weapons,
another Iraqi general, Mahdi Abdullah Al-Dulaimi, was quoted as
saying.
Sufian does not appear on the US military’s list of most
wanted Iraqis, which names Barzan Al-Ghafur Sulayman Majid as
commander of the Special Republican Guard.
An
Arab diplomat told Le Journal du Dimanche that the plot was hatched
more than a year before by the US Central Intelligence Agency
(CIA), noting: “Many suitcases filled with dollars were
floating around.”
“Being cautious, those who accepted the deal only agreed to
defect once the American soldiers were in sight. The signal was to
be the taking of the airport in Baghdad,” the diplomat added.
[...]
House Passes Forest Thinning
Bill
By
Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The
U.S. House of Representatives passed a forest-thinning bill on
Tuesday that backers tout as cutting the risk of fires, but
opponents see as a way for timber firms to gain easier access to
forests.
President Bush praised the
House for passing the measure, and urged the Senate also to back it
to reverse decades of "well-intentioned, but misguided, forest
policy."
On the roads of ruin
The
Observer
Tony
Blair vowed that the West would not walk away from Afghanistan. But
in a remarkable journey, meeting militia leaders and the heavily
guarded President, Peter Oborne found a nation left to fend for
itself - and Taliban thugs undeterred [...]
Ex-Minister held in child sex ring
case
Eduardo Gonçalves in
Lisbon
The Observer
Portugal's spiralling paedophilia scandal has threatened to engulf
the nation's elite after the arrest of a top politician and a
warning from judges that the arrests of more MPs could be
imminent.
Socialist politicians have
claimed they are part of a witch-hunt after the arrest of their
official spokesman, Paulo Pedroso, on 15 charges of sexual abuse of
minors following a phone-tapping operation by police.
The
trial of a top TV presenter, a former ambassador and a leading
children's health expert on similar charges is expected to start
soon.[...]
Parents sentenced for exorcism gone wrong
By GLORIA GALLOWAY
Globe and Mail
London — Walter
Zepeda was possessed by the devil.
His
parents, devoutly religious members of a Pentecostal church that
believes in such manifestations, knew that much to be
true.
They
had seen their shy 19-year-old son engage in behaviours that could
only signal the presence of Satan.
So Diego Zepeda-Cordera called his friend Alex Osegueda, a fellow
member of the Missionary Church of Christ and a man of equal
devotion, to help him rid his son of the evil. They had no idea the
seven days of forced confinement it took to drive away the devil
would also, literally, drain the life out of Walter.
He
lost nine litres of fluid as he lay strapped with men's ties to
metal chairs in the basement apartment he shared with his family in
this western Ontario city. Ultimately he died of
dehydration.
Yesterday, the squarely cut
shoulders of Mr. Zepeda-Cordero heaved silently as a judge
sentenced him and Mr. Osegueda to four years in penitentiary for
the ritual that caused the death of the teen.[...]
South Africa revamps mining
regime
By WENDY
STUECK
VANCOUVER -- With its
treasure trove of diamonds, gold and platinum, South Africa is a
mining powerhouse, a legendary producer that has launched corporate
giants such as De Beers and Anglo American.
Currently, the country is
overhauling its mining regime, and Canadian companies that operate
in South Africa are along for the ride, implementing changes that
will affect everything from housing for migrant labourers to the
ownership of new and existing mines.
Although the changes have
raised questions about how they will affect profits and foreign
investment, few would argue they are unnecessary.
"South Africa is a country
that even 10 years after the demise of apartheid has one of the
highest income gaps in the world between rich and poor or black and
white," says Patrick Evans, chief executive officer of
Toronto-based SouthernEra Resources Ltd., which has two operating
mines in South Africa. SouthernEra, which entered South Africa
after the end of white minority rule in 1994, is building mines
with an expected life of 40 years or longer and therefore benefits
from a stable economy and society, Mr. Evans adds.
Oil wars Pentagon's policy since 1999
By Ritt Goldstein
A
top-level United States policy document has emerged that explicitly
confirms the Defence Department's readiness to fight an oil
war.
According to the report,
Strategic Assessment 1999, prepared for the US Joint Chiefs of
Staff and the Secretary of Defence, "energy and resource issues
will continue to shape international security".
Oil conflicts over production facilities and transport routes,
particularly in the Persian Gulf and Caspian regions, are
specifically envisaged.
Although the policy does
not forecast imminent US military conflict, it vividly highlights
how the highest levels of the US Defence community accepted the
waging of an oil war as a legitimate military option.
Strategic Assessment also forecasts that if an oil "problem"
arises, "US forces might be used to ensure adequate
supplies".
Although Strategic
Assessment 1999 predicts adequate US energy supplies, it also finds
that supply shortages could "exacerbate regional political
tensions, potentially causing regional conflicts".
The
Bush Administration has stated that providing for US energy needs
is a priority.
Strategic Assessment was
prepared by the Institute for National Strategic Studies, part of
the US Department of Defence's National Defence University. The
institute lists its primary mission as policy research and analysis
for the Joint Chiefs, the Defence Secretary, and a variety of
government security and defence bodies.
According to the report,
national security depends on successful engagement in the global
economy, so national defence no longer means protecting the nation
from military threats alone, but economic challenges, too.
[...]In what many may see as an apparent parallel to present
events, Strategic Assessment 1999 drew attention to pre-World War
II Britain's pursuit of an approach where control over territory
was seen as essential to ensuring resource supplies.
However, the Defence
Department policymakers behind Strategic Assessment also appear to
recognise the potential consequences of such policies.
The
authors warn that if the great powers return to the 19th century
approach of securing resources, of conquering resource suppliers,
the world economy will suffer and world politics will become more
tense.
FBI sheds new light on Luther King the
orator
Duncan Campbell
The Guardian
Undercover informers from
the FBI who believed they were playing a part in undermining the
work of Martin Luther King have unwittingly helped to add to his
archive and further enhance his reputation.
One of their clandestine tapes of his speeches during the civil
rights struggle in the 60s is being published in its entirety for
the first time.
The
tape in question was made in Selma, Alabama, in January 1965,
during a registration drive for black voters. A march that year
from Selma to the state capital, Montgomery, in March, was one of
the key moments of the civil rights struggle.
In
the speech, Dr King warns his followers of the dangers
ahead.
"They're going to try to
provoke violence, because their backs are against the wall. But if
we will keep in the spirit of love and non-violence, we can change
this thing," he says on the tape. "There are dark moments in this
struggle, but I want to tell you that I've seen it over and over
again, that so often the darkest hour is that hour that appears
before the dawn of a new fulfilment.
"Now, the way we're going
to change these things," says Dr King on the tape, "the way you're
going to get this street out here paved and all of the other
streets where negroes live that are unpaved, the way you're going
to get better salaries, the way you will have better homes, will be
to engage in a vigorous, non-violent struggle to get the ballot and
put people like [the local] Sheriff Clark out of
office."
Later he says: "They're
going to try to provoke violence, because their backs are against
the wall ... Now, let me assure you that I'm not talking about
emotional bosh. I'm not talking about some sentimental or
affectionate emotion. It would be nonsense to urge oppressed people
to love their violent oppressors in an affectionate sense. I'm
talking about something much deeper."
A
police informer in Selma had kept the tape for years, eventually
realising that it might be worth a lot of money. For a number of
years, he had tried to sell it, claiming that it was worth up to
$1m.
Dr
King's biographer, Taylor Branch, eventually persuaded the informer
that the tape belonged in the public domain. He referred to it in
his biography in 1997.
Now
in a new anthology of civil rights oratory, Ripples of Hope, the
whole speech has been published for the first time. It shows Dr
King to have been at the peak of his oratorical abilities.
[...]
Dark matter's pull spotted: Sky survey shows Universe's
unseen stuff shifting galaxies
GEOFF BRUMFIEL
Nature
The
visible matter of stars, planets and dust makes up only 4 percent
of the Universe
A massive survey of galaxies orbiting each other has revealed how
dark matter, the unseen stuff that is inferred to make up 27% of
the Universe, tugs on the 4% that is the visible matter of stars,
planets and dust.
By
measuring the velocity of satellite galaxies as they pass around
larger ones, the study confirms that dark matter's diffuse
gravitational pull speeds galactic orbits just as current theories
predict. This is also the latest and best evidence that galaxies
sit at the centre of giant clouds of dark matter.
Francisco Prada of the
Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias in Spain and an
international team studied 3,000 satellite galaxies in images from
the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a massive collection of digital
pictures of the night sky.
We
still don't know what dark matter is, just that it is there.
[...]
Gulf War Syndrome 'does not exist'
BBC
There is no such thing as
Gulf War Syndrome, an official scientific study has
concluded.
The
Medical Research Council (MRC) said there was "little evidence" the
illnesses of campaign veterans were caused by the multiple
vaccinations they received.
The
government-funded body also said there was no evidence of a link
between veterans' symptoms and the use of depleted uranium shells
or nerve agents.
But
the study was dismissed by the Gulf Veterans and Families
Association, which said: "How can the MRC say that Gulf War
Syndrome does not exist when it appears in the Royal College of
Medicine encyclopaedia?"
The study is a second setback for former UK troops this week,
coming days after veterans of Northern Ireland, the Falklands,
Bosnia and the first Gulf War lost a compensation claim for the
after-effects of trauma suffered in the line of duty.
Comment: This is how the military are treated. Go in and do the
dirty work, and then ignored. In The U.S. Bush has cut funding for
veteran benefits and ordered vet hospitals to no longer advertise
services. Kissinger once stated something along the lines that the
military are dumb animals who do our bidding. Of course, they can't
admit there is a Gulf War Syndrome, then they might have to reveal
the weapons used or problems with the vacines they were inoculated
with. There is a long history of the U.S. using the military as
guinea pigs in various experiments.
Singapore launches SARS channel
Singapore, 21 May 2003 - The SARS Channel was officially
launched at 6pm today by Mr Wong Kan Seng, Minister for Home
Affairs and Chairman of the Ministerial Committee on SARS. The
channel is a joint public service project by StarHub, MediaCorp and
Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), and is supported by DBS, POSB, NTUC
Fairprice, NTUC Income, NTUC Healthcare and NTUC Foodfare.
The SARS Channel, a multilingual channel, will broadcast only
programmes related to SARS. It aims to inform and educate
Singaporeans on all aspects of SARS so that they can better
overcome it.
[...] Among programmes that will be carried on the SARS Channel
include Tears & Fears, Living With SARS, Not Just Another Flu,
Everyone's Talking and Air Your Views. There will also be fast
facts on SARS, forums and current affairs programmes, as well as
speeches by the Prime Minister, the Senior Minister, the Deputy
Prime Ministers and other Ministers. In addition, viewers will be
kept up-to-date with the local and regional SARS situation through
news updates from the local broadcasters.
The channel will also air fillers, educational messages and the
latest information and updates on SARS. Viewers can also expect
some SARS-related programmes from selected StarHub CableTV's
foreign channel partners. These will give local viewers insights
into how other countries are handling the SARS outbreak.
Boeing security chief warns of
surveillance
Associated Press
Seattle — Boeing's head of security sent his staff an
e-mail this month warning that people had been conducting "very
disturbing surveillance" of the company's facilities in the Seattle
area and elsewhere.
The e-mail, as described in Saturday's editions of The Seattle
Times, offered no details beyond that "apparent Middle Easterners"
were seen conducting the surveillance.
Chief Security Officer Greg Gwash urged his personnel to
heighten "surveillance detection measures ... especially during
hours of darkness, to detect any reconnaissance being done in
advance of a future attack," the Times reported...
Since the attacks of Sept. 11, the FBI has put out several
security alerts to U.S. businesses operating both domestically and
abroad, warning them to be on the lookout for surveillance of their
facilities.
"Almost all of the attacks, including the 9-11 hijackings, were
preceded by some sort of pre-event activity, either surveillance or
dry-runs," he said.
Mr. Gwash's e-mail carries a tone of urgency.
"Work to make your site a hard target, not an inviting one!" he
wrote.
"Let's resist complacency and the distraction of day-to-day
issues, maintain constant awareness and demonstrate our
professionalism to make sure we have a future!"
Saddam's son tried to surrender to US:
Report
PTI[ MONDAY, MAY 26, 2003 09:09:55 AM
]
NEW YORK: Saddam Hussein's elder son, Uday, had approached US
officials in Baghdad through an intermediary to negotiate a safe
surrender, a media report said on Monday.
A Hussein relative had approached an intermediary asking the US
if Uday Hussein could "work out something" or "get some kind of
immunity," it was reported.
"From a hideout near Baghdad, Uday Hussein has reached out,
hoping to strike a deal for his safe surrender," the report quoted
a source as saying.
The report also quoted a family servant and an unidentified
source as saying that the deposed Iraqi leader, Uday and brother
Qusay survived the two attempts made by the US during 'Operation
Iraqi Freedom' to kill them.
It added that one reason Baghdad fell so easily was that Qusay
kept impulsively moving army units from one place to another, right
till the last minute.
Many of the units were simply out of position when the Americans
arrived, one of the officers of the Republican Guards was quoted as
saying.
He said that the day before Baghdad fell, Qusay held a meeting
with his top generals during which he kept repeating the same
questions again and again.
"He looked nervous. He wasn't stable," the officer said
US disarms Iraq militia, Shi'ites react
warily
REUTERS[ SUNDAY, MAY 25, 2003 09:50:01 PM
]
BAGHDAD: US troops have disarmed a militia group affiliated to
pro-American Iraqi politician Ahmed Chalabi, as part of a campaign
to impose law and order in Iraq, a political official said on
Sunday.
But fighters of the biggest Muslim Shi'ite group, trained by
Washington's bitter foe Iran, reacted warily to the US military's
June 14 ultimatum for Iraqis to surrender their weapons.
Iraq plunged into chaos after US-led forces toppled president
maintenance Hussein last month and Iraqis complain that crime has
reached unprecedented levels with security at its worst in the
country's modern history.
The US military dissolved the Free Iraq Forces (FIF) and
disarmed its fighters, said Entifadh Qanbar, spokesman for
Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress.
The FIF, with fewer than 700 fighters and armed with assault
rifles and rocket- propelled grenades, had been working under US
command.
"The FIF were useful to the Americans and we had hoped the
allied forces would use this opportunity to expand the FIF under
their command. But they didn't, instead they dissolved and disarmed
them," Qanbar said...
"After June 14, individuals caught with unauthorised weapons
will be detained and face criminal charges," the US military said
on Saturday.
The disarmament order excludes Peshmerga Kurdish fighters, who
battled alongside US forces in the war and would be allowed to
retain arms in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq.
But the US military is likely to target fighters linked to the
Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, headed by
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqir al-Aim, who returned from exile last
month.
The group said it would not take lightly moves to disarm its
militias, the Badr forces.
"This is a dangerous decision. We have to study it from all
aspects and we have queries we want answers to," Hakim's senior
aide Adel Abdel-Mahdi said.
"We need to see the text of the American decision, we are
already holding talks with the Americans over this issue and have
formed bilateral committees to examine the issue at all levels," he
said.
Aim said earlier this month that he wanted his group's militia
integrated into a new Iraqi national army.
British suicide bombers alert
By Stewart Tendler, Crime Correspondent
Times Online
May 26, 2003
ANTI-TERRORIST police and MI5 units are on the alert for two
Britons trained by al-Qaeda to carry out suicide bombing.
The men are thought to have fled to Britain from the Middle East
after the Afghanistan war. Details of their training has been given
to interrogators questioning senior members of al-Qaeda and
detainees at Guantanamo Bay. It is feared that lorry bomb attacks
could be launched on targets including the Houses of Parliament and
the US Embassy...
Iraq WMD hunters drop old leads
Christian Science Monitor
Sunday, May 25, 4:17pm EDT
Frustrated weapons hunters are turning away from outdated US
intelligence leads, which have failed to turn up any evidence of
chemical, biological or nuclear arms in Iraq after 10 weeks.
Teams are now moving toward their own intelligence gathering,
based on interviews with Iraqi scientists, factory workers and even
neighbors who lived near shadowy operations once run by Saddam
Hussein.
The switch comes at a time of lowered expectations and increased
frustration among the searchers. President Bush has said he began
the war to disarm Saddam. But there has been no sign of either the
ousted leader or the weapons he long denied having.
In the war's early days, American officers said they expected to
find such huge stockpiles of unconventional weapons that their main
concern was whether they had enough people to destroy the
materials.
"It never occurred to anyone, not even for 10 seconds, that we
wouldn't find any," said Capt. David Norris, who heads Mobile
Exploitation Team Charlie.
American Idle
"Dubyatizing" Americans into the GOP Posse
By WAYNE MADSEN
May 24, 2003
CounterPunch
The evening of May 21 witnessed the lowest point for the
American people since they stood idly by when a rich
over-privileged frat boy from Texas stole their White House from
under their very noses. This past Wednesday night, millions of
people were glued to their television sets to watch "American
Idol," a glitzy talent show the likes of which were once reserved
for one-hour Saturday afternoon broadcasts on local television
stations.
Never mind that the U.S. economy is in a shambles; the Bush
regime is gearing up for possible war with North Korea, Cuba, Iran,
and Syria; that U.S.-European relations have never been so bad
since the GOP walked away from the League of Nations after World
War I; that relations with Canada and Mexico, our closest
neighbors, are in a state of chill; and that Americans are fretting
over possible attacks from Al Qaeda on their own soil. No, millions
of Americans wanted to know if Ruben Studdard or Clay Aiken were
going to become the new American Idol.
Imagine if, during the 1960 televised presidential debates
between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, it was revealed that
more people watched Ted Mack's Original Amateur Hour than the
debates. Political commentators would be jumping and screaming over
the pathetic attitude of the American people. However, in 1960, we
had a citizenry that kept a close eye on their elected politicians.
After having been pulled into World War II and Korea, Americans
maintained an attitude of healthy skepticism. This was best
evidenced by the President who they elected twice. In his farewell
address, Dwight Eisenhower cogently warned America about the
dangers from the military-industrial complex.
The military-industrial complex has now morphed into the
military-infotainment complex. In an age of embedded journalists,
faked rescues of POWs, fawning news anchors, saber-rattling Cabinet
secretaries, and hate mongering talk show hosts, a growing minority
of Americans yearn to be unplugged from the American Matrix of
phony images and disinformation. The recent "Matrix" sequel, "The
Matrix Reloaded," featured a millisecond appearance of Adolf Hitler
and George W. Bush. The Matrix's architect was explaining to Neo
why the Matrix had to undergo multiple reloads due to unfortunate
problems it encountered. Two of the problems - Hitler and Bush -
quickly appeared on a panoply of television screens. Fortunately,
not everyone in Hollywood is being suckered into the New American
Century Matrix that Bush and his neo-con advisers are trying to
construct.
In the CBS miniseries, "Hitler: The Rise of Evil," executive
director Ed Gernon, who was sacked for verbally making a comparison
between Hitler and Bush, managed to sneak his own subliminal
message into the film. A Jewish cabaret owner in Munich expresses
interest in attending one of Hitler's beer hall rants. When he
attends with his German friend and witnesses Hitler's animated arm
and hand gestures and constant blaming of the Jews for Germany's
every ill, he remarks, "this Hitler is a cartoon character." Yes,
just like another leader who, squinting his eyes, hangs his arm
over daises and pulpits and blames everything on the
"terrerristsssss" and "eeevil dooersss." Indeed, another cartoon
character.
America's Matrix-like numbness to reality was best demonstrated
in the utter lack of interest of the major news media in the sudden
retirement of US Central Command head, General Tommy Franks. A
native of Bush's hometown of Midland, Texas, Franks was being
offered the dream job for any career Army man: Army Chief of Staff
with a fast track to the Chairmanship of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
But on May 22, Franks' retirement was reported as the fifth story
by NBC's Tom Brokaw, one of the sycophants the White House can
always depend on to downplay news not in Bush's interest.
Furthermore, Brokaw's report on Franks was what the networks refer
to as a "tell," no live coverage from the Pentagon, no interviews
with Franks' colleagues or Pentagon specialists as to the real
reason behind the sudden departure.
But the networks all gave wide coverage to Ruben's selection as
the American Idol. What the hell is happening to the American
people? [...]
Democrats Question Whether Bush 'Hyped' Iraq
Threat
By Vicki Allen
Sun May 25, 2003 01:49 PM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Senate Democrats on Sunday said they
believed the Bush administration either exaggerated the threat
posed by Iraq, or may have had faulty intelligence on its alleged
weapons of mass destruction.
Joe Biden of Delaware, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, said the administration "hyped" Iraq's
potential for developing nuclear arms and for using other weapons
of mass destruction, but said he expected such weapons will be
found.
Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, the Senate Intelligence
Committee's senior Democrat, said he was "beginning to believe"
that the intelligence the administration claimed to have on Iraq's
weapons program before the U.S.-led war to oust Saddam Hussein was
not as sound as he had been led to believe.
Appearing on NBC's Meet the Press, the lawmakers gave voice to
growing concerns in Congress over the failure so far to find Iraq's
alleged biological, chemical and possibly nuclear weapons that
President Bush used to justify the war.
"I do think that we hyped nuclear, we hyped al Qaeda, we hyped
the ability to disperse and use these weapons. I think that tends
to be done by all presidents when they are trying to accomplish a
goal that they want to get broad national support for," Biden
said.
Rockefeller said Congress must determine whether the
administration "intentionally overestimated" Iraq's weapons
program, or "just misread it. ... In either case it's a very bad
outcome."
[...] House Intelligence Committee Chairman Porter Goss, a
Florida Republican, said on CBS' Face the Nation that he had "no
doubts whatsoever that the administration worked on the basis of
the intelligence that was given to them...
Comment: Why can't any of these
lawmakers call it like it is? The Bush Reich didn't overestimate or
misread, they blatantly manufactured evidence to support their
imperial ambitions. And the title of "lawmaker" is particularly
amusing, given that none of the "representatives" actually make
laws that reflect the will of the majority of Americans, they just
approve whatever measures the Bush Reich creates. In the end, they
are all puppets, and all part of the problem.
Summary executions become routine in Aceh as
Jakarta's generals break their promises
By Kathy Marks in Seunade, Aceh
26 May 2003
The handsome young army captain with the elegant moustache lit
another cigarette and placed it between his perfect white teeth.
"You must understand," he said, languidly blowing a smoke ring into
the air. "We want to protect human rights. We don't want to kill
the wrong people."
Two miles down the road, the village of Seunade has just
experienced the Indonesian military's interpretation of protecting
human rights.
On Friday, three men were gunned down on a bridge as they walked
home after harvesting rice in the paddy fields. The following day
soldiers returned and dragged two men out of their houses, shooting
them dead in front of their terrified families.
It was not supposed to be this way. When Indonesia launched an
offensive against separatist guerrillas in the remote province of
Aceh, it insisted it had learnt from past mistakes. There would be
none of the military abuses witnessed in East Timor, in restive
Papua province or in Aceh itself. The welfare of the civilian
population would be given the highest priority. Excesses would not
be tolerated.
One week later, it is clear that little has changed. Summary
executions of men - and, in some cases, boys as young as 12 - have
become routine as the military (TNI) moves from village to village,
searching for members of the Free Aceh Movement (GAM).
In Jakarta, political rulers appear not to care, secure in the
knowledge that their dirty little war can be conducted with virtual
impunity.
The international community has already given its blessing to
the crackdown, with the United States, Japan, Australia and the
European Union all declaring that Indonesia's territorial integrity
is paramount. Their fear is that if Aceh breaks away, Papua and
other regions may follow - and the world's largest Muslim country
could collapse like a house of cards.
[...] As if stamping out Muslim guerrillas were not
justification enough, Indonesia has also used the war on Iraq to
legitimise its actions. If the US could invade another country on a
flimsy pretext, so its argument goes, then Indonesia has every
right to suppress unrest within its own borders. Britain, for its
part, has supplied the Hawk jet fighters used to bomb GAM
bases.
Indonesia has mimicked the terminology of the Iraq war, speaking
of the need to win the hearts and minds of Acehnese people and
accusing GAM of using civilians as human shields. It has even
"embedded" local journalists with army units and gives daily
Doha-style briefings at press centres in Banda Aceh, the provincial
capital, and Lhokseumawe, the second town.
The Indonesian military on the ground in Aceh could not care
less about such window-dressing. With martial law declared in the
province, the generals are delighted to be back in the driving
seat.
[...] On Saturday, soldiers surrounded the wooden huts of two
other men. Jamaluddin was shot in the thigh as he tried to escape
through his bedroom window; Zakaria was stripped and beaten on the
dusty track outside his house. Their widows cling to each other and
wail. Nurbaiti married Zakaria two months ago. Her first husband
was killed by the TNI two years ago.
Nurbaiti believes Zakaria was killed because he used to run a
coffee stall where GAM members congregated. "My husband was a
civilian," she said. "He was a peaceful man." According to official
policy, troops are supposed to arrest suspected GAM members and
bring them to trial...
Aceh unable to cope as bodies pile
up
By Robert Go
The Straits Times
May 26, 2003
BANDA ACEH - The bodies of two men lay on wooden tables in the
morgue at Banda Aceh's main hospital. Both were unwashed and
bloodied. One showed severe rigor mortis, with limbs at 90-degree
angles to the torso.
According to hospital staff, these were two out of 18 corpses
which the Indonesian Red Cross (PMI) had brought in to the morgue
since Indonesia's operations against GAM separatist rebels began
last week.
All 18 had died traumatic deaths. Most of them looked in their
30s. All showed bruises, lumps and other signs of beating or
torture.
But morgue workers were too scared for their own safety to
elaborate.
Instead, they tried their best to counter questions with
innuendos, something that the Acehnese have become experts at
during the past 26 years of troubles here.
Sixteen people, a staff member said, had died of 'excessive loss
of blood'. Hand gestures and code words suggested that the bodies
had small entry wounds and larger exit holes.
Another two had symptoms of 'a lack of oxygen'. At least five of
the corpses were delivered with ropes around their necks. The ropes
are said to be a signature tactic of the Free Aceh Movement
(GAM).
The word 'strangulation' almost came out of the staff member's
mouth, but his hand gestures were enough to illustrate the
point.
He kept mum when asked about the identities of the men and their
killers, and whether they were civilians, soldiers or rebels.
He said: 'We just take the bodies when the Red Cross brings them
here, and don't ask questions. After that, we wash them and get
them ready for families to claim.'
The bodies illustrate the humanitarian crisis that has befallen
Aceh. Many expect the situation to worsen over the coming months as
Indonesia intensifies its military operations in the province.
[...] The morgue usually deals with three bodies a week, but has
seen 18 in the past seven days.
If many more corpses pour in over the next few weeks, staff
members said, bodies would have to be laid out on the grass lawn
surrounding the small building.
U.S. government to get cybersecurity
chief
By Ted Bridis
Salon.com
May 25, 2003
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration plans to appoint a
new cybersecurity chief for the government inside the Homeland
Security Department, replacing a position once held by a special
adviser to the president. Industry leaders worry the new post won't
be powerful enough.
The move reflects an effort to appease frustrated technology
executives over what they consider a lack of White House attention
to hackers, cyberterror and other Internet threats. Officials have
outlined their intentions privately in recent weeks to lawmakers,
technology executives and lobbyists.
The new position, expected to be announced formally within two
weeks, is drawing early criticism over its placement deep inside
the agency's organizational chart. The nation's new cyberchief will
be at least three steps beneath Homeland Security Secretary Tom
Ridge...
Anger over Iraq war fuels anti-Aznar vote in
regional elections
By Tim Gaynor in Madrid
26 May 2003
The Independent
Millions of Spaniards voted in municipal and regional elections
yesterday, viewed as a mid-term referendum on the conservative
Prime Minister, Jose Maria Aznar, and his controversial support for
the US-led invasion of Iraq.
The vote was also being seen as a test of the government's
handling of the Prestige oil spill last November, Spain's worst
environmental disaster.
The elections will determine the political stripe of more than
8,000 town halls across Spain, and the make-up of 13 of the 17
autonomous regions. Initial indications suggested an almost
five-point rise in voter turn-out, and possible gains for the
opposition Socialists.
[...] Mr Aznar, 50, has said he will step down after next year's
general elections. Nevertheless, his PP administration has suffered
in recent months for its support for the war in Iraq, which was
opposed by nine out of 10 Spaniards, and brought more than 2
million people out on to the streets in protest.
[...] Jaime Perez, a civil servant, told The Independent after
casting his vote in Madrid: "The whole issue of the war has
influenced me a lot, as it was unjust. I have voted for the PP in
the past, but this time I've voted for the Socialists." [...]
Let's Cut to the Chase!
by Kirwan
May 25, 2003
"A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no
question about it." - President George W. Bush
Fresh from his victory over the economy and with his grip on
congress clearly evident - Bush now begins the final phase of the
defacto integration of our 51st state that just happens to be
located in the Middle East. After all we're giving them far more
money than we give to any of our own states now.
Meanwhile the '04 campaign is beginning, with the difference
this time being that we have three candidates on the
neo-conservative slate, Cheney-BUSH & Sharon. The first thought
that comes to mind is why do we bother with the pretense? What's
the point of retaining a completely complicit congress, and their
associates in high crimes and misdemeanors - that moribund and
pompous nine on the Supreme Court of the United States? They gave
up their mandate and their constitutional authority on
December 12, 2000.
Why not just recognize the situation that now is - the United
States of America has had a coup and the winner has declared a
Dictatorship....
Photo and Fingerprint Fun
By Matt Bivens
The Moscow Times
"Russians entering the United States after Jan. 1 will have
their fingerprints and photographs taken, travel documents scanned
and identifications checked against terrorist watch lists, U.S.
officials said."
-- The Moscow Times, May 23.
WASHINGTON -- Lord, can you imagine the lines? It'll be
insanity. Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge says the government
will collect photographs and fingerprints from every foreign
national visiting on a U.S. visa, and will use that data for an
"electronic check-in, check-out system."
This is on top of the new rules demanding face-to-face
interviews to get those visas in the first place. About 23 million
visitors to the United States last year arrived on visas, The
Associated Press says. Ridge says that it will all be "in its first
phase of operation" by year's end.
So ... in about seven months, we're going to have new machines
and computers up and running at dozens, maybe hundreds of
locations; we're going to have hundreds if not thousands of people
trained in using them; and visitors will be getting fingerprinted
and photographed at arrival -- and then "checked out" at
departure.
There's already a faux-welcoming name for this misery: U.S.
VISIT, for U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indication Technology.
Still missing is the "indication technology" itself: After
announcing the program in Washington, Ridge said he would start
soliciting proposals from the private sector in about 60 days.
That's right: In seven months this is supposed to be up and running
-- but they won't even start requesting bids on it for a month or
so. You do the math. It ain't happening, not on schedule
anyway.
You American citizens out there: Think of what it's like getting
your driver's licenses renewed. The slow-moving lines to complete
paperwork, the slower-moving lines to have vision tested, the
glacial speed with which one's photo is taken. Now imagine having
to get through post-Sept. 11 airport-style security to get into
those lines. That's the future being offered.
The fingerprinting will be the killer. My Russian wife has been
fingerprinted, repeatedly, by the Immigration and Naturalization
Service over the years, as part of her Sisyphean citizenship
application. Believe me, it takes forever. Let's hope the new
technologies will get rid of the ink, which doesn't wash off
well.
Girl, 2, rescued from washing machine
May. 25, 2003. 12:54 PM
POMONA, Calif. (AP) — A two-year-old girl was rescued from
a locked, running washer at a coin laundry and her mother was
arrested after a surveillance tape allegedly showed her putting the
child into the machine, police said... Surveillance camera footage
showed that the woman placed her daughter in one washer, then
removed her and placed her in a second front-loading washer, which
turned on when she closed the door, Stone said.
"She wasn't drowned but she was getting there," said Los Angeles
County fire Capt. Dan Ramirez.
The machine apparently locks automatically when the wash cycle
begins and does not unlock until the cycle ends, Ramirez said.
Efforts by the girl's mother and bystanders to unlock the door
failed.
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